LETTER from Mr. WILLIAM BEAUFORD, | 4. 8. 
to the Rev. GEORGE GRAYDON, LL.B. Secretary to the 
Committee of Antiquities, Royal Irifh Academy. 
ron ED) a8 
"THe account which Ptolemy the Egyptian geographer has 
given of the Britifh iflands in general, and of Ireland in par- 
ticular, has been much controverted, refpecting its authen- 
ticity ; fome afferting that the names of the places and people 
mentioned by that ancient writer have not the leaft foundation 
in truth, and that no people under fuch denominations ever 
exifted in this ifland; whilft others on the contrary contend, 
that the fourteen tribes: given in his tables, comprehend all the 
mations at that time inhabiting Ireland. Thus circumftanced, 
the fubje& may be thought not altogether unworthy of farther 
“confideration, when we {hall find perhaps neither of the above 
affertions perfectly juft. 
Protemy compofed ‘his fyftem of geography from the MSS. 
in the Alexandrian library, and principally from the works of 
Marinus Tyrius, a navigator under the, Romans, who, we may 
reafonably prefume, collected every difcovery made by the Romans 
on this fubje@t, efpecially that relative to the Britifh iflands, 
[G 2] from 
Read Jan. 
16, 1790. 
