49 



Of the VenicniiMr. Whitacre onlysays, 'about 140, certainly be- 

 fore Ptolemy's geography, upon the expedition of LoUius into Caledo- 

 nia and his great successes in Vespasiana, the Venicnii and Hardiuii 

 came into Ireland and settled upon the NW. coast. And both 

 were evidently of the same kindred, being called together the two 

 Venicnian tribes, and being both subject to their one metropolis in the 

 country of the Hardinii."-°- This account seems to rest solely with 

 Mr. \^itacre, and is founded upon the conjecture, that the word 

 HardinMs derived from arden, harden or Caledonia, a name by which 

 the author of Ossian says the S. W, part of Scotland was formerly 

 known ; and, as Ptolemy placed the Venicnii in their neighbour- 

 hood, he supposed, that both tribes had emigrated from the same 

 part of Scotland. But Scotland in those days was, as well as 

 Ireland and Britain, distinguished by its particular tribes ; among 

 whom the Venicnii and Erdinos, Erdinii or Hardinii, are yn- 

 notia|||^,tby Ptolemy. And it is not unlikely, that the latter, as 

 wellas-sthe Auteri, were merely tribes of the Gaoill,'-'- perhaps 

 the Curiosolitae or Osismii, not of the Belgte, as O'Flaherty as- 

 serts ;'22. and tha,t the Erdinii, from their situation with respect to 

 some of the rest, were called Jai'-daoiue or the W. people ; for 

 the territoiy, fomerly occupied by the Erdinoi of Ptolemy, was 



VOL. xin. H 



to the Segontium of tlie Ordovicea, a town near Bangor in Wales. But Dr, Gibson, on the 

 contrary, thus describes it from an ancient MSS. ' It begins at Dover and passes through the 

 middle of Kent to London ; then by St. Alban's, Dunstaple, Stratford, Toucester, Litleburn, 

 Mount Gilbert near Salop, and the middle of Wales to Cardigan.' Explicat Nom. & locor. in 

 Chron, Sax. 



120. Hist, of Man. p. 214. 



121. O'Hiilloian calls them Ernains and Erenochs : ' Dogbhuibh Eireannach.' Despoiler of 

 the Ernains. 



122. Ogyg. p. 16. ' Erdini quidem, qui prope fluvium, & lacum Erna regiunes Ferma- 

 nach, et utramque Brifiniam habitabant, nostris Ernai appellati, de Belgaruni reliquiis fuere.' 



