A. D. 6i. 



'55 



lives were facrificed to the rapine, luft, and extortion, of the Roman op- 

 preflors. And this was the laftconfiderablc flruggle made by the Brit- 

 ons of the fouth for their independence, of which we have any particu- 

 lar account. [Trtr. /Innal. L. xiv, cc. 31-37 — Dion. Ca[f. L. Ixii.] 



The portrait of the Britifh heroine, as drawn by Bion Caflius, ferves 

 to give us fomeideaof the manufadures and drefs of the Britons. Bun- 

 duika (fo he calls her) was tall and elegantly formed, with a modell 

 countenance, a clear voice, and long yellow hair. She wore a large gold 

 chain, and a flowing party-coloured robe, which was covered with a 

 thick cloak : and in her hand flie bore a fpear, the emblem of her com- 

 mand. He alfo fays, that the war was entirely conducted by her, and 

 that {he fupported her authority with great dignity and with mafculine 

 valour*. 



y2 The Romans, who conquered many other countries almofl as 



foon as they marched into them, gained their ground in Britain by 

 inches. For though Vefpafian, who was afterwards emperor, had been 

 engaged in thirty battles, while he was a fubordinate officer in Britain, 

 and fubdued two great nations with above twenty towns, together with 

 the ifland of Veda (Wight), and though the fpirit of liberty, roufed by 

 Boadicia, feems to have been completely cruflied ; yet they had about 

 this time eflabliflied their dominion no farther north than the neigh- 

 bourhood of Northampton, or the banks of the Severn and the Nen f : 



* Gildas, who feems to regret, that he was born 

 too late to be a ilave of Rome, execrates the noble 

 llruggle made by Boadicia in defence of Britifh li- 

 berty and the rights of human nature, and from 

 his ample ilore of bombafl; and foul language he 

 abufes, or dignifies, her with the epithet of a 

 treacherous lionefs. 



\ We have the authority of Pliny to fay, that 

 in almoft thirty years from the firfl invafion the 

 Roman arms had penetrated no farther than the 

 neighbourhood of the Calidonian (or Caledonian) 

 wood. [Hijl- nat. L. iv, c. 1 6.] But where was 

 it ? Some pretend to fay, that there was no Cale- 

 donian wood, but in the Highlands of Scotland ; 

 and Richard of Cirencefter, a writer whofe name, 

 notwithftanding fome fpecks of the darknefs of 

 the age he Uved in, will ever be refpefted by all 

 who lludy the antient'hiftory and geography of Brit- 

 ain, has been abufed for ignorantly planting a Cale- 

 donian wood in Kent, and another in Lincoln-fliire. 

 But his Caledonian wood in Kent, and the adjacent 

 country, has the authority of Floras, [Z. iii, c. lo] 

 and apparently that of Lucari. [i. vi.] The next 

 Calgilunian wood, which has probably left its name 

 in Calcdon near Coventry, and overfpread not only 

 Lincoln-fliire, but the whole of the wide-extended 

 nation of the Coritani or Coitani (i. e. woodland- 

 men, a name afterwards exaftly tranflated by the 

 Saxons to Myrce, Myrcas, and Myrcwara) was 

 that, which now bounded the Roman conquefts. 



according to Pliny. And here muft have been the 

 Calydonian fields, where Vettius Bolanns gave 

 laws, and in fight of which were the watch-towers 

 and caftles, which he fortified with ditches, being 

 apparently thofe originally built by Oftorius Sca- 

 pula along the Severn and the Antona or Aufona 

 (probably the Nen), and the boundary now allud- 

 ed to by Pliny. [Tflc. Annal. L. xii, c. ^t, with 

 Ric. Corin. L. i, ^j 8, 30, 52. — Statii Silv. L. v.] 

 Nay, fo widely extended w.is the Caledonian-name, 

 that the fca between Gaul and Britain was called 

 the Caledonian ocean by Valerius Flaccus, and the 

 Caledonian fea by Aufonius. Now, Lucan and 

 Pliny were dead, and Vettius Bolanus was fuper- 

 feded in his command in Britain, before any Ro- 

 man army had approached the Scottith Caledonian 

 wood, and before any Roman writer can be ration- 

 ally fuppofed to know of its exiftence. Hedor 

 Boyfc, in !i-ed, in his romance, which he prefumes 

 to call The Hiftory of the Scots, pretends to quote 

 fome national records, wherein Julius Caefar, as if 

 he had not dune hnnfelf fufficient honour, is faid 

 to have pens-trated to the Caledonian wood, and 

 deftroyed Camelodunum, which he has tranfported 

 from Ed'ex to the banks of the Carroii : for in- 

 ventors of hiftory find no difficulty in removing 

 mountains, towns, and whole nations. There is 

 fome nonfenfe of the fame fort alfo in Fordun, 

 though not fo circumftantial. Butfuch ignorance 



was 



U 2 



