200 A. D, 200« 



ever fince the difcoveries of Pytheas ; though Ariflotle, or the autlior 

 of the book upon the world afcribed to him, Caefar, who was a man of 

 fcience as well as a foldier, Diodorus Siculus, Strabo a profefTed geo- 

 grapher, Pliny, &c. had exprefsly and repeatedly called it an ifland ; 

 though Tacitus had faid, that his father-in-law's fleet had confirmed 

 (what they pretended was doubtful) its being an ifland ; and though 

 Ptolemy the geographer, who flouriflied only about forty years before 

 the invafion of Severus, had defcribed the whole circuit of the coaft, 

 and alfo a number of iflands beyond it ; we are informed by Dion Caf- 

 lius, that a queftion, whether the north part of it was joined to the con- 

 tinent, was now agitated, and became a frequent fubjeft of difquifition, 

 among their philofophers, who in the thick mift of their ignorance 

 wrote many volumes on both fides of the queftion, which have all had 

 the good fortune to fink into the quiet grave of due oblivion. Even 

 after the expedition of Severus had in fome meafure cleared up this al- 

 moft incredible doubt, it was believed in Rome, that the unconquered 

 part of the ifland, which furniflied fuch armies as could baffle the moft 

 ftrenuous exertions of the conquerors of the world, muft be more ex- 

 tenCve than the part fubjecft to them ; though it was in truth not equal 

 to one third of it in extent, and ftill more inferior to it in fertility and 

 population. Can we believe from thefe fymptoms of a retrogradation 

 of knowlege among the Romans, that the works of the celebrated au- 

 thors above mentioned were unknown to them, or are we to fuppofe, 

 that their government, for fome reafons of ftate, thought proper to 

 fpread a veil of ignorance and myftery over the geography of the un- 

 conquerable ISLAND ? 



211 It is worthy of obfervation, that the great abundance of fifli, 



which fwarmed on the northern fhores of Britain, was known to Dion 

 Caflius, who aUb remarks the negle6l of that blefling by the natives, 

 who, perhaps from motives of fuperftition, even abftained from tafting 

 fifli. This is the earlieft notice of the fuperior advantage, which Scot- 

 land might in all ages have enjoyed in carrying on a moft extenfive 

 fifliery. But Solinus who lived at the fame time with, or immediately- 

 after, Dion *, fays, that the people of the Htebudes (JVeJlern {[lands of 

 Scotland) derived a principal part of their fubfiftence from fifliing. Both 

 accounts may be true : the fifliery might be negleded on the eaft coaft, 

 which was beft known to the Romans ; and it might be attended to by 

 the natives ot the weft coaft and the iflands. 



214 — The Romans again had recourfe to the wretched expedient of 

 purchaflng treaties of peace ; and the Catti, Alemanni, and other na- 

 tions of Germany, who had much valour and little money, were in- 

 duced bv all-powerful gold to permit the Roman emperor to retire from 



* Sec DoJwdl on the aera of Ifidorus Characenus, ap. Hudfoiu Geograph. vet. Grac 



