234 A. D. 527-565- 



livers a kind of a fairy tale of an ifland called Brittia, lying beyond 

 Gnul and between Britain and Thule *, inhabited by the Angles (or 

 AngiU), Frifons, and Britons ; divided in two parts by a wall built in 

 antient times, which was the boundary between a fertile and populous 

 country on the eafl fide and the receptacle of ferpents and other 

 poifonous animals on the weft fide. He had alfo heard, that Brittia was 

 the land of departed fpirits ; and he gives a ftrange account of the man- 

 ner of ferrying them over to their ifland f . 



The reign of Juftinian may be clofed by obferving, that during the 

 period of it the number of mankind was greatly diminifhed, and their 

 miferies greatly increafed, by earthquakes, plagues, religious perfecu- 

 tions, and the accumulated calamities of perpetual wars with their con- 

 comitant evils, negled of agriculture and famine %. 



547 — The north part of the antient Roman dominions in Britain, 

 after lying almoft uncultivated for fome time as an untenable frontier, 

 had ever fince the abdication of the Romans been thinly fettled by the 

 Pichts along with the remains of the moft antient inhabitants. It was 

 now invaded and occupied by the Angles, or Englifh, a branch of that 

 great divifion of the Germans called the Suevians, whofe military val- 

 our, as the Ufipetes and Tenchtheri told Julius Caefar, not even the 

 immortal gods could refift. Ida, their chief, fixed his refidence in the 

 caftle of Bebbanburgh §, and laid the foundation of the great and flour- 

 ifhing kingdom of Northumberland, [Ccff. Bell. Gall. L. iv, c. 7. — Tac. 



Germ. c. 40. — Gildas, cc. 15, 19 — Bedce Hijl. eccL L. i, c. 15 Chron. i'^x.] 



which his i'ucceflbrs extended fouthward to the Humber, the Don, and 

 the Merfee, and northward to the Forth and the Dune, thus compre- 

 hending the two Roman provinces of Maxima, and Valentia, except the 

 fmall Britifh kingdom of Strathcluyd, which, though Northumberland 

 was generally the moft powerful kingdom in Britain, refifted all its at- 

 tacks, and even furvived it as a kingdom. Succeeding colonies of the 

 Angles extended themfelves fouthward, till they interfered with the 

 conquefls of the Saxons, and occupied almoft all the country from the 

 Thames to the Forth, except the fmall kingdom of the Eaft Saxons. 



* Tlie Thule of Procopius is unqui.(lloiiably den has inferteJ the begiiuiiiig of the llory as hif- 



iScandimvin, which, he fays, is an iflaiui ten times toi')', and the ghoHs and tlieir ferry-boats, with 



as larcje as Britain, ai d lying northward from the feme other ftrajige ilorics, as fables, in his Br'ttati' 



eunntry of the Danes, having the fun above the nia, pp. 94, 849, eil. 1607.] 



liori/on forty days in funimcr, and poncffed by the % Tlie events of the long reign of Juftinian, 



Scrit-firmi, Gauti, and other nations. \_Gothic. L. which I have thouglit it neceffiiry to notice as me- 



ii, c. It.] diately or immediately afTccfting t)ie little commerce 



-j- Notwithftanding the name of Brittia, the ac- now cxifiing in the welKrn worlil, which have no 



count iif thib (Irange country fccms moie applic- partieulir references, are chiefly taken from the 



able to Denmark, or ihe adjacent iflands, than to works of Proeopius, a contem]>orary writer. 



Brit.iln. The Ead Angles and Merkian Angles, § Now called Bambnrgli, and well known to 



bad not arr'vcd in Britain in the age of Proco- the coalling mariner, and tor the holpitabic recep- 



pius, and the ariival of the firft Angles in fo re- lion afforded to the fliipwrccked by cpifcopal mii- 



n>ote a country as Northumberland, and fo late as niliccncc. 



54.7, was moft probably unknown to him. Cam- 3 



