077 
Ptolemy, and Tacitus, from Yorkshire and the North of 
England, where the campaigns of the Romans at this portion 
of their occupation clearly were fought out, to other places 
south of North Humber Land. There has been, to bring 
this about, an habitual, and I might almost call it a wilful, 
alteration in modern English editions of Tacitus ; so common 
and widespread is the error, that Tennyson himself has fallen 
into the mistake ; and whilst he so eloquently describes the 
gathering of the Britons under Boadicgea, and their fierce 
hour of triumphant vengeance, leaves out all mention of 
those amongst whom that hated temple stood, " where 
Claudius was worshipped as a god," and where they were 
goaded by their own personal wrongs {Tacitus, xiv., c. 29) 
to assist in her deeds of retribution. 
Seneca and Ptolemy have surely some right to be heard 
upon the subject, and Tacitus — why Tacitus was son-in-law 
to Agricola, and in that magnificent speech — has its eloquence 
ever been surpassed? — (the heads of which he must have 
treasured up from his father-in-law's stories or written notes, 
it may be), with which Galgacus warmed his tribes for the 
coming fight, lets us know that it was the Brigantes who 
were the principals in that famous confederacy under 
Boadicsea, who had all but flung off the Roman yoke and 
freed the island of its invaders. These are the words : 
" Brigantes fcemvna duce exurere coloniam expvgnare 
castra" fee. The modem English editions, however, of 
Tacitus, give, instead of Brigantes, " Trinobantes." I have 
consulted three foreign editions of the highest authority, 
Brotier, Paris, m.dcc.lxxi ; Jacob Gronovius, Dutch ; and 
the Delphin, M.DC.LXXXVI : all of these have the word 
" Brigantes." It is strange how in the names of places and 
people connected with the histoiy of a country one follows 
another like a flock of sheep, and how few have the careful- 
ness to search for themselves, and see whether all they meet 
G G G 
