Magnae Britanniae notitia: or, the present state of Great Britain. With diverse remarks upon the ancient state thereof / by John Chamberlayne.

  • Chamberlayne, Edward, 1616-1703.
Date:
1737
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Magnae Britanniae notitia: or, the present state of Great Britain. With diverse remarks upon the ancient state thereof / by John Chamberlayne. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    19/808
    DESCRIPTION O F Great Britain; And First Of the Southern Part of it, CALL’D E N G L A N D. CHAP. I. Of the Name, Climate, Dimenfions, and Divijions of ENGLAND. JHatnC*] H E whole Ifland of Great Britain was call’d anciently Albion ; which Appel¬ lation is flill retained in Scotland by the Defendants of the ancient Celts, who ftill call Scotland, Alban, and the Scots, Albanach. Afterwards, as ap¬ pears in the Time of Lucretius and ‘Julius Cafar, this Ifland was called BRITANNIA!, from Britb, which in the old Britijh Tongue Signifies Painted (for the fame Reafon that the Extra-Provincial Britains Were afterwards called P'tfts, from, their retaining the ancient Cuftom of painting their Skins;) hut about 800 Years after the Incarnation of Chrift (by a spe¬ cial Edi£t of King Egbert, who was defcended from the Angles, a People of the Lower Saxony, in whofe Poffeflion the greateft JPautjaf this Country then was) the South Part was called Angie, or Englelond, or, as we now pronounce it, England. Climate*] It is fltuated between the Degrees 17 and 22 of [i. e. fuppofing the firft: Meridian to be fixed at the Longitude,