A complete dictionary of the Greek and Roman antiquities explaining the obscure places in classic authors and ancient historians relating to the religion, mythology, history, geography and chronology of the ancient Greeks and Romans, their ... rites and customs, laws, polity, arts and engines of war : also an account of their navigations, arts and sciences and the inventors of them : with the lives and opinions of their philosophers / compiled originally in French ... by Monsieur Danet ; made English, with the addition of very useful mapps.

ALBION or BRITANNIA,

England. Caesar, l. 5. c. 3. of the War with the Gauls, gives this De∣scription of it; the interiour part of Britannia is in∣habited by the Natives of the Country, but on the Coasts by the Gauls, which, for the most part, keep still their Names: the Island is well peopled, and their Houses much like the Gauls: they have much Cattel: they use Copper Money, or Iron Rings by weight, for want of Silver: they have Mines of Tin in the mid∣dle of the Country, and of Iron on the Coasts, which yield no great Revenue, but the Copper which they use is brought them from abroad: all sorts of Wood grow there as in France, except Beach and Firr: the People scruple to eat Hares, Geese and Hens, altho they breed them up for Pleasure: the Air is more temperate than in Gallia, and the Cold less violent: the Isle is triangular, the side which is op∣posite to Gallia is above an hundred and twenty Leagues in length, from the County of Kent, which is the furthest end towards the East, and where al∣most all the Ships from Gallia do land, to the other which is Southward: the Western Coast, which lies overagainst Spain and Ireland, contains near 180 Leagues in length. Ireland is not half so big as England: between them lies the Isle of Mon, or Anglesea, where some say there are thirty Days all Night in Winter; but I found no such thing, only I have observ'd by Water-Clocks, that the Nights are shorter in those Parts than they are in Gallia.

The most civiliz'd People of England are those of the County of Kent, which lies along the Coasts. The inward parts of the Countrey are not till'd in all places, and most of the Inhabitants live upon Milk and the Flesh of their Flocks, and wear their Skins for Clothing.

All the English paint their Bodies with Woad, which makes them of a blewish Colour, and renders them more formidable in Battel. They shave off all their Hair except that of their Head and Whiskers.

Their Women are common to ten or twelve, but their Children belong to those who married them.

Tacitus, in the Life of Agricola, gives us this Character of England; It is the biggest Isle which is yet known: it has Germany on the East, Spain on the West, Gallia on the South, and the Main O∣cean, which has no Bounds, on the North. Fabius and Titus Livius, the two most eloquent of our Hi∣storians, as well antient as modern, have compared it to a long Buckler, or the Head of an Ax, because the hither side is of that figure. It was not known till our time that 'twas an Isle, after a Tour was made about the Northern Coast of it, where there are discover'd other Isles at a further distance called the Orcades, and Island it self, which a perpetual Winter keeps from our View. The Original of the Inhabitants is not known, whether they are Indige∣nae or Strangers. The Scots have Hair and a Sta∣ture like the Germans. Those who dwell on the side next Spain, have frizled Hair, and are of a Tawny Colour. The rest are like the Gauls, to whom they are Neighbours.

The Sky is always thick and cloudy, but the Cold is never very fierce: the Days are longer than in France, but the Night is very clear, especially about the extreme parts of the Isle, where there is but little distance between the End of one day and the Begin∣ning of the next; some say, that in a clear and se∣rene Sky, they do not wholly lose their Light, but it seems to turn about above the Horizon; so that, properly speaking, they never see the Sun either rise or set. They have neither Vines nor Olive-teees, nor other Fruit-trees which grow in hot Countries, altho otherwise it is very Fruitful: their Fruits come out early, but are a long time in ripening, for want of Heat, and by reason of the abundance of their Moi∣sture.