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BELGAE.
TOWARDS the North and East, the Belgae border'd upon the Durotriges; who probably both from the name, and other good authority, came from among the Belgae a people of Gaule, into Britain. For the Belgae (as Caesar learn'd of the Rhemi) were descended from the Germans, and formerly passing over the Rhine, were in∣duc'd by the fruitfulness of the place to settle there, after they had expell'd the Gauls. From whence (as the same Author has it) they pass'd over into Britain, with no other design than to plunder and ravage; and were all call'd by the names of those cities where they had been born, and to which they belong'd before they came thither; here making war upon the inhabitants, they settl'd and began to cultivate the ground. It does not precisely appear at what time they came over; unless possibly Divitiacus, King of the Suessiones, who flou∣rish'd before Caesar, might transplant the Belgae into those parts. For he had the go∣vernment of a great part, as of Gaule, so also of Britaine. Neither is it yet clear'd, from whence the name of Belgae should come. Hubert Thomas† 1.1 of Leige, a very learned man, was of opi∣nion that Belgae is a German word, because the Germans call the Gauls and Italians Wallen, and some of them term them Welgen. John Goropius a Belgian, will have it come from the Belgick word Belke, signifying in that language Anger, as if they were more prone to anger than others. But since the name of Belgae does not seem to be deriv'd from that language, us'd at this day by the Low-Dutch, which is almost the same with our English-Saxon (for it came from the Saxons, which Charles the Great transplanted into Brabant and Flanders;) I am inclin'd to favour the opinion of those men, who fetch it from the old Gaulish tongue, (which our Welsh do still in a great measure keep entire) and will have the Belgae so nam'd from Pel, with them signifying remote. For they were the remotest of all Gaule; and as they were at the greatest distance from the Roman Province, with respect to their situation, so also to their breeding and humanity. And the Poet has told us that the Morini, a people of Gallia Belgica, were the most remote, when he calls them, Extremi hominum, the furthest part of mankind. But now let us come to our Belgae, whose territories were very large, viz. Somersetshire, Wiltshire, and the inner part of Hamshire [A].