A Museum for Young Gentlemen and Ladies | Page 4

sayings of any person, emphatical words, and whatever is strongly significant.
The use of capitals, or great letters, is to begin every name of the Supreme Being, as God, Lord, Almighty, Father, Son, &c. All proper names of men and things, titles of distinction, as King, Duke, Lord, Knight, &c. must also begin with a capital. So ought every book, chapter, verse, paragraph, and sentence after a period. A saying, or quotation from any author, should begin with a capital; as ought every line in a poem. I and O, when they stand single, must always be capitals; any words, particularly names or substantives, may begin with a capital; but the common way of beginning every substantive with a capital is not commendable, and is now much disused.
Capitals are likewise often used for ornament, as in the title of books; and also to express numbers, and abbreviations.
[Illustration: Woodcut of Ancient Britons]
A CONCISE ACCOUNT OF ANCIENT BRITAIN. CHAP. I.
ENGLAND and Scotland, though but one island, are two kingdoms, viz. the kingdom of England and the kingdom of Scotland; which two kingdoms being united, were in the reign of James I. called Great-Britain. The shape of it is triangular, as thus [triangle], and 'tis surrounded by the seas. Its utmost extent or length is 812 miles, its breadth is 320, and its circumference 1836; and it is reckoned one of the finest islands in Europe. The whole island was anciently called Albion, which seems to have been softened from Alpion; because the word alp, in some of the original western languages, generally signifies very high lands, or hills; as this isle appears to those who approach it from the Continent. It was likewise called Olbion, which in the Greek signifies happy; but of those times there is no certainty in history, more than that it had the denomination, and was very little known by the rest of the world.
The people that first lived in this island, according to the best historians, were the Gauls, and afterwards the Britons. These Britons were tall, well made, and yellow haired, and lived frequently a hundred and twenty years, owing to their sobriety and temperance, and the wholesomeness of the air. The use of clothes was scarce known among them. Some of them that inhabited the southern parts covered their nakedness with the skins of wild beasts carelessly thrown over them, not so much to defend themselves against the cold as to avoid giving offence to strangers that came to traffic among them. By way of ornament they used to cut the shape of flowers, and trees, and animals, on their skin, and afterwards painted it of a sky colour, with the juice of woad, that never wore out. They lived in woods, in huts covered with skins, boughs, or turfs. Their towns and villages were a confused parcel of huts, placed at a little distance from each other, without any order or distinction of streets. They were generally in the middle of a wood, defended with ramparts, or mounds of earth thrown up. Ten or a dozen of them, friends and brothers, lived together, and had their wives in common. Their food was milk and flesh got by hunting, their woods and plains being well stocked with game. Fish and tame fowls, which they kept for pleasure, they were forbid by their religion to eat.
The chief commerce was with the the Phoenician merchants, who, after the discovery of the island, exported every year great quantities of tin, with which they drove a very gainful trade with distant nations.
In this situation were the Ancient Britons when Julius C?sar, the first Emperor of Rome, and a great conqueror, formed a design of invading their island, which the Britons hearing of, they endeavoured to divert him from his purpose by sending ambassadors with offers of obedience to him, which he refused, and in the 55th year before the coming of our Saviour upon earth, he embarked in Gaul (that is France) a great many soldiers on board eighty ships.
At his arrival on the coast of Britain he saw the hills and cliffs that ran out into the sea covered with troops, that could easily prevent his landing, on which he sailed two leagues farther to a plain and open shore, which the Britons perceiving sent their chariots and horse that way, whilst the rest of their army advanced to support them. The largeness of C?sar's vessels hindered them from coming near the shore, so that the Roman soldiers saw themselves under a necessity of leaping into the sea, armed as they were, in order to attack their enemies, who stood ready to receive them on the dry ground. C?sar perceiving that his soldiers did not exert their usual bravery, ordered some small ships to get as near the shore