History of the Britons | Page 5

grant (Grantchester, now Cambridge). 18. Cair daun (Doncaster),
or Cair dauri (Dorchester). 19. Cair britoc (Bristol). 20. Cair meguaid
(Meivod). 21. Cair mauiguid (Manchester). 22. Cair ligion (Chester).
23. Cair guent (Winchester, or Caerwent, in Monmouthshire). 24. Cair
collon (Colchester, or St. Colon, Cornwall). 25. Cair londein (London).
26. Cair guorcon (Worren, or Woran, in Pembrokeshire). 27. Cair
lerion (Leicester). 28. Cair draithou (Drayton). 29. Cair pensavelcoit

(Pevensey, in Sussex). 30. Cairtelm (Teyn-Grace, in Devonshire). 31.
Cair Urnahc (Wroxeter, in Shropshire). 32. Cair colemion (Camelet, in
Somersetshire). 33. Cair loit coit (Lincoln). [1] V.R. Twenty-eight,
twenty-one. [2] Site unknown.
These are the names of the ancient cities of the island of Britain. it has
also a vast many promontories, and castles innumerable, built of brick
and stone. Its inhabitants consist of four different people; the Scots, the
Picts, the Saxons and the ancient Britons.
8. Three considerable islands belong to it; one, on the south, opposite
the Armorican shore, called Wight;* another between Ireland and
Britain, called Eubonia or Man; and another directly north, beyond the
Picts, named Orkney; and hence it was anciently a proverbial
expression, in reference to its kings and rulers, "He reigned over Britain
and its three islands." * Inis-gueith, or Gueith.
6. It is fertilized by several rivers, which traverse it in all directions, to
the east and west, to the south and north; but there are two
pre-eminently distinguished among the rest, the Thames and the Severn,
which formerly, like the two arms of Britain, bore the ships employed
in the conveyance of riches acquired by commerce. The Britons were
once very populous, and exercised extensive dominion from sea to sea.
10.* Respecting the period when this island became inhabited
subsequently to the flood, I have seen two distinct relations. According
to the annals of the Roman history, the Britons deduce their origin both
from the Greeks and Romans. On the side of the mother, from Lavinia,
the daughter of Latinus, king of Italy, and of the race of Silvanus, the
son of Inachus, the son of Dardanus; who was the son of Saturn, king
of the Greeks, and who, having possessed himself of a part of Asia,
built the city of Troy. Dardanus was the father of Troius, who was the
father of Priam and Anchises; Anchises was the father of Aeneas, who
was the father of Ascanius and Silvius; and this Silvius was the son of
Aeneas and Lavinia, the daughter of the king of Italy. From the sons of
Aeneas and Lavinia descended Romulus and Remus, who were the
sons of the holy queen Rhea, and the founders of Rome. Brutus was
consul when he conquered Spain, and reduced that country to a Roman

province. He afterwards subdued the island of Britain, whose
inhabitants were the descendants of the Romans, from Silvius
Posthumus. He was called Posthumus because he was born after the
death of Aeneas his father; and his mother Lavinia concealed herself
during her pregnancy; he was called Silvius, because he was born in a
wood. Hence the Roman kings were called Silvan, and the Britons from
Brutus, and rose from the family of Brutus. * The whole of this, as far
as the end of the paragraph, is omitted in several MSS.
Aeneas, after the Trojan war, arrived with his son in Italy; and Having
vanquished Turnus, married Lavinia, the daughter of king Latinus, who
was the son of Faunus, the son of Picus, the son of Saturn. After the
death of Latinus, Aeneas obtained the kingdom Of the Romans, and
Lavinia brought forth a son, who was named Silvius. Ascanius founded
Alba, and afterwards married. And Lavinia bore to Aeneas a son,
named Silvius; but Ascanius [1] married a wife, who conceived and
became pregnant. And Aeneas, having been informed that his
daughter-in-law was pregnant, ordered his son to send his magician to
examine his wife, whether the child conceived were male or female.
The magician came and examined the wife and pronounced it to be a
son, who should become the most valiant among the Italians, and the
most beloved of all men. [2] In consequence of this prediction, the
magician was put to death by Ascanius; but it happened that the mother
of the child dying at its birth, he was named Brutus; ad after a certain
interval, agreeably to what the magician had foretold, whilst he was
playing with some others he shot his father with an arrow, not
intentionally but by accident. [3] He was, for this cause, expelled from
Italy, and came to the islands of the Tyrrhene sea, when he was exiled
on account of the death of Turnus, slain by Aeneas. He then went
among the Gauls, and built the city of the Turones, called Turnis. [4] At
length he came to