Chronicles (1 of 6): The Description of BritaineHolinshed, Raphael
History
Chronicles (1 of 6): The Description of Britaine
Holinshed, Raphael
Great Britain -- History -- To 1485; Great Britain -- History -- Tudors, 1485-1603
After we haue in this wise described the Ile of Man, with hir
commodities, we returned eastwards backe againe unto the point of
Ramshed, where we found to the number of six Ilets of one sort and
other, whereof the first greatest and most southwesterlie, is named
[Sidenote: Wauay.]
the Wauay. It runneth out in length, as we gessed, about fiue miles and
more from the southeast into the northwest, betwéene which and the maine
land lie two little ones, whose names are Oldborrow and Fowlney. The
[Sidenote: Fouldra.]
fourth is called the Fouldra, and being situate southeast of the first,
it hath a prettie pile or blockhouse therin, which the inhabitants name
[Sidenote: Fola.]
[Sidenote: Roa.]
the pile of Fouldra. By east thereof in like sort lie the Fola and the
Roa, plots of no great compasse, and yet of all these six, the first and
Fouldra are the fairest and most fruitfull. From hence we went by
[Sidenote: Rauenglasse.]
Rauenglasse point, where lieth an Iland of the same denomination, as
Reginald Wolfe hath noted in his great card, not yet finished, nor
likelie to be published. He noteth also two other Ilets, betwéene the
same and the maine land; but Leland speaketh nothing of them (to my
remembrance) neither any other card, as yet set foorth of England: and
thus much of the Ilands that lie vpon our shore in this part of my
voiage.
Hauing so exactlie as to me is possible, set downe the names and
positions of such Iles, as are to be found vpon the coast of the Quéenes
Maiesties dominions, now it resteth that we procéed orderlie with those
[Sidenote: Iles in Scotland.]
that are séene to lie vpon the coast of Scotland, that is to saie, in
the Irish, the Deucalidonian & the Germans seas, which I will performe
in such order as I may, sith I cannot do so much therin as I would. Some
therefore doo comprehend and diuide all the Iles that lie about the
north coast of this Ile now called Scotland into thrée parts, sauing
that they are either occidentals, the west Iles, aliàs the Orchades &
Zelandine, or the Shetlands. They place the first betwéene Ireland and
the Orchades, so that they are extended from Man and the point of
Cantire almost vnto the Orchades in the Deucalidonian sea, and after
some are called the Hebrides. In this part the old writers indéed placed
[Sidenote: Hemodes of some called Acmodes,
sée _Plinie, Mela, Martianus, Capella,
Plutarch. de defect. orac._]
the Hebrides or Hemodes, which diuers call the Hebudes and the Acmodes;
albeit the writers varie in their numbers, some speaking of 30 Hebudes
and seuen Hemodes; some of fiue Ebudes, as Solinus, and such as follow
his authoritie. Howbeit the late Scottish writers doo product a summe of
more than 300 of these Ilands in all, which sometime belonged to the
Scots, sometime to the Norwegians, and sometime to the Danes. The first
of these is our Manaw, of which I haue before intreated: next vnto this
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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