[1] _Amm. Marc._ l. 28, c. 8. In a treatise, “de situ Britanniæ,” palmed off upon Richard of Cirencester, the district beyond the northern wall is erected into a province, and called _Vespasiana_, a name which in itself is a palpable blunder of the age which attributed every Roman relic in Scotland to the time of Agricola. The work abounds in internal evidence of its falsity. Vespasiana is said to have received the name in honour of the Flavian family, and in compliment to Domitian “in whose reign it was conquered” (l. 2, c. 6, s. 50), and with _Mæata_ to have been lost under Trebellius, the successor of Lucullus, who had been put to death by Domitian (l. 2, c. 2, s. 16): but of these two provinces, which must have been created by his own father-in-law, Tacitus, writing during the reign of Trajan, displays a profound ignorance. Valentia again, the creation of Theodosius, about 369, is said to have been made a consular province by Constantine, who died two and thirty years before! (l. 1, c. 6, s. 3.) Such are a few specimens of the stupid blunders of its fabricator Mr. Bertram. [2] _Nen. Geneal._ The See of Dôl, in Brittany, dates its rise from the flight of Bishop Samson from York. [3] _Nen. Geneal._--_Llywarch_, _Marwnad Urien_ and _Taliesin_, quoted by _Carte_, vol. i. p. 209, and by _Turner, Ang. Sax._, bk. 2, c. 4. A translation of the latter poem will be found in _Camb. Reg._ v. 3, p. 433, fully justifying the regrets of Turner “that any historical poem should be translated into verse.” A tract of hill and moor, stretching from Derbyshire into Scotland, is often known in the early chroniclers as “Desertum,” the waste or desert. The battle in which Ida fell was probably the famous “battle of Badon,” which, according to Taliesin, “avenged the blood of the lords of the north,” and Urien was, I suspect, the “good and valiant uncle,” for opposing whom Gildas blames Maelgwn Gwynnedd. [4] _Tigh._ 502, 574. _Adam. Vit. Col. (Reeves)_, App. 2, p. 435. _Bed. Ecc. Hist._, l. 3, c. 3. According to Beda, the grant of Iona was made by the Pictish king, and the question is a matter of dispute--as what question in early Scottish history is not? Dr. Reeves, the learned editor of Adamnan, is inclined to a compromise, Conal granting, and Bruidi confirming, the grant. [5] _An. F. M. (O’Donovan)_, 554, and Note; and _Adam. Vit. Col. (Reeves)_, _passim_. The great family of the _Hy Nial_ supplied the _Ardrighs_ or kings paramount of Ireland, uninterruptedly from the dawn of authentic history, until their power was shaken by the Northmen. The northern branch was subdivided into the _Cinel Eogan_ and _Cinel Conal_, more familiarly, but less accurately, known as Tyrone and Tirconnell; the southern into _Clan Colman_ and _Siol Aodh Slane_.