Numismatists differ as to the appropriation of the female. The same figure in other coins of this reign being used to personify Rome, it probably does so in this case; and represents the secure possession obtained by the Eternal City, of Albion’s rocky shore. However this may be, the same figure has been placed by many successive generations of mint-masters on the reverse of the copper coinage of Great Britain. Britain in this still bows to Rome! Footnote 5: The Roman Eagle. Footnote 6: Walsh on Coins. Footnote 7: In the collection of Geo. Rippon, Esq., North Shields. Footnote 8: Historians differ as to the degree of credibility due to this author. Mr. Wright, in his Biographia Britannica Literaria, says that his is ‘a name of very doubtful authority.’ Sharon Turner thinks that ‘as far as he can be supported, and made intelligible, by others, he is an acceptable companion, but that he cannot be trusted alone;’ and Mr. Stevenson, in the preface to his edition of the original Latin of Gildas, writes ‘We are unable to speak with certainty as to his parentage, his country, or even his name, the period when he lived, or the works of which he was the author.’ Thus much, however, is certain, that he lived before the time of Bede, and is quoted by him. Footnote 9: This point is well put by Sir Francis Palgrave, in his History of the Anglo-Saxons. ‘The walls of the cities fortified by the Romans were yet strong and firm. The tactics of the legions were not forgotten. Bright armour was piled in the storehouses, and the serried line of spears might have been presented to the half-naked Scots and Picts, who could never have prevailed against their opponents.’ Footnote 10: