Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/450

 Cha^XH. OF MANCHESTER. 415 with the Cerones the Creones the Carnonacae and others, was derived from the great fbreft that fwept acrofs all the weftern regions of their country. The woods of Britain in general and the three greateft of them in particular were diftinguiflied among the natives by the iimple denomination of Caledon or the Woods 4 Refiding almoft entirely within the precinfts of an extenfive fore ft, the tribe was originally denominated the Caled- on-ii or the Wpodjanders, and equally communicated its name to all the tribes that lay to the north of the Friths. But this- communication appears not to have been made,as we have pfevi- oufly feen the name of one tribe imparted to another in South- Britain, by the reduction of the people in wiir. It was occafioned* as is moft probable, and as we (hall hereafter find the cafe equally in Ireland, merely by the fuperiority of the Caledonians to the reft of the tribes in extent of dominion and in greatnefs of power. And the other tribes of the north were as certainly in- ferior to the Caledonians in political dignity as they were par- takers with them in their national appellation 4 Thefe abotit the clofeof thefecond century, when all the level . regions of Sterling and the eaftern coaft were now no longer jUffevered from Caledonia, were very naturally and occafionally diftinguiflied by the two general appellations of Caledonians and Maiatae 45 ; the latter inhabitingthe marfliy plains that lay theneareft to the wall of Antoninus 4 % poffeffing equally without doubt the lowlands of the eaftern coaft # 47, and being therefore denominated the Mai Aitich or the Dwellers on the Plains 48 ; and the former refiding in the wild mountains behind and on one fide of them * 6. Among the former, the tribes that lay along the weftern ocean .were called from their fituation Deu-caledones, the Water or Maritime Caledonians, and gave to the neighbouring fea the name of the Deucaledonian Ocean 49. And all thefe were after- wards known by the one comprehenfive appellation of Pi&s, which commenced about the clofe of the third century '%. and which finally fuperfeded the reft. This name has been invariably fup- pofed by the critics to he derived from the Roman language 5 % and was equally fuppofed to be derived from it by the more ig,- uorant