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retrospect of the earliest situation of Britain may be here considered requisite; but, as many historians have written on the more fabulous parts of our history, it is consequently unnecessary to introduce the disputed points here; we shall therefore commence with what is generally relied on.

The first authentic account we have of this Island is from Julius Caesar, who invaded it fifty-five years before the Christian era: he indeed made but little progress in penetrating the country, the glory of the undertaking being the only advantage he gained by this exploit: however, Caesar represented affairs in such favourable terms to the Roman senate, that they decreed a supplication,, of thanksgiving, of twenty days to his honour. This general's unbounded qjj*: bition was not satisfied without attempting a real conquest of the island: @ accordingly, in the spring following, he set sail from Portus Itius*, now Calais, and disembarked his army, without opposition, where he had landed the year before, supposed to be near Deal. Britain was at that period divided into a number of petty states, each governed by its own ruler, or sovereign.

The county of Essex, with Middlesex, and part of Hertfordshire, was. inhabited by the Britons, called Trinobantes, then at war with their neigh-


 * Dr. Henry's Hist, of Brit. vol. i. p. 13.

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