348 PTOLEMY AND LATER GEOGRAPHERS. [CHAP.

Scotland its proper orientation, a portion of that country must
have fallen right across the western island1.

It may be worth while, in order to illustrate the contents of
Ptolemy's work, and to test its accuracy in a par-
ticular instance, to follow him in his enumeration

Coast of of the features of the coast of our island, in order
Britain.
to see how far they correspond with what we find at
the present day, omitting those localities about the identification
of which much uncertainty exists. In making this comparison we
have to depend, in some cases on the similarities of the ancient
and modern names, when these are corroborated by the positions
which Ptolemy assigns to them, and in others either on certain
geographical features being the only ones which can correspond
to his data, or on their situation being determined by their
occurring in his enumeration between places already known.
The majority of the localities which he mentions are the mouths
or estuaries of rivers ; and the names which he assigns to these
are in so many instances traceable in those which are now
attached to them, that we discover in them an illustration of
the principle embodied in the witty saying that local names, in
order to be permanent, should be "writ on water."
Let us take first the southern coast of Britain, commencing
from the promontory of Cantion, the north-eastern
P°int of Kent The first Place to the westward of
this which Ptolemy mentions is the New Harbour,
and this according to his measurements corresponds to Hastings,
where a harbour is known to have existed formerly, though there
is none at the present day. Again, the Great Harbour can be
confidently identified with Portsmouth Harbour, both on historic
grounds and because of the longitude which Ptolemy assigns to
it. Between these two havens a river Trisanton is introduced,
the name of which is the original form of Trent or Tarrant; and
1 See Mr Henry Bradley's article, "Ptolemy's Geography of the British
Isles," in Arckesologia, vol. 48. (1885), PP- 382, 383. The contents of this
valuable paper have been used in what follows, though the author has not been
able in every case to accept Mr Bradley's conclusions : the map also which is
here inserted is based on that by which his paper is illustrated*