Polychronicon Ranulphi Higden Monachi Cestrensis

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. The remainder of Higden's First Book, or Map of the World, is taken up with an account of England, and this is given in much more detail than any other, occupying in fact nearly a third of the whole book (capp. xxxix.-lx.).<br><br>In the thirty-ninth chapter he announces the ten divisions under which he proposes to treat of England, viz., its name, site, productions, marvels, principal divisions, adjacent islands, roads, rivers, cities, and counties. He then enlarges on the first of these, and notes that the island was originally called Albion, a name which he connects with the whiteness of its marine rocks, and afterwards Britannia, so called, according to Higden, from Brutus, the grandson of neas, in accordance with the Trojanising notions which held our medieval historians spell-bound.