A Museum for Young Gentlemen and Ladies

. The shape of it is triangular, as thus [triangle], and 'tis surrounded by the seas. Its utmost extent or length is 812 miles, its breadth is 320, and its circumference 1836; and it is reckoned one of the finest islands in Europe. The whole island was anciently called Albion, which seems to have been softened from Alpion; because the word alp, in some of the original western languages, generally signifies very high lands, or hills; as this isle appears to those who approach it from the Continent. It was likewise called Olbion, which in the Greek signifies happy; but of those times there is no certainty in history, more than that it had the denomination, and was very little known by the rest of the world.

The people that first lived in this island, according to the best historians, were the Gauls, and afterwards the Britons. These Britons were tall, well made, and yellow haired, and lived frequently a hundred and twenty years, owing to their sobriety and temperance, and the wholesomeness of the air. Th