Pennant has a pleasing remark concerning the soil and climate of our island, well agreeing with that of Tacitus:—"The climate of Great Britain is above all others productive of the greatest variety and abundance of wholesome vegetables, which, to crown our happiness, are almost equally diffused through all its parts: this general fertility is owing to those clouded skies, which
foreigners
mistakenly urge as a reproach on our country: but let us cheerfully endure a temporary gloom, which clothes not only our meadows, but our hills, with the richest verdure.
Tacitus
v. 12.) This certainly proceeds from its insular situation, and the moistness of its atmosphere.]
56 (return)
[ Thus Pliny (ii. 75):—"The longest day in Italy is of fifteen hours, in Britain of seventeen, where in summer the nights are light."]
57 (return)
[ Tacitus, through the medium of Agricola, must have got this report, either from the men of Scandinavia, or from those of the Britons who had passed into that country, or been informed to this effect by those who had visited it. It is quite true, that in the further part of Norway, and so also again in Iceland and the regions about the North Pole, there is, at the summer solstice, an almost uninterrupted day for nearly two months. Tacitus here seems to affirm this as universally the case, not having heard that, at the winter solstice, there is a night of equal duration.]
58 (return)
[ Tacitus, after having given the report of the Britons as he had heard it, probably from Agricola, now goes on to state his own views on the subject. He represents that, as the far north is level, there is nothing, when the sun is in the distant horizon, to throw up a shadow towards the sky: that the light, indeed, is intercepted from the surface of the earth itself, and so there is darkness upon it; but that the sky above is still clear and bright from its rays. And hence he supposes that the brightness of the upper regions neutralizes the darkness on the earth, forming a degree of light equivalent to the evening twilight or the morning dawn, or, indeed, rendering it next to impossible to decide when the evening closes and the morning begins. Compare the following account, taken from a "Description of a Visit to Shetland," in vol. viii. of Chambers' Miscellany:—"Being now in the 60th degree of north latitude, daylight could scarcely be said to have left us during the night, and at 2 o'clock in the morning, albeit the mist still hung about us, we could see as clearly as we can do in London, at about any hour in a November day."]
59 (return)
[ Mr.
Pennant has a pleasing remark concerning the soil and climate of our island, well agreeing with that of Tacitus:—"The climate of Great Britain is above all others productive of the greatest variety and abundance of wholesome vegetables, which, to crown our happiness, are almost equally diffused through all its parts: this general fertility is owing to those clouded skies, which
foreigners
mistakenly urge as a reproach on our country: but let us cheerfully endure a temporary gloom, which clothes not only our meadows, but our hills, with the richest verdure.
"—Brit. Zool. 4to. i. 15.]
60 (return)
[ Strabo (iv. 138) testifies the same. Cicero, on the other hand, asserts, that not a single grain of silver is found on this island. (Ep. ad Attic, iv. 16.) If we have recourse to modern authorities, we find Camden mentioning gold and silver mines in Cumberland, silver in Flintshire, and gold in Scotland. Dr. Borlase (Hist. of Cornwall, p.
