CALEDONIA, in ancient geography, a famous coun try situated in North Britain. Its precise limits arc not known, though antiquaries are fond of extending the ap pellation to the whole of modern Scotland. Henry, Chal mers, and many more, gravely inform us, that Agricola entered Caledonia by Carlisle and Anandale, without in forming us upon what authority they so denominate the southern districts. We know from Xiphilin, that, in the 3d century, the and Caledonians were the two most powerful nations of Britain ; and that of the two, the Caledonians occupied the more northern situation, while the other bordered on the Roman province ; both of them, however, occupying barren mountains and savage plains. Ptolemy, in the second century, places the Cale donians in the most mountainous district of Scotland, making them to C Y. tend from the Lclamonius Sinus, sup posed to be Lochfine, as far as the Murray frith ; thus assigning them all that central country composed of the higher districts in the counties of Perth, Angus, Moray, Inverness, and Argyle. The information of Ptolemy seems to have been collected with great care, as he enu merates the smaller nations by whom Caledonia was on all sides surrounded, together with the towns, rivers, and promontories of the country. With both these authori ties, Tacitus, in the first century, by far the best inform ed of all the writers who have taken notice of the Cale donians, perfectly coincides in placing that most renown ed nation considerably to the north of the Forth and Clyde. A bare inspection of this author's journal of his mther-in-law's campaigns, will make it perfectly evident, that the Romans had conquered all the nations to the south of the two great xstuaries ; that they had crossed that of the Clyde, and conquered several tribes of Dum bartonshire and Cowal ; that they had crossed the Forth, advanced far into Fife, nay probably had reached the Tay, before they had so much as seen the Caledonians. It was only in the seventh campaign of Agricola, and the fourth after that general had entered the supposed Caledonia of the antiquaries, that he first came in contact with these terrible mountaineers, when they surprised and nearly destroyed the ninth legion. This conflict took place be yond the Forth, and several days march after leaving Agricola's line of forts ; and yet it was on this occasion that the Roman soldiers, now recovered from their terror of the so much vaunted Caledonian arms, and flushed with their success in this lirst encounter, for the first time demanded, " penetrandani Caledonian," to be conducted into Caledonia itself. The highest authorities, therefore,
historical and geographical, and the only authorities that can be attended to, because formally treating of the sub ject, concur in restricting the limits of Caledonia to the fastnesses of the mountains. It is no doubt cony( nient for particular theories, that twenty-one nations should be palmed upon us under the sante general name, and that a disposition should thus be produced in the mind to consider them all as of the same family ; hut that writct must he pitifully addicted to system that would oppose, to the direct authorities now cited, the vague epithet of a poet, or the casual expression of a declaiming rhetori cian.
It is remarkable, that Tacitus, in his Life of Agric014, uniformly mentions this nation by the general name or Britanni," and of "the tribes inhabiting Caledonia," but never calls them Caledonians. Subsequent authors give them the appellation of ealedonii and Caledones. According to Cambden, the name Caledonia is derived from the Welsh kaled, denoting hard, rough, uncivilized. Buchanan traces it to the word calden, or hazel, which gave its name to Duncalden or Du»keld, whence the country might have received its denomination. llr Chal mers, in his late interesting work, deduces it from the British Celyddon, woody, mountainous, wild. For ow own part, after all the etymologies which we have seen, we are disposed to think that none is so consistent, either with the sound or with the sense, as that which compre hends the name by which the inhabitants of Caledonia call themselves to this day. The word Gael, as every one knows, is merely a modern and vulgar contraction for Gaidheil, Guydhcil, or Gatheil, in all which forms if occurs. In a most ancient fragment, preserved by the Scots arc called Gadeli. The Irish still call the Highlanders, Guydheil, and the Welch give them the name of Gwyddil, a term which the same people applied 4) the Picts of old, calling than Gwyddil Phicthi. Gadel doine, or Gael-men, therefore, is as nearly represented by Calcdonii, as could be expected front Roman pronun ciation. According to "Mr Chalmers himself, the name Gwyddil has always been applied by the British to the inhabitants of mountains ; and is synonymous with his own Celyddoniaedd.