Ossian Collection > Essay on the authenticity of the poems of Ossian

OF OSSIAN'S POEMS. 1U9
ter. Some slight notice of these, therefore,
appears necessary.
Without ascending, with Mr Laing, to
the circles of Gomar, or tracing, with Giral-
dus, the aborigines of the British isles to the
emigations from Egypt, or Troy; it may be
remarked, on the most authentic evidence
of history, that the ancient inhabitants of
Celtic Gaul, from whom, as is most pro-
bable,* Britain derived its first population,
were a powerful and numerous people, long
before the Romans had obtained any dis-
tinction among the nations of Europe. We
are informed, on the unquestionable autho-
rity of Livy, that, even in the reign of Tar-
qiiinius Priscus, the Gauls crossed the Alps,
overcame the Tuscans, built the city of Mi-
lan, and occupied all the territory from the
Po to the Alps. He adds, that successive
hordes of the same people arriving from time
* See Bseda^, Hist. Eccles. Angl. c. 1. already cited.