(Vol. vii., pp. 180. 246.)
Although the positions assigned by Camden to the ancient names of the
various estuaries on the coasts of Lancashire and Cumberland are very much
at variance with those laid down by more modern geographers; still, with
regard to the particular locality assigned by him to the _Setantiorum
Portus_, he has made a suggestion which seems worthy the attention of your
able correspondent C.
His position for _Morecambe Bay_ is a small inlet to the south of the
entrance of _Solway Firth_, into which the rivers _Waver_ and _Wampool_
empty themselves, and on which stands "the abbey of _Ulme_, or _Holme
Cultraine_." He derives the name from the British, as signifying a "crooked
sea," which doubtless is correct; we have _Môr taweh_, the main sea;
_Morudd_, the Red Sea; and _Môr camm_ may be supposed to indicate a bay
much indented with inlets. It is needless to say that the present
_Morecambe Bay_ answers this description far more accurately than that in
the Solway Firth. _Belisama Æstuarium_ he assigns to the mouth of the
Ribble, and is obliged to allot _Setantiorum Portus_ to the remaining
estuary, now called Morecambe Bay. However, he seems not quite satisfied
with this last arrangement, and suggests that it would be more appropriate
if we might read, as is found in some copies, _Setantiorum_ [Greek: limnê],
instead of [Greek: limên], thus assigning the name of Setantii to the
inhabitants of the _lake district_.
The old editions of Ptolemy, both Greek and Latin, are very incorrect, and,
there is little doubt, have suffered from alterations and interpolations at
the hands of ignorant persons. I have not access at present to any edition
of his geography, either of Erasmus, Servetus, or Bertius, so I know not
whether any weight should be allowed to the following circumstance; in the
_Britannia Romana_, in Gibson's _Camden_, this is almost the only _Portus_
to be found round the coast of England. The terms there used are (with one
more exception) invariably _æstuarium_, or _fluvii ostium_. If this
variation in the old reading be accepted, the appellation as given by
Montanus, Bertius, and others, to _Winandermere_, becomes more
intelligible.