ORIGIN OF THE NAMES CAMBRIA AND WALES
CAMBRIA was so called from Camber, son of Brutus, for Brutus, descending
from the Trojans, by his grandfather, Ascanius, and father, Silvius, led
the remnant of the Trojans, who had long been detained in Greece, into
this western isle; and having reigned many years, and given his name to
the country and people, at his death divided the kingdom of Wales between
his three sons. To his eldest son, Locrinus, he gave that part of the
island which lies between the rivers Humber and Severn, and which from
him was called Loegria. To his second son, Albanactus, he gave the lands
beyond the Humber, which took from him the name of Albania. But to his
youngest son, Camber, he bequeathed all that region which lies beyond the
Severn, and is called after him Cambria; hence the country is properly
and truly called Cambria, and its inhabitants Cambrians, or Cambrenses.
Some assert that their name was derived from _Cam_ and _Græco_, that is,
distorted Greek, on account of the affinity of their languages,
contracted by their long residence in Greece; but this conjecture, though
plausible, is not well founded on truth.
The name of Wales was not derived from Wallo, a general, or Wandolena,
the queen, as the fabulous history of Geoffrey Arthurius {165a} falsely
maintains, because neither of these personages are to be found amongst
the Welsh; but it arose from a barbarian appellation. The Saxons, when
they seized upon Britain, called this nation, as they did all foreigners,
Wallenses; and thus the barbarous name remains to the people and their
country. {165b}
Having discoursed upon the quality and quantity of the land, the
genealogies of the princes, the sources of the rivers, and the derivation
of the names of this country, we shall now consider the nature and
character of the nation.