Note 2 — BOOK II.
Reading edition
—Page 219, stanza viii.
Therein Sir Brut, expell'd from flaming Troy.
Caradoc's version of the descent of Brut differs somewhat from that of Geoffrey of Monmouth, but perhaps it is quite as true. According to Geoffrey, Brut is great-grandson to Æneas, and therefore not expelled from "flaming Troy." Caradoc follows his own (no doubt authentic) legends, also, as to the aboriginal population of the island, which, according to Geoffrey, were giants, not devils. The cursory and contemptuous way in which that delicious romance-writer speaks of these poor giants is inimitable—"Albion a nemine, exceptis paucis gigantibus, inhabitabatur."—"Albion was inhabited by nobody—except, indeed, a few giants!"