[John Isbell]

Hi Ann,

You are of course welcome to be dismissive any time you like.
Here's the Tacitus in English: "so situated that it faces Germany on the east, Spain on the west; on the south it is even within sight of Gaul."
OK, draw a line from Lowestoft to Germany. Your line will be horizontal. Your line from Plymouth to Spain will be vertical, and rather long. Fine by me, but your line from the south, which he specifies, to Gaul, will be horizontal again. The footwork here looks a bit fancy to me, though as you say, perhaps things were different in Roman times.
The Latin is this: "Britannia, insularum quas Romana notitia complectitur maxima, spatio ac caelo in orientem Germaniae, in occidentem Hispaniae obtenditur, Gallis in meridiem etiam inspicitur." But it's a long time since I was a Latin scholar. I do OTOH have McGonagall's complete works on my shelves, and am rightly fond of the "Tay Bridge Disaster."

Cheers,
John

Update: I should I guess specify that by vertical I mean the NS axis, and by horizontal the EW one.