Page:A tour through the northern counties of England, and the borders of Scotland - Volume II.djvu/154

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Mancunium imposed upon it, which, in Saxon times, was changed for that of Mancastle. A removal of the inhabitants to a short distance from the first town taking place in 627, the new town was called Manchester; and increased in population and wealth till the Danish times, when it shared the fate of this part of the kingdom, and was nearly destroyed by the fierce and senseless conquerors. In the year 920, it was fortified, and shortly afterwards gifted with many feudal privileges; but though constantly increasing in dimensions and consider- ation, it never has been incorporated, and still con- tinues with respect to political rights, in the confined sense of the word, nothing more than an immense village. Its streets are, for the most part, spacious and healthy, its houses large, handsome, and uni- form; and its manufactories upon a scale of gran- deur, which no other place can excel, or perhaps equal. The chief architectural beauty of the town is a Gothic one, the noble pile called the Old or Christ's Church, built in the reign of Henry V. de- corated with the most florid ornaments of that style of building, both within and without. Adjoining to this pile is the College, founded originally by Thomas Lord Dclawar, in 1422, for a warden and eight fellows, two clerks and six choristers. This, however, was dissolved by the act of Edward VI.

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