Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/133

 »04 THE HIStOftY Book £ Thus was Condate the capital of Weft-Chefhire, and, after the acquifitionofthe reft of the county, Shropshire, Staffordshire, and the neighbouring parts of Warwickshire Leicefterfliire and Flintshire, the capital of all. But as it had certainly loft its dignity before the arrival of the Romans, fo did it as certainly lofe it in confequence of an invafion from the Brigantes. When that aftive and Spirited tribe, about the commencement of the Christian aera, had Seized all the fortrefles that guarded the pafles of the Yorkshire hills, and had fubdudd all the country that lay betwixt the hills and the Sea, they appear 'to have carried their vi&orious arms to the fouth and north, to have croffed the river of MerSey and the frith of Solway, and to have conquered equally the Selgovae of Anandale and»the Carnabiiof Cheflure. The conqueft of the Selgovae is clearly evinced by the ftatue which was difcovered in their country and which was inscribed to the Goddefs Brigantia ,0. And the conqueft of the Carnabii may be equally evinced from an altar which was difcovered at Cbefter and was mforibed to the Goddefs-Nymph of the Bri- gantes ". The Carnabii of Chefh ire' therefore and the Selgovae of Anandale had certainly adopted themfelves, and had actually communicated to the Romans, the worfhip of the peculiar or tutelar divinity of the Brigantes-; and both- therefore at the in- vafion of the Romans muft have been reduced under the domi- nion of the Brigantes. Nothing can be a fuller proof of the fobje&ion of one Britifti tribe to another, than its defertion of its own tutelar divinity and its adoption of the other's. - This reafoning is fully confirmed by the authority of Ptoletny. He mentions not the Cornavii as the poffeflbrs of CheShire. He gives thenrChefter indeed; but for that purpoSe has removed it far away from the county, and has even placed it forty- five miles to the fouth of Wroxeter and an hundred and five to the eaft of it. And from a comparifon of the latitude and longitude of Seteia or the Dee with thofe of Devana or Chefter, as they are all given by himfelf, it appears plainly that he did not ap- prehend the latter to be withirt or even near to Chefhire, having placed Devana ninety miles to the eaft and an hundred and twenty to