Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/140

 Chap. IV. O F M A N C H E S T E R. m gular fupply of water to the garrifon, and that both might fur- nifh fome natural defences to the damp. Tradition afferts the town to have been originally ere&ed, not, as now, upon the narrow creft of a lofty hilt which has a long gradual defcent on every fide of it, but along the flope to the north-weft and in the courfe of the road to Prefton. And that part of the Roman road which was fome time ago difco- vered at Blackrode lay pointing dire&ly to the river* And to the river the aftual diftances in the Itineraries lead us. The chapel at Blackrode is juft at the eighteenth meafured mile along the curving courfe of the prefent road from the crofs at Manchefter. But from the ftation in Caftle-Field, and along the courfe of the Roman road, which falls into the other be- twixt the feventh and eighth meafured mile from the Croft, and which meafures only about five miles and a half to that point, the diftance is only about fixteen Englifh miles to the chapel. And from this reckoning we muft dedu£t one fixteenth for the difference betwixt the horizontal and the road mile, as • the road rifes gently all th$ way from the ftation to the chapel, and is frequently interfered with narrow gullies x ; and we muft: add ope fourteenth to the. remainder for the difference be- twixt the Englifh miles and the Roman. The former fettles the diftance along the Roman road from the Caftle-Field to the vil- lage at fifteert Englifh horizontal miles. And the latter fixes it at -fifteen horizontal Roman miles. But as the specified diftance to the* ftation at Blackrode i* more than fevertteeu horizpntal Ropian • miles, we muft neceflarily proceed for more than a mile in the line of the < above-difcovered road, before we can expert to difcover the fite of the ftation. Proceeding then? in thii line at*d: four this, length, we come to. the river Douglas, which rifes hj the. neighbouring Pike of Ri- vington, and de&ends by thg towa of? Wiganto the; fea*. Pro- ceeding in ; this line and for .this tangth, we find ourfelves very near the bottom of the winding defcent to Prefton, and near the Extremity of the ground op which tradition has ere&ed the ori- ginal Blackrode. . Apd her<? undoubtedly was. {he ftation of the Romans*, .*