Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/144

 Chap. IV. OF MANCHESTER. * f 15 might retreat and the cattle might be driven in cafe of » ac- tual invafion. The ford at Warrington was Efficiently ftcnred, as I (ha)l fliew hereafter* : Ami aknoft as probably was the foiki at Stockport, becaufe it cotkM be almoft *» cafily defended Bat the fords at Wulfton, HoHinVGreen, Stoneford, Stretford> Ear* low, and Didfbury could not be defended at all, becaufe of the low grounds for a confiderable way on either fide of them, and for, want of fuch a particular fite as I (hall fhew Warring- ton to have pofleffed, and muft the re fore have been all neglefiU ed. And this rehdefed it the more neceflary to tonftruft two or three fortrefles in the interior parts of the ccKitity* In confequence of this political neceffity* the inland jfbrtr6ifes of Rerigon and Coccui muft have been immediately laid out ; as about half a century afterwards rn al! probability, tiptttt a jtift fa& picion of the neighbouring Brigantes, two new forts w«re fettfed at Concangion and at Bremetonac, and others perhaps at Cftttoe at Littleborougb and at Caftlefhaw. Bttt of all thefe, aAd per- haps of others, Coccui was appointed the metropolis or capital, becaule it was neareft to the center of the kingdom, and beeauffe it was fixed in the trioft confiderable fbreft within it. And mf irivafion of the country from the northern* the eaitern ©r the fouthern quarters might erirly be notified to the capita), atid be communicated by it to the kingdom. A fire at Warrington, at Manchefter, at Caftlefhatv, at PendIe*Hill near Cbfne, or at Longridge-Fell near Ribchefter, would mtttediateiy be ihen from the fummit of Rivington-Pike, and might immediately be anfwefed by another from it ; as a fire uJ>oti fofhe of the lofty mountains near'Kendal might be anftoered by fuecefltve fire* from Ingleborough-Hitl at Overborough, from Pendle-Bill of Loagridgo-Fell, and from the Pike. And wefindbeacons familiar* ly in ufe amapg the primitive Britoii9, thebefieged capital of ori<J of our northern iflands in the third centvfry a&ually lighting tip a fire upon one of the buildings, and Fingal immediately knowing "the green flame edged with fm6ke" to be a tokfen of invafiorf and diftrefs *. Thus would all the towns of the Siftuntii be im« mediately apprized of an invafion, immediately open their Q % gates