Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/147

 if* THE HISTORY Book I. CHAP. V. I. TH E S E arc all the ftatiom with which the two Itineraries represent Mancuniura to be coane&ed, and thefe are the 7 road* which conne&ed both. But there were alfo many others, four other roads actually proceeded from Mancunium, ooe to Rsrigouium or Ribchefter, another to Olicaaa or Ilklcy, the ttoinl to Buxton* and the fourth ta Warrington. Thus greatly defective are the notices which the Romans have left us of their roads* even after the acquisition of a fecond Itinerary. The road to Rerigonium muft have ilTued from the ftation about forty-eight yards from the north -eaftern angle of it, and muft evidently havepafled the large remaining cavity of the northern ditch by a bridge. The road was found about fix years ago in the adjoining garden, and is ftill vifible from its ridge, ftretching acrofs the breadth of it, and being five yards in width. It was alfo found about twenty years ago in the fecond garden, proceeding in the line of an hedge five yards in breadth, bordered with large fquarifh {tones at the fides, and raifed into a convexity of half a yard above the ground. CroflTmg the narrow lane beyond both, fome traces of the convexity lately appeared, and pointed acrofs the level of Camp-field to Mr. Phiiips's two houfes in Quay-ftreet. There the road was difcovered about feventeen years ago near the door- way of the more eafterly houfe, more than half a yard below the furface of the ground, four or five yards in breadth, and more than a yard deep in ftones and gra- ycj. • In the gardens and in Camp-field it appeared to be conti- nued, not dire&ly in a line to Ribchefter, but in a line flanting confiderably to the eaft of it This obliquity of the road was neceflarily occafioned by the great curve of thelrwell into the mar- gin of the Deanfgate, of the Old Church-yard, and of the Huntf- 6 bank,