Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/159

 t&> THE HISTORY - Book I; upon the ebb. And here is even now the little harbour of Pref- ton, a large warehoufe being erected upon a mole in the chan- nel, and feveral veflels coming to it from London from Wales and from Ireland. On the high lands of the Nefs then muft have been the Roman ftation which guarded the harbour of the Ribble. And on the Very Neb, the (harp extremity of thefe high lands, muft the fta- tion have a&ually ftood, as there the lofty banks of the Ne& would form a fufficient barrier upon three fides. But though the name is retained, the Neb has been long wafhed away. This appears at once upon an attentive furvey of the land which is the weftern horn, as the high ground at the mouth of the Savok is the eaftern, of the large femicircle of rifing grounds that curves along the channel of the river. The weftern horn has certainly no Neb exifting at prefent, thfc land at the Neft running nearly in a right line from eaft to weft. And this equally appears from the ravages which the water has here made upon the banks. That confpicuous point which is ftill denomi- nated the Neb of the Jtafe has loft nearly two ftatute* acres of ground within thefe forty years, and from the broken moulder- ing condition of the banks both on the eaft and fouth appears to be lofing every day* As the Roman ftation therefore muft have been upon the extremity of this promontory > the fite of it and all its remains mi^ft have long melted away into the chan- nel below. Upon th&t fite, fecured by its natural banks of fif- teen or twenty yards in height upon three fides, and defended by -a ditch upon the fourth, it muft have fully commanded the courfe of the Ribble, which then perhaps did not at low water fpread out a long beach of gravel on the north-weft, which cer- tainly as now winded round the weft and the fbuth, and which, extended into a fafe and ample harbour on the eaft. From this ftation a road goes away direftly along the high, grounds, and is vifible (as I have mentioned before) upon Full- wood- Moor, leaving the town of Prefton about a mile on the right. It crofles the prefent road to Lancafter juft before the latter makes ait angle to leave the Moor. And going vifibly along