Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/160

 Chap, V. OP MANCHESTER. 131 along the Moor for a quarter of a mile, it then afiumes the name of Watling-ftreet, and retains it for a whole mile, appearing at firft merely a (harp broken ridge, afterwards widening, and at laft rifing two or three feet above the natural foil and fpreading fourteen and twenty yards in breadth. And it terminates with the Moor in a large blunted ridge at the hedge of the clofes, pointing fully to the village of Ribchelter, and ending at An- chor-Hill near the town ". The name of this fiation and of the previous Britifh town is compounded of the Britifh words RE RIGON, denoting the pe- culiar fite of both, and iignifying to the north of the current. Re in its primary import fignifies the particular pofition Before ; and Is, Below, is the regular term of oppofition to it. Thus York* fhire as well as Lancashire having been firft inhabited from the fouth, the X wo tow^s which were raifed upon the fites of Ribchefter and Aldborqugh affuraed the names of Rerigonium and Murium. The former received its appellation not merely, as Mr* Baxter fuppqfes of other towns that are fimilarly denominated, becaufe it was upon the banks of the Ribble, but becaufe it was Before or to the north of that river, The latter received its appella- tion, not, .as Dr. Gale fancies, becaufe the Ure defcends at Aid- borough into the lower grounds, but becaufe Aldborqugh was fituated Below or to the fouth of the Ure * And Rigon is the plural of Rig a flow, and, like Avbn the plural of Av Water, fignifies a ftream or current. The channel of the Ribble appears to have always formed jt curve at this place, which did not as now face the fovthem bank, but opened dire&ly upon the northern. This is evident from the nature and circumftances of the northern bank. Great have been the encroachments which the Ribble has made upon the bank of the town within thefe fixty years only. One whole carried away by the ftreamt The earth daily crumbles and hs into the channel. And the church itfelf, raifed as it is upon a lofty bank and placed at a little diftance from the margin of it, is likely to be fwept away in fixty years more. But while this S 2 has
 * ftreet of houfes and a range of orchards and gardens have been