Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/196

 Chap.VL O F M A NC HES.TE R. 167 The only roads that feem to have been, confiru£ted for the cart and the waggon are fuch as were regularly paved with large boulders. Such appears to have been the road from Manchefter to Biackrode ; fuch appears, to have been* the road from Man- chefter to Ribchefter ; and fuch evidently was the road from. Ribchefter to Overborough But as this alleviates not at all the cenfure upon % the narrownefs of the ways* fo the paving of a road is obvioufly a very awkward expedient at the befL Thi& may faffibiently appear from thofe boafted remains of the Roman roads, the Appian and the Flaminian ways in Italy, which, are lb intolerably rough and fo inexpreffibly hard, that the travellers* as often as they can, turn off from them, and journey along the:' tracks at their borders Many of the Roman roads indeed have continued under all the injuries of time and all the inclemencies of climate to the prefent period, and focne few in excellent conservation. The Roman** having the whole power of the country at their com- mand and nations of fubjefts to be their labourers in the work, were not frugal of toil in the difcovery of the materials and in the conveyance of them to a conftderabfe diftance*. Thus, fince little or no gravel was to be found along the courfe of the Ro- man road from the common of Hollinwood to the end of Street- lane, they dug up a very great quantity of it along the fides of the prefent Millbrook upon the former, as the long broad 1 and", winding hallow which ftill remains doth manifeftly evince* and* conftrufted all the road from the one to the other with it, as the* peculiar rednefs of the gravel along the road does evidently prove. Thus,, what is much more remarkable, the Stane-ftreet? in Sufiex, ten and {even yards in breadth and one yard and a hajf in depth, is compofed entirely of flints- and of pebbles, though no flints are to be found even within feven miles of the road V And they laid their roads, not funk, like ours,, many feet below the level of the ground about them, but riiing with a rounded' ridge considerably above the furface, unlefs they were obliged to climb obliqtfely up the fide of a fteep hill or to defcench obliquely down k. By this jneans the water never fettled uporv & their