Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/197

 r<» THE HISTORt ' Book L their roads, filently fapped the foundations, and effe&ually de- molifhed the works. But the continuance of many roads to the prefent moment, and the peculiar confervation of fome, refult very little from thefe general circumftances, and are principally the effect of particular accidents. TJiat thefe circumftances have not given the roads fuch a lafting duration, is evident from the above-mentioned ftrudture of all of them within, and more evi- dent from the particular roundnefs of feme of them without. The fa£t arifes chiefly from the early defertion of particular roads by the Britons and Saxons, new roads being laid for new reafons to the fame towns, or the towns being deftroyed and the roads unfrequented. Such mull: afl'uredly have been the cafe with the fmartly rounded road at Haydock. And fuch will hereafter ap-. pear to have been the cafe with the ftill -remaining road upon Stony Knolls s. But had the Roman roads been always laid in right lines, always conftru&ed with a fufficient breadth, and been never paved with ftone ; had the materials been bound together by: fome incorporated cement; and had they been all calculated to receive carts and to bear Waggons 4 they muft ftill have been ac-. knowledged to have one eflential defe& in them. The roads almbft conftantly crofled the rivers of the ifland, not at bridges, but at: fhallows or fords, fome of which Nature had planted and others. Artfupplied 6, By this means the travelling on the roads muft have been infinitely precarious, have been regulated by the rains, and have been coptrouled by the floods. Such muft have cer- tainly been the confequence at the fords of Ribchefter and Pen - wortham over the Ribble, fuch more particularly at the fords of Warrington Stretford and Stockport over the Merfey, and fuch even at the fords of Knotmill and Garret over the Med* lock, at the way of TrafFord over the Irwell, and at the paffages of Huntfbank over the Irke and of ThroftlerieiMahe over the Cornebrooke, One of thofe very rainy nights which are fo common in our Lancafhire winters would raife a confiderable depth of water upon the fords, and would fix an«abfblute bar to the progrefs of travelling. Thus, fof want of a few bridges, the