Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/205

 nytf ' T H £ H I S T Oft Y : Book t the time of -the Romans have been all covered with an cxtfeli- 'iivc wood, as fo covered it remained even to the period of the Norman conqueft. * And the cattle which the Romans muff have •kept within it were thfcir hogs, For iiich cattle the yearly-fal^ ling acorns of the oaks would afford a luxurious food. For fuch cattle the wood appears through many ages to have (hed the an- nual produce of its trees, and two or three fields that are near to Kerfall-moor and clofe to the prefent bowling-green are ftill denominated the Hog-heys. And for fuch cattle a right of pafhageeven along the m wooded' extent of the prefent moor .was recently . contefted in a court of Juftice, the townfhip of Salford aflerting a claim and the lords of Kerfallrefelling it. The •Yoil being dill friendly to the growth of oaks, the many acorns •which the provident- crows repofite in tufts of grafs along every • extended wafte,- and Which, - b&rig in winter forgotten and loft) ihoot up into little plants, are (kilfully rooted up and eagerfy de- voured by. the ©bfervant hogs. Thus was Lowcafter defigned to protect the cattle of the Romans that fed in the wood of Broughton. And thus* the moor of Kerfall, which j now annually Tcceives at the races the gathering. thousands of the town > and iti populous precinfts, was m the time of the Romans, perhaps hvthe time of the Britons before them/ andcertainly for many ages af- ter both, a wood of oaks and a pafture for hogs; and the little knolls which fo remarkably diverfify the plain, and are annually covered .at .the races with mingled crouds riling in flanks over ranks to the top* were once the occafional ileepiftg-plades of Ro- man porkers and the occafional feats of Roman herdfmen IX . . But fettled. as the fort of Lowcafter was at one extremity of ►the long wood, it pretty plainly required a correspondent fort at the other.. And fuch was the. high mount of gravel and fand which rifes ^tapering from its ample bafe, overlooks the whole extent of the original wood, and is now. denominated Raineihow; Tradition aflerts it to be the fite of an antient camp : and, as it has only an irregular .plane of an acre and an half at the top, it can- jaot be the fite of any by t an Agrarian camp.. And it : carries ^exaftly the fame appcaran«5 with Lowcafter^ having a fteep de* fcent