Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/22

 Chap. L OF MANCHESTER, 5 general refidence. They were only their places of refuge amid the dangers of war, where they might occafionally lodge their wives their children and their cattle, and where the weaker might occafionally refift the ftronger till fuccours could arrive 9 » And as before the Roman invafion they had known no other ene- mies than their own Celtic brethren, who like them were always eager to decide the conteft by a battle in the field, neither the one nor the other could be expe&ed to have any confiderable ikill in the fcience of fortification. But the Britons certainly poflTeffcd a greater portion of it than our criticks are willing to allow them. Their fortrefles were planted in the center of their woods, were defended by the natural advantages of the fite, and were fortified by the falling of trees to obftruft the advance, and by the formation of a bank and a ditch to prevent the irrup- tion, of an enemy. And they refitted the attacks of .the beft troops under the command of the beft officers in the world, and even gained from the greateft of the latter the. repeated commendation of excellent fortifications *°. It is evident from the Briti(h names in the Roman Itineraries, that at the firft fettlement of the Romans in the ifland, or about the year 50 of the Chriftian sera, the Britons of the prefent England and Wales had above a hundred of thefe towns or for- trefles in the woods, all conftru&ed originally upon account of the various wars that were carried on betwixt their various tribes ". The eleven nations that lay to the fouth of the Thames and the Severn had about thirty towns under their refpeftive ca- pitals Durovern, Regn, Cailev, Vindom, Vent, Durin, and others. The (even tribes that poffefled all the country betwixt the Thames, the Humber, the Severn, and the Merfey, had about forty towns under their capitals Uriconiu, Coriniu,, Ve- rulam, Vent, Camulodun, Rageu, and others* The three tribes, that peopled the hilly regions beyond the Severn and the Dee had about twenty towns under their feveral capitals- Menap* Vent, and another. And the Brigantes, who enjoyed the ex- tensive region that i& now divided into the five counties of Dur- ham, York, Weftmoreland, Cumberland, and Lancafter, poflef- fing