Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/25

 8 THE HISTORY Book J. when accuracy was obliged to diftinguifh the one from the other ,7. And from the beautiful altar which was difcovered at Elenborough in Cumberland, and which is infcribed VOLANTI VIVAS, Elenborough appears to have been originally denomi- nated Volantiu, and was therefore afluredly the original capital of the Volantian towns ,8. But the Siftuntii had the towns of Coccui, Bremetonac, Rerigon, Veratin,. and our own Mance- nion; all acknowledging the firft to be, what the name of Coccui or fupreme undeniably imports it to have been, the ,Britifh metropolis of Lancaftiir^. Such was the principality of . the Siftuntian Britons, fubjeft to its own capital, and governed by its own regulus * 9. The neighbouring tribe of the Brigantes had been hitherto confined within the counties of York and Durham* But over- charged in all probability with a numerous youth, about the commencement of the Chriftian aera it detached * a ftrong party . of them acrofs the long barrier of hills which extends from Derby (hire to Scotland, and into the countries of the Siftuntii and Volantii beyond them. Thefe, apprehenfive of the coming invafion, and providing againft the common danger, feem to have, wifely entered into a very ftri£t and intimate alliance* They entered however in vain. Unable with their united forces to refill: the vigour of the Brigantian arms, they were obliged to . fubmit, and received the general appellation of Brigantes. Coccui and Volantiu were deprived of their little fupremacies. . And both they and our own Mancenion were reduced under the fupremacy of the Brigantian capital *°. . /I^he appellation of Britain has been for ages tortured, racked, . and dilmembered by the antiquarians, in order to force a confeffion • of its origin and import from it. And erudition, running wild in the mazes of folly, has eagerly deduced it from almoft every word of a fimilar found in almoft every known language of the globb. . But the Celtic muft obvioufly be the only one that can lay any competent claim to it. And the Celtic muft obvioufly challenge it all for her own. The name muft certainly have been either aflumed to ihemfelves by the Celtic fettlers on the ifland,' or »•. . commu-