Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/253

 */ sis ' TTH E 'HISTORY muft have received a*r appellation from the Britons as early a* tl*e period of the irft jtopulattoa of LrariCafhire. Rambling d lively rill amid the wafkes. o£ Woodhead and the moors 4>f N Mottram, and fucceflively receiving the Goit the Tame and the Irwell, it becomes equally rapid and deep* 'tbe; ; mighty monarch of all the contiguous rivets, and the natural boundary of king- doms and provinces in every period, aad was apdy denominated by the Britons Beli-fama, the Head-ftream, or the King of Cut" rents 6 . In, a later age, while the Siftunftii refided in Mancctitatt* •they muft necefiarily have given an v appellation to the river which led its wateradirt&ly^gamft the rocky fite of their wood- land fbrtrefs, and which is made to fweep round the frortf of' it i* an ajtiple- curve* And as the adjoiiiimg htarcft ti&ffo hatf^ tetjually reeeived a denomination from the ganrifon^ifr ira&uatty retains to this day an appellation exprdfive,o£ it&latal. ceiatM) to the fortfffs* Welling gently from a double fountain near the upper part of an hill betwixt Brood -Cleugfe and hk&rm in llofiendale* wadtaai&g in wild matanders afang the rale of Broughton, and wheeling nearly in one vaft circle about I b± townfhip of Salford, the torrent carries its water* along the wefrem fide of Mafceenidn> and was therefore denomrmted ti Gueil, Ir-wett, Ir-will, or the Wefton Ton*wt 7. The Sh ftuntii muft likewife have given names to mofr <*f the more remarkable objeds around their town, to the current of the Coraebrooke and the eminence of Huntfbank r to* ebe valley of Broughton, the Irke, and the High Knolls. This 1 nmft neee£ (arily have been the cafe with the precm&s of the prima val Mancenion. And this happily ferves to clear up a considerable difficulty to us with regard to the primaeval fertreAes of the Bri* tons in the norths As the rivers Eden and Irthing muft have <Kvtdtd the Vblantii from the Gadeni audi the Selgovat, and as *fce Tyrx and the Tippal mtsk have fepatt»ed the BwgatiiteS ftom the Oftfadinr, when encroach meets were attempted and jeaferafies entertained by thefe northern powers* the ftar rrrors were all naturally fe- cured witfr a thai© of jbrtee&s. The Gadwri appear ta have ere&ed, J