Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/254

 Chap. VII. O P M A N C HESTER. « 3 cre&ed, among others, the fortrefs of Aballaba upon the river Irthing and againft the Volantii* and the Ottadini to have con- structed the more numerous fortreffes of Vindolana, Procolitia, viridobala,. and Segedunum along the ftream of the Tyne and againft their more dangerous enemies the Brigantes. The Volantii appear to have raifed the forts of Axelodunum and Lu- guvallium upon the, Eden againft the Selgovse and the Gadeni, and the Brigantes to have conftru&ed the fort of Gallava upon Eaft-Allon river and againft the Ottadini. Thefe appear deci- sively diftinguifhed from the other fortrefles about them that carry Britilh appellations by their vicinity to the bounding cur- rents and by the peculiar fignificancy of their names. Thefe are almoft all of them planted dire&ly upon the margin of the bound- ing currents. And thefe are abfolutely all of them evinced by their appellations to have been a&ually the original fortreffes of the Britons. Vindo^lan-a and Viudo-bal-a fignify merely the Fort*. upon the Vents or Heights, and; Lugu-vall-ium Gal-av-a and A-ball-ab-a fignify merely the Forts upon the.Water. Gual a Ram* part is formed into Wall,Val, Bal, and Ual or Ah. Hence Bala. remains to the prefent period *the Welch and Irifli appellation of a town* Hence we meet, with Bano-val-um or the fort on the River. Bane in the Roman Chorography, and Al-teutha Bal-clutha and Alcluid the Towns on the Teutha and Clyde in Oftian and in Bede, the Al-cluid of Bede being the fame town as the Bal-?ciutha of Offian* And as Sege-dun-um and Axelo-dun-um, carry ex** adtly the fame import, the High and the Dry Town, fb Pro- colit-ia means merely the Fortrefs in the Woodlands. Such ■> in part muft have been the ftate of the boundaries about a cen- tury before Agricola inraded the north. The boundaries of other tribes in the ifland were undoubtedly fortified for the fame reafon and lined with fortreffes in the fame manner. . But the more numerous conftru&ion of Roman forts in thefe than in other parts of the kingdom, and the prefervation of their names in the Imperial Notkia and the two Itineraries, have accidentally given us a more particular account of the primaeval fortreiles of the Britons in them* And, in the fortified ftate of thefe eiten- five