Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/30

 0iap.l. O F V A N CH'e'STE R. 13 adjoining barony of Kendal being afligned to the former, and the contiguous barony of Weftmoreland being allotted to the tetter. The whole- county of Weftmoreland certainly remained wild and uncultivated in general to the late period of the Saxons. And the whole county therefore acquired from the- Saxons the appellation which it retains at prefent,. which the ancient un- noticed pronunciation of the A has hitherto difguifed to every critical eye*, and which is nothing more than the wafte moor land or the uncultivated region 1. The little armouries of the- SiiVuntii, like the armouries of their brethren in the other diftri&s of the ifland, muft have been furnifhed with helmet's, coats of mail, fliieldsj and cha- riots, and with* {pears, daggers, fwords, battle-axes, and bows. The helmet, the coat of mail, and the chariot were confined to the chiefs ; and the common foldiers fought always on foot,, provided with fhields for their own defence, and with {pears,, {words, daggers, bows, and battle-axes for the offence of an' enemy 6 * The fhield was like the target of our prefent High- landers, flight, generally round, and always- bofly 7 .. The {word was like the broad fword of the fame mountaineers, large,, heavy, and unpointed 8. And the dagger was like their prefent dirk 9 .. But fome inftruments have been difcovered in Scotland^ Yorkfhire,. Lincolnfhire, and the ifle of Anglefey* in Eflex r Hampfliire,. Wiltshire, Cornwall, and Staffordfhire, and near Marton mere in. Lancashire, which the antiquarians have gene- rally attributed to the Celts, and which they hare therefore diftinguifhed by the general appellation of Celts 'V Such an* ane was alfo difcovered about fifty years ago in one of our Man- eunian mofles,, and was immediately repofited in our Mancunian library; There has it fince lain* mingled with, the lumber of petty curioftties* the cufbomary trifles of every library ,s and is ftill exhibited among them, as* an oddly formed chiffel or an, eutlandifh wedge.. The wedge-like form of thefe inftfuments t Sufficiently known* In that particular nearly all of them, agree. And they differ only in this, that fome have ho handle, and are therefore hollow in the blade, and others have ah handle and'