Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/334

 Chap, IX. OF MANCHESTER. 303 were as large as hen-eggs*. And others were difcovered in the {amp bed of fend fixty yards to the weft of the road in the year 1.770*, But, what is #U1 more remarkable, the number of pieces under* the Roman, road was no lefs than thirty or forty, and a. quantity r of Slack or. fmall powdery coal was actually difcovered. With thecou Thefe two ligpificant; circumftances fully evince the coaly fragments not to have been brought by the currents frpjHt the hills, and to have been afterwards laid upon the ©round on whicjiihey were difcovered. They muft have been all derived immediately from x the -quarry by the fame hands that lodged them, upon the fpot. The large pieces muft have been varionfly difpeefcd, if they; had ever been rolled along a channel. Ajjd the flack muft have been abfolutely dlflipated entirely, if. it had ever been ihifted by/^eujipreat. They, miift have, been all lodged upon the fpot.be fore ft hejjfoad of the "Romans covered it; That ground hieing in the tqamediajEe neighbourhood of Mince- nion, the Batons l^d there r repofaed a.quahtify of coals for the ufc of the garriiba,: and r maay of the fmaller pieces and fbme of the, flack ? were j%atu tally f juried in the. fcft fand upon which, they^were laid- ,That . the: primaeval Britons ■ were acquainted with the, black .con^biiftibte which is generated in the bowels of th>e .earth,. Is evident from . the diftingulfhing appellation for it ampngft us at.prefent, Coal^which is certainly not Saxon and is as certainly British* which jauift have been tranfmitted from the Britons to the, Swppsj^dtys, and. which fubfifts among the Irifh in their Guai to this- day.- Arid that the: primaeval Britons made ufe of coal, in the Caftle-rfield, b-evidentfrom the cindery drofs, , tUe, certain and actual - refufe of fome confiderable coal-fire, * which has. been rlately, difc$v$fqd.in the Caftle-field,. It was ibufld about fotur or five yeaf s ago* a largilh quantity of it lying ip x pit; thr^e or four feet deep in.the ground, and contiguous to the Roman road at,th,e e^tr^mity of the field. It was alfo found $bout four or five yp^rs ago on cutting down .the Roman road at the fam^r point from the furface to the bafe,.,and ftill to ^his day more in^ejfe&ly appears in' the Qpen curious front of the Roman road, a remarkable feam. of* black rubbifii extending for