Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/336

 Chap. IX. OP MANCHESTER, 305 the Mediock that runs betwixt the beds of the minerals and ^vafhes the fides of the quarries would certainly bring down fpe~ cimens of their native wealth, would lodge many of them around the foot of the Caftle-field, and would allure the Bri- tons fucceffively tp a careful colle&ion of the one and to a cu- rious inquiiition after the other. But, even for ages after the difcovery, wood continued to compote the principal firing of the nation* Thus in the little rental of the above-mentioned eftate we fee fixty cart-loads of wood referred for the abbey and only twelve of coal. Wood muft have naturally continued the prin- cipal firing of the kingdom as long as the forefts and thickets continued to prefent their ready fuel to the hand. And fuch it remained at Manchefter to the fourteenth and fifteenth cen- turies, notwithstanding the difcovery of another fpecies of fuel which was abfblutely as acceffible as wood. This is that loofe fibrous fubftance which our Mancunian mofles have for ages af- forded us in fuch luxurious plenty, and which we find fo con* venient in our Mancunian houfes ,z. This moil inflammable of all fuel would naturally he discovered before the coal, and mud have been known to the primaeval Britons. But it makes its firft appearance in hiftory together with coal, and is equally mentioned with it in the Peterborough rental, the fixty cart- loads of wood and the twelve of foffil coal being accompanied with fix of ^eajltoa, earth, or turf. And to the green faggot, the dried billet, the turf, and the coal of their former fires the Britons now learned to add the charcoal of the Romans. The method which the Romans now taught them of charking the coal continues eflentially the fame to the prefent moment. THfc young timber which was intended for charcoal being cut into billets ai^d heaped into a pile, it was covered over with a ftruc- ture of clay. The fire was then lighted within the mimic fur- nace. The hardening coat of the clay was pierced with long poles. And the heat and the fmoke were gradually emitted together The primaeval Britons appear to have carefully worked their mines of lead, and to have extracted great quantities of metal . R r from