Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/341

 jto THE HTITOHY .: < B«*( the Iriflvby the Srctiih appettattau of Guuahu*, and the Wefcfti by the British appellation of Fyiinidttydh. flad the fir bate originally introduced into the 'fields of Britain by the Roman*, all the firitifh appropriated appellations of it muft have &een,~ as forae of *hept evidently arft, the mere derivatives of the He* man xWies, Z»aban, S-ibuydb* S-apki, and Snabin.- And the exiftence of one Britifh appropriated .appellation for the fir is : a ftrong argument in itfelf, that the tree was not introduced by the Romans, that the tree was originally Britifh. Firs a&ually appear as early as the third century in the un- romanized regions of Caledonia and Ireland, ^nd appear us the acknowledged aborigines of die -country. Firs ajpe frequently mentioned in the poems of the Caledonian hard, not as plants fteh by him on the continent or in the provinces, not merely as Arming the equivocal iras^gery of a ^fimilkade, but as a&ually and aritientrly gn&Aving'ifa both." The fpear of a warrior, fays an Irishman in lUtfter, pointing to a neighbouring tree, " is like «* that blafted fir.: 1 ** aiid it is compared by another to the fir of Slimora particularly, a mountain in the north of Ireland *• And the tdnib of a fallen Warrior upon the weftern ihore of Caledonia is tfhws defcribed ftom the reality by the bard : " Doft The fir is aMb -discovered ki *our Mancunian mdfles together with the birch and the oak, as frequent as the oak, and muck more frequent than the birch. The fir of 6ur moffes is not, as the wild hypothefis of fbme aferts it to be, a mere mimickiy iof the natural fir, merely an oak -or a birch that, lying for ages in the un&uo&s mafs, has difcharged itfelf of all its original properties, and has adopted ail the charafteriftic properties of the •fir. Had this been the cafe, it could not poffibly be diftin- guiihed from the oak or the birch, and all the trees of 'our moffes muft have been equally and abfolutely firs. The fir is the only tree of our moffes that exhibits a reiinous quality* And die fir of our mofles is as much difcriminated to the eye by the f>eculiar nature of its grain, as the oak or the birch. Nor is j this
 * ' thou no* bihold, -Mai Vina, a rock witfo its head of heatl*?
 * Three aged fire bend from its face ; green is the narrow plain
 * < at its feet "