Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/393

 3 f3 THE HISTORY- Book L the primitive Britons, as I have (hewed before. And fuch uni- verfally remained the houfes of the Mancunians below the recent sera of the Reftoration. Bricks as well as ftones however muft have been ufed in the foundations of the ftru&ures and in the funnels of the chimnies. And the chimney is undoubtedly a Roman addition to the Britifli buildings ; the round hole in the roof of the Britifh houfe, fuch as we (till fee in the cabins of the Jrifla and the hovels of the Scotch, yet continuing merely an opening in the cieling jis the fire was yet kindled in the. middle of the hall % but being elegantly altered into a cupola- chimney by the Romans. And the Britifli names foraCaminus or Chimney, the Welch Shimnae, the Cornifli Tftumbla, the Armoric Shimilan and Sheminal, and the Irifh Shimilean, are all therefore derived from the Roman language io. The covering of the houfes in the north of Europe was uni- verfally made of long reeds about the period of the ere&ion of Manchefter ". But the Romans muft have introduced into Bri- tain the ufe of ftramen or ftraw for this purpofe. And the houfes of Mancunium muft have been generally roofed with a covering of it. Such was the general covering of the houfes in London within thefe three centuries. Such was the general co- vering of the houfqs in Manchefter within thefe two. But fome of the more refpe&able ftru&ures muft have been roofed with fcindulae, (hingles, or boards. Shingles are the common roofing of the houfes in all our American colonies. Shingles were the common roofing of the houfes amongft ourfelves in former ages * And fhingles were the common roofing of the houfes even at Rome for the long period of nearly five centuries u . But either thefe afterwards or others at the fame period muft have been covered with tegulre. the Saxon tsegles, the Armorican teolen,' or tiles. Thefe were firft invented in Cyprus, were after the fhingles the general roofing of the houfes in Rome 1 *, and appear lufficiently from their name to have been brought into Britain jby the Romans. But there is another kind of roofing, which is now nearly univerfal in Manchefter, and which muft have been firft introduced into it during this period. This is that light- J