Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/40

 Chap- 1, OF MANCHESTER, 2f prefervation of this ditch became afterwards neceffary to the defence of the Roman ftation, there the courie ot it ftill plainly appears, the ground gently (loping away in moft places for four- teen or fifteen yards to the north, and then rifing up more fharply as many. Along the greateft part of this line the ditch has been confiderably levelled, the earth of the banks having been long thrown down into the hollow. At prefent the terminating flope of the ditch on the eaft commences within forty yards from the road, and the large hollow of the fofle fpreads about thirty-four yards in breadth and finks gradually about one and an half in depth, falling gently away to the weft. For the next twenty yards it is only about thirty broad and one deep, the fouthern bank gra- . dually growing all the way. For the next fixty it is about thirty- four broad and one and an half deep. For the next fixty it is lefs deep, but is about forty yards in breadth ; and the fouthern bank is fcarcely vifible. The foflb now begins to affume its formidable afpe£t, and gradually rifes in grandeur as it proceeds towards the weft. The fouthern bank all at once falls away in a long flope towards the north, and all at once becomes what the north- : ern had hitherto been, the great ftriking fignature of the fofle. At , the end of forty yards the northern bank has no perceptible fall,. but the fouthern carries a fharp defcent of about twenty yards to the foot of it. At the end of ten more, where the northern, flightly dopes away for eighteen yards, the fouthern. defcends as-, many yards much (harper than before to meet it.. At the end of ten more, the northern prefents to us a gentle falL of twenty, and the fouthern a fteepy fall of eighteen. And both this and the other mount with a very fteep afcent of twenty for the re- maining twelve, as the channel^ cutting the thick bank in two,, defcends with a quick fall to the weft.. On the weft was the natural barrier of a lofty bank, forming* a {harp flope of fifty yards to the fwampy ground below it.. This is the. fouthern point of that long bank which extends befide the ground immediately to the north of the Britifh. city. And, where this natural barrier turned curving in an obtufe angle to the fouth-eaft, the line of the Britiih fortification, not curving, with.