Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/422

 C|hap. £1. OF MANCHESTER. $») the agfe of Chrift began to (hare with th$m in the trade of tin "• The Carthaginian coiqmerce declined. The Maflylian commerce increafed. And in the reign of Auguftus the whole^ gqrrent of the Britifli traffic had been gradually diverted into this channel "• At that period the commerce of the iiland was very confiderable. Two roads (as I have formerly mentioned ls were laid acrofs the country, and reached from Sandwich to Carnarvon on one fide and extended from Dor let (hire into Suf* folk on the other; and the commerce of the coafts mud have been carried along them into the interior regiops of the iOapd, The great ftaple of the tin was no longer fettled in a diftant corner of the iiland. It was removed from Silley, and was fixed in the ifle of Wight, a central part of the cpaft, lying equally b^ twixt the two roads, and better adapted {o the : new arraOg^ jnent.pf.the trade f *. Thither the tin was carried by the Efclgtip, and thither the foreign merchants reforted, with their wares* And the trade was no longer carried on by veflels that coafts ed tedioufly along the winding fhpres of Spain and of GauL. It was now tranfported over the ne^hboud&g/Ahapnel, was un~ ihjpped on the opppfite coaft, and was carried. upon horfes aproft the land or by boats along the rivers to Marfeilles and to Nar- bonne "**. The Ifle of Wight, which as late as the eighth century was Separated from the remainder of Hampfliire by a channel no le& than three miles in breadth, was now ad u ally ,a part of the greater afland, disjoined from it only l>y the tide and united to it always . at the ebb l And during the recefs of the waters the Bfitons constantly palled over the low ifthmus of land, and carried their loaded carts of tin dire&ly acrofs it". Such alfo were many other iflands on the foutherly (hore of Britain, appearing, as iflands only on the tide of flood, and becoming peninfulas at the tide of ebb ". It is curious to mark the different operations of • the fea upon the different parts of the Engliih coaft. The iea has gained conliderably upon the fliores of Yorkfhire Norfolk Suffolk and Eflex, the eaftern coaft of Kent, and the coafts of Suflex Hampshire Dorfetihir* and Cornwall '% Wkh- D d d 2 in