Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/44

 Chap.1. OF MANCHESTER. »j buttrefling the bafis of the ftone around ". This Britifh foundation, upon which a ftrong broad wall of timber had been undoubtedly ere&ed, could not have been the bafis of a cabin for the Britifh warriours, becaufe it was modelled in a fquare form. It muft therefore have been the ground- work of an hovel for the Britifh cattle. And the opinion is ftrongly confirmed by the nature of its fituation. It was placed upon the dope of the bank, and about the mid-way betwixt the great tunnel and the prefent road ; as the floor of it had a ftrong inclination to the fouth, and the large door - way took up one whole fide of it and was oppofed to the north. And the fame fort of foundations was difcovered in 1765 and 1770, a few yards lower in the field, and running for thirty or forty yards together, a fingle layer as it then appeared of fmallifh paving-ftones bedded equally in clay, refting upon the plane of the rock below, and covered with rubbifh to the depth of a couple of yards above. The cabins perhaps were difpofed into two or three rows or ftreets, courfed in right lines from eaft to weft, and poffefTed the whole extent of the higher ground. This the grac^fulnefs of a regular ar- rangement and the neceffity of regular walks would naturally occafion. And the hovels perhaps were all placed in two or three lines behind the mod foutherly of the rows, and along the inclining margin of the river. This the conveniency of the neighbouring water and the requifite attention to neatnefs would obvioufly fuggeft. And the dilcdvery of many blocks of Colly- hurft. ftone in the foundation evinces the Britons of Mancenion to have fkirted along the woody area of the prefent town with their cars, and to have repaired to the quarry of Collyhurft. The whole clough or woody hollow of Collyhurft appears clearly upon a furvey to be nothing more than the ^ample cavity of a great quarry, which firft began on the fouth- weft, and which had its firft road of enterance from it. And of this quarry our Britifh fathers muft have been the original openers, and muft have borrowed from it the foundations of their Mancunian ca- bins and the ground-work of their Mancunian hovels. s E During