Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/53

 3 4 THE 'HISTORY- • lookl chequering the furface of the mortar and being thoroughly in- corporated into the fubftance of it*. And she lime was- not de- rived either from the hills of Buxton en 4&e fide or from the heights of Clitherow on the other, which have long fapplied the prefent town with that neceflary foifik The Roman lime is ef- fentially different from, both in its colour, being of a much fha-f dier and browner hue. Nor would the Romans- have collected their lime at fo great a diftance from thc^ftation, when it might have been eafily found in the neighbourhood of it, A long vein of limeftone ftretches regularly acrofs one region .of the -pa-rift* arid along the confines of Bradford,. Newton, Ard wick*, and Man- chefter townftups. Thers, hjl the townfhip of Manchefter* waa it difcovered many years ago, ajid the difcoyery was brifkly purr {bed for a ihprt period. And there, in the isownffeip of - Ardwick, has it been again difcovered within thefe fb^r or five years; and the proprietor, Thomas Birch Efq; of Ardwiek* actually ob T tained from it a block of ftone fo elegantly veined? and fb vari T oufly clouded, that he ordered it to be poliihed, and it now farms the curious chimney-piece of one of his bed-rooms* But for a long time dubious whether he ihould break, k up for marble or for lime, he finally refolved upon the latter, a*nd has ftrangely negle&ed it ever fince* This quarry breaks out in many places near the Ancoats, many ledges of limeftone going athwart the channel of the Medlock, ^nd various fragments being; occasionally loofenpd from them by the force of the current. The fragment? appeared lately very numerous iu.the chapneL The fragments, upon any long mtermiffion. in. the gathering of them, would ap- pear very numerous again*. They muft therefore have been^paf:- ticularly frequent at the co^rftrudion of the Roman, ftation, and muft many of them have lodged in the channel atjthe fppt o£ the Caftle-field,. And, in their neceflary enquiries after veins of limeftone, the Romans, jvould fpeedily difcera, thefe bro>vn and marbled fragments in the Medlock, and would find in them a fupply of lime fofficient for air their ufts and immediately ad- joining: to their ftation. , * ''"■■- 'The