Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/86

 Chip* HI. O F MA NCH£ST£R. # The learned fcholar and the deep antiquarian I found &nk into an ignorant novice, fometimcs the copier of Huntingdon, but generally the tranfcriber of Geoffrey. Deprived of his Roman aids, Richard {hewed himfeif to he as ignorant and as injudi- cious, as any of his illiterate cotemporaries about him. II. • To delineate die Britifh and Roman- Britifh geography of the ifland, has frequently, attracted the attention and frequently en- gaged the application of our antiquarians. But their attention -and application have been hitherto exerted to little purpofe. A cloud has fettled deep ,and dark upon the general face of our ifland in thofe antient days. And the few fcattered rays with which it has been hitherto enlightened have only ferved to make the darknefs more vifible to us* The Commentary of Richard howeyer has i)ow happily difpelled the thicker part of the gloon). The pofyionof each Britiih tribe, and the extent of each Roman- British province, may now be ascertained with fufficient preciiion. And the who Je interiour difpofition of Ropian-Bf itain, before as well as after tha conqueft of the Romans, may. now be fketch^d • out .with a pretty accurate hand. Some little darijocfs muft al- ways be expected to infold the antiquarian in his fearches. And . he muft always oblige himfeif to the talk of thinking over his .jvork. The Roman oonquefts within the Mlapd were divided in ge- neral into higher or weftern and into lower or eaftern Britain, . the one being feparated from the other by a line that was carried .through the length of the ifland 1 .. The Roman conquefts in the iflatnl were divided in particular into the fix provinces and diftinguiflaed by the fix denominations of Britannia Prima, Bri- tannia Secunda, Flavia, Maxima, Valentia, and Vefpafiana. . And a regular Jtinerary, the firft perhaps of Britain f appears to have been drawn up by Lollius for the whole. I 2 -"Britannia