Page:Lancashire Legends, Traditions, Pageants, Sports, Etc., with an Appendix Containing a Rare Tract.djvu/316

 THE LEGEND OF SIR TARQUIN. , Mamecestre, the modern Manchester, was probably founded by Agricola, in the year A.D. 79. It continued in the hands of the Romans, until their final departure from Britain, during the reign of Honorious, about A.D. 425. After the Romans left the country, their camp on the Irwell was occupied by the native Britons, who had again to give place to the victorious Saxons. These hardy warriors appear to have become masters of Lancashire about A.D. 618, when they seized the old Roman station at Mamecestre, which more than a century before is fabled to have been occupied by a semi-mythic personage named Sir Tarquin. Tradition states that he was "a giant in size and a monster in brutality." Be this as it may, the Britons made two desperate attempts under King Arthur and his knights, to retake this stronghold; and Sir Tarquin is said to have fallen a victim to the prowess of Sir Lancelot du Lake in single combat, during the second attack. After the death of King Arthur, the Saxons and Danes regained their ascendancy; but the tradition has outlived the success of the Britons. The combat between the two knights not only forms an interesting incident in the "Morte d'Arthur;" but has been alluded to by Shakspeare in the second part of his Henry IV.; and preserved to us in Bishop Percy's valuable "Reliques." There is also an extended version of the metrical legend included in the privately printed "Memoirs of the Mosley Family;" but we prefer to give the original ballad, merely localising it by the words included within brackets.

When Arthur first in court began,
 * And was approved King,