Page:Roman Manchester (1900) by Charles Roeder.djvu/184

 Lane, Harpurhey, of clay-iron, and another one from Harpurhey (see our vol. v., 1887); and there is every hope, now that I have pointed out these matters, that on search our catalogue of finds will increase in view of so many building operations on our old sites.

Before I close my account of Hunt's Bank—partly to refresh our minds from the multitude of details I have been obliged to force on your attention—I may wind up with a picture of the area, as it probably appeared to the eye in British and Roman times. From the botanical specimens which were brought up from the depth at Chetham College, and the bottom of Hanging Ditch, and viewing the geological features revealed during the excavations at the Cathedral, forgetting for a few minutes flagged streets, pavements, and the bustle of railways and trams, which, with College and Cathedral, I have to waive for a moment from the neighbourhood, we see ancient Hunt's Hill rising up from the precipitous red cliffs above the sparkling waters of the Irwell and the Irk in its primeval freshness, overspread with a thick stratum of gravel, and grey or bleached fine sand, on which grows the juniper, the heath, the golden shimmery gorse bush; while the brows and slopes of the gorge of Hanging Ditch, and the rivers are overhung with the graceful spray of the silvern birch, the hazel, the elder, and the soft tendrils and arched shoots of the bramble, intermixed with thick clusters of bracken; the mosses carpet the ground of shady banks, while the Polytrichum warns us of some swampy patches. The oak, fond of the clayey undersoil, covers the higher ground of the Shude