Page:Roman Manchester (1900) by Charles Roeder.djvu/185

 Hills, and the water mussel burrows in the muddy bottom of Hanging Ditch, while eel and fish swarm up the oozy pools of the Irk. Against the blue sky, to the south-west, we descry the crenulated, white-glimmering walls of the massive castrum at the Medlock, and bits of the Roman roads glinting here and there through the fretwork of the soft foliage.

The Society has gone to great expense and sacrifice for illustrating the paper with copious views and sections, but some of the larger detailed plans, not to overwhelm their efforts, had to be omitted from reproduction: these and a large mass of additional sections and photographs have therefore been handed over to the Reference Library, as a suitable place for reference to them, which may be desired by the members. The large collection of my Roman finds is awaiting a suitable home yet, or some public-spirited Mæcenas to provide for it, and I renew my appeal for an archæological museum for treasuring up all local finds and monuments of interest to Manchester and the district, to illustrate its ancient and mediæval history from all points and sides, and to foster and invigorate the historical instincts of the town. Until this is done, these relics will share the fate of the past and vanish—entailing a clear loss to posterity and historical continuity.