Page:Roman Manchester (1900) by Charles Roeder.djvu/55

 constant reference to Whitaker and directing their eyes on Castlefield alone, have failed to grasp the situation. They should systematically have watched all excavations in Gaythorn, Hulme; the area between Chetham College and the Hanging Ditch; the elbow in which ancient Salford was situated, and the area enclosed between the confluence of the Medlock and Irwell at the foot of Castlefield and at Ordsall. Our ideas of Roman Manchester would then have been clearer and more satisfactory and creditable.

From our general survey of the distribution of the more substantial buildings we come to the conclusion that the principal and public buildings were erected to the east and south of the station and enclosed by the curve of the Medlock (the northern bank). The northern side of the ground, more or less moist and swampy, was parcelled out to the garrison and the mixed population; and to Gaythorn and Hulme, on the two banks of the Medlock, where we are on rising ground, with better drainage, and a ready access to the river, the higher ranks may have resorted. Here also the Romans, when building this solid fort on the eminence at Castlefield, may have erected their temporary workshops until their walled fort was raised and finished, for it offered the best convenience for that purpose.

—It constitutes the second Iter and is 24 Roman miles long. According to Whitaker, it issued at the eastern gate on a common stem at the extremity of the field, then winding along at the less precipitous bank higher up at the old ford of the