Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/145

n6 *T H E HISTORY Book I. gates to receive the women the children and the cattle, and be immediately put into a condition of defence. And thus would Coccui, the capital of the whole* beas certain as a town could be to be the laft attacked * by an invading enemy, and to be the beft prepared for a vigorous defence, againft them. 1 See Horfeley p. 384, 385, 397, 398, &c. — * See b. I. ch. vi. £ 2. for another ftation upon a rie or river field. — 3 B. L ch. v. £ 1. — 4 Ibid. — 5 See b. II. ch. ii. f. 4. — 6 Baxter in Brennus. So alio Pendragon, Venta Silurum, &c. — 7 B. L ch. v. £,3. — s B. I. ch. v. f. 4. — 9 Offian Vol. I. p. 198. In vol. I. of Antiquarian Effay s, publifhed this very winter, I find Mr. Percival and Mr. Watfon both agreeing with me in fixing Goc- cium at Blackrode, but both differing from me in the particular pofition of it. Mr. Watfon gives an account, but top general and indiftinftive, of the Roman road from Manchefter to Blackrode (p. 70)* And both Mr. Watfon and Mr. Percival fettle the fta- tion juft at the entrance of the village from Manchefter, and upon the area of the Caftle-Croft, (p. 70 and 63) ; when the dis- tance, the fke, the tradition, and the remains all agree to carry it to the banks of the Douglas. Mr. Watfon avers " the re- 4< . mains of a Roman ftation to be there," (p. 70) ; when there are only the remains of a fmall modern caftle, which gradually occafioned the prefent village to be conftru&ed near it. Mr. Percival aflerts " a middle-fized fort to be yet feen there,'* but acknpwledges that he " had not time to trace the whole of it" (p. 63) ; when the only remains are the relicks of the fmall "caftle, and when thefe are all confined to the fmall area of the Caftle-Croft. And Mr. Percival, in his wild way of af- ferting generally without any fpecification of proofs, affirms 41 a Roman road to be yet vifible M from Blackrode to Pen- wortham, to Garftang, to Lancafter, and to Overborough, and the three intermediate ftations to have been dropt in tran- fcribing both by Richard's and by Antonine's Itinerary ; And in his wilder way of fuppofing without advancing any reafons for the fuppofition, he imagines an Iter to be loft both in Richard and