Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/146

Chap. IV. OF MANCHESTER. 117 and in Antonin'e, that went from Kinderton to five ftations at Warrington at Wigan at Penwortham at Garftang and at Lan- cafter (p. 63). Of aflfertions without argument, and of fuppo- fitions without warrant, the multiplication is eafy and the fate obvious. And had Mr. Percival been left to the guidance of his own untutored genius in antiquities, he would have ftocked Lanca- fhire with an infinite variety of ftations, and every Saxon caftle, every modern chateau would have been fancifully aggravated into an aftual Caftrum. That the one only determinate cha- ratteriftic of a ftation is either the appellation of Cafter affixed ' to the place or the concurrence of Roman roads at the point, has never yet been Efficiently attended to by the antiquarian critick. . And, for want of fuch a decifive ftandard, the antiquarian mind has been left to brood fondly over its own ungrounded ideas, : , and to multiply ftations at the random fuggeftions of the fancy* CHAP;