Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/148

Cbap.V. OF MANCHESTER. 119 bank,, and into the right line of the road. And, continuing in this obliquity, the road muft have pafled among the prefent houfes, have fallen into the prefent Deanfgate, and through the prefent area of the church have reached the opening into the hollow of Huntfbank. At Hunt (bank the rocks muft then have fallen exa&ly as they now fall along it, very deeply to the Irwell on the weft and perpendicularly to the Irke on the north ; and the paflage of the Romans muft have been obftruded by them. To clear this ob- ftru&iofl aod to continue the road, the labourers wielded their pickaxes, cut down the foft red rocks of the fteep bank as we now fee them, and made the firft road that had descended along it to the rivers. Cutting the rocks on the eaftern fide of the intended way into a very lofty perpendicular, and leaving a finall ledging of them on the weftern, which was alfo ufeful as a battlement for the road and a fecurity againft the precipice, they laid their materials upon the new-made plane of the rock be- twixt them. And, to leflcn the fharpnefs of the defcent, they did not carry the line of it dire&ly down the fteep of the Huntf- bank, bur, as the face of the eaftern fide demon ft rates, prudently gavte it two or three fmall curvatures in the fall. - Having gained the bottom of the bank and made a ford over the river, the road did not procfeed on and climb the fummit of the High Knolls. Having deviated from the right line to Ribchefter in order to avoid the curving ftream of the Irwell, it had neceflarily turned in the church-yard to the left: in order to reach the Huntfbanlc, - as it had been before diverted to the right in order to reach the church-yard. And it now as neceffarily turned again at the foot of the Huntibank, and went off in a flanting line to Ribchefter. Continuing therefore along the flat ground at the foot of the High Knolls* it muft have pafled obliquely through the gardens and houfes on the right of the prefent road, have entered Strangeways-lane, and have edged' along the park of Francis Reynolds Efq. There it was difcovered fome years ago m form- ing the prefent canal at the end of the park. And from this point it muft have ftretched away in the coupfe of the prefect lane,