Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/150

Chap. V. OF MANCHESTER- 121 broken as it now is into an abrupt precipice, and along the courfe of the foot-way to Kerfal-moor. And in this line Tra- dition afferts the road to have gone, leaving the prefent road above and the little cottage below on the right, and efcaping the e ver-fpringy ever-boggy declivities beneath on the left But, upon the turning of the foot- way to reach the moor, the Ro- man road muft have left it, have afcended the little fteep in front,* and have ranged about two hundred yards from the pre- fent hedge of the moor. Then crofting the horfeway to the moor, arid foon afterwards leaving the parifh of Mauchefter, the road muft have pufhed through Preftwich and Ratcliffe, appears upon Cockey-moor, and extends through Watling-ftreet in Oflyfide, over Bellthorn-moor above Darwent, and to the eaft of Blackburne % to the ford which is a little to the ^aft of Ribchefter. From the epithet of Stony which the Roman road has af- fixed to the above-mentioned Knolls, it may very reafonably be inferred that the road was paved. And we have previously fhewn the fame name of Stany-^reet to have juftly given the fame intimation concerning the road to Blackrode. In the firft: and fecond inclofure of the! Stony-Knolls are many large paving- ftones, disjointed from each other, but ft ill appearing in the fur- face of the road. In the lane leading up to the inclofiines, are even feveral detached and broken appearances of a regular pave* ment. And in the fecond garden near Caftle-field, and on the fite of Mr. Philips' s houfe, the pavement was actually dug up # confifting of the largeft boulders, and having two layers of ftones upon a bed of gravel. This gravel appears from the road upon the Knolls to be light-coloured and full of ftones. But from what quarter of the country could the Romans derive it ? The only gravel near the track of the road lies upon Dole -field, St. Mary's Church-yard, and one or two other places, and is all invariably of a red-brown hue; and no large gravel-pits appear in any of them. Along the reft of the track, the foil is clay for a little way at firft and light red fand continually afterwards. All the refources for R gravel