Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/198

Chap. VI. OF MANC:H E~S*T :E R. ty the Roman roads muft have been often rendered impaflable during the winter, and often for a confiderable part of the winter together* And thus, for want of a few bridges, muft the Ro- man roads have been rendered frequently ufelefs, the military communication between the feveral parts of the ifland have been frequently fufpended, and the Roman empire within it have been frequently expofed to danger 7 . • ' * From fome Tumuli in the roads Dr. Stukeley infers both the Herman and the Watling Stre6ts to have been never travelled even by horfes. Itin. Curiof. p. 82, 104, and 106.— 4 RothmellV Account of Overborough. — - $ Horace lib. i. fat. 5. fhews the Ap- pian Way to have been as rough in the Auguflan age as it is in the prefent : . Hoc iter ignavi divifimus, altius ac nos Praecin&is unum ; minus eft gravis Appia tardis. — 4 Camden c. 199. — 5 See b. II. ch. ii. f. 2. — 6 The Romans had very few ftations in the ifland at which they had conftru&ed bridges. Only two are mentioned by Antoninus, Ad Pontem and Pontibus. And a third is mentioned by the Notitia, Pons iElii. — * Dr. Stukeley, in' the genuine fpirit of an antiquarian, Commends the wifdom of the Romans for preferring durable fords to perifhing bridges. Itin. Cur. p. 72. See alio a iimilarly awkward expedient for eroding the rills of vallies mentioned p. 82. ». a TO the feven ftations with which Mancunium was immedi-. ately conne&ed we may add feveral others, not as the great and terminating ftages of other roads, but as intermediate caftra upon thefe or minute ftations at a di fiance from them* And the nation of Mancunium appears to have had nine of them, three of them conftru&ed with one view, two with another, and four witK another. Z The 1