Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/20

Chap. I- OF MANCHESTER. 3 a name expreflive either of its particular ufc or of its local cir- cumftances. The Roman geographers have pointed out to us a large variety of fortrefies in the British unconquered ifle of Ireland And the Roman warriours appear to have met with as large a variety of fortrefies in the reduction of Britain. They actually found more than twenty towns among two nations only upon the fbuthern fhore of the ifland *. They dually found Camulodunum the capital of Cunobeline's kingdom, which they formed into a colony They actually found Verulamium a city of the Caffii, which they modelled into a municipium They a&ually found Calleva or Wallingford, Duroovaria or Dorchefter in the Weft, Eburacum or York, Ifurium or Aldbo- rough,in Yorkfliire, juid many others, which they afterwards converted into ftations And finding the fortrefs of Mancunium at Manchefter, as they had previoufly found others in the more fbutherly. and eafterly parts of the kingdom, and fixing their own ftation upon the fite of it as they had preyioufly fixed upon the fites of others, they neceffarily received, and therefore na- turally continued, the original and Britifh denomination? of all, and only fbftened them to the Roman ear by giving them a Ro- man termination. This is a remark, fa far as it is confined to Mancunium or Manchefter in particular, which is fyggeftpd by. the firii re* flexion upon the Britifh name of the ftation in the Roman Iti- neraries. : This is a remark, fo far as it extend? to ©ur towns i$ general, and equally comprehends, the cities of Britain and of Gaul, > which. is .fuggefted by the mere review of thek names i* the faxne Itineraries.. Many of the names in the Gallic and the Britiih Itinera ape Roman, moH of them are Celtic, and fbm? of them are both RomaQ and Celtic. .Where the appellation is mercly'Roman, as Afju» Sextiae and Forum Neronis in Gaul or Pnctorium and Villa Fapftini in Britain, tho f the fortrefs which is fignified by it may $ill poflibly challenge a Celtic origin, y$f the prefumption certainly lies in favour of a Roman one. But where the appellation is purely Celtic, as Camulodunum, Vind? , omagus, and Condate, or evea confifts of Roman and Celtic B 2 together,