Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/237

zo6 THE HISTORY: ; Book I. to the influence of. the fun and winds. And they cooftru&ed their houfes with the timber. The town was undoubtedly erect- ed along the courfe of the road to Ribchefter, commencing at firft near the fofle of the flat ion, extending in one dired ftreet along the road, and afterwards forking off from it i*to others. And the ways of our towns muft have originally received the Roman appellation of ftreets, becaufe the rows of. our houfes were originally conftru&ed along the line, and the paffages be- tween them were originally carried along the course* of th$ Roman highways or ftreets. Such was- the fpot which Agricola fele&ed for the pofition of the town of Mancunium. And fuch was the commencement of a town that was to become fo confpiquous afterwards, to lengthen out into fair flreets, and to open into graceful fquares, to con- tain aflembled thoufands within her ample circuit, and to extend her varied commerce beyond the harriers of the ocean. . The TOWN OF MANCHESTER commenced very early in t:he <ho# reign of the amiable Titus, about the period of the firft famous eruption from the flaming Vefuvius, the deflru&ion of Hercu- laneum, and the death of the elder, Pliny* arid about the months of September andO&ober in jhe ever-meijaorable yeaf 79/ 1 » »> i / 1 Tacitus Ann. lib. xiv. c. 33. and lib. xii. c. 32. and Richard p. 24. — * Richard j). 24. and Stukeley's Itin. Curiof. p. 19^5.— 9 Ut Homines difperfi ac rudes, e6que bello faciles, qirieti et otio per voluptates afluefcerent, hoitari privatim, adjuvare publice, ut templa, fora, domus extruerent, laudando promptos et caftigan* do fegnes, &c. Tacitus Agric. Vit. c. 21. Thefe and the fub- fequcnt words have hitherto been ftrangely applied to the con- quered Britons at large. But, as I have here fhewed, towns had been erected in the fouth before. — * Richard p. 36, &c. — s Ta^ citus Ann. lib. xiv. c. 33. and Wren's Parentalia p. 265.— 6 Camden p. 617. and Ltland vol. v. p. 82. — 7 From fbme cori- ilru&ions made here about forty years ago by a gentleman of the name of Hooper the old appellation has been popularly al- tered