Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/381

35 o ..THE HIS TORY Book L latter have been difcovered even the burnt fcump of a large tree and the remains of a wattled hedge, the hedge ftill (land- ing upon the ground under a depth of five or fix feet, and the cinders and afhes ftill lying upon the ftump at the depth of ten xo . Nothing has been difcovered in any but one of our Mancunian moffes that even diftantly befpoke the previous re : ftdence of the Romans among us. And the watery wafte of TrafFord mofs has been lately channelled from end to end by the Bridgwater canal, all our moffes are continually cut into for their turf, all of them have been for ages encroached upon by the plough, and nearly the whole circuit of Houghs and ab- folutely the whole of Failfworth moffes have been recently con-, vtrted into cultivated lands. Sometimes the light grey fand and the ftrong tenacious loam of a wooded dingle, or of fome wooded hollow upon the fide of an hill, accidentally received the waters of an obftru&ed brook, or regularly drank in the falling fhowers of the winter, till the trees were unable to fupport themfelves upon the fpongy foil. Sometimes the trees were originally thrown or cut down, as many of the trees in our Manchefter moffes appear to have been a&ually cut down, and originally obftrudtcd the paffage of the waters. Thus that particular region of Failfworth mofs which was traverfed by the Roman road, and which was evidently the boggieft diftrift of it, being now reduced nearer to the original level of the ground, has a confiderable defcent to it upon either fide ; and the higheft region of Chatmofs about two centuries ago, upon an extraordinary difcharge of the fwelling waters, ap- peared to be a fair valley and to be watered with a little brook lo . And many moffes are found upon rifing grounds and upon the declining fide of an hill. Every drain for the moifture being thus gradually choaked up, and the ground being conftantly fupplied with a recruit of ftagnated water, the principles of pu- trid vegetation would begin to aft with vigour, and a rank har- veft would overfpread the face of the ground. This dying every year and being every year . fucceeded with a frefh crop, a coat would gradually rile upon the furface, and the matted mafs would