Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/396

Chap. X- O F H A K'C HJ E S T r R. j*t borough, at Procolitia or Carrabrugft in Cumberland, an<f at Derventio Oc Littlechefter near Derby * And the excellent water of this and the other welta muft have been railed out of them either by the affiftance of a pole playing upon a tronfverfe beam anil loaded' with a weight at the handle, by a common wheel, or by a little windmill. All thefe machines appear to have been early in ufe 'among the Romans * And all feem to have been equally fimple and obvious in their conftru&ion. To mark the flight of time by external and fenfible reprefen- tations, and fo to diftinguifli the patting hours into ftated period* and regular ftages, was firft the work of -Him who appointed the revolutions of the night and the day, the returns of tvt Sabbath, the variations of the moon, the viciffitudes of the lea-, (bns, and the courfes of the fun. But to afcertain the uniform progrefe of the day by the uniform motion of (hades or fubftances* is an invention that is as curiobs in its nature as it Was probably late in its difcovery. It was certainly invented before die days of Ahaz the monarch of Judaea *% and above two hundred year* previous to the firft inhabitation of Lancafhire. This primitive dial feems to h'ave been merely a fimple diagram, which was defcribed upon- the fleps of Ahaz's palace, £iid which marked the advance of .the day by the (hade of fome neighbouring body gradually fweeping over the face of it. And this contrivance leems to have remained the only dial of the caftern nations for a couple of centuries afterward, and firft received the addition of a regular gnomon from the hand of Anaxirrtenes the Mitefian at Laced&mon * But the knowledge of this or of the other was introduced very late into the weft. The Romans diftin* guifhed the day only by its two natural periods of fun-rife and ihn-iet even for fome time after the promulgation of the twelve tablfes. ' And the 'firft artificial divilion of the day was by the obvious* diftin&ion of noon. This began a few years afterward; the crier of the confuls being ordered to proclaim the noon in their court when he faw the fun appear betwixt two particular points of the forum. But the Grecian dial pafled with the Grecian. colonies into Sicily; And the firft that was ever feeft ' ■ ■• A a a at