Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/426

Ghap.XL OF MANCHESTER. jyr fcene of it$ refidence upon the banks of the beautiful Ribble. There Ribchefter enjoyed all the varied emoluments of it. The voice of tradition aflerts and the difcovery of ruins evinces the village of Ribahefter to have been once a very confiderable city, to. have been fuperior to Manchefter in grandeur, and to have ex- celled perhaps all the towns of the north in wealth. And the commerce of the Siftuntian port is the only affignable reafon,. the comiper ce of the Siftuntian port* was undoubtedly the genuine* caufe, of all its particular importance. Ribchefter was not* like Freckleton, neceffaril jr planted upon & difagreeable fite* and had notf like- it, a large extent of low marfhy grounds i weeping for-feveral miles on both fides of the river,- overflowed with the waters at*every tide, and loading the air with rank exhalations at every recefs. Ribchefter, like-Lon* don* was fixed at a diftance* from the fea and upon an agreeabW * fite, and enjoyed; like it,- the advantage of a fine air from the dry nature of the foil around it and frbmthe lively Bow of the * fiver before it.- And the Roman town- at-the Neb of the Nefe was only* as. the Greenock of Glafgow the Shields of Ncwcaftle or the Freckleton of Prefton at prefent; It'muft have been: inhabited folely by fuch as were retained in the more immediate fervice of the vefiels. All the traders mufthave refided, and alt the commercial bufinefe muft have been tranfa&ed, at Ribchefter. The exports of > the neighbouring diftri£te muft have been carried ! to Ribchefter, have been- 4odged 'in thie warehoufes of the towhv . apd have been fent in boats to the veflels in the-harbour. Ahd : the ? import! for the neighbouring diftrifts muft have been, un- - (hipped in the hacbour,., have been fent in, boat* up to Ribchefter, , and hjive been .difperfed from it^pyer the country. 1 Pliny lib. vii. c. $6. — * Herodotus ..p. 254, WefleKngius**— - The teftimony of Herodotus carries the Phoenician arrival up, to » 440 or 450. And the progrefs of population in Britain and in.: Ireland, as it has been already and will hereafter bedefcribe&: (b. I. ch. xii. f. 4.), forbids it to be carried beyond the year 500. r . —'Richard;