Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/78

Chap.H. OVF~ M A NCH ESTER, jr V^ MANY coins have been occafionally difcovered about the fta- tion in the. laft and prefent century, and many have been lately, found in the . precin£ts of the town. But none of the pieces were uncommon. And one of them was of that Ipecies of brafs coins or medals which have C. CAESAR DICTATOR upon one fide and VENI VIDI VICI within a laurel wreath upon the other, the well-known forgery of modern crafty and the mintage of the famous Paduan, — A large Roman ring of gold has alio been difcovered at the ftation *. — And about fifty years ago was thrown up by the plough a large fword of iron in verygqod con- fervation, as it is delineated in the annexed plan, and five feet five inches and a quarter in length. The handle is eighteen in- ches and a quarter in length and four inches and a quarter, in^cir- cumference, lined all round with fome foft pieces of wood, and covered over with leather above ; is terminated by a large round ball of iron, about a pound in weight, at one extremity ; and is crofled by an iron gyard, twenty inches and a quarter in length, . at the other. The blade, which is forty-feven inches in length, carries a double edge, is nearly two inches in breadth at the •" guard, and tapers gently away to a (harp point. And the whole weapon, lighter than the ftone-made Celt defcribed before, and i equally with the Celt defigned to be wielded by both hands to- ■ gether, is feven pounds and eleven ounces in weight. The curi- ofity is undoubtedly Roman, is very like the fword that is de- fcribed upon a Roman monument difcovered in London and re- pofited at Oxford, and is now in the poffeffion of Thomas . Birch Efq, of Ardwick But while the whole area of the Caftle-field was thus applied - . to a variety of ufes, the low level of the groujid * which 19 di- H % rc&ly