Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/168

Chap. V. OF MANCHESTER, r^ Moor4ioufeabove Morton, and is again viiible upon Rumbles Moor % Upon the broad extent of this wafte wildernefs, it appear* (as I am informed) a raifed paved road overgrown with turf, keeping upon the (helve of the hills to avoid the cliffs upon one fide and the rooratfes On the other, and pointing dire&ly beyond the 1 high fteep rocky mound of the moor to the gay valley of the Wherf and the little town of Ilkley within it. r The town of Olicana or Alicana is utterly unnoticed by An- toninus, but is mentioned equally by Ptolemy and by Richard. The prefent remains at Ilkley evince it to have been a ftationary town. And the feventh Jter of Richard argues it to have been denominated Alicana. It lies 'at the diftance of more than forty miles from Manchester, but had probably, as 1 fliall {hew here- after* a leffer ftation about the mid-way betwixt hoth Th$ town of Ilkley is placed upon the great poft-road that runs from Kendal to York, but is almoft barred up by tracklefs waftee a«d impra&icable roads upon every other quarter. The town of Ilkley lies fnug in the hollow of a valley, mean dirty arid insignificant, known only to the antiquarian for fome curi- ous hifcriptions that have been difcovered at it, and to the invalid for a fine fpring of mineral water that has been found about a. mile from it» It was more remarkable formerly, but feems not to have been ever confiderable. It ftand& upon an agreeable fite* having a gentle defeent to the north, and the Wherf flowing briflcly in the front of it. This river, one of the three great ftrtams by which the Weft-Riding of Yorkfhire is fo ufefully watered for cultivation and (b beneficially divided for commerce, rifes among the hills a little to the weft of t?he town, and wafl^* the gentle eminence upon which it is ere&ed* ' This river, vovy different from the Ait, and remarkably fwift in its cou rfe, re* ceivfed from the Britons an appellation dire&ly the reverie of the Atr*s, and was denominated Getf-ab Gef-av or the eager water, a name in popular pronunciation contracted into Gerb Verb Guerf w Wherf And this river, remarkably beautiful in its ap- pearance, was particularly formed iilto a divinity by the Britons* and a large handfotiie altar has beet* fottnd' Aear the bank of it - ■ • T a confecratcd