A fang of the wild boar.

we come upon:

Below this

(6) 15 inches the Roman boulder road, flagged with white-grey sandstone chippings, 6 to 7 inches long and 1 to 2 inches thick, the whole depth of 15 inches constructed and consisting of boulder stones, smaller towards the top (4 to 5 inches long, 3 to 4 inches thick) and very large at the bottom (7 to 8 inches long and 6 inches thick). It stretches for 15 feet from west to east, and does not continue on the other side of the central shaft, which was run to a further depth of about 6 feet, conseqently it limits its real known width (except it should extend on the west side at the Palatine Hotel) to 15 feet, as it suddenly stops short on the east side of the central shaft. Below we have:

(7) 30

12

sand, on which it immediately rests, and, in addition,

consisting of a black sediment, highly decomposed, speckled with vivianite. From it I obtained:

Juniperus communis, the juniper, (a berry); habitat, on open sandy plains and hills;

Polygonum lapathifolium, the persicaria, (the black shining seeds); waste land;

Corylus avellana, hazelnut (fragments of the shells); woods, slopes, river banks; and a fragmentary specimen of the minute shell Helix pulchella.

Bits of burnt bones and minute pieces. of reddish pottery, with grains of sand in the matrix, pieces of leather, and a femural bone of a bird.

We see from the other section, taken at right angles, that the boulder road rested on an ancient, much earlier excavated fosse, which was cut at a very steep angle into the native rock, showing towards its southern margin the black sediment which was quietly accumulating at the bottom (the black mass contains a large admixture of fine sand grains), 12 inches thick, while the 30 inch sand, which is sandwiched between the base of the boulder road and the black deposit, points to a later stage, when it was filled up for the posterior construction of the boulder road which traverses it at this point. Whitaker mentions that in 1765, at the grammar school, a channel was found through the rock in the cellar, 3 yards wide and 2 yards deep, "filled with an unctuous mass and then sand." This channel, or fosse, which he calls "the Prætorium foss," in his "Plan of the Summer Station," is, of course, as we can see, the same fosse rediscovered now at its western side. Let me recapitulate now.

At Hanging Bridge (spanning the original gully or clough) we have at a depth of 20 feet Roman glass and a Roman brass (date 137-138 A.D.); a little further down, towards the river, or river ferry, at the margin of the Irwell, we have Roman coins (306-340 A.D.).

At Cathedral Street a patch of Roman surface with contemporaneous British and Roman pottery.

At the Cathedral, under the foundation of the western. tower, old Roman clay and boulder foundations, at the depth of 6 feet, and a cement flooring; on the eastern part of the cathedral we find rectangular remains of an old substructure of rubble walls, 4 feet below,

and projecting 4 feet southward beyond the church foundations.

At Chetham College we observe, 5 feet below the undisturbed ground large blocks of undoubted Roman mortar, indicating the existence of compact foundation walls, similar to those of the north wall of the castrum in Deansgate; fragment of a roof tile, and below, at a depth of 7 feet, the existence of a Roman boulder-paved road, which again rests on a much older artificially, rock-cut fosse. The Roman road, in its turn, is slowly sanding up, and lying apparently waste and disused; in the sand we have the gorse bush, which could then take root and grow upon it; we have the elder and bramble, which could drop its berries, and allow its sun-dried, puckered seeds to insinuate themselves in the accumulating layers of sand drift. We notice again above the roots and seeds pieces of Roman mortar that had been flung there from a destroyed building. Twenty-three inches above the deposit of sand we find blistered charcoal and burnt bones, indicating perhaps a recurrent incursion of Hunt's Bank.

We see what a promising field is awaiting future research in these quarters, and how within the last few years evidence has been steadily accumulating to prove the territorial occupation by the Romans of Hunt's Bank. I think we are now on sure ground, and the spade, which is now busy at all points round this ancient area, may be the means to throw further light upon a number of other points which have to be fully worked out yet. This refers specially to the direction of the Ribchester Road. On my "Map of Roman Manchester," I provisionally made this road to slant from the deanery, where it is last tracked to, to a point at Cathedral Street, as I took the Roman patch discovered here as an indication of the main road,

which, splitting up, sent one branch across Chetham College ground to Hunt's Bank, while the other-the Blackstone Edge road-fell, cutting Fennel Street, into Old Millgate. But since the discovery at Hanging Bridge of Roman glass and a coin, brought up from the bottom of the gully, it is possible that the Ribchester Road passed, as Whitaker believed, via Hanging Bridge, through the west side of the Cathedral, straight along to Hunt's Bank Bridge. I have already shown that at the Chetham Library we find the Roman road, 15 feet wide, but the excavation here made was too small and incomplete for our purposes, to ascertain and settle the exact trend it took. Fresh excavations are in sight, however, for the erection of a lodge at the entrance of the college, and perhaps we may be lucky enough to hit upon traces of the road here, if it passed on a line as suggested by Whitaker. Meanwhile, this must be left an open question. Whether the small-cobble road, which was found on the north side of Hanging Bridge, leading to the western tower of the cathedral, represents the road is doubtful, it being only 5 feet wide.

We have to speak now of the road to Blackstone Edge, a secondary road leading to the borders of Yorkshire, which has a certain interest and importance, and of which but little has actually been known. Thompson Watkin says: "The most singular fact connected with this road is that no one has ever seen or heard of the portion of it between Manchester and Blackstone Edge from Whitaker's time to the present day." Our information has increased since that statement was made.

As mentioned before, we do not know yet at what particular point in the Hunt's Bank area the junction really was effected. On the north door of the cathedral we have Mr. John Owen saying that a pavement of rough