Welsh Journals

tracing could not by any chance have been intended for Middlewich or Kinderton. It has pointed all along to Northwieh, and leaves Middlewich five miles to the south. So far from the Roman road •* stealing insensibly," it actually forms an acute angle with King-street, and yet strange enough, Whitaker's assertion has been adopted by all who have written upon the subject, and it may be particularly noticed that King-street is two miles to the east of Northwieh, and that its continuation northwards is in the direction of Wilderapool. There are two other early roads running southwards from Middlewich, one going to Nantwich and the other towards Sandbach. These are all the roads marked as Roman that centre in Middlewich, and while there is no road leading direct from Middlewich to Chester, neither is there any road leading from Chester to Middlewich. The actual line of road of the Itinerarium left the first described road in Dunham Park, and, going along Warrington-lane and Pepper-street, in Lymm, got to Wilderspool by Stoney-street. It then went along the present highway, and, passing by Frodsham, fell into a road named Street, at Bridge Trafford, and so proceeded to Chester. The late Yen. Archdeacon Wood was the first to bring before the public the proofs of Roman occupation near Middlewich. The Archdeacon unfortunately laboured under some disadvantages. He adopted Whitaker's fancies as given in the " History of Manchester," and of course was not aware that Mamuciurn and Mancunium were different places, and he seems to have had no particular acquaintance with Roman sites generally. Till the Archdeacon found the Roman remains in the Harboro' Field, there really was no evidence that the Romans had occupied the spot at all. In a paper contributed by him to the first volume of this Socitty he brings the following evidence that Kinderton was the Condate of the Roman Itinerarium :— I In the name Kinderton we have a corruption of " Condate," or as Whitaker remarks, " Condate is well echoed in Kinderton."— II. We find at this place a Roman camp at the confluence of two rivers.— III. The distances from Kinderton to Manchester, by Stretford, and from Kinderton to Chester, agree with the distances given in the Itinerarium between Condate and these places.— IV. We have a Roman road called Kind street, terminating at Kinderton.— V. We find at the Broadway, in Kinderton, the junction of six Roman roads, which must have rendered it a place of note, aud a station of importance."