14 ON THE ROMAN MILITARY ROAD 
a-days would think it worth while to travel but our- 
selves, nay, would think us out of our senses for 
doing what we have done, just by way of breathing 
awhile, we will for a few moments glance at what 
others have done in this quarter before us; who 
may have been foolish enough like ourselves to 
trouble themselves about such a matter. And 
first we find Dr. Percival in the Philosophical 
Transactions, vol. XLVII. p. 228, stating of 
this Roman road which we have been tracing, 
that “It goes through Ratcliffe and so to Cockey 
Moor, and from thence to Offyside, to a place 
now called Watling-street, and so to Bellthorn 
Moor above Darwen, and to the east of Black- 
burn strait to Ribchester.”” Mr. Whitaker, the 
historian of this place writes thus,—‘“‘ After leav- 
ing the parish of Manchester, the road must have 
pushed through Prestwich and Ratcliffe, appears 
on Cockey Moor, and extends through Watling- 
street in Offyside over Bellthorn Moor above 
Darwen, and to the east of Blackburn to the ford, 
which is a little to the east of Ribchester :” His- 
tory of Manchester, vol. I. p. 121, merely echoing 
Dr. Percival’s words. However correct or ap- 
proaching to correctness, the statements of the 
two authors just quoted, may be in the immediate 
neighbourhood of this place, and also in the neigh- 
