History of the Fylde of LancashirePorter, John (Writer on the Fylde of Lancashire)
History
History of the Fylde of Lancashire
Porter, John (Writer on the Fylde of Lancashire)
Lancashire (England) -- History
north of the Belisama. The position of the “Lune Deep” termination is
just about seven miles to the west of the estuary of the Ribble, but is,
like most other places whose stations have been mentioned by Ptolemy,
defective in its latitudinal measurement according to the record left by
that geographer, being only fifteen instead of twenty-five miles north
of the Belisama or Ribble estuary. Rigodunum, or Ribchester, is fully
thirty miles to the east of the spot where it is wished to locate the
Portus, and thus approaches very nearly to the forty-mile measurement of
Ptolemy, whose distances, as just hinted, were universally excessive.
As an instance of such error it may be stated that the longitude, east
from Ferro, of Morecambe Bay or Estuary given by Ptolemy, is 3° 40´ in
excess of that marked on modern maps of ancient Britannia, and if the
same over-plus be allowed in the longitude of the Portus Setantiorum a
line drawn in accordance, from north to south, would pass across the
west extremity of the “Lune Deep,” showing that its distance from the
Bay corresponds pretty accurately with that of the Portus from the
Morecambe Æstuarium as geographically fixed by Ptolemy. In describing the
extent and direction of the Roman road, or Danes’ Pad, in his “History
of Blackpool and Neighbourhood,” Mr. Thornber writes:—“Commencing at
the _terminus_, we trace its course from the Warren, near the spot
named the ‘Abbot’s walk’;” but that the place thus indicated was not
the _terminus_, in the sense of _end_ or _origin_, is proved by the
fact that shortly after the publication of this statement, the workmen
engaged in excavating for a sea-wall foundation in that vicinity came
upon the road in the sand on the very margin of the Warren. Hence it
would seem that the path was continued onwards over the site of the
North Wharf sand bank, either towards the foot of Wyre where its channel
joins that of Lune, and where would be the original mouth of the former
river, or, as we think more probable, towards the Lune itself, and
along its banks westward to the estuary of the stream, as now marked by
the termination of “Lune Deep.” The Wyre, during the period it existed
simply as a tributary of the Lune, a name very possibly compounded from
the Celtic _al_, chief, and _aun_, or _un_, contractions of _afon_, a
river, must have been a stream of comparatively slight utility in a
navigable point of view, and even to this day its seaward channel from
Fleetwood is obstructed by two shallows, denominated from time out of
mind the Great and Little Fords. The Lune, or “Chief River,” on the
contrary, was evidently, from its very title, whether acquired from its
relative position to its tributary, or from its favourable comparison
with other rivers of the neighbourhood, which is less likely, regarded
by the natives as a stream of no insignificant magnitude and importance.
As far as its navigability was concerned the Portus may have been placed
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