this tradition still exist, one of which, a rude carving on a ceiling in
the College at Manchester, represents the giant Tarquin at his morning's
repast; it being fabled that he devoured a child daily at this meal. The
legs of the infant are seen sprawling out of his mouth in a most
unseemly fashion. Some have supposed that Tarquin was but a symbol or
personification of the Roman army, and his castle the Roman station in
this neighbourhood.

The following extract is from Dr Hibbert's pamphlet on the subject:--

"Upon the site of Castlefield, near Manchester, was originally erected a
British fortress by the Sistuntii, the earliest possessors of
Lancashire, comprising an area of twelve acres. It would possess on the
south, south-east, and south-west, every advantage, from the winding of
the River Medlock, and on its west, from the lofty banks which
overlooked an impenetrable morass. By the artificial aid, therefore, of
a ditch and a rampart on its east and north sides, this place was
rendered a fortress of no inconsiderable importance. This fell
afterwards into the hands of the Brigantes, the ancient inhabitants of
Durham, York, and Westmoreland. Upon the invasion of the Romans,
Cereales, their general, attacked the proper Brigantes of Yorkshire and
Durham, and freed the Sistuntii of Lancashire from their dominion, but
reserved the former to incur the Roman yoke. In A.D. 79, this British
hold was changed into a Roman castrum, garrisoned by the first Frisian
cohort, who erected from the old materials a new fort on the Roman
construction, part of the vallum remaining to this day. New roads were
made, and the British were invited to form themselves into the little
communities of cities, to check the spirit of independence kept alive in
the uncivilised abodes of deserted forests. The Romans possessed the
fortress for nearly 300 years, when they were summoned away to form part