863       

863 Manchester-Chester
"It is allso sayd," states Hollinworth, ''that the townesmen carried valiantly against the Danes when, about Ao. Christi 863, they landed in Northumberland, though it is utterly unworthy that the inhabitants should imagine, as Mr. Cambden pretends they did in his time, that Manchester should signify the 'City of Men;' and with this light and frothy conceite, implying their owne commendation, should at all please themselves; yet it is true that they did carry valiantly and fared the worse for it; for the Danes, about ten years after, tooke and possessed themselves of the whole region of Northumberland; they tooke allso the city of Yorke; they held the countrey about 60 years. Certainly at that time Manchester was either ruined totally or in a great measure, as Chester allso and other cityes when their destroying feete trampled downe the beauty of the land." (Pp.22, 23.)(7)