G. Bouchier Richardson, Delt.John Storey, Lith.
PONS-ÆLII, RESTORED.

The famous Roman Wall, which, in former times, protected southern Britain from the ravages of the northern tribes, exhibits, at this day, remains more entire, and forms a subject of study more interesting than is generally supposed.

Two authors of great learning have treated of this renowned structure—Horsley, in the Britannia Romana, and Hodgson, in the last volume of his History of Northumberland. Both are treatises of considerable size, and both are, to a certain extent, rare. The Britannia Romana, moreover, describes the Wall, not as it is, but as it was more than a century ago. Hodgson’s work is of recent date, and forms a valuable storehouse of nearly all that is known upon the subject. The mind, however, of that amiable man and zealous antiquary was, at the time of its preparation, bending under the weight of his ill-requited labours, and he has failed to present his ample materials to the reader in that condensed and well-arranged form which distinguishes his previous volumes, and without which a book on antiquities will not arrest the attention of the general reader.

viThe following work may be regarded as introductory to the elaborate productions of Horsley and Hodgson. The reader is not assumed to be acquainted with the technicalities of archæology; and, at each advancing step the information is supplied which may render his course easy. I have not attempted, in the last part of the work, to enumerate all the altars and inscribed stones which have been found upon the line of the Wall, but have made a selection of those which are most likely to interest the general reader, and to give him a correct idea of the nature and value of these remains.

In the body of the work I have endeavoured to furnish a correct delineation of the present condition of the Wall and its outworks. All my descriptions are the result of personal observation. To secure as great accuracy as possible, I have read over many of my proof sheets on the spot which they describe.

The pictorial illustrations have been prepared with care, and will give the reader, who is not disposed to traverse the ground, a correct idea of the state of the Barrier. The wood-cuts and plates, illustrative of the antiquities found on the line, have, with the exception of a few coins introduced into the first Part of the volume, and copied from the Monumenta Historica, been prepared from original drawings, taken for this work from the objects themselves. I am not without hope that the well-read antiquary will value these delineations for their beauty and accuracy.

viiThe inhabitants of the isthmus are proud of the Wall and its associations; and whatever may have been the case with their forefathers, will not needlessly destroy it. Most kind has been the reception I have met with in my peregrinations, and most valuable the assistance I have received from the gentry and yeomen of the line, and others interested in my labours! Gladly would I enumerate all to whom I am indebted, had it been possible. Some names, however, must be mentioned. His Grace the Duke of Northumberland has not only given me free access to all his antiquarian stores, but directed me to prepare at his expense engravings on wood of all that I thought suitable to my purpose. Would that his Grace knew how much I have been cheered in my course by his notice of my humble labours! To John Clayton, esq., I am obliged for the gift of the wood-cuts illustrative of the numerous and interesting antiquities preserved at Cilurnum, the produce of that station and Borcovicus. To Albert Way, esq., the accomplished and honorary secretary of the Archæological Institute, with whom I had last year the pleasure and advantage of spending a day upon the Wall, I am indebted for the cuts representing the altar and slab discovered at Tynemouth. The suite of wood-cuts illustrative of the hoard of coins found in the ancient quarry on Barcombe-hill, have been engraved at the expense of my tried viiiand valued friend, John Fenwick, esq., of Newcastle-upon-Tyne; and to William Kell, esq., town-clerk of Gateshead, with whom I have traversed the Wall from sea to sea, and some portions of it repeatedly, I am indebted for the beautiful representation of the ancient Pons Ælii fronting the title-page. My former school-fellow, William Woodman, esq., town-clerk of Morpeth, besides otherwise assisting me, has caused surveys to be made for my use of not fewer than eighty of the strongholds of the Britons still existing on the heights north of the Wall. To trace the movements of the brave people whom the Romans drove to the more inaccessible portions of the island, would have been an interesting sequel to the account of the Roman Wall, but I found the undertaking too great for me.

It is with no ordinary emotion that I write the last lines of a work to the preparation of which I have devoted the leisure of three years. The Wall and I must now part company. Gladly would I have withheld the publication of this work for the Horatian period, and have spent the interval in renewed investigations; though even then I should have felt that I had fallen short of

other cares, however, now demand my attention.

Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1 January, 1851.

xxiv

PLATE I

A. Reid, Sc 117, Pilgrim S^t. Newcastle.
Plan
OF THE COURSE OF THE
ROMAN WALL
FROM THE
TYNE TO THE SOLWAY.

1

IN no country of the world are there such evident traces of the march of Roman legions as in Britain. In the northern parts of England especially, the footprints of the Empire are very distinct. Northumberland, as Wallis long ago remarked, is Roman ground. Every other monument in Britain yields in importance to The Wall. As this work, in grandeur of conception, is worthy of the Mistress of Nations, so, in durability of structure, is it the becoming offspring of the Eternal City.

A dead wall may seem to most a very unpromising subject. The stones are indeed inanimate, but he who has a head to think, and a heart 2to feel, will find them suggestive of bright ideas and melting sympathies; though dead themselves, they will be the cause of mental life in him. A large part of the knowledge which we possess of the early history of our country has been dug out of the ground. The spade and the plough of the rustic have often exposed documents, which have revealed the movements, as well as the modes of thought and feeling, of those who have slept in the dust for centuries. The casual wanderer by the relics of the Vallum and the Wall, may not succeed in culling facts that are new to the Historian, but he will probably get those vivid glances into Roman character, and acquire that personal interest in Roman story, which will give to the prosaic records of chroniclers, a reality, and a charm, which they did not before possess.

As a natural introduction to the subject, and as a means of preparing for some discussions which are to follow, it may be well briefly to trace the progress of the Roman arms in Britain, from the arrival of Cæsar on our shores, to the eventual abandonment of the island.

It is curious to observe, that the curtain of British history is raised by some of the earliest and greatest of profane writers. Herodotus, who wrote about the year B.C. 450, mentions the "Cassiterides, from which tin is procured"; Aristotle, about the year B.C. 340, expressly names the islands of Albion and Ierne; and Polybius, about the year B.C. 160, makes a distinct reference to the "Britannic Isles." To Julius Cæsar, however, we are indebted, 3for the first detailed account of Britain and its inhabitants. On 26 Aug. B.C. 55, that renowned conqueror landed in Britain, with a force of about ten thousand men. Both on that occasion, and on a second attempt, which, with a larger force, he made the year following, he met with a warm reception from the savage islanders. Tides and tempests seconded the efforts of the natives, and great Julius bade Britain a final farewell, without erecting any fortress in it, or leaving any troops to secure his conquest. Tacitus says, that he did not conquer Britain, but only shewed it to the Romans. Horace, calling upon Augustus to achieve the conquest, denominates it 'untouched'—

and Propertius, in the same spirit, describes it as ‘unconquered,’ invictus. There is, therefore, little exaggeration in the lines of Shakspere—

During the reigns of Augustus, Tiberius, and Caligula, Britain was unmolested by foreign invasion.

4At the invitation of a discontented Briton, Claudius resolved to attempt the reduction of the island. In the year of our Lord 43, he sent Aulus Plautius, with four legions and their auxiliaries, amounting in all to about fifty thousand men, into Britain. It was with difficulty that the troops could be induced to engage in the undertaking. They were unwilling, as Dion Cassius informs us, "to engage in a war, as it were, out of the world." The fears of the soldiery were not without foundation. The Britons, though their inferiors in discipline and arms, were not behind them in valour and spirit, whilst, in a knowledge of the country they had an important advantage.

The year following, Claudius personally engaged in the war. He advanced into the country, as far as Camelodunum (Colchester), and after some sanguinary contests, received the submission of the natives in that vicinity. The estimation in which Britain, even at this time, was held, was such, that the Senate, on learning what he had achieved, surnamed him Britannicus, granted him a triumph, and voted him annual games. The event was of sufficient importance, to be celebrated on the current coin of the day. Several gold and silver pieces have come down to our times, bearing on the reverse, a triumphal arch, on which is inscribed the words DE BRITANNis—Over the Britons. This is the first occasion on which allusion is made to Britain, on the coinage of Rome.

5On the return of Claudius, the supreme command again devolved upon his lieutenant, Aulus Plautius, who succeeded in bringing into complete subjection, the tribes occupying the southern portion of the island. In this expedition, Vespasian, afterwards emperor, acted as second in command to Plautius. Titus, the son of Vespasian, accompanied his father. Thus was it, in Britain, that the destroyers of Jerusalem were unconsciously trained for inflicting upon God’s chosen, but sinful people, the chastisements of His displeasure.

Ostorius Scapula, A.D. 50, succeeded to the command in Britain. The brave Silures, headed by Caractacus, rendered his progress slow and bloody. Ostorius at length sank under the harassing nature of his duties.

In the reign of Nero, Roman affairs in Britain received a severe check. The Iceni, led on by their enraged queen Boadicea, threw off the yoke and attacked the principal stations of the enemy. London, which was then an important commercial city, fell, upon the first assault, and Verulam (near the modern St. Albans) shared the same fate. The British warrior-queen sullied the splendour of her exploits by her cruelty; seventy thousand Romans, or adherents of the government of Rome, fell under her hands. Suetonius, the Roman governor, collecting his forces, gave battle to the queen and routed her. A frightful carnage ensued; of the amazing number of two hundred and thirty thousand men of which the British forces are said to have consisted, not less than eighty thousand fell.

6During the remainder of the reign of Nero, and the short rule of his three successors, Galba, Otho, and Vitellius, no advance was made in the conquest of Britain. In the strifes of the rival emperors, it was however destined to bear its part. Eight thousand soldiers were drafted from it to fight under the banners of Vitellius. Thus early, as Dr. Giles well observes, was this island, whose position in the bosom of the ocean indicates a peaceful policy, induced to bear the brunt of continental quarrels.

When Vespasian assumed the purple, a new era dawned upon the empire. This fact is well indicated upon a coin struck at this period. In the engraving, taken from a specimen found on the Wall, the emperor is observed raising a prostrate female from the ground (doubtless Rome), whilst Mars looks approvingly on; the inspiring motto “Roma Resurges”—Rome thou shalt rise again,—encircles the group.^[2] Vespasian appointed Petilius Cerealis his proprætor in Britain, who in five years succeeded 7in adding the Brigantes, a powerful tribe, to the subjects of the empire. Julius Frontinus was his successor, who, in the three years of his government, nearly subdued the warlike nation of the Silures.

One hundred and thirty-three years had now elapsed since the first descent of Cæsar, and thirty-five years, since Claudius had claimed the honour of conquering Britain, and yet but a fraction of the island was in subjection to Roman power. Nothing, as Dr. Giles well remarks, can more strongly shew the stubborn spirit of the natives, than their protracted resistance to the invaders. Battle after battle had been lost; but many of these tribes were still unsubdued, and several even undiscovered.

But the reputation of all preceding governors, was obscured by a greater man than they. Cnæus Julius Agricola had served in Britain under some preceding commanders; so that when he landed as governor in the year 78 he was prepared to act with all the promptitude which a knowledge of the country and the people could give him. During the eight years of his rule, he subjugated the remaining tribes of southern Britain, carried his arms into the northern section of the island, and drove, in successive campaigns, the natives before him, until at length, in the battle of the Grampians, he paralyzed their strength for a while. He circumnavigated the whole island, and planted the Roman standard upon the Orkneys. He built walls and fortresses in all places where they were required, and softened the fierceness of the barbarians, by fostering a taste for letters 8and the luxuries of the Eternal City. But it is necessary to trace the movements of Agricola, with some of the detail with which they are given in the pages of Tacitus.

The summer of A.D. 78 was far spent when he arrived; yet before going into winter quarters, he attacked and subdued the Ordovices, and brought the sacred isle of Anglesea a second time to obedience. The respite from arms which the following winter afforded, was employed by the general in the most useful and necessary purposes. Being well acquainted with the temper of the inhabitants of the province, and having learnt from the conduct and experience of others, that what is gained by force avails little, where oppressions and grievances follow, he determined to put an immediate end to all the causes of the war. He began by checking and regulating the affairs of his own household, correcting the abuses that had crept into the army, promoting impartially those who deserved it; while at the same time he redressed the grievances of the inhabitants, made an equitable distribution of the public burthens, and abolished all hurtful monopolies. By the prosecution of measures so salutary as these, six months had scarcely elapsed, when affairs in Britain were entirely changed, and assumed a bright and settled aspect.

His second campaign, that of the year 79, was probably occupied in subduing the ancient tenants of the Lower Isthmus of the island.

On the approach of summer, he re-assembled his army, and in advancing, failed not to excite a proper spirit of emulation among the troops, praising those who best observed their several duties, and checking such as were remiss. He himself chose the ground for encamping; the marshes, firths, and difficult places, he always examined first; and, allowing the enemy no respite, he continually harassed them with sudden 9incursions and ravages. Having alarmed and terrified them sufficiently, he next tried the effect of good usage and the allurements of peace. By this wise and prudent conduct, several communities, which till then had maintained their independence, submitted to the Romans, gave hostages, and suffered garrisons and fortresses to be placed among them. These strongholds he established with such judgment, as effectually secured all those parts of Britain which had then been visited by the Romans.

The following winter was employed in civilizing and polishing the rude inhabitants, who, living wild and dispersed over the country, were thence ever restless and easily instigated to war. At first, they were prevailed upon to associate more together, and for this end were instructed in the art of building houses, temples, and places of public resort. The sons of their chiefs were taught the liberal sciences; hence it was no unusual thing to see those who lately scorned the Roman language, become admirers of its eloquence. By degrees, the customs, manners, and dress of their conquerors, became familiar to them, they acquired a taste for a life of inactivity and ease, and at length were caught by the charms and incitements of luxury and vice. By such as judged of things from their external appearance only, all this was styled politeness and humanity, while, in reality, Agricola was effectually enslaving them, and imperceptibly rivetting their chains.

During the third year of his command, he pushed his conquests northwards, and carried his devastations as far as the mouth of the Tay (Taus.) Here, the enemy were struck with so much terror, that they durst not attack the Roman army, though it was greatly distressed by the severities of the climate. Agricola, in order to secure possession of these advanced conquests, again erected forts in the most commodious situations; and so judiciously was this done, that none of them were ever taken by force, abandoned through fear, or given up on terms of capitulation. Each fort defended itself, and, against any long siege, was constantly supplied with provisions for a year. Thus the several 10garrisons not only passed the winter in perfect security, but were likewise enabled, from these strongholds, to make frequent excursions against the enemy, who could not, as heretofore, repair the losses they had sustained in summer, by the successes usually attending their winter expeditions.

The forts here referred to, are probably those, which were drawn along the Upper Isthmus of the island, extending from the Firth of Forth to the Firth of Clyde, and which were afterwards connected by the wall of Antoninus Pius.

This is rendered apparent from what follows:—

Agricola employed the fourth summer (A.D. 81) in settling and further securing the country he had subdued. Here, had it been compatible with the bravery of the army, or if the glory of the Roman name would have permitted it, there had been found a boundary to their conquests in Britain; for the tide, entering from opposite seas, and flowing far into the country by the rivers Glotta and Bodotria, their heads are only separated by a narrow neck of land, which was occupied by garrisons. Of all on this side, the Romans were already masters, the enemy being driven, as it were, into another island.

It is not necessary to pursue the operations of Agricola further. In the seventh summer he defeated Galgacus on the flanks of the Grampians. The Roman power was now at its height. Agricola, probably from motives of jealousy, was recalled by the emperor Domitian, and as his successors were not men of the same vigour as himself, the barbarians were in a condition, at least to dispute the pretensions of their conquerors.

11In the year 120—thirty-five years after the recall of Agricola—affairs in Britain had fallen into such confusion, as to require the presence of the emperor Hadrian, who had assumed the imperial purple three years before. He did not attempt to regain the conquests which Agricola had made in Scotland, but prudently sought to make the line of forts, which that general had constructed in his second campaign, the limit of his empire. With this object in view, he drew a wall across the island—the Barrier of the Lower Isthmus. The testimony of Spartian, the historian of his reign, though brief, is decisive. Hadrian, says he, visited Britain, when he corrected many things, and first drew a wall (murus) eighty miles in length, to divide the barbarians from the Romans.

The arrival in Britain, of Hadrian, one of Rome’s greatest generals, was thought an event of sufficient importance to be commemorated in the currency of the empire. The large brass coin, here represented, was struck by decree of the Senate in the year 121.^[3]

12The plans and the prowess of the emperor were thought to have effectually secured those portions of the island, which it was prudent to retain in the grasp of Rome. This circumstance was announced to the world in another coin, bearing, on the reverse, a name destined to sound through regions Hadrian never knew—Britannia—and representing a female figure seated on a rock, having a spear in her left hand, and a shield by her side.^[4]

About twenty years after Hadrian’s expedition, Lollius Urbicus took the command in Britain. He was not satisfied with the limits which Hadrian had prudently assigned to the empire in Britain. Forcing back the Britons, he raised an earthen rampart across the isthmus between the Forth and the Clyde. 13Graham’s Dike, in Scotland, is the wall which was built by Lollius Urbicus. This is proved by the numerous sculptures which have, at different times, been discovered among its ruins.

The remaining history of the Romans, on the northern frontier of England, is fraught with disaster. The tide of war sometimes broke upon the northern, and sometimes on the southern boundary; but its roar and its devastation ceased not, until the Roman intruder had been driven altogether from the island—or, rather, until the successive strifes of Romans and Picts, Normans and Saxons, Border reavers and Scottish troopers, had been hushed, under the vigorous rule of the last of the Tudors. What Hadrian could not do, for the inhabitants of the North of England; what Severus failed to accomplish; what the great Alfred—the Norman oppressor—the Plantagenets—the despotic Henry VIII., attempted in vain, was accomplished under what John Knox calls ‘the monstrous regiment of a woman.’ Then, a ‘bright occidental star’ beamed upon these Northern Parts, and Law began to assert its supremacy.

Marcus Antoninus, who succeeded Antoninus Pius, was far from enjoying the tranquillity which the northern rampart was expected to give. He was obliged to carry on very troublesome wars with the Britons, and with much difficulty kept them in check.

In the reign of Commodus, who became sole emperor A.D. 180, the Britons, as we are told by Xiphiline, who abridged the history of Dion, broke through the wall which separated them from the 14Roman province, killed the general, ruined the army, and, in their ravages, carried everything before them. The wall referred to, was probably that of the Lower Isthmus; for, as Horsley conjectures, "the Caledonians had broken through the wall of Antoninus Pius not long after it was erected," and certain it is, "that we meet with no inscriptions on the wall of Antoninus but what belong to his reign."

The circumstance, that the loathsome and ferocious Commodus assumed the title of Britannicus, is no proof that success attended his arms. He was the first person who had ascribed to him the conjoined titles of Pius and Felix; but, as Lampridius satirically observes, "When he had appointed the adulterer of his mother a consul, he was called Pius; when he had slain Perennis, he was called Felix; and when the Britons were ready to choose another emperor, he was flattered with the title of Britannicus."

During the time that Septimius Severus, Pescennius Niger, and Clodius Albinus contended with each other for the empire, the northern Britons were held feebly in check. At length, A.D. 197, Severus prevailed, and became sole master of the world. Virius Lupus became his proprætor in Britain. Unable to resist the attacks of the Caledonians in the field, and having in vain attempted to purchase their submission with money, his lieutenant sent hasty letters to the emperor, entreating succour, and, if possible, his presence.

It is stated by Richard of Cirencester, that about this time the Picts, a tribe to which reference will 15presently be made, first landed in Scotland. The extraordinary successes, as Dr. Giles remarks, which the Caledonians gained, prior to the arrival of Severus, confirm the supposition that they received considerable reinforcements from abroad.

Severus came at the call of his lieutenant. Both Herodian and Xiphiline give us an account of the proceedings of this renowned emperor in Britain, and as their narratives are not only interesting in themselves, but important in the investigation of some subsequent questions, it will be well to avail ourselves of their statements. Herodian says—

Whilst Severus was under a mighty concern about the conduct of his two sons, he received letters from the governor of Britain, informing him of the insurrections and inroads of the barbarians, and the havoc they made far and near, and begging, either a greater force, or that the emperor would come over himself. Severus, for several reasons, was pleased with the news, and, notwithstanding his age and infirmity, resolved to go over in person. And though, by reason of the gout upon him, he was forced to be carried in a litter, yet, he entered upon the journey with a juvenile briskness and courage, and performed it with great expedition. He quickly crossed the sea, and as soon as he came upon the island, having gathered a very great force together, he made ready for war. The Britons, being alarmed and terrified, would fain have excused themselves, and treated about peace. But Severus, unwilling to lose his labour, or to miss the glory of being called Britannicus, dismissed their ambassadors, and carried on his military preparations. Particularly, he took care to make bridges or causeys through the marshes, that the soldiers might travel and fight upon dry ground.

16Herodian next gives a short description of the inhabitants, and says that—

Many parts of Britain were become fenny, by the frequent inundations of the sea. The natives swim through those fens, or run through them up to the waist in mud; for, the greatest part of their bodies being naked, they regard not the dirt. They wear iron about their necks and bellies, esteeming this as fine and rich an ornament as others do gold. They make upon their bodies the figures of divers animals, and use no clothing, that they may be exposed to view. They are a very bloody and warlike people, using a little shield or target, and a spear. Their sword hangs on their naked bodies. They know not the use of a breastplate and helmet, and imagine these would be an impediment to them in passing the fens. The air is always thick with the vapours that ascend from these marshes.

The historian proceeds with his story—

Severus provided everything which might be of service to his own people, and distress the enemy. And when all things were in sufficient readiness, he left Geta, in that part of the island which was subject to the Romans, to administer justice and manage civil affairs, appointing some elderly friends to be his assistants. His son Antoninus, better known by the name of Caracalla, he took with him when he marched against the barbarians. The Roman army passing the rivers and trenches, which were the boundaries of the empire, skirmished often in a tumultuous manner with the barbarians, and as often put them to flight. But it was easy for them to escape and to hide themselves in the woods and fens, being well acquainted with the country, whereas the Romans laboured under the opposite disadvantages. By these means the war was prolonged. Severus, being old and infirm, and confined at home, would have committed the management of the war to his son Antoninus. But he, neglecting the barbarians, endeavoured to gain the Roman army, with a view to the empire. During his father’s lingering sickness he endeavoured 17to prevail with the physicians and servants to despatch him. At last Severus died, worn out with sorrow, more than disease.

It will be observed, that in this detailed account of the proceedings of Severus in Britain, not the least allusion is made to the construction of a wall.

Dion Cassius was contemporary with Severus. That portion of his work which narrates the transactions of this emperor in Britain, is unfortunately lost, but an epitome of it, prepared by Xiphiline, remains. From this abridgment the following extracts are taken.

Severus, observing that his two sons were abandoned to their pleasures, and that the soldiers neglected their exercises, undertook an expedition against Britain, though he was persuaded, from his horoscope, that he never should return from thence to Italy. Nor did he ever return from this expedition, but died three years after he first set out from Rome. He got a prodigious mass of riches in Britain. The two most considerable bodies of the people in that island, and to which almost all the rest relate, are the Caledonians and the Mæatæ. The latter dwell near the barrier wall which separates the island into two parts; the others live beyond them. Both of them inhabit barren uncultivated mountains, or desert marshy plains, where they have neither walls nor towns, nor manured lands, but feed upon the milk of their flocks, upon what they get by hunting, and some wild fruits.

The mode in which he speaks of the Wall, in this passage, implies its existence at the time of the arrival of Severus. The historian, after giving an interesting account of the manners of the inhabitants, proceeds:—

We are masters of little less than half the island. Severus, having undertaken to reduce the whole under his subjection, 18entered into Caledonia, where he had endless fatigues to sustain, forests to cut down, mountains to level, morasses to dry up, and bridges to build. He had no battle to fight, and saw no enemies in a body; instead of appearing, they exposed their flocks of sheep and oxen, with design to surprise our soldiers that should straggle from the army for the sake of plunder. The waters, too, extremely incommoded our troops, insomuch that some of our soldiers being able to march no farther, begged of their companions to kill them, that they might not fall alive into their enemies’ hands. In a word, Severus lost fifty thousand men there, and yet quitted not his enterprise. He went to the extremity of the island, where he observed very exactly the course of the sun in those parts, and the length of the days and nights both in summer and winter. He was carried all over the island in a close chair, by reason of his infirmities, and made a treaty with the inhabitants, by which he obliged them to relinquish part of their country to him.

The peace thus purchased, by the cession of the northern portion of the island, was badly observed. The inhabitants having taken up arms, contrary to the faith of treaties, Severus commanded his soldiers to enter their country, and to put all they met to the sword. He is said to have signified his savage intention, by quoting, from Homer, the lines which Cowper thus translates:

But in the midst of his enterprise he was taken off by a distemper, to which, it was said, Antoninus, by his undutiful conduct, had very much contributed. He died at York, Feb. 4th, A.D. 211.

19

The coins of Severus record his victories. One of them is represented beneath. On the obverse is the laureated head of the ferocious African—on the reverse are two winged victories, attaching a buckler to a palm tree, at the foot of which two captives mournfully sit. The legend, VICTORIAE BRITTANNICAE, declares who these captives are. Times are changed! wide as ocean rolls, the burden of Britannia’s song exultingly declares, 'Britons never will be slaves,'—and, better still, Britain has long been actively engaged in rescuing from chains the sable sons of that continent in which Severus first drew breath.

Another curious record of the wars of Severus is found in the poems of Ossian. The Caracul, son of the ‘King of the World,’ in the dramatic piece ‘Comala,’ is supposed to be Caracalla.

Dersagrena. These are the signs of Fingal’s death. The King of shields is fallen! and Caracul prevails.

Comala. Ruin overtake thee, THOU KING OF THE WORLD! Few be thy steps to the grave; and let one virgin mourn thee!

Melicoma. What sound is that on Ardven? Who comes like the strength of rivers, when their crowded waters glitter to the moon?

20Comala. Who is it but the foe of Comala, THE SON OF THE KING OF THE WORLD! Ghost of Fingal! do thou from thy cloud, direct Comala’s bow....

Fingal. Raise ye bards, the song! Caracul has fled from our arms along the fields of his pride.

After the death of Severus, a long period elapsed, in which the Roman historians observe a profound silence respecting the affairs of Britain. Local records and native historians supply but feebly the deficiency. During the reign of Gallienus, which extended from A.D. 260 to 268, a large number of usurpers arose, who are commonly denominated the Thirty Tyrants. Of these Lollianus, Victorianus, Postumus, the two Tetrici, and Marius, are supposed to have assumed the sovereignty in this island; for their coins have been dug up more abundantly here than elsewhere.

Diocletian commenced his reign in the year 284. Though he was a man of energy and ability, the care of a crumbling empire was too much for him, and he divided his honours and anxieties with Maximian. Increasing perplexities a few years afterwards induced the emperors to appoint two Cæsars. Diocletian chose Galerius Maximianus, and Maximian nominated Constantius Chlorus. To Constantius was assigned the charge of Britain, where he eventually found a grave. He was the father of Constantine the Great.

During a portion of the united reign of Diocletian and Maximian, Britain assumed an independent position. In order to repress, in the northern seas, the 21ravages of the Franks and Saxons, who about this period began to demand a place in the world’s history, Carausius was appointed to the command of ‘the channel fleet.’ Gesoriacum, the modern Boulogne, was his place of rendezvous. Carausius, who was an expert seaman, exerted himself, at first, with extraordinary success, against the pirates. Afterwards, it was observed that he consulted his own interest, rather than the public service. The emperors resolved upon his destruction. Carausius, stimulated by self-preservation, as well as ambition, entered into an alliance with his former foes, the Franks and Saxons, and declared himself emperor of Britain. He was favourably received by the natives of the island, and for seven years wielded the sovereignty of his empire with vigour and ability. He repelled the Mæatæ and the Caledonians, and having subdued these tribes, attached them to his interest. Nothing, observes Mr. Thackeray, can more fully prove the maritime strength and resources of Great Britain, under an able ruler, than the fact, that Carausius for seven years bade defiance to the Roman power; and at the end of that time fell, not overcome by the imperial forces, but by private treachery. Never before, nor until several hundred years after this period, was the country firmly united under the government of one sovereign.

Constantius was preparing to invade Britain with a fleet of a thousand ships, when Carausius was murdered by Allectus, whom he had trusted as his 22dearest friend. For about three years the assassin held, though with a less firm grasp, the power formerly possessed by his victim.

A very numerous suite of coins commemorates the successes of Carausius, and vindicates his claim to a share in the empire of the world. Two coins are represented here. On the reverse of one is a galley, which indicates the chief source of his strength, and on the reverse of the other is a lion with a thunderbolt in its mouth, significative, not only of the bold bearing which the ancient sea-king assumed, but of that which his successors in modern times have maintained.

Carausius, according to Macpherson, is the Caros of Ossian. The following extract, upon this supposition, contains a remarkable allusion to the Wall.

Who comes towards my son, with the murmur of a song! His staff is in his hand, his grey hair loose on the wind. Surly joy lightens his face. He often looks back to Caros.

It is Ryno of Songs, he that went to view the foe. "What does Caros, King of ships?" said the son of the now mournful Ossian; "spreads he the wings of his pride,^[5] bard of the times of old?"

"He spreads them, Oscar," replied the bard, "but it is behind his GATHERED HEAP. He looks over his STONES with fear. He beholds thee terrible, as the ghost of night, that rolls the wave to his ships!"

23It would be improper to leave the reign of Diocletian without remarking, that under it, the church of Christ endured the last and most terrible of the ten persecutions, which pagan Rome inflicted upon the followers of the cross. Britain did not escape. Alban and many others, as Gildas and Bede inform us, were martyrs for the faith.

On the withdrawal, in the year 305, of Diocletian and Maximian from the cares of empire, Galerius and Constantius became the rulers of the world.

Constantine, afterwards surnamed the Great, was proclaimed emperor, on the death of his father Constantius, at York. After a protracted struggle with several rivals, he became, A.D. 313, sole possessor of the imperial power. He was the first Christian Emperor, and, in token of his faith, inscribed the monogram of the Redeemer upon his banner, and his coin. The circumstances under which he adopted this step are thus detailed—

Constantine was in Gaul, and having heard of the opposition of his rival, who was in possession of Rome, he immediately crossed the Alps, and proceeded against him. When near Verona, on his march, and meditating the difficulties of his situation, he was roused from deep thought by a bright light, which suddenly illumined the sky, and, looking up, he saw the sun, which was in its meridian, surmounted by a cross of fire, and beneath it this inscription, τουτῳ νικα—"IN THIS CONQUER." He immediately adopted the cross as his ensign, and formed on the spot the celebrated Labarum, or Christian standard, which was ever after substituted for the Roman eagle. This, as Eusebius describes it, was a spear crossed by an arrow, on which was suspended a velum, having inscribed on it the monogram, ☧ formed by the Greek letters 24Chi and Rho, the initials of the name of Christ. Under this he marched forward, and rapidly triumphed over all his enemies; and, struck with the preternatural warning he had received, and its consequences, he now publicly embraced the doctrines of that religion under whose banner he had conquered.^[6]

The monogram is well displayed on the reverse of a coin of Magnentius,^[7] which is here represented. The Alpha and Omega, which accompany the symbol, indicate the faith of the emperor in the divinity of Christ—‘the beginning and the ending, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.’

Constantine removed the imperial seat from Rome to Constantinople.

During the life-time of Constantine, Britain partook of the civil tranquillity of the rest of the world; but in the reign of his immediate successors, the Picts and Scots renewed their incursions into the lower province. This was not the only evil which Roman Britain had to endure. Magnentius, a native of the isle, entered into a contest with Constantius II. for the empire of the world, and in support of his claims, collected an army, (chiefly drawn from Britain) with which he three times met his foe. On the death of Magnentius, by his own hands, in the year 353, his successful rival inflicted 25a bloody revenge upon the Britons for having supported their countryman: meanwhile the Picts and Scots harassed them, on the north, with redoubled fury.

Little is recorded of Britain in the reign of Julian the Apostate. In the time of Jovian his successor, the Picts, Saxons, and Scots, vexed it by increasing calamities. Valentinian obtained the purple A.D. 364, when the state of the country was so alarming as to require immediate attention. Even London seems to have been menaced by the enemy, if it was not actually in their hands. Theodosius, the ablest general of his time, went to the assistance of the Britons, drove the enemy before him, and recovered the provincial cities and forts. He then repaired the cities and prætenturæ and erected some new forts. Horsley thinks that the Wall in the North of England, and the stations upon it, are the prætenturæ referred to.

Valentinian, having, in 367, united with himself in the government of the empire, Gratian his son, died, A.D. 375. Six days afterwards, his second son, Valentinian II. was proclaimed his successor. The two brothers reigned together, Theodosius the Great presiding at the same time in the Eastern provinces, until Gratian was killed A.D. 383. Four years afterwards, Valentinian was robbed of the purple by Maximus, but applied for assistance to his eastern colleague, Theodosius, and once more entered Rome with imperial dignity. The sovereignty of Britain, Gaul, and Spain was, however, still conceded, for the present, to Maximus, who adopted Treves as the seat of his government.

26In this struggle Britain suffered severely. Maximus, having served in the island under the elder Theodosius, was a favourite with the Romanized Britons. They flocked to his standard in such numbers that the island seemed drained of its youth. More than a hundred thousand persons are said to have accompanied him from Britain to the continent.

The loss of the native soldiery was severely felt in the North of England, where the ruthless barbarians renewed their ravages without molestation. The whole island, in the querulous language of its first historian, Gildas,^[8] "Deprived of all her armed soldiers and military bands, was left to her cruel tyrants, deprived of the assistance of all her youth who went with Maximus, and ignorant of the art of war, she groaned in amazement for many years under the cruelty of the Picts and Scots."

Theodosius died A.D. 395. He left his dominions to his sons Arcadius and Honorius, who permanently divided them into the empires of the East and West. In the early part of the reign of Honorius, the province of Britain, by the prudence of the emperor’s 27minister Stilicho, had comparative rest from the incursions of the enemy. But when the Gothic war diverted the attention of the government from so remote a province, and the legions of Britain were called away to defend the seat of the empire from the attacks of Alaric, the troubles which before distracted the province, were again called into fearful operation. A spirit of disaffection and revolt increased the evil. Marcus and Gratian were successively declared emperors by the islanders, but were both speedily murdered. Constantine was next raised to the sovereignty, an honour for which he was indebted to his name, not his rank or fitness for the office. Instead of endeavouring to secure the peace of Britain, he transported his army to Gaul and made a successful stand against Honorius. He was assassinated in the year 411.

Whilst Honorius was struggling with the usurper Constantine, he wrote letters to the cities of Britain, conceding the independence of the island, and urging them to adopt measures for their own government and protection. The gift of liberty was to them a fatal boon. Their implacable enemies, finding that the military science of the Romans no longer protected the south, rushed forth to invade the undefended province. The natives, in despair, turned to the still powerful name of Rome, and dispatched messengers to entreat help from the emperor.—But let Gildas ‘the wise,’ depict the closing scene of ancient Britain’s history—

The Britons, impatient at the assaults of their enemies, send ambassadors to Rome, entreating, in piteous terms, the 28assistance of an armed band to protect them. A legion is immediately sent, provided sufficiently with arms. When they had crossed over the sea, and landed, they came at once to close conflict with their enemies, and slew great numbers of them. All of them were driven beyond the borders, and the humiliated natives rescued from the bloody slavery which awaited them. By the advice of their protectors, they now built a wall across the island, from one sea to the other, which, being manned with a proper force, might be a terror to the foes whom it was intended to repel, and a protection to their friends whom it covered. But this wall being made of turf, instead of stone, was of no use to that foolish people, who had no head to guide them.

The Roman legion had no sooner returned home in joy and triumph, than their former foes, like hungry and ravening wolves, rushing with greedy jaws upon the fold, which is left without a shepherd, are wafted, both by the strength of oarsmen and the blowing wind, break through the boundaries, and spread slaughter on every side.

And now again they send suppliant ambassadors, with their garments rent, and their heads covered with ashes, imploring assistance from the Romans, like timorous chickens crowding under the protecting wings of their parents. Upon this, the Romans, moved with compassion, send forward, like eagles in their flight, their bands of cavalry and mariners, and planting their terrible swords upon the shoulders of their enemies, mow them down like leaves which fall at their destined period. Having driven their enemies beyond the sea, the Romans left the country, giving them notice, that they could no longer be harassed by such laborious expeditions, but that the islanders, inuring themselves to warlike weapons, should valiantly protect their country, their property, their wives, and children; that they should not suffer their hands to be tied behind their backs, by a nation, which, unless they were enervated by idleness and sloth, was not more powerful than themselves, but that they should arm those hands with buckler, sword, and spear, ready for the field of battle; and, because they thought this also of advantage to the people they were about to leave, 29they, with the help of the miserable natives, built a wall, different from the former, by public and private contributions, and of the same structure as walls generally are, extending in a straight line from sea to sea, between some cities, which, from fear of their enemies, had then by chance been built.

No sooner were they gone, than the Picts and Scots, like worms, which in the heat of mid-day, come forth from their holes, hastily land from their canoes, differing one from another in manners, but inspired with the same avidity for blood, and all, more eager to shroud their villainous faces in bushy hair, than to cover with decent clothing those parts of their body which required it. Moreover, having heard of the departure of our friends, and their resolution never to return, they seized, with greater boldness than before, on all the country towards the extreme north, as far as the Wall. To oppose them, there was placed on the heights, a garrison, equally slow to fight, and ill adapted to run away, a useless and panic-struck company, which slumbered away days and nights on their unprofitable watch. Meanwhile the hooked weapons of their enemies were not idle, and our wretched countrymen were dragged from the Wall, and dashed against the ground. Such premature death, however, painful as it was, saved them from seeing the miserable sufferings of their brothers and children. But why should I say more? They left their cities, abandoned the protection of the Wall, and dispersed themselves in flight more desperately than before.

Whilst the enemy butchered them like sheep, they increased their own miseries by domestic feuds—

They turned their arms upon each other, and for the sake of a little sustenance, imbrued their hands in the blood of their fellow countrymen.

Again, in their distress, they applied to the Romans. In the address, entitled ‘The Groans of the Britons,’ our author represents them as saying:—

The barbarians drive us to the sea, the sea throws us back on the barbarians: thus two modes of death await us, we are either slain or drowned.

30The Romans could not assist them, and, unwilling to assist themselves, they sought and obtained the help of those ‘wolves’, as Gildas calls them, the fierce and impious Saxons. The result is known to all—Celtic Britain became Saxon England—and England, with all its faults,—has it not been a blessing to the world?

The picture drawn by Gildas of the misery of the southern Britons, and of the ravages of the northern barbarians, is doubtless correct; but, in ascribing the erection of the earthen rampart, and the stone wall of the Lower Barrier to the period of the departure of the Romans, he probably leans upon the erring traditions of his own times. His statement is devoid of probability. A work so bold in its design, so skilfully planned, and involving so much labour in its execution, cannot have been the result of the expiring energies of Rome in Britain. Its very ruins bespeak the masculine vigour of Rome’s maturity.

Besides, if we receive the testimony of Gildas upon this point, we must either suppose that several walls have been drawn across the island, or we must reject the assertions of those classical writers who ascribe the works to Hadrian or Severus. The former supposition cannot be maintained, for we meet with no traces of more than one earthen vallum, and one stone wall, in the region in question; and with reference to the latter alternative, it is more likely that Gildas should err in his dates, than that Dion Cassius, and Herodian, and Spartian, should 31describe, as existing in their day, that which was not to be for centuries.

Another question will arise in the mind of the thoughtful reader;—how was it that the Britons suffered themselves to become so easy a prey to the Picts and Scots? Roman civilization could not, greatly at least, have enervated them. The cultivation of the liberal arts removes from the minds and manners of men their unsightly asperities, but it brings out in bolder relief their more valuable qualities. The vices of the Romans, when grafted upon the previously polluted life of the Britons, would indeed have a tendency to unman them, but why should it have sunk them beneath the level of the Romans themselves? We do not find, moreover, that the Britons who fought in foreign parts were deficient in courage.

An acquaintance with Roman discipline, a knowledge of the Roman art of war, ought to have given them great advantages over their less civilized neighbours on the north of the Wall, and enabled them easily to have retained that great structure as a boundary fence.^[9] It is true that great numbers of their youth had from time to time been drafted off by successive emperors, to engage in foreign quarrels, 32and that thus the land was deprived of its natural defenders. This accounts for a part of their distress, but not all. In a rude state of society, every man is a soldier, and it was an essential part of the policy of Rome to inure every citizen to the practice of arms. There surely would be men enough left to defend their homes, their liberties, and lives! Besides, half a century elapsed between the time when the Romans began to leave Britain to its own resources, and their final refusal of all succour. There was thus time enough to have nurtured a whole generation of veterans; and there was time enough—if the energy had been in them—to have shaken off those feelings of dependence upon Rome, which the presence of their conquerors had fostered. The opportunity, however, was lost; they entreated, and wept, and groaned—and passed off the stage of this world’s history. How are we adequately to account for this circumstance? |THE GENEALOGY OF THE PICTS AND SCOTS.|This is not the place to discuss the genealogy of the Picts, but if we adopt the theory of their Germanic origin,^[10] the enigma, if not made quite plain, will appear 33less difficult than before. However great the valour, and however estimable the other qualities of the Celtic race, they did not possess the patience, the perseverance, the capacity for united action, and the 34power of command, which characterized the Teutonic tribes; hence they would fall before them in any contest which required sustained exertion. |THE TEUTONES SUPPLANT THE CELTS.|Gibbon’s estimate of the character of the ancient Britons is probably correct—‘The various tribes possessed valour without conduct, and the love of freedom without the spirit of union. They took up arms with savage fierceness, they laid them down, or turned them against each other with wild inconstancy; and, while they fought singly, they were successively subdued.’

The Picts, without the artificial advantages which the Romanized Britons possessed, doubtless had the usual characteristics of the Gothic tribes. By these they were enabled, in defiance of the desultory attempts of the previous occupants of the soil, to ravage the land, until, through the efforts of Vortigern, 35they were confronted with foes of their own kith and kin. In our sister island, we unhappily witness, though in a subdued form, much of that animosity of race which led to the devastation and bloodshed that Gildas deplores. When will Saxon and Celt lay aside their differences, and unite for the common weal of Britain! Why should they regard each other with mutual suspicion? Why should the one triumph, and the other sink into hopeless, helpless despair? Creation groans—a prostrate world looks to united Britain and its offshoots, for that balm which may heal its woes—let it, strong in the confidence and love of its various constituent parts, faithfully fulfil its duty!

On reviewing this sketch of the proceedings of Rome, in relation to this distant portion of her great empire, the reader will perhaps be struck with the amount of attention which the Imperial City bestowed upon it.

The classic authors speak most disparagingly of the land, and its inhabitants—

—and yet Britain, which, according to these authorities, 36scarcely formed a portion of the habitable earth, which was perpetually lashed by a stormy ocean, and whose inhabitants, unlike many barbaric tribes, were inhospitable to strangers, was the resort, not only of numerous legionary and auxiliary troops, but of very many of the emperors themselves. Great Julius came. Claudius fought upon our soil. Vespasian entered into conflict thirty-two times with the southern Britons. Titus shared in his toils and triumphs. Hadrian was here, and left the impress of his mighty mind behind him. Septimius Severus ended his days in Britain; his sons Geta and Caracalla first assumed the purple in Britain. The emperor Maximinus breathed, sixteen centuries ago, the sea-borne gales of Tynemouth. Britain, with its seas, was the chief scene of the exploits of the emperor Carausius. Allectus reigned three years over it. Constantius was long in the island, and his son, Constantine the Great is said to have first drawn breath upon our soil. Both Constans and Magnentius were here. Theodosius the Emperor fought under his father in Britain. Maximus, who had previously married a British lady, was invested by his soldiers with the purple at York—How comes it that so many of those who boasted of the mastery of this wide world, were induced personally to visit this little isle?—how was it, but that

It seems as though there was an affinity between England and Earth’s rulers—and that thus early it was 37pointed out as the spot in which, of all others, save one—Jerusalem—mankind had the greatest interest.

The importance of Britain, in the estimation of the Romans, is further shewn by the fact, that, of the different coins struck by the imperial government in the short period extending from the reign of Claudius to that of Caracalla, at least fifty-six relate to this country. Of these, two were struck in the reign of Claudius, five in that of Hadrian, seventeen bear the impress of Antonine, ten of Severus, twelve of Caracalla, and ten of his brother Geta.^[11]

Whilst however we maintain that Rome was led to Britain by the impulse of a power of which she was not conscious, and whilst we willingly acknowledge that the conquest of Britain by the Romans was the first of that series of signal providential arrangements, by which, from the dawn of history to the present hour, ‘the Governor among the nations’ has prepared this island for performing that important part in the drama of history, which she now sustains,—the enquiry yet remains, by what motive were the conquerors more immediately impelled to settle in so remote an island? Such toils would not have been endured, such sacrifices would not have been made, victories over tribes so savage would not thus have been gloried in, except the 38question ‘cui bono?’ could have been satisfactorily answered. ‘I confess,’ says Horsley, 'that when I view some part of the country in the north of England, where the Romans had their military ways and stations, that question naturally arises, which has been often proposed: What could move them to march so far to conquer such a country? It appears wild and desolate enough at present, but must have been more so at that time, from the accounts the Roman historians have given us of it. I shall leave the Caledonian Galgacus, or Tacitus for him, to return the answer—If the enemy was rich, their covetousness moved them; if poor, their ambition. And when they added further desolation to a desolate country, this was their peace.' Ambition was doubtless the leading motive. From the earliest periods of Roman history we find her bent upon conquest. Incessant wars engendered a thirst for victory, and military glory became the ruling passion of the people. The wide grasp of their ambition gave to the features of Roman character harder, but grander lineaments than those which their more polished neighbours of Greece possessed. Flattered, as the lords of the world, by their favourite poets and historians, they gloried in their proud pre-eminence, and thought that they were but fulfilling their destiny in asserting a claim to universal dominion. Candidates for public favour knew well that to fan the popular passion was the readiest way to succeed in their aims. None understood this better than Julius Cæsar; and the later emperors, who possessed not the power to strike 39an energetic blow, found it necessary to maintain the show at least of conquest and of triumph.

Less worthy inducements were, however, not wanting. There are few evils in the fibres of whose roots the love of money will not be found. Gold was another secret but powerful cause of the hardships which the Romans themselves underwent, and of the countless ills which they mercilessly inflicted upon the miserable islanders. The British chiefs in general appear to have had considerable riches among them. Cæsar, according to Strabo, acquired a large booty in his two descents upon our shore. Prasutagus, the king of the Iceni, died possessed of very great wealth. To a few states in the south, and within a few years after their first subjection, the philosophical Seneca lent more than four hundred and eighty thousand pounds of our money upon good security, and at exorbitant interest.^[12] Severus got a prodigious mass of riches in this land. Gold is not now an article of mineral wealth in Britain. We are not from this to infer that it was not so when it was first invaded. The precious metal is not met with in veins or strata, but is diffused over the alluvial soil, or mixed with the sand of rivers in grains or lumps. When the commercial value of the glittering dust is discovered, it is speedily picked up, and a country, once rich in it, becomes, in the course of ages, impoverished. The number of massive golden torques and armillæ of the 40ancient Britons, which even yet are from time to time being brought to light, favours the idea that the metal was, in ancient days, tolerably abundant. Whatever the secret motives, Cæsar came and conquered—

In passing from the contemplation of the Roman occupation of Britain to our examination of the remains of the chief monument of imperial power which time has left us, the mind will experience a great transition. In the Wall, we have evident traces of the might of Rome, but it is the might of a giant laid prostrate—

Centuries have elapsed since the vast fabric was upreared, but they have been centuries rife with the fate of empires.

The most ardent lover of the olden time cannot but startle, as he treads the deserted streets, or enters the unbarred portals of Borcovicus, and other cities of the Wall, at the thought that the Mistress of Nations is now no more,^[13] and that the Eternal City is buried in her own debris. The broken column, the prostrate altar, ever and anon obtrude the fact upon him. Another empire has sprung into being of which Rome dreamt not. In a sense different 41from that which Virgil intended, the words in his third Georgic are peculiarly striking—

In that island, where, in Roman days, the painted savage shared the forest with the beast of prey—a lady sits upon her throne of state, wielding a sceptre more potent than Julius or Hadrian ever grasped! Her empire is threefold that of Rome in the hour of its prime. But power is not her brightest diadem. The holiness of the domestic circle irradiates her. Literature, and all the arts of peace, flourish under her sway. Her people bless her.

Will Britain always thus occupy so prominent a position in the scene of this world’s history?

Is the fate of Persia, Macedon, and Rome, never to be hers? ‘O Thou, that didst build up this Britannic empire to a glorious and enviable height, with all her daughter islands about her; stay us in this felicity!’ What would Britain at this moment be without the Bible? Let the seven-hilled city say! If 42Britain herself obey the inspired word, and give it to the nations, then she needs not fear the shock of empires. If not, at a future day the native of a distant isle, or obscure nation, then newly risen into greatness, moralizing over the reedy docks and grass-grown streets of London, may exclaim—How true the words of their own Milton! 'But if ... as you have been valiant in war, you should grow debauched in peace, you that have had such visible demonstrations of the goodness of God to yourselves, and his wrath against your enemies ... you will find that God’s displeasure against you, will be greater than it has been against your adversaries, greater than his grace and favour has been to yourselves, which you have had larger experience of than any other nation under heaven.'

Base of Column at Borcovicus.

43

Numerous are the appellations which the Great Barrier of the Lower Isthmus has obtained. 'It was called by ancient writers vallum barbaricum, prætentura and clusura; by Dion διατειχισμα; by Herodian χωμα; by Antoninus and others vallum; by some of the Latin historians murus; by the English the Picts’-wall, or the WALL; and by the Britons gual Sever, gal Sever, and mur Sever. The names prætentura and clusura are given to it upon account of its being stretched out against, and excluding the enemy.' To the names thus enumerated by Camden, 44must be added, the Thirl Wall, the Kepe Wall, and that by which it is best known at present, the Roman Wall.

This great fortification consists of three parts.

I. A Stone Wall, strengthened by a ditch on its northern side.

II. A Turf Wall or Vallum, to the south of the stone wall.

III. Stations, Castles, Watch-towers, and Roads, for the accommodation of the soldiery who manned the Barrier, and for the transmission of military stores. These lie, for the most part, between the stone wall and the earthen rampart.

The whole of the works proceed from one side of the island to the other in a nearly direct line, and in comparatively close companionship. The stone wall and earthen rampart are generally within sixty or seventy yards of each other.^[14] The distance between them, however, varies according to the nature of the country. Sometimes they are so close as barely to admit of the passage of the military way between them, whilst, in one or two instances, they are upwards of half-a-mile apart. It is in the high grounds of the central region that they are most widely separated. Midway between the seas, the country attains a considerable elevation; here the stone wall seeks the highest ridges, but the vallum, forsaking for a while its usual companion, runs along the adjacent 45valley. Both works are, however, so arranged as to afford each other the greatest amount of support which the nature of the country allows.

PLATE II.

PLAN of the BARRIER between CILURNUM and MAGNA AFTER HORSLEY.

A PLAN of CILURNUM after WARBURTON with part of the PLAN of the STONE WALL and VALLUM.
Shewing how they are connected at the Stations, and by their mutual relation to one another must have been one entire united Defence or Fortification.

Reid Litho. 117 Pilgrim Street Newcastle

The stone wall extends from Wall’s-end on the Tyne, to Bowness on the Solway, a space which Horsley estimates at sixty-eight miles and three furlongs—the turf wall falls short of this distance by about three miles at each end, terminating at Newcastle on the east side, and at Drumburgh on the west.

The Map of the Wall, the more detailed Plans of several parts of it in Plate II, and the Sections given in a subsequent page, will afford a pretty correct idea of the general arrangement of the works.

Most writers who have treated of the Roman remains in Britain, have considered that the two lines of fortification are the works of different periods. The earth-wall, or Vallum, has generally been ascribed to Hadrian, but the stone wall, or Murus, to Septimius Severus. This is the opinion of Horsley, whose judgment is always deserving of the highest consideration. Deferring to a subsequent period the discussion of this question, it will be convenient, meanwhile, to speak of the works as being but different parts of one great engineering scheme.

The most striking feature in the plan, both of the Murus and the Vallum, is the determinate manner in which they pursue their straight-forward course. The Vallum makes fewer deviations from a right line than the stone Wall; but as the Wall traverses higher ground, this remarkable tendency is more easily detected in it than in the other. Shooting over the country, 46in its onward course, it only swerves from a straight line to take in its route the boldest elevations. So far from declining a hill, it uniformly selects it. For nineteen miles out of Newcastle, the road to Carlisle runs upon the foundation of the Wall, and during the summer months its dusty surface contrasts well with the surrounding verdure. Often will the traveller, after attaining some of the steep acclivities of his path, observe the road stretching for miles in an undeviating course to the east and the west of him, resembling, as Hutton expresses it, a white ribbon on a green ground. But if it never moves from a right line, except to occupy the highest points, it never fails to seize them, as they occur, no matter how often it is compelled, with this view, to change its direction. It never bends in a curve, but always at an angle. Hence, along the craggy precipices between Sewingshields and Thirlwall, it is obliged to pursue a remarkably zig-zag course; for it takes in its range, with the utmost pertinacity, every projecting rock.

This mode of proceeding involves another peculiarity. It is compelled to accommodate itself to the depressions of the mountainous region over which it passes. Without flinching, it sinks into the ‘gap,’ or pass, which ever and anon occurs, and, having crossed the narrow valley, ascends unfalteringly the steep acclivity on the other side. The antiquary, in following it into these ravines, is often compelled to step with the utmost caution, and in clambering up the opposite ascent, he is as frequently 47constrained to pause for breath. After crossing the river Irthing, in Cumberland, the Wall is opposed in its course westward by a precipice of upwards of one hundred feet in height. It cannot now be ascertained, whether or not the Wall was taken up the edge of this cliff, for the stratum is of a soft and yielding nature, and is continually being removed by the river below. Certain, however, it is, that the Wall, accompanied by its ditch, is still to be seen on the very brink of its summit. If it did not climb this steep, it is the only one which, in the course of the line from sea to sea, it refused—and if it did ascend it, it would more nearly resemble a leaning tower than a barrier wall.

In no part of its course is the Wall entirely perfect, and therefore it is difficult to ascertain what its original height has been. Bede, whose cherished home was the monastery of Jarrow, anciently part of the parish of Wall’s-end, is the earliest author who gives its dimensions. He says—‘It is eight feet in breadth, and twelve in height, in a straight line from east to west, as is still visible to beholders.’ Subsequent writers assign to it a greater elevation. It is not unlikely that the venerable monk, who was no traveller, describes it as it existed in his own neighbourhood; and we can readily conceive that in a flat country, and upon the border of a navigable river, it would, even then, have suffered more from the hand of the spoiler than in the wilder regions of the West.

In a letter written by Sir Christopher Ridley, is 48an account of the Wall as it stood about the year 1572. The writer says—

Rycht worschipfull, where as you spake unto me for a certayn knowledge of one wall builded betwyxt the Brittons and Pightes (which we call the Kepe Wall) builded by the Pightes, sure theyr is one. The length whereof is about, I think, almost a C myles, bilded alwayis whar they cold upon the hyghtes, whereon about the greatest cragis was, and whare theyr was no cragis or hy placis theyr was a great stank cast of other syd, the bredth iij yardis, the hyght remanith in sum placis yet vij yardis, it goith from Bowlness in Cu'berland viij myles beyond Carlell upon the west sea cost till it comes to a town called the Wallis end besyd Tynemouth on the est sea.^[15]

Samson Erdeswick, an English antiquary of some celebrity, visited the Wall, in the year 1574.^[16] His account is here given—

As towching Hadrian’s^[17] Wall, begyning abowt a town called Bonus standing vppon the river Sulway now called Eden. The sea ebbeth and floweth there. The forsaid Wall begynning there, and there yet standing of the heyth of 16 fote, for almost a quarter of a myle together, and so along the river syde estwards, they space of an eight myle by the shew of the trench, as certayne ruynes of castills in that wall, tyll a qwarter of a myle of Carlyole, and there passeth ower the river of Eden; and then goeth straight estwards hard by a late abbey called Lanvercost, and so crossing ower the mowntaynes toward Newcastell.

49Camden, who visited the Wall in 1599, says—

Within two furlongs of Carvoran, on a pretty high hill the Wall is still standing fifteen feet in height, and nine in breadth.

These statements leave upon the mind an impression that the estimate of Bede is too low.

In all probability, the Wall would be surmounted by a battlement of not less than four feet in height, and as this part of the structure would be the first to fall into decay, Bede’s calculation was probably irrespective of it. This, however, only gives us a total elevation of sixteen feet. Unless we reject the evidence of Ridley and Erdeswick, we must admit, even after making due allowance for error and exaggeration, that the Wall, when in its integrity, was eighteen or nineteen feet high. This elevation would be in keeping with its breadth.

The thickness of the Wall varies considerably; in some places it is six feet, in others nine feet and a half.^[18] Probably the prevailing width is eight feet, the measurement given by Bede.

The frequency with which the thickness of the Wall varies, favours the idea that numerous gangs of labourers were simultaneously employed upon the work, and that each superintending centurion was allowed to use his discretion as to its width. The northern 50face of the Wall is continuous, but the southern has numerous outsets and insets measuring from four to twelve inches, at the points, doubtless, where the sections of the different companies joined.

Throughout the whole of its length, the Wall is accompanied on its northern margin by a broad and deep Fosse, which, by increasing the comparative height of the Wall, would add greatly to its strength. This portion of the Barrier may yet be traced, with trifling interruptions, from sea to sea. Even in places where the Wall has quite disappeared, its more lowly companion, the fosse, remains. In some fertile districts the plough has been carried over it in vain; owing to the moisture of the site, the corn sown upon it springs up with undue luxuriance, and is almost uniformly laid prostrate before it can ripen. From this circumstance the ground is frequently retained in grass, while the neighbouring parts are under tillage.^[19] The fosse thus more readily catches the eye, and is likely longer to retain its groove-like form than if subjected to the ordinary process of cultivation.

When the ditch traverses a flat or exposed country, a portion of the materials taken out of it has frequently been thrown upon its northern margin, so as to present to the enemy an additional rampart. In those positions, on the other hand, where its assistance could be of no avail, as along the edge of a cliff, the fosse does not appear.

51No small amount of labour has been expended in the excavation of the ditch; it has been drawn indifferently through alluvial soil, and rocks of sandstone, limestone, and basalt. The patient exertion which this involved is well seen on Tepper Moor, where enormous blocks of whin lie just as they have been lifted out of the fosse. The fosse never leaves the Wall to avoid a mechanical difficulty.

The size of the ditch in several places is still considerable. To the east of Heddon-on-the-Wall, it measures thirty four feet across the top, and is nearly nine feet deep; as it descends the hill from Carvoran to Thirlwall, it measures forty feet across the top, fourteen across the bottom, and is ten feet deep. Westward of Tepper Moor is a portion which, reckoning from the top of the mound on its northern margin, has a depth of twenty feet.

The dimensions of the fosse were probably not uniform throughout the line; but these examples prepare us to receive, as tolerably correct, Hutton’s estimate of its average size. ‘The ditch to the north,’ he says 'was as near as convenient, thirty-six feet wide and fifteen feet deep.'^[20]

The care with which the fosse was dressed, has varied with the taste of the overseer and the forbearance of the enemy. In some tracts, the work presents as smooth and trim an aspect as a modern railway cutting; in others, marks of haste, carelessness, or sudden surprise, appear. The curious circumstance which Hodgson describes in the following 52paragraph may be seen in more than one locality:—

'A little west of Portgate, the appearance of the fosse is still, to the eye that loves and understands antiquity, very imposing and grand. The earth taken out of it lies spread abroad to the north, in lines just as the workmen wheeled it out and left it. The tracks of their barrows, with a slight mound on each side remain unaltered in form.'^[21]

The works near the 18th mile-stone West of Newcastle.

The works half a mile west of Carraw.

The Vallum or Turf Wall, is uniformly to the south of the stone Wall. It consists of three ramparts and a fosse. One of these ramparts is placed close upon the southern edge of the ditch, the two others of larger dimensions^[22] stand, one to the north, and the other to the south of it, at the distance of about twenty-four feet. The annexed sections of the works exhibit their present condition. They are drawn to the scale of seventy-five feet to the inch. The Wall is in these parts, unhappily, entirely removed.

53The ramparts, in some parts of the line, stand, even at present, six or seven feet above the level of the neighbouring ground.^[23] They are composed of earth, mingled, not unfrequently, with masses of stone. Occasionally, the stone preponderates to such an extent as to yield to the hand of the modern spoiler, ready materials for the formation of stone dikes. In several places they are being quarried with this view.

The fosse of the Vallum is of a character similar to the fosse of the stone Wall; but, judging from present appearances, its dimensions have been rather less. It, too, has been frequently cut through beds of stone.

The question will occasionally occur to the wanderer by the Wall, whence were the materials obtained for constructing the mounds of the Vallum? With the exception of the fosse, there are no marks of excavation in the neighbourhood, and that the fosse of the Vallum would not yield materials sufficient for the purpose, is abundantly evident.^[24]

The contents of the ditch on the north of the Wall have probably gone to assist in the formation of these lines. This statement of course proceeds upon the supposition that the Wall and the Vallum were contemporaneous works. Upon the same assumption, it may be added that the ramparts of the Vallum are probably indebted for some portion of the 54stone which they contain, to the chippings of the Wall.

Although the distance between the stone Wall and the Vallum is, as already observed, perpetually varying, the lines of the Vallum maintain amongst themselves nearly the same relative position throughout their entire course.

No apparent paths of egress have been made through these southern lines of fortification. The only mode of communication with the country to the south, originally contemplated, seems to have been by the gateways of the stations.

If we adopt the theory that the Wall and the Vallum exhibit unity of design, a question of some importance arises—With what view was the Vallum constructed? Hodgson, with much probability, conceives that, whilst the Wall undertook the harder duty of warding off the professedly hostile tribes of Caledonia, the Vallum was intended as a protection against sudden surprise from the south. The natives of the country on the south side of the Wall, though conquered, were not to be depended upon; in the event of their kinsmen in the north gaining an advantage, they would be ready to avail themselves of it. The Romans knew this, and with characteristic prudence made themselves secure on both sides.

But, whatever we may conceive to have been the design of the Vallum, the peculiarity of its form will excite the attention of the enquirer, though probably without his arriving at any satisfactory explanation. Supposing, according to the common theory, that the 55Vallum was an independent fortification, erected long before the Wall, to resist a northern foe, why was not the ditch, as in the case of the stone Wall, drawn along the northern edge of the northern agger? I cannot supply an answer. A similar difficulty meets us on the supposition that it was meant to guard against attack from the other side. Again, what part did the smaller rampart on the south edge of the fosse perform? Possibly it may have been intended as a foot-hold for the soldiers when fighting on this platform against the revolted Britons south of the barrier.

The third, and perhaps the most important, part of the barrier line consisted of the structures that were formed for the accommodation of the soldiery, and for the ready transmission of troops and stores. Neither stone walls, nor ditches, nor earthen ramparts, would alone have proved material impediments to the incursions of the Caledonians—

It is reported that Agesilaus, when asked where were the walls of Sparta, pointed to his soldiers and said, ‘There.’ The Romans placed their chief reliance on the valour and discipline of their armies, though they did not despise the assistance of mural lines. In a foreign country, to which it was difficult to transmit relays of troops, it became a matter of great importance to economize the lives of the soldiery. Hence arose the Wall.

56Those portions of the great barrier which yet await our consideration, are the Stations, the Mile-castles, the Turrets, and the Roads.

At distances along the line which average nearly four miles, Stationary Camps (stationes or castra stativa) were erected. These received their distinctive appellation, in contradistinction from those temporary ramparts, which were thrown up when an army halted for a night or for some brief period.

The stations on the line of the Wall were military cities, adapted for the residence of the chief who commanded the district, and providing secure lodgment for the powerful body of soldiery he had under him. Here the commandant held his court; hence issued decrees which none might gainsay; here Roman arts, and literature, and luxury, struggled for existence, when all around was ignorance and barbarity.

Some of the stations, though connected with the Wall, have evidently, as will afterwards be shewn, been built before it: this does not prove that they did not form part of the great design. To secure a safe retreat for the soldiers employed upon the work would necessarily be the first care of the builder.

The stations are uniformly quadrangular in their shape, though somewhat rounded at the corners, and contain an area of from three to five acres. A stone wall, five feet thick, encloses them, and has probably in every instance been strengthened by a fosse, and one or more earthen ramparts. They usually 57stand upon ground which slopes to the south, and are naturally defended upon one side at least.

The Wall, when it does not fall in with the northern wall of a station, usually comes up to the northern cheek of its eastern and western gateways. The Vallum, in like manner, usually approaches close to the southern wall of the station, or comes up to the defence of the southern side of the eastern and western portals. Examples of these arrangements are given in Plate II. At least three of the stations, it must, however, be observed, are quite detached from both lines of fortification, being situated to the south of them. They may have been members of Agricola’s chain of forts.

Probably all the stations have, on their erection, been provided, after the usual method of Roman castrametation, with four gateways; in several instances one or more of these portals have been walled up at an early period, in consequence, probably, of some natural weakness in the situation.

Narrow streets, intersecting each other at right angles, occupy the interior of the stations, and abundant ruins, outside the walls, indicate the fact that extensive suburbs have, in every instance, been required for the accommodation of the camp-followers.

In selecting a spot for a station, care has been taken that an abundant supply of water should be at hand. The springs, rivulets, wells, and aqueducts, whence they procured the needful fluid, are still, in many places, to be traced; and never did water more limpid, more sparkling, more invigorating, 58lave the lips of man, than that which flows from these sources.

For the most part, the stations—cities which for centuries were the abodes of busy men, and which resounded with the hum of multitudes, and the clash of arms,—now present a scene of utter desolation. The wayfarer may pass through them without knowing it; the streets are levelled, the temples are overthrown, and the sons and daughters of Italy, Mauritania, and Spain, whose adopted homes they were, no longer encounter him. The sheep, depasturing the grass-grown ruins, look listlessly upon the passer-by, and the curlew, wheeling above his head, screams as at the presence of an intruder. Whether, or not, sites naturally fertile were chosen for the stations does not appear; but certain it is, that they are now for the most part coated with a sward more green and more luxuriant than that which covers the contiguous grounds. Centuries of occupation have given them a degree of fertility which, probably, they will never lose.^[25] One can scarcely turn up the soil without meeting, not only with fragments of Roman pottery and other imperishable articles, but with the bones of oxen, the tusks of boars, the horns of deer, and other animal remains. The debris of some of these cities is considered 59to be more valuable for farm purposes, than the recent produce of the fold-yard, and is used as such.

It is not a little remarkable that the names of the stations, which must have been household words in the days of Roman occupation, have for the most part been obliterated from the local vocabulary; they are now only to be recalled, and that with difficulty, by exhuming the stony records of the past, and comparing them with the notices of contemporaneous geographers. The truth is, that military reasons dictated the choice of the stations,—commercial facilities gave rise to modern cities. Long may the mere military outpost be consigned to the shepherd’s use, whilst the wharf and the warehouse are beset by the busy crowd!

According to Horsley, the stations on the line of the Wall, were eighteen in number, besides some that were placed in its immediate vicinity, and lent to it important aid. Hodgson, conceiving that Horsley has in one instance mistaken a mere summer fortification for a stationary camp, reduces the number of stations on the line itself to seventeen.

In ascertaining the number and the names of the stations, a most valuable document has come down to our times from the period of Roman occupation. The ‘Notitia Imperii’ was probably written about the end of the reign of Theodosius the younger, and was certainly composed before the Romans abandoned this island. It is a sort of list of the several military and civil officers and magistrates both in the eastern and western empires, with the places at which they 60were stationed. It may, in fact, be regarded as the roll-call of the Roman army. The sixty-ninth section of the work contains a list of the prefects and tribunes under the command of the Honourable the Duke of Britain. The portion of the section in which we are at present interested is headed, Item per lineam valli—Also along the line of the Wall—and contains the following list:—

• The Tribune of the fourth cohort of the Lingones^[26] at Segedunum.
• The Tribune of the cohort of the Cornovii at Pons Ælii.
• The Prefect of the first ala, or wing, of the Astures^[27] at Condercum.
• The Tribune of the first cohort of the Frixagi at Vindobala.
• The Prefect of the Savinian ala at Hunnum.
• The Prefect of the second ala of Astures at Cilurnum.
• The Tribune of the first cohort of the Batavians at Procolitia.
• The Tribune of the first cohort of the Tungri at Borcovicus.
• The Tribune of the fourth cohort of the Gauls at Vindolana.
• The Tribune of the first cohort of the Astures at Æsica.
• The Tribune of the second cohort of the Dalmatians at Magna.
• The Tribune of the first cohort of Dacians, styled Ælia, at Amboglanna.
• The Prefect of the ala, called Petriana, at Petriana.
• The Prefect of a detachment of Moors, styled Aureliani, at Aballaba.
• The Tribune of the second cohort of the Lergi at Congavata.
• The Tribune of the first cohort of the Spaniards at Axelodunum.
• The Tribune of the second cohort of the Thracians at Gabrosentis.
• The Tribune of the first marine cohort, styled Ælia, at Tunnocelum.
• The Tribune of the first cohort of the Morini at Glannibanta.
• The Tribune of the third cohort of the Nervii at Alionis.
• The Cuneus of men in armour at Bremetenracum.
• The Prefect of the first ala, styled Herculean, at Olenacum.
• The Tribune of the sixth cohort of the Nervii at Virosidum.

It is not said, nor does it appear, that all these twenty-three stations were exactly upon the line of the Wall itself. It is very plain indeed, says Horsley, that according to the Notitia, Segedunum was the first, for that immediately follows the title 61per lineam valli; but he has not told us expressly at what place or station they end.^[28] Those stations which were not on the Wall were probably in its vicinity, and were connected with it by military ways. The stations in this list are manifestly, as this writer also observes, set down in some order, and those that were near to each other are placed together;^[29] so that if we ascertain the identity of some of them, we may form a pretty correct estimate of the position of the intermediate or neighbouring stations.

When, in the ruins of a station, inscribed stones are found bearing the name of a cohort mentioned in the Notitia, the inference is natural, that, in most cases at least, the imperial Notitia will furnish us with a key to the ancient designation of the station. The argument becomes irresistible, when, in several successive instances the designations thus obtained correspond exactly with the order of the places as given in the Notitia. Let us take an example. At the station of Chesters, on the North Tyne, several slabs have been found, bearing the name of the second ala, or wing, of the Astures. One of these is here represented.^[30] It is a sepulchral 62stone, and bears at the end of the third and the beginning of the fourth lines the words—

Now, as the Notitia represents this ala, or troop of cavalry, to have been stationed at Cilurnum, the probability is, that the camp on the west bank of the North Tyne is the Cilurnum of Roman Britain.

Immediately following ‘The second wing of the Astures at Cilurnum,’ on the Notitia list, is, ‘The first cohort of the Batavians at Procolitia.’ Now the station immediately west of Chesters is Carrawburgh, and here a slab and an altar have been found, inscribed with the name of this very cohort. The woodcut represents one of them,^[31] an altar to Fortune, which is thus inscribed—

The conclusion is natural,—Carrawburgh is the Procolitia of the Notitia.

63Moving westward, the next station we come to is Housesteads; here numerous inscribed stones have been discovered, which mention the first cohort of the Tungri. One of these, an altar to Jupiter, which is now in the possession of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and is preserved in their museum, is accurately given in the accompanying engraving.

The correspondence between the Notitia and the sculptures derived from this station, is again too striking to admit a doubt, that the Housesteads of 64the modern shepherd is the Borcovicus of the Roman hosts.

In this way, the ancient designations of the stations from Segedunum, Wall’s-end, to Amboglanna, Birdoswald, have been accurately ascertained; but no stony memorial of the past has arisen to confirm the Notitia account of the stations westward of this point. The peculiarly fertile nature of the soil between the river Irthing and the Solway has been inimical to the preservation of the Wall and its antiquities. The wants of a numerous population rendered stones of every kind valuable; and in an ignorant age, when anything in the shape of a letter was regarded as a thing of evil omen, those most precious to the historian were the first to be sacrificed.^[33] |THE STATIONS WEST OF AMBOGLANNA.|Since the accuracy of the Notitia has been confirmed in so many instances, it is but fair to conclude, that it may be safely taken as a guide in fixing the Roman designations of the remaining stations along the line. Cambeck Fort is the station next to Birdoswald; the Notitia places Petriana next in order to Amboglanna, which has been 65ascertained to be Birdoswald—doubtless, according to this reasoning, Cambeck Fort is the ancient Petriana. In this way, could it be certainly ascertained which were the stations per lineam valli, each station might have its Roman name restored, though not a syllable of the ancient designation be retained in the modern cognomen. We should have but to read over the roll-call, and let each camp in succession answer to its name. Unhappily, there is some doubt as to which are the stations along the line of the Wall. Horsley conceives that Watch Cross is the station next in order to Cambeck Fort, and, accordingly, calls it Aballaba; Stanwix, Burgh, Drumburgh, and Bowness, he successively denominates, after the Notitia, Congavata, Axelodunum, Gabrosentis, and Tunnocelum. Subsequent inquirers, and, in particular, the Rev. John Hodgson, have seen reason to suspect that Watch Cross was not a station per lineam valli. It probably was destitute of stone walls, and was surrounded only by a rampart of earth.^[34] It seems to have been a mere castra æstiva—a summer encampment, and consequently, was not entitled to rank with those strongholds that were intended to withstand all foes at all seasons. Should Watch Cross be laid aside, the whole of Horsley’s subsequent allocation of the Notitia names is thrown out of course. It is much to be desired that some ‘Witch Stone’ would start 66from its hiding-place in the foundation of some cottage or castle in the neighbourhood of any one of the stations west of Cambeck Fort, and resolve the interesting question. Until such an event does occur, some doubt must hang upon the subject. The reader will now understand how it is, that, according to some authorities, the stations immediately dependent upon the Wall are said to be eighteen in number, and according to others only seventeen. For the reason just referred to, the Notitia names of the stations are not given on the Map of the Wall westward of Petriana.

The remainder of the stations of the Notitia were probably out-posts, intended to give support to the whole structure. The difficulty of rightly appropriating the Notitia appellations to such of these as have not yielded inscribed stones, is even greater than in the case of those which follow more closely the line of the Wall.

Before leaving this subject, the reader will do well to compare the ancient with the modern names of the stations, as far as they are ascertained; in doing so, he will be struck with the almost total absence of any similarity between them. So complete, it would appear, has been the subversion by Pict, and Saxon, and Dane, of the Roman domination in the north of England, that the very names of the cities which were occupied by the empire for centuries have perished,

67In addition to the Stations, Castella or Mile-Castles were provided for the use of the troops which garrisoned the Wall. They derive their modern name from the circumstance of their being usually placed at the distance of a Roman mile from each other. They were quadrangular buildings, differing somewhat in size, but usually measuring from sixty to seventy feet in each direction. With two exceptions, they have been placed against the southern face of the Wall; the castle at Portgate, every trace of which is now obliterated, and another near Æsica, the foundations of which may, with some difficulty, still be traced, seem to have projected equally to the north and south of the Wall. Though generally placed about seven furlongs from each other, the nature of the ground, independently of distance, has frequently determined the spot of their location. Whenever the Wall has had occasion to traverse a river or a mountain pass, a mile-castle has uniformly been placed on the one side or other to guard the defile. The mile-towers have generally had but one gate of entrance, which was of very substantial masonry, and was uniformly placed in the centre of the south wall; the most perfect specimen now remaining, however, has a northern, as well as a southern gateway. It is not easy to conjecture what were the internal arrangements of these buildings; probably they afforded little accommodation beyond what their four strong walls and well-barred gates gave. Hodgson states that when the foundations of the castle northeast of Housesteads were removed in 1832, the remains of an inner wall were seen, all round, parallel to the 68outer walls. He hence infers that the space between the walls has been roofed, and the centre uncovered. Deferring the further discussion of this subject until, in the course of our local description, we arrive at the most perfect specimen remaining—the mile-castle near Cawfields—the reader is meanwhile referred to the lithograph which depicts this interesting remain.

Between the mile-castles, four subsidiary buildings, generally denominated Turrets or Watch Towers, were placed. They were little more than stone sentry-boxes. It is with much difficulty that they can now be traced. Horsley, in his day, complained that ‘scarce three of them could be made out in succession.’ Would that the modern antiquary could make the same lamentation! Scarcely one along the whole line can with certainty be determined. They contained an interior space of eight or ten feet square. Horsley states the distance between them to have been three hundred and eight yards—the whole number would consequently be three hundred and twenty. Though small buildings, they were, like all the works of the Romans, built for perpetuity. Hodgson found the walls of one near Birdoswald to be nearly three feet thick. Such were the buildings provided for the lodgement and security of the cohorts, whose hard lot it was to guard this frontier barrier. A plan of Cilurnum, and the works in its vicinity, taken from Warburton’s Vallum Romanum, in Plate II., exhibits these arrangements, and shews, as he remarks, how the Wall and the Vallum, the stations, turrets, and castles, yielded mutual assistance to each other.

69But all these arrangements were not enough; without Roads, one important element in the strength of the Great Barrier would have been wanting. Nothing economizes military force more effectually than the possession of means for quickly concentrating all available resources upon any point that the enemy may select for attack. The advance of Roman armies, and the formation of roads, were uniformly contemporaneous. The Barrier had its Military Way. It is impossible to over-estimate the importance of this part of the works. Without it, all the rest would have been useless. It would not, perhaps, be incorrect to say that both Vallum and Wall were subsidiary to it, and that the chief use of these structures was to guard the road, and to protect and conceal from view, both on the north and south, the troops that marched along it. The modern history of the district traversed by the Wall furnishes a singular corroboration of this opinion. In the rebellion of 1715, the operations of the royalist forces were greatly impeded by the absence of a good road between Newcastle and Carlisle. In the rebellion of 1745, a similar inconvenience was experienced. Marshal Wade was at Newcastle when the Pretender appeared before the city of Carlisle. The commandant of the city immediately sent an express to inform him of his position. The general’s answer contained these words:—

Gentlemen,

I have just now the favour of your letter by express, with an account of the Rebels’ approach near your 70city. The spirit and resolution with which you exert yourselves is very commendable, and I hope will contribute to disappoint the Rebels of any design they may have formed against you. ..... I cannot follow them, the way they may probably take being impassable for Artillery ..... but I hope to meet them in Lancashire, and make them repent of their rashness. ... I wish you all imaginable success,

Thus, for want of a military road across the Isthmus, the importance of which had been perceived by the Romans sixteen centuries previously, the safety of the kingdom was perilled, and a hostile force permitted to pour itself into the heart of England. After such terrible warnings, government at last interfered, and an act of Parliament was passed which set forth in the preamble:—

Whereas the making and keeping a free and open communication between the city of Carlisle and the town of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, by a road for the passage of troops, horses, and carriages, at all times of the year, would be of great use and service to the public, and it hath been found by experience, that the want of such road, passage, and communication, hath been attended with great inconvenience and danger to this kingdom. ....: Be it enacted, &c.

The road now known in the district by the name of the Military Road was accordingly made at the public expense. It is not a little remarkable that it takes precisely the track which the engineers of 71Rome had so many centuries before selected. In the map of the Wall which accompanies this work, the modern military road is delineated.

The importance of a good road, protected by military posts at short intervals, in securing the tranquillity of a turbulent district, is strikingly shewn in another instance. That part of the great highway between Madrid and Cadiz which crosses the wild hills of the Sierra barrier, was formerly left to the robber and the wolf, without roads or villages. A road, admirably planned, was at length executed by Charles Le Maur, an able engineer in the service of Charles III. The task of guarding it was the difficulty next to be overcome. For this purpose, Spain, who had colonized the new world, and expelled her rich Jews and industrious Moors, was compelled to resort to foreign assistance. In 1768, a colony of Germans and Swiss settled upon the line on condition of maintaining a constant guard.^[36] This is done to the present day. Several consecutive towns, such as Carolina, in Andalusia, are occupied by people speaking nothing but the German language, and regular patrols are constantly on the move from one town to another. These Germans have their land in better order and cultivation than the Spaniards. This Spanish highway, with its stations at regular intervals, with its foreign guards, who from generation to generation maintain the tongue and the habits of their fatherland, presents too many points 72of resemblance to the manner in which the northern frontier of Roman power in Britain was defended, to be passed over without obtaining at least this brief notice.

Gordon, in his Itinerarium Septentrionale, says, that two military ways belonged to the Barrier; a small Military Way a little to the south of the Wall, and, beyond it, the Great Military Way. In addition to these, Horsley enumerates a third, which he calls the Old Military Way. Horsley conceives that the north rampart of the Vallum constitutes the road which was used by Agricola and Hadrian in transporting their troops from station to station, and that when Severus built the Wall, he formed a new road—the great military way—which pursued an independent course, sometimes coinciding with the old road, but more frequently keeping nearer to the Wall. That there may have been a path-way immediately under the Wall which went from turret to turret, on which the Roman sentries marched with slow and measured pace, when they did not choose to expose themselves upon the parapets of the Wall, is not improbable; though we now look in vain for any traces of it. But that the north agger of the Vallum was thrown up either by Agricola or Hadrian to serve the purposes of a road, is a proposition too startling to be received even on the authority of the learned Horsley. In some places, indeed, it is sufficiently flattened to admit of the passage of traffic along it, but in the greater part of the course where the works of the Vallum are not under cultivation, 73the rampart is too conical, too narrow, and too ragged, to admit of such a use. Excepting in those situations, where stones are mingled with the whole mass of the agger, it exhibits no signs of having been paved.^[37] The manner in which all the ramparts of the Vallum on Tepper Moor are encumbered with blocks of basalt, clearly shews, that here at least there has been no road. Besides, few who trace the lines of the Vallum from sea to sea, and observe their complete parallelism, will be able to resist the conclusion, that the whole of the works were contemporaneous; whereas, Horsley’s theory ascribes part to Agricola, and part to Hadrian: moreover, it may be added, that so much do the northern and the southernmost aggers resemble each other, that unbiassed observers will scarcely entertain a doubt, that they have been thrown up to serve a precisely similar purpose.

Happily, there is no room for doubt respecting the other road, which Horsley calls Severus’ Greater Military Way, as in the untilled districts of the country it may be traced for several consecutive miles; and if we receive the theory, that the Murus and Vallum are one work, there is no need to seek for any other.

74The Military Way is usually about seventeen feet wide, and is composed of rubble so arranged as to present a rounded surface, elevated in its centre a foot or eighteen inches above the adjoining ground. When carried along the slope of a hill, the hanging side is made up by large kerb-stones. In most places where it still remains, it is completely grass-grown, but may, notwithstanding, be easily distinguished from the neighbouring ground by the colour of its herbage, the dryness of its substratum allowing the growth of a finer description of plant. For the same reason, a sheep-track generally runs along it. For the accommodation of the soldiery, the road went from castle to castle, and so, from station to station. In doing this, it did not always keep close to the Wall, but took the easiest path between the required points. In traversing the precipitous grounds between Sewingshields and Thirlwall, the ingenuity of the engineer has been severely tried; but most successfully has he performed his task. Whilst, as previously observed, the Wall shoots over the highest and steepest summits, the road pursues its tortuous course from one platform of the rock to another, so as to bring the traveller from mile-castle to mile-castle by the easiest possible gradients. Often has it been my lot to notice how naturally, towards the close of a fatiguing day’s march, the less zealous of our exploring party, more anxious to select an easy track than to keep close companionship with the Wall, have, most unconsciously, pursued the route of the Roman way. But, notwithstanding all the art of the engineer, the steepness of the road 75in some places is such, that most of our modern carmen, with all their boasted skill, would be greatly puzzled if required to traverse it with a waggon laden with military stores.^[38]

Although the road now described has probably been the only carriage-way between the two great lines of fortification, another, situated to the south of them, has afforded direct communication between some of the inland stations. From Cilurnum to Magna, the Wall forms a curved line, in order to gain the highest hills of the district. For the accommodation of those whose business did not require them to call at any intermediate point, a road went, like the string of a bow, direct from the one station to the other. This road, which is shewn in Plate II., went near the modern village of Newburgh, where Roman remains are occasionally found, and passed by the north gate of Vindolana, Chesterholm, near to which a Roman mile-stone still stands. Some portions of the ancient pavement still remain near Morwood. It is probable that this Roman Military Way was further continued, south of the Wall, direct to Stanwix.

If tradition is to be credited, the Romans were not satisfied with roads as a means of rapidly communicating 76information; speaking-trumpets or pipes, we are told, ran along the whole length of the Wall. Of this, Drayton, long ago, sang in his Polyolbion—

Townes stood upon my length, where garrisons were laid Their limits to defend; and for my greater aid, With turrets I was built, where sentinels were plac’d To watch upon the Pict; so me my makers grac’d With hollow pipes of brasse, along me still they went, By which they in one fort still to another sent, By speaking in the same, to tell them what to doe, And soe from sea to sea could I be whispered through.

Sir Christopher Ridley, in his letter tells us, that—

In this Wall was theyr a trunck of brass, or whatever kynd of mettal, which went from one place to another along the Wall, and came into the Captaynes chamber, whereat they had watchers for the same, and yf theyr had bene stryfe or business betwyxt the enemies, and that the watchmen did blow a horn in at the end of the truncke that came into the chamber, and so from one to one; there was certayn money payed yearly to the mantenance of this trunck by the inhabitants theyrabout, and doith yet pay to some gentilmen in Northymberland, the which money is called horn-geld money.^[39]

Camden also refers to this curious tradition. Once, but only once, have I met with this story in my own rambles. Such myths will not long outlive the introduction of the electric telegraph. ‘There are no old people upon the Wall now,’ as a man of three-score lately said to me, when I was endeavouring 77to persuade him to gather up from his still more ancient neighbour the fire-side lore of by-gone times.

It is curious to observe that a similar statement is made respecting the Barrier of the Upper Isthmus. A correspondent writes—

One old man told me, that when he was young, on digging through one of the wall stations—at Upper Croy—they came upon stone pipes, laid horizontally in the soil, and joined at the ends like those for water. From the elevation of the place, it is quite obvious that they could not be water conduits. This old person said that the idea he had heard ‘learned people’ give of these pipes, was, that they were for speaking through. That the pipes were found, and made of stone, not clay, is certain.

Pipes of lead are occasionally met with in the ruins of the stations, and pipes of burnt clay are of very frequent occurrence. To this circumstance the tradition probably owes its rise. They are not, however, found in the Wall, and when placed in the stations, seem to have served a different purpose. One use to which the tile-tubes have been put has been the transmission of warm air throughout an apartment. The walls of one of the chambers of the ‘baths’ at Hunnum were lined with them. Others may have been used, especially in high situations, for collecting rain-water from the roofs of the dwellings, and conveying it to cisterns. Besides, the inutility of the contrivance militates against the probability of its adoption: the sentinels at their posts could easily transmit hasty intelligence from end to end, by the voice or by horns, without pipes imbedded in the Wall, which, even if constructed, would probably be useless for such a purpose.

78This traditionary fiction is probably of more than mediæval antiquity. Xiphiline, in his life of Severus, tells some such marvellous tale about the towers of Byzantium.

A description of the Masonry of the erections which have passed in review before us will conclude this general examination of the Barrier.

The following extract of a letter with which I have been favoured by Robert Rawlinson, esq., Inspector of the Board of Health, will form an excellent introduction to the subject.

I have several times thought over the subject of the Roman Wall since I had the pleasure of seeing you. The Romans constructed works with many different kinds of masonry; no doubt all chosen to suit the material used, the place, and the skill of the builders. In Rome, and Italy generally, works of great magnificence were constructed, when the art displayed was equal to the grandeur of the design. Such a work was the famed Arch of Trajan, the Arch of Septimius Severus, the Arch of Constantine, the Baths of Diocletian, and others. In these works, construction of the highest order was used, and the sculptor emulated the architect. The lettered altars and sculptured figures found on the line of ‘the Wall’ must not be compared with the best workmanship of Rome.

I am quite satisfied, in my own mind, that the general character of the work on the Wall was adapted to suit the time, the country, and more especially, the labourers employed on the work. The Wall, being a work of defence, had to be constructed in haste; the country was wild, rude, and without roads, excepting such as the Romans caused to be made. This ‘caused to be made’ is I think, the key to the character of the masonry chosen.... The form of construction is the easiest and strongest which rude, uneducated men could accomplish; and, with good mortar, such as the Romans knew so well how to make, is the kind of work 79calculated to endure for centuries, as we find it has done.... The works of the Wall I consider to have been chiefly constructed by the natives, under the armed superintendence and teaching of the soldier. The Roman knew no right but that of the conqueror; his object was conquest for use; use of the land, and the labour that was upon it. The Roman soldier was a fighting animal, and was so far civilized as to know how to make the comparative savage do his work upon his plan, and this was shaped to suit the labour used. Consider the length of the Wall, and the extent of the works upon it, and it will be seen that for the army to have constructed it, would have been to have kept them constantly working instead of watching and fighting.

Some years ago I had a large quantity of heavy masonry to construct on one of the railways. It was not unlike the Roman Wall in character. I found a difficulty in dealing with the regularly educated mason, and bought several scores of trowels and hammers; these I placed in the hands of uneducated labourers, set them to work under the superintendence of educated foremen, looking after the whole myself. This is a case similar to the one I have imagined for the great Wall; only the work my labourers performed had more difficulties about it than the Wall, and yet, these uneducated men performed the work perfectly.^[40]

Think of the Roman bringing in at the sword’s point, hundreds of captive natives, placing for the first time tools in their hands, indicating the work to be done, and compelling the trembling slaves to do it!^[41]

The stones employed in building the Wall and stations were very carefully selected. When good 80stones were to be had near at hand, they were taken; but those of inferior quality were never used to avoid the labour of bringing better from a distance. In some parts of the line, in Cumberland especially, the stone must have been brought from quarries seven or eight miles off. A quartzose grit was generally selected not only on account of its hardness, but because its rough surface gave it a firmer adhesion to the mortar. The stone which has been used in the works at Wallsend is of a much coarser grit than any that is found in the neighbourhood.

The quarries from which the stone has been procured can in many instances be precisely ascertained. At Fallowfield, not far from Cilurnum, is an ancient quarry on the face of which the words,

the rock of Flavius Carantinus—are still to be traced. The vignette at the close of this part represents its present condition. On opening out, in the year 1837, some old quarries on the high, brown hill of Borcum, near Thorngrafton, a small copper vessel was found, containing a large number of coins, all of the upper empire. Another Roman quarry existed on Haltwhistle Fell. In a paper recently read before the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Mr. John Clayton says—

In riding over Haltwhistle Fell, before its enclosure, in the summer of 1844, I came upon some workmen employed in re-opening an old quarry. They told me they had met with a ‘written stone’; I dismounted, and climbed the face 81of the rock, when I found inscribed in letters clear and fresh

From its position on a wide waste, far removed from any abode, but in the immediate vicinity of the Roman Wall, this quarry could not possibly have been used for any other purpose than to supply stones for the building of the Wall; and from the freshness of the letters of the inscription, it must have been filled up with earth soon after the soldiers ceased to use it. The workmen promised to spare the ‘written rock,’ but the next time I rode that way it had been shivered to atoms.

Drawn & Lithographedby John Storey
WRITTEN ROCK ON THE RIVER GELT.

In Cumberland, there are several Roman inscriptions on the face of the ancient quarries. About a mile west of Birdoswald, and little more than a quarter of a mile south of the road, is Coome Crag, which, besides other markings, presents the following inscription—

This perhaps may be read—Severus Alexander Augustus. The most remarkable of this class of Antiquities, however, is the ‘Written Rock of the Gelt,’ near Brampton. The lithograph on the opposite page is a very accurate representation of this curious relic of antiquity. As the scar is nearly perpendicular, and the river Gelt washes its base, it is not without some difficulty that the inquiring visitor can give it a satisfactory examination; it will, however, well reward his exertions, and the beauty of the surrounding scenery will give additional zest to the ramble. |INSCRIPTIONS ON THE QUARRIES.|The inscribed part of the rock is fully 82fifty feet above the water. The letters seem to have been made by connecting with a chisel or pick a

number of holes drilled in the rock in the required order; at all events, the terminations of the strokes have been thus formed. Some doubt exists as to the precise reading of the inscription, but the general purport of it is this:—The vexillarii of the second legion under an optio called Agricola, were, in the consulship of Flavius Aper and Albinus Maximus (A.D. 207), employed to hew stone here for the Romans.^[42] It is piteous, when surveying so interesting a relic of antiquity, and one which has outlived the accidents of upwards of sixteen centuries, to observe that it has been approached by men who cannot sympathize with the mighty dead, and who care not what violence they do to the feelings of those who can. To the defacement, as I believe, of some portion of the inscription, the names of F. GRAHAM, W. HARDCASTLE, T. THOMPSON, W. NELSON, have been carved upon the rock. Notoriety is easily earned, but it is not always of an enviable character.

The exterior masonry of the Wall consists, on both sides, of carefully squared free-stone blocks^[43]; the interior, of rubble of any description firmly imbedded 83in mortar. The character of the facing-stones is peculiar, yet pretty uniform. They are eight or nine inches thick, and ten or eleven broad; their length, which is perhaps their characteristic feature, not unfrequently amounts to twenty inches. The part of the stone exposed to the weather is cut across ‘the bait,’ so as to avoid its scaling off by the lines of stratification; the stone tapers towards the end which is set into the Wall, and has a form nearly resembling that of a wedge. The cut shews its usual form. Owing to the extent to which the stones are set into the Wall, the necessity of bonding tiles—so characteristic of Roman masonry in the south of England—is altogether superseded. There does not appear to have been a single tile used in any part of the Wall. Stones of the shape and size which have now been described were just those which could be most easily wrought in the quarry, most conveniently carried on the backs of the poor enslaved Britons to the Wall, and most easily fitted into their bed. The uniformity in their appearance is such as to enable us, after a little practice, at once to recognize them in the churches, castles, farm-buildings, and fences of the district through which the Wall runs.

In Cumberland, the stones are rather larger than 84in the eastern portion of the line, a thickness of twelve inches not being uncommon, with a corresponding breadth. The blocks in the north face of the Wall, also, are not unfrequently larger than those in the south. The stones of which the walls of the stations are composed are smaller than those of the main Wall. Their average thickness is from five to seven inches, and their breadth from six to eight. The woodcut which is here introduced, depicts the junction of the west wall of the station of Amboglanna with the Wall, and well displays the different character of the stones used in two erections. As already observed, the stations appear to have been built before the Wall, and as the necessity of the case required that they should be run up as quickly as possible, a smaller class of stone was allowed to pass muster here than was used in the Wall. The workmanship also is of inferior quality.

85

The front of the stones, both of the Wall and stations, is roughly ‘scabbled’ with the pick. In some parts of the line, this tooling takes a definite form; when this is the case, the marking called the diamond broaching is most common. Sometimes the stone is scored with waved lines, or with small squares, or with nearly upright lines. The woodcuts illustrative of the masonry at Chester Holm, and of the Crypt at Hexham, to be introduced along with the account of these places, will exemplify some of these kinds of broaching. It was not until I had become tolerably familiar with the Wall, that my attention was called to this peculiar kind of tooling. A visit to Habitancum and Bremenium, where the stones are nearly all broached in the diamond fashion, induced me to inspect the Wall more narrowly in this respect. I have since frequently detected it, especially in Cumberland. It is rare in the Northumbrian portion. Is this broaching peculiar to a particular legion, or to a certain period? The station of Habitancum is understood to have been rebuilt by Caracalla—can the other stations, and those parts of the Wall where this kind of marking appears, have also undergone repair at the same time, or is it the work of some particular legion? The same kind of broaching may be noticed in some of the stones at Chester, the Deva 86Icenorum of the Romans, which was for a long time the head quarters of the 20th legion. Though unable to resolve the doubt, I think that the prosecution of the inquiry may lead to some worthy result.

Cuttings resembling masons’ marks occasionally occur. Sometimes they consist of a single or double stroke; sometimes of a diagonal cross, sometimes of a rectangular. The other marks which are here represented are less frequently met with.^[44]

The tenacity of the mortar which was used, forms an important element in the strength of the whole fabric. That which is in use now is generally spoiled, from a variety of circumstances. The prevailing practice is, first of all, to slack the lime by pouring a quantity of water upon it when lying in a heap; in most cases this does not sufficiently pulverize it: it is then mixed with any earth bearing the least resemblance to sand, and the two are worked together very imperfectly with a shovel. The mortar thus made often stands and hardens, so as to require to to be once and again mixed with water, and worked 87up before it is used. It thus becomes quite impoverished; and, after all, for the convenience of the mason, it is employed in so dry a state that the stone soon takes all the moisture from it, and it becomes little better than powder. The gigantic railway operations of recent times have driven men out of the beaten track, and compelled them afresh to discover the Roman method of preparing mortar. On the authority of engineers well acquainted with the Roman Wall, I am enabled to state, that the mortar of that structure is precisely similar to the grout and concrete^[45] of the railway mason of the present day. Specimens of the ancient and modern grout are before me, and there cannot be a doubt as to the identity of their preparation.

The following is the mode in which the railway engineer prepares his mortar. The lime, in the state in which it comes from the kiln, is first ground to powder, and is then mixed with sand and gravel, and chippings of stone. The purposes for which the mortar is required indicate the coarseness and quantity of the intermingling gravel. When wanted as concrete, to form, independently of other materials, the foundation of some heavy structure, stony fragments of larger size are mingled with the lime than when the mortar is to be used to cement chiselled stones, or even than when wanted to constitute with rubble the interior of a wall. The mixture of 88pounded lime and gravel, when made, is not mingled with water, until the moment of its application to the work for which it is required, but it is then intimately united with an abundant quantity of it. When used as concrete, the mass will, in three hours, have solidity sufficient to bear the weight of a man, and in about three days it will have acquired a rock-like firmness.

Such, doubtless, is the way^[46] in which the mortar of the Roman Wall was prepared, and it would have this very important advantage over that generally used at present, that, in a very short time, the work would acquire a massiveness and strength, sufficient to resist the attacks of an enemy. The mortar of the Saxon and Norman periods is of the same character.

Occasionally, but by no means frequently, small pieces of charcoal are mixed with the mortar. These have evidently been derived from the wood used in burning the lime. Excepting in the buildings of the stations, pounded tile, so characteristic of the Roman mortar in the south of England, is by no means a common constituent of the mortar of the Wall. Limestone is abundant in most parts of the district through which the Wall passes. The Romans probably burnt it in ‘sow kilns.’ The limestone and fuel being arranged in alternate layers, the whole was 89carefully covered with turf and ignited. This simple method is still much resorted to when the lime is wanted for farm purposes.

PLATE III

Sections and Elevations of the Masonry of the Wall

Supposing the stones to be now quarried and squared, the lime burnt and mixed with sand and gravel, the next point to be attended to is the method of using them. The foundation has been prepared by the removal of the natural soil to the width of about nine feet. In the hill district, a very scanty portion of earth covers the rocks; in the richer regions an excavation of from fifteen to eighteen inches has been made before the subsoil was reached. On the outer and inner margins of the ground thus bared, two rows of flags of from two to four inches in thickness, and from eighteen to twenty in breadth, were generally laid; no mortar was placed under them.^[47] On these lay the first course of facing-stones, which were usually the largest stones used in the structure. In higher courses the facing-stones are uniformly of free-stone, on the ground course a ‘whin-stone’ is occasionally introduced. The flagstones of the foundation usually project from one to five inches beyond the first course of facing-stones, and these again usually stand out an inch or two beyond the second course, after which, the wall is taken 90straight up. In some parts of the line the flagstones do not appear in the foundation—the first course of facing-stones being laid directly upon the ground. In the neighbourhood of Sewingshields, where large tracts of the Wall have been recently removed, a careful observer informs me, that the entire foundation has for some distance been laid upon a bed of clay of three or four inches thick.

One or two courses of facing-stones having been placed in their beds and carefully pointed, a mass of mortar in a very fluid state was poured into the interior of the wall, and stones of any kind or shape that were of a convenient size were ‘puddled’ in amongst it. Whin-stones, as being most abundant in the district, are generally used for the filling. Course after course was added, and one mass of concrete imposed upon another, until the Wall reached the required height. When the whole was finished it formed a solid, compact mass, without any holes or crevices in the interior, and in a short time became as firm as the unhewn rock.

In some parts of the line the mortar has been ‘hand-laid.’ The rubble of the interior having been first disposed in its place, the mortar has been laid upon it with a trowel. In this case the mortar never penetrates the interstices of the mass, and does not make such solid masonry as the method generally pursued. When, however, this plan is adopted, the rubble stones are often laid upon their edges in a slanting position; and when those of the next layer, as occasionally occurs, are made to lean in the opposite 91direction, we have the kind of masonry represented in the adjoining diagram, which is appropriately called herring-bone work. The nearest approach to this that I have seen upon the line of the Wall is at Steel-rig, and Hare-hill. In Hodgson’s Northumberland^[48] a section of the Wall on Walltown crag is given, exhibiting herring-bone masonry. In this instance the stones are disposed transversely to the Wall, at Steel-rig and Hare-hill they are disposed longitudinally; the latter method is the easier of the two.^[49]

On wavy ground the courses of the Wall follow the undulations of the surface, but on steep inclines 92the stones are laid parallel to the horizon. The Wall, in this case, must have been built up from the bottom of the defile, where also, in order the better to resist the superincumbent mass, it not unfrequently has a greater breadth than usual. As shewing that different sections of the Wall have been erected under distinct superintendents, it may occasionally be observed that, whilst on one slope of a ‘gap’ the stones are laid parallel to the horizon, on the other, differing little perhaps in inclination, they are laid even with the ground.

We must now take leave of this important part of our subject, the masonry of the Wall. Judging from those portions of it which remain, it may safely be asserted, that no structure can be conceived to possess greater strength and durability. The first time I happened to visit Bowness (in the year 1831), some portions of the Wall, seven feet high, were in the course of being removed; it was found necessary to resort to the force of gunpowder in order to effect its destruction. In the substantial nature of their works, the Romans have left the impress of their own mighty minds. They built not for the day. They did not conceive that their existence was bound up in the fate of a single generation, but that it was spread over the destinies of succeeding ages. Their works contrast strongly with the efforts of some modern builders. The editor of the pictorial volume, styled ‘Old England,’ seems, in the following passage, to speak from personal observation.

Passing by the fragments of which we have spoken, we are under the north wall [of Richborough]—a wondrous work 93calculated to impress us with a conviction that the people who built it were not the petty labourers of an hour, who were contented with temporary defences and frail resting places. The outer works upon the southern cliff of Dover, which were run up during the war with Napoleon, at prodigious expense, are crumbling and perishing, through the weakness of job and contract, which could not endure for half a century. And here stand the walls of Richborough, as they have stood for eighteen hundred years, from twenty to thirty feet high, eleven or twelve feet thick at the base, with their outer masonry in many parts as perfect as at the hour when their courses of tiles and stones were first laid in beautiful regularity.

If the meddling hand of man had been withheld from the Barrier of the Lower Isthmus, the Wall might have stood, even to the present hour, in almost its original integrity. It is necessary to say ‘almost,’ for nothing can be more correct than the observation of Hodgson—

Though man has had the chief labour in effecting its destruction, its whole line and all its stations, castles, and towers, ever since it was deserted by the Romans, have been incessantly suffering prostration by the hand of nature. The feeble roots of grasses, ferns, and shrubs, have been assisted by the more destructive wedges and levers of forest trees in levelling it with the ground; and, in many places in the west of this county, for considerable distances together, the ruins that time has thrown from its brow, lie in a deep green mound at its feet; and thorns, briars, hazel, and mountain ash (entwined with relentless ivy), are still, in the parts that remain above ground, at the labour of demolition in which, for the last fourteen centuries, they have been unceasingly engaged.

In this day, when the Arabic numerals assert an influence quite as potent as that which the lictors’ rods 94obtained in ancient Rome, the inquiries may not be destitute of interest—What amount of labour was involved in the construction of the Barrier, in what time could it be accomplished, and what, at the present value of labour and materials, would be the cost of its construction?

The Wall is sixty-eight miles long; granting that it was only sixteen feet high, but had a continuous thickness of eight feet, we have 1,702,115 cubic yards of masonry, to say nothing of stations, mile-castles, and turrets.

Twelve shillings per cubic yard is as near as may be the present value of masonry, such as that of which the Roman Wall consists—the cost of this part of the structure would therefore be 1,021,269l.

Taking into account that the labour was forced, each cubic yard of the Wall would, at the least, require, in quarrying the stone, its carriage to the Wall, its setting, and other operations, one entire day’s exertions of one man. In this way we have 1,702,115 days’ labour in the stone Wall.

Taking the north fosse at the dimensions already given, its excavation would involve the removal of 5,585,072 cubic yards. A modern excavator, stimulated by pay proportioned to his work, enjoying food, and raiment, and shelter, such as the ancient Briton was a stranger to, and possessing the advantage of good tools, and good organization, can remove the enormous quantity of twenty cubic yards of earth per day. The labourer, driven to his ungrateful task by a Roman task-master, and compelled to support himself as best he might, and to labour with tools of the rudest construction, would not accomplish the half of this task; the removal of eight yards per diem would probably be an average day’s work. The excavation of the north fosse would thus, under these circumstances, involve 698,134 days’ labour. At the present time, when twenty cubic yards may be removed per man in a day, and when a day’s wages may be set down at half-a-crown, the whole cost of the excavation of the fosse would be 34,906l.

95In this estimate no account has been taken of the increased labour occasioned by cutting through the rocks that are sometimes met with. The entire absence of the ditch, however, in the hilly district, compensates for this omission.

The fosse of the Vallum is rather less than that of the Wall. Making a deduction of one-third on this account, and supposing that the distance which the Vallum falls short of the Wall at each extremity, makes amends for the increased labour of cutting through the rocky ground, we have 3,723,382 cubic yards to be removed, involving 465,422 days of forced labour. The whole could now be done for the sum of 23,271l. No account is taken of the labour expended in raising the earthen ramparts, or the cost of their construction, for the reason, that the removal of the earth from the fosse implied its being deposited somewhere; no place would be more convenient for this purpose than the mounds of the rampart.

Adding together these results, we find that the cost of the Wall and its north fosse would be 1,056,175l., and that the cost of the Vallum, added to this would form a total of 1,079,446l. The number of days’ labour involved in the Wall would be 2,400,249, and, adding to this, that of the Vallum, we have for the whole 2,865,671 days’ labour.

The largest number of men that we can conceive to be brought to bear at once upon the Wall, including such of the Roman troops as could be spared from military operations, is ten thousand. This body, at the rate already supposed, would, by continuous labour, execute the Wall and its ditch in 240 days, and, taking the Vallum also into account, in 286 days. In the exposed district over which the Wall runs, it is not probable that the weather would allow of the work being pursued during more than two hundred days in the year. If, in addition to this, we make deductions for the chances of war, two years may be stated as the shortest time in which the whole of the works could be executed.

A recent writer, who, in a work denominated ‘A History of the Picts or Romano-British Wall,’ adopts 96the notion of Gildas, that the stone wall was built, not by Hadrian or Severus, but by the trembling Britons on their abandonment by the Romans, supports his opinion by denominating the work an un-Roman-like defence, and argues that men who were unaccustomed to fear, would not seek the assistance of a wall and a ditch. However regardless of life the Romans may, in the abstract, have been, they knew how to economize their resources. In the battle of the Grampians, Agricola withheld his legionary soldiers, and made use only of his auxiliary troops. He could better afford to expend the one than the other. As well might a warrior despise the protection of a helmet or a shield, as refuse the defence of a stone wall.

The best refutation, however, of this theory, is the fact, that in other places the Romans, about the same period, raised similar barriers. At two of these we shall glance, before beginning a detailed inspection of the Barrier of the Lower Isthmus. The comparison will probably afford valuable instruction.

The Devil’s Wall, in Germany, bears many marks of resemblance to the English Wall. It seems^[50] to consist of the Pfahl, a mound of stakes, or vallum, ascribed to Hadrian, and a stone wall which is said to 97have been executed by some of his successors. The works extended westwards from Regensburg [Ratisbon] on the Danube, towards the sources of that river, a distance of nearly two hundred miles. They formed the boundary of the Roman empire in those parts where the Danube was not broad and deep enough to be of itself a sufficient protection. A deep trench ran along the Wall on its northern side, and along its southern face roads and camps were formed. At regular intervals of one mile, towers of observation were placed of the same size, though, being circular, not of the same form as the mile-castles on the English Wall. It is not possible, from the present remains, to determine with certainty the height or breadth of the Wall. ‘I found it in many places,’ says Professor Buchner, ‘from four to six, in others from ten to twelve, feet broad. We may therefore perhaps conclude, that its medium breadth was from six to seven feet, and that its height, as corresponding to this breadth, may have been from eighteen to twenty-four feet.’ The works have the same tendency to advance in a straight line as those of our own Barrier. ‘No mountain is so high, no abyss so steep, no wood so thick, no morass so profound, through which it does not penetrate.’ ‘The whole line of the fortification has been laid down and executed according to a well-digested plan.’

Graham’s Dike, so denominated probably from the Celtic words grym, strength, and diog, a ditch, is a barrier which fortified the Upper Isthmus of Britain. It extended from Borrowstoness, on the 98Firth of Forth, to West Kilpatrick, on the river Clyde, a distance of about twenty-seven English miles. It was constructed by Lollius Urbicus in the reign of Antoninus Pius, the adopted son of Hadrian. The following succinct account of this important design is taken from the ‘Caledonia Romana,’ a work of great ability, by the late lamented Mr. Robert Stuart, of Glasgow:—

This great military work consisted, in the first place, of an immense fosse or ditch—averaging about forty feet in width, by some twenty in depth—which extended over hill and plain, in one unbroken line, from sea to sea. Behind this ditch, on its southern side, and within a few feet of its edge, was raised a rampart of intermingled stone and earth, strengthened by sods of turf, which measured, it is supposed, about twenty feet in height, and twenty-four in thickness at the base. This rampart, or agger, was surmounted by a parapet, behind which ran a level platform, for the accommodation of its defenders. To the southward of the whole was situated the Military Way—a regular causewayed road, about twenty-feet wide—which kept by the course of the Wall at irregular distances, approaching, in some instances, to within a few yards, and in others receding to a considerable extent. Along the entire line there were established, it is believed, nineteen principal stations or forts. The mean distance between each may be stated at rather more than two English miles. Along these intervals were placed many smaller castella, or watch-towers. While the continuous rampart seems to have been little more than a well-formed earthen mound, it is probable that many, if not all, of the stations, were either rivetted with stone or entirely built of that material. In some places, it would even appear that the Vallum itself had been raised upon a stone foundation—probably in situations where the ground was low and marshy, and where it was found necessary to form drains beneath the works, to prevent the accumulation of water on their anterior side.

99The Barrier of the Upper Isthmus never consisted of more than a single line of fortification. This circumstance may seem to militate against the view that we have taken of the double line of the Southern Barrier. If in the one case the conquered tribes to the south were disregarded, why should they not be so in the other also? We shall not, however, greatly err if we regard the Antonine Wall as but an advanced work of Hadrian’s entrenchment. On this view of the matter, the difficulty is at once removed, for the Lower Barrier would be a sufficient security against danger in the rear. Certain it is, that the southern line was not abandoned when the other was constructed. Several altars have been found on the Lower Barrier inscribed with the name Antoninus Pius.^[51] A slab bearing the names of the consuls Sex. Sulpicius Tertullus, and C. Tineius Sacerdos, elicits the following remarks from judge Cay^[52]:—

These were consuls in A.D. 158; consequently, we have undeniable authority to assert, that Antoninus Pius repaired Hadrian’s Vallum (or, at least, the stations per lineam Valli), as well as built one between the Scottish Firths. This stone is certainly most valuable, as it clearly proves, that though Antoninus extended the boundary so far north, he could not, or durst not, trust the Mæatæ, but thought himself obliged to keep up the southern pretenturæ, lest they should, on any disturbance, join the Caledonians.

Such prudence is characteristic of good generalship. Napoleon never made an important move without first resolving what to do in case of failure. 100Assuredly Hadrian did not act in a manner unbecoming a Roman, when, at the same time that he shewed a stony front to the Caledonians, he placed an earthen rampart between himself and the doubtful fidelity of his southern subjects.

The position of the Barriers of the Lower and of the Upper Isthmus, and of the Devil’s Wall, in relation to the rivers in their vicinity, requires some remark. The Tyne in the eastern, and the Irthing and the Eden in the western part of the island, are uniformly to the south of the English Wall. A similar remark applies to the Devil’s Wall, in Germany, which is drawn along the northern shore of the Danube, the side exposed to the enemy. The Clyde, and its feeders, are to the south of the Antonine Wall. Why did the Romans not avail themselves of the natural trenches of these river-basins? The valley of the Tyne is peculiarly broad and deep. A chain of camps on its southern bank, where the mediæval castles afterwards stood, would alone, we might suppose, have bid defiance to the passage of any foe.

A similarity of practice in these cases favours the belief that important objects were to be accomplished by it. What are they?—

By erecting a chain of posts on the high grounds to the north of the rivers, a better observation of the movements of the enemy was obtained than would otherwise have been practicable. In the days of Roman occupation, large tracts of country, the banks of rivers especially, would be covered with forests. The conquerors, unless they had secured the enemy’s 101side of the river-basins, would have been perpetually subject to unexpected attacks. They could not be so easily taken by surprise on the high grounds of the northern slopes.

Probably the value of the land on the margin of the rivers, was an additional motive for the course pursued. The alluvial soil by a river’s side is usually the most fertile portion of a country. The banks of the Tyne and the Eden are peculiarly productive. Without a wall the enemy would have had undisputed possession of the slopes which enjoyed the finest aspect—that to the south—while those on the other side would have been subject to frequent depredation. This consideration is of the more importance, as the lands of the district were given to the soldiers who garrisoned the frontier, as a means of securing their fidelity.

So far from the importance of the natural boundary, the river, being overlooked by the Romans, I am disposed to regard the works on its northern bank as a proof of the value which they set upon it. The natural and the artificial barriers were probably regarded by them as but separate members of one complete fortification. In case of a rush of invasion from the North, the Wall would arrest the attack and the river entirely repel it. The stone and earth works would impede the progress of a foe, however formidable, and give time for the formation of an army on the southern bank of the stream. It was, moreover, ‘political in the Romans,’ as Stukely remarks,^[53] 'to leave on the north side of the Wall 102that huge tract of waterless and dismal moor, a great barren solitude, where in some places you may walk sixty miles endwise, without meeting with a house or tree; to ride is impracticable. Thus, as much as in them lay, without the horror of barbarity, did they remove the barbarians from their territories; whilst within the Wall, either naturally or by their industry, all things smiled like the garden of Eden.'

The vast hosts which the Caledonians were able to muster rendered all these precautions necessary; and it was, moreover, becoming in the Romans—a generation of warriors the mightiest the world has ever seen—to plant the foot firmly on any land they thought fit to occupy. Assuredly they did so in the Lower Isthmus of Britain.

Written Rock, at Fallow-field.

103

Little did the Romans dream, when they fixed the eastern termination of their Wall at Segedunum, of the world-wide celebrity which its subsequent cognomen—Wallsend—would attain. Even Horsley, writing in 1731, and in what he lovingly terms 'my own county,'^[54] did not foresee the extensive mining operations which shortly after his day were to take place 104in its immediate vicinity. In order to mark the site of the station, he fixes upon Cousin’s House, which is at some distance from the spot, whereas, the principal shaft of the celebrated mine is close beside its western rampart.

105SEGEDUNUM, Wallsend, is admirably selected as the site of a Roman station, and as the eastern terminus of the Wall. Without being so much|SEGEDUNUM.| elevated as to give it a painful exposure to the blasts of the north and of the east, it commands a 106view, in every direction, of the adjacent country. The ground, in front of it, slopes rapidly down to the river’s brink, and has a full exposure to the mid-day sun. The beauty of its situation is considerable now; what must it have been when aged oaks crowned the contiguous heights, and the Tyne rolled by in the brilliancy and exuberance of its youth!

Eastward of Wallsend, the river acquires a sufficient magnitude to make it a barrier quite formidable enough to prevent the ready passage of a foe, and to render the erection of a wall unnecessary. Frequently, however, would it be needful for the watchful eye of the Roman prefect at Segedunum to 107traverse the expanse which lay between him and the sea. This he could easily do. The station stands upon a bend of the river, formed by two of the longest ‘reaches’ which it makes in the whole of its course. The Long-reach extends downwards as far as the high end of South Shields, and the Bill-reach stretches nearly two miles up the water. In both directions, therefore, any operations conducted on the river would be easily discerned from the station.

Although it was not thought requisite to extend the Wall further along the northern bank of the Tyne than Wallsend, special precautions were taken to secure the mouth of the river from hostile occupation. 108A camp at Tynemouth, and another at North Shields, were garrisoned by troops from the head quarters at Segedunum; these frowned over the northern shore of the estuary. A subsidiary station at Tyne Lawe, near South Shields, and another at Jarrow, guarded its southern bank, whilst one at Wardley, opposite Wallsend, would effectually support, on that side of the river, the operations of the garrison in the principal encampment. All of these will be examined afterwards.

The evidence by which Wallsend is identified with the Segedunum of the Notitia is not so direct as could be desired. First in the list of officers ‘along the line of the Wall,’ the Notitia places the Tribune of the fourth cohort of the Lergi at Segedunum. Now, no inscription has been found in Britain mentioning the Lergi, but inscriptions have been found which mention the second and fourth cohorts of the Lingones; on the other hand, the Lingones never occur in the Notitia, but the cohorts of the Lergi which are there recorded, are the second and the fourth. This being the case, and the difference in the form of the Latin words Lergorum and Lingonum being very slight, the probability is, as Mr. Thomas Hodgson, in an able paper in the Archæologia Æliana, conjectures, that some early transcriber of the Notitia has written the one in mistake for the other. Within the precincts of Tynemouth Castle, in the year 1783, an altar was found, which formed part of the foundation of an ancient church. It is now in the possession of the Society of Antiquaries 109of London. The adjoining wood-cut accurately delineates it. The inscription may be read as follows:

On the supposition, which is a natural one, that Tynemouth was a station subsidiary to Wallsend, this altar gives satisfactory proof that the first of the stations at the eastern extremity of the Wall is the Segedunum of the Notitia. On some occasion, when the prefect who commanded the estuary of the Tyne, was on a visit to this out-post, he erected to Jupiter, whom he ignorantly worshipped, the altar which still remains.

110The etymology of the names of the stations is an interesting, but intricate subject. The new occupants of a country usually adopt the appellations bestowed by their predecessors upon its more prominent features. Thus, though in England the ancient Briton, Roman, Saxon, Norman, and modern English, have successively prevailed, many of our most familiar rivers, as the Thames, the Isis, and the Avon, have borne, as Whitaker shows, through each successive change, their present names. The appellations of cities are much more variable, but some even of these are indelible. Strange as a painted Briton of the first century would feel himself in the streets of modern London, its name would fall on his ear as an accustomed sound.

The Romans were a minority in Britain; and, in their intercourse with the natives, would be compelled to adopt the nomenclature of the people. We may, therefore, expect to find that the names of the stations are essentially British, though somewhat altered by the imperfect pronunciation of the strangers, and by a ceaseless effort to recast the words in the mould of their own tongue. The change most frequently introduced consists in the addition of Latin terminations. The names given by the aborigines of a country are usually descriptive of the object to which they are attached: they are epithets changed into proper names. Accordingly, we find that the names of the stations, so far as they have been deciphered by the assistance of those modern representatives of the ancient British tongue—the Gaelic and native Irish—are descriptive of the locality.

111Segedunum is an unfortunate example to begin with. There was a Segedunum in Aquitania, the modern Rodez—a Segodunum in Northern Germany, the modern Siegen. The camp at Wallsend may have received its name from some resemblence to one of these. Still the question remains, What was the common origin of the term? Wallis thinks it is derived from the Latin seges, corn, and the Celtic dunum, a hill; but, excepting in extreme cases, an etymology dependent upon two languages can scarcely be admitted. A more consistent derivation is found in the Celtic sech, (the root of the French sec) dry, and dun, a hill. The final syllable is a Latin affix. The elevation of the spot, and its rapid slope to the river, would render it comparatively free from moisture.^[55]

Whatever doubt may hang over the Roman name of this station, none attaches to the modern—Wallsend

The number of places along the course of the Wall which have derived their names from this great work, is very striking, and proves the importance that has 112been attached to it. Without examining a map, and simply drawing upon the resources of my own memory and note-book, the following examples occur: In Northumberland, we have Wallsend, Walker, Wall-knoll in Newcastle, Benwell, Wallbottle, Heddon-on-the-Wall, Welton, Wall-houses, Wall, Walwick, Shields-on-the-Wall, Wall-mill, Walltown, Thirlwall, and Wall-end; in Cumberland, we have Walton, Wallbours, Old-Wall, High Wallhead, Middle Wallhead, Low Wallhead, Wallby, and Wallfoot.

The present village of Wallsend is about half a mile distant from the station, a little to the north of the turnpike road. It is, however, of modern erection. Brand says that ‘an old woman, still living, remembers when the site of the present Wallsend was an empty field.’ The traditional account of its erection is, that a plague having desolated the original town, which stood upon the site of the camp, and was built out of its ruins, the terrified inhabitants forsook the spot, and sought shelter in the new locality.

PLATE IV.

SECTION, after Warburton, of the Mountains at Bradley,
shewing the relation, in the hill-district, between the Wall
and the Vallum.
REID. LITHO. NEWCASTLE.

A person unaccustomed to examine the remains of Roman forts, will probably be disappointed to find the ramparts of Wallsend so feebly marked; but one who brings to the task a practised eye, will give a good account of the land, and express his surprise 113that so much of the camp is left. The station, it must be remembered, is situated on the edge of a river the scene of an immense commerce, in the vicinity of a large town, and in the centre of a great mining district.

The station of Segedunum has occupied an area of three acres and a half. The Wall, coming from the west, has struck the north cheek of its western gateway, and there terminated. The walls of the station would be a sufficient protection to the garrison against attack from the north or other quarters, but to prevent the enemy getting within the barrier, by passing between the station and the river, the eastern wall of the station has been brought down to the river, and continued into it to low-water mark.^[56]

Drawn & Lithographedby John Storey
WALLSEND, LOOKING EAST.

In tracing the outline of the station it will be well to begin at Carville-hall, the 'Cousin’s-house,'^[57] of 114Horsley. Between it and the Gosforth ‘waggon-way,’ the north fosse of the Wall is very distinct, a gravelled path, for some distance, occupies the site of the Wall.^[58] Behind the Methodist-chapel the ditch may still be traced, but after that it disappears. The row of houses between the chapel and the station is manifestly very close upon the line of the Wall. The old engine-house, which Brand tells us was six yards north of the Wall, still remains. The whole of the ramparts of the northern section of the station are gone; the walls of the southern portion of it may, however, be traced rising in the form of a grassy mound above the general level of the soil. The continuation of the eastern wall of the station down the bank to the river’s edge, may also be recognised, not only by the gentle mound which it forms, but by the fragments of Roman mortar, Roman tile, and coarse-grained sandstone, not proper to the district, which may be picked up on it. This river-wall joins the Tyne at the spot where a jetty has recently been formed. Numerous swellings in the ground to the south, and to the east of the station, indicate the ruins of suburban buildings. These seem to have been invariable concomitants of 115stationary camps. Officers wishing to have more space than the fort allowed, the families of the soldiers, the camp followers, and others, who sought the protection of a fortified post, would occupy such dwellings. The sunny exposure of the streets on the south of the camp, would render them peculiarly acceptable to the Lingones who came from that part of Gaul where the Meuse and Marne have their source.^[59] The fosse which protected the eastern rampart, is still distinctly visible, and generally contains a little water. The accompanying lithographic view is given chiefly with the intention of showing the extensive command which the station had of the river below it; the south-east angle of the rampart may be traced upon it, as well as the fosse beyond. The altar, represented in the foreground, was found in the vicinity of the station a few years ago, and is still preserved upon the spot, it is without an inscription, but has a hole drilled through its centre, which it had when found. An extensive natural valley protected the western side of the camp, which some years ago was partially filled up, in order to form the waggon-way. The house occupied by the late Mr. John Buddle, the eminent colliery viewer, is just within the western wall of the station, and that, formerly occupied by Mr. John Reay, is just within the eastern rampart. The waggon-way leading from the Wallsend pit seems to enter the station by its western portal, and to leave it 116by its eastern, and thus exactly traverses the via principalis of the camp. The only trace of the northern division of the station that remains, consists |SEGEDUNUM.|of the road which has apparently led from Segedunum to the out-posts at Blake-chesters and Tyne-mouth. This causeway extends from the station to the north of the Shields railway; it is formed of a mass of rubble, about two feet deep, and is eleven yards wide. It cannot be ploughed, and nothing that requires any depth of earth will grow upon it.

Numerous proofs of Roman occupation have been discovered at various times in the station and its vicinity. Brand says, ‘I found a fibula, some Roman tegulæ, and coins, a ring, &c. Immense quantities of bones and teeth of animals are continually turning up. Stones with inscriptions were found, but the incurious masons built them up again in the new works of the colliery.’ Dr. Lingard was told, that in digging a cellar under the dining room of Mr. Buddle’s house, a deep well was found. I have been informed by Mr. John Reay, that another was discovered outside the station, at the spot shown on the plan of the station, Plate IV. A structure, which was conceived to be a bath, was struck upon about the same time, near the river’s brink; it was immediately removed, but its site is marked on the plan. Many coins have been found, but most of them in a very corroded state. A beautiful piece of Samian ware was got in sinking the shaft of the colliery, which is now in possession of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle-upon-Tyne; it is figured in a subsequent Plate.

117Leaving Wallsend, and proceeding westward, the Wall is chiefly to be traced by the presence of its north fosse. This is very distinctly marked nearly all the way to Byker. In front of Stote’s-houses, the Beehouses of Horsley, it forms a pond, which is used for farm purposes. Some traces of the foundation of the Wall may be seen, but they are faint. Thirty years ago the Wall was standing, for a considerable distance, three and four feet high, covered with brushwood of hazel, oak, and alder. The tendency of the half-ruined Wall to give lodgement to the roots of these plants, is very remarkable; wherever the Wall is undisturbed they are found, and in regions where the hazel does not occur elsewhere, as in the neighbourhood of Bowness, it is to be met with abundantly upon the Wall.

A mound, a little more elevated than the neighbouring ground, near to Stote’s-houses, points out the site of the first mile-castle west of Wallsend. The tenant of the farm told me that he had got a great quantity of stones from it. In Horsley’s time, there were ‘two distinct tumuli remaining near the Bee-houses’; what I take to be the rudiments of them may yet be traced; one of them is just behind the stack-yard of the farm, the other, the least marked of the two, a little to the west of it.

The road that is seen stretching in a straight line up the hill to Byker indicates the direction of the Wall, and though the first, it is by no means the most remarkable instance that we shall meet with, of the unflinching and straightforward tendencies of this 118remarkable structure. The Wall stood on the south side of the present road. The facing-stones having already been removed, and it being desirable to have the rocky remnant entirely cleared away, the ground was let to parties without rent for a short term of years, on condition of their clearing it, and bringing it into cultivation. It is on this account that the site of the Wall and fosse, even yet, is portioned out in long narrow slips, which are, for the most part, used as potato gardens.

From the top of Byker-hill, an interesting view is obtained of the Tyne and the numerous hives of busy men which bestud its banks. This would be an important post for the Roman soldier, who could easily see from it the stations on either hand—Segedunum and Pons Ælii—and all that was going on between them.

Between Byker and Newcastle, all traces of the Wall are now nearly destroyed. In 1725, it was, however, standing in a condition of imposing grandeur, as appears from Stukeley’s ‘Prospect’ of it in the Iter Boreale. He was induced to make this drawing because ‘the country being entirely undermined’ by colliery excavations, it might ‘some time or other sink, and so disorder the track of this stately work.’ He dreaded an imaginary evil, and overlooked a real one.

The north fosse was, till recently, very distinct within the wall of Heaton-park; it is now filled up; many of the stones in the park-wall, are to all appearance, Roman. Before descending the hill, 119a portion of it, boldly developed, may yet be seen at the end of a small row of houses called Howard-street.

At the head of the bank overlooking the Ouse-burn stood a mile-castle, as was usual in such situations, to guard the pass. Two stones which, I am persuaded, formed part of the entrance gateway of this mile-tower, now stand upon the stairs leading to the grand entrance of the keep of the Castle of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. They measure two feet by one, and are of the form usually employed in the portals of mile castles. One of them bears a rude, and almost unintelligible, inscription. These stones were found built up in a structure on the west bank of the Ouseburn, were thence taken to Busy Cottage, afterwards removed to Heaton, and finally presented to the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

The Wall crossed the Ouse-burn very near the ancient bridge which is about a hundred and fifty yards south of the railway viaduct. In preparing the foundations of Mr. Beckinton’s steam-mill about the year 1800, the workmen came upon the Wall, and, with great good taste, built into the opposite quay three of the largest stones they met with, in order to mark its site; they may yet be seen at low water, and are evidently mile-castle stones.

It is not possible to trace the Wall with minute accuracy through Newcastle, a town which has been the seat of a large and active population ever since the days of Roman occupation. In endeavouring to follow its route, I shall mainly depend upon the 120investigations of Mr. George Bouchier Richardson, who has for several years past made the antiquities of ‘the Metropolis of the North’ his especial study, and whose paper upon this subject, recently read before the Society of Antiquaries of this town, will doubtless speedily appear in the Archæologia Æliana.

Rising from the western bank of the Ouse-burn, it traversed the north side of Stepney-bank, passed through the gardens at the Red Barns, along the site of the present Melbourne-street, and, proceeding behind the Keelmen’s Hospital, came to the Sallyport. This, which was one of the gates of the town, is sometimes described as a Roman building, but is of mediæval origin. Thence, the Wall went over the crest of the hill still called the Wall-knoll, where the foundations of it were turned up about the middle of the last century. It crossed Pandon-dean on the north side of the locality called the Stock-bridge, and, in its western course, ascended the steep hill, on the summit of which stands All Saints’ church. Brand tells us that the crypt of the old church had plainly been built of stones plundered from the adjacent Wall. A well of Roman masonry is said to have been discovered near the church when the foundations of the new building were prepared. Crossing Pilgrim-street a little above Silver-street, the course of the Wall is indicated by the present narrow street called the Low bridge. Until a comparatively recent period, the site of Dean-street formed the unenclosed bed of the Lort-burn, and was spanned by an arch called the 121Low-bridge. At the point where this mediæval viaduct stood, its Roman predecessor carried the Wall, with its attendant military way, across the gully. The church of St. Nicholas, according to Leland, whose statement is confirmed by subsequent writers, ‘stondithe on the very Picts Waulle.’ The Wall, leaving the church, crosses Collingwood-street in an oblique direction, and passing by St. John’s church, the Vicarage-house, and the Assembly-rooms, makes for the Town-wall somewhat to the north of the site of the West-gate. There can be little doubt that in its exit from the town, the Wall occupied the elevation on which Cumberland-row now stands.

PONS ÆLII.—Having tracked the Wall in its passage through the modern town, the site of the ancient station of Pons Ælii next demands attention.

Horsley is the only writer who has attempted to define its limits, and he had but slender evidence to guide him. He takes, as his data, the three following facts:—1. The course of the Wall westward, which he conceives, and no doubt correctly, would form the northern boundary of the station; 2. The direction of the Vallum, some portions of which remained, in his day, just outside the West-gate; 3. 'A traditionary account of the Wall having passed through St. George’s porch, near the north-west corner of St. Nicholas’-church.' As this porch stands a little to the south of the line of the great Wall, as laid down by him, he conceives that this traditionary wall must have been the east wall of the station, and draws it upon 122his plan accordingly.^[60] The western wall now only remained to be determined, and this point was easily settled, by supposing the station to have been square. According to the line assigned by him to the Vallum, six chains is the distance which would intervene between it and the Wall; he therefore places the western rampart of the station at the corresponding distance of six chains from the eastern, and encloses altogether an area of little more than three acres.

It may well be doubted whether the important station of Pons Ælii would be subjected to the ordinary rules of castrametation. I am strongly disposed to think, that it would partake of the features of a commercial as well as of a military capital, and that its walls would not only embrace a wider range than ordinary camps, but would be allowed to adapt themselves more freely to the nature of the ground.

The wants of the immense body of troops required to garrison the Wall, and man its out-posts, would create a considerable amount of commerce. The inhabitants of Italy, Gaul, and Spain, would be unwilling all at once to forego the comforts and luxuries of their sunny climes, and to be entirely cut off from intercourse with the land of their nativity. The fragments of amphoræ, which are so 123abundantly met with on the line of the Wall, shew that the soldiers sometimes gladdened their hearts with the wine of their native hills; and the innumerable sherds of Samian ware, which usually bestrew the camps of Roman occupation, prove that a continual intercourse was kept up with the continent. To the sea, as a means of communication between many of the stations of Roman Britain, frequent recourse would be had.

The exports from this island to the continent were considerable. Camden tells us, that every year not less than eight hundred vessels laden with corn alone were sent out of it. Certain it is, that the imperial government would expect an adequate return for the expenditure occasioned by the troops in this country, and that the commodities of the continent would not be transmitted to the occupants of the Wall from motives of mere benevolence. Lead, which is now so abundant in the three northern counties, would probably form one article of export, and corn another. Those who have noticed the fertility of some portions of the region watered by the Tyne, will be able to conceive how luxuriant were the harvests which its alluvial soil produced when first turned up by the plough. It is certain that coal has been wrought to some extent in Roman times, and some of it may have been exported.

No place in the north of England was so well fitted as Newcastle to be the emporium of the commerce of the North. Situated upon a noble river, at about ten miles from its mouth, it combined the naval advantages 124of the coast, with the security of an inland situation. The wealth arising from the commerce of the port would increase its importance, and the facility with which foreign news and foreign luxuries could be obtained, would render it the frequent resort of those prefects and tribunes whose usual posts were in bleaker and more inhospitable regions. The fact that the river was at this part spanned by a bridge of many arches, is a striking indication of the importance of the place even in the days of the emperor Hadrian.

No account has come down to us of the state of Newcastle in the days of Roman occupation, but if, after it had been deprived of the advantages which the residence of the mural garrison conferred upon it, the venerable Bede calls it 'an illustrious royal city'—'vico regis illustri'—we must conclude that it was a place of considerable importance. The natural advantages of the situation struck the eye of Camden; ‘Now’, says he, ‘where the Wall and Tine almost meet together, Newcastle sheweth itself gloriously the very eye of all the townes in these parts.’

Under these circumstances, there seems to be no reason why the walls of Pons Ælii should form the usual military parallelogram any more than Roman Rochester, or Pompeii, or Rome itself, much less that the station should occupy an area of little more than three acres.

The contour of the ground on which the modern Newcastle stands, is peculiar. It consists of three tongues of land, separated by natural valleys permeated 125by rivulets. The westernmost of these presents the boldest front to the river, and is that on which the Castle stands; the Skinner-burn bounds it on the west, and the valley of the Lort-burn, the present Dean-street, on the east. The contiguous tongue lies between the Lort-burn and Pandon-dean; and that still further removed, has for its eastern boundary the Ouse-burn. The same natural advantages which recommended the heights of the most westerly of these strips of ground to the Normans for the erection of their stronghold, would no doubt previously induce the Romans to select it as their chief position. They probably enclosed nearly the whole of it within their walls. Horsley, indeed, places his camp in this division, but in the least advantageous part of it, whether considered in a military or in a commercial point of view. The Romans would surely not overlook the importance of the ravine of Dean-street as a defence on the east, especially at a time when the tide flowed up it as far as the Painter-heugh, and of the cliff that descends from the Castle to the river on the south. The necessity of defending the bridge, and commanding the Tyne would not be forgotten. Taking all these things into account, we may fairly suppose the walls of Pons Ælii to have been thus defined:—The Wall, passing through the site of St. Nicholas’-church, would, of course, be its northern boundary; a line coming from the church, and adapting itself to the crest of the hill that overhangs Dean-street, crossing the Head-of-the-Side and stretching as far as the elevated angle on which the County-courts 126now stand, will probably mark its eastern boundary; the southern rampart would run from this angle along the edge of the cliff overhanging the Close, as far as the site of the White-friar-tower, which stood at the head of the present Hanover-street; the western wall may have run in the line of the Town-wall as far as Neville-tower, and then have struck up in a straight line to meet the great Wall. Westward of this boundary, the ground slopes down to the Skinner-burn. If these lines are correctly drawn, Roman Newcastle would contain upwards of sixteen acres.

Although the camp of Pons Ælii occupied this tongue of land, there is no reason to suppose that suburban buildings were not erected on the other two, both of which are well protected by their natural situation. There is good ground to believe that Pandon, which was formerly a separate town from Newcastle, and is seated on the middle strip, was of Roman origin. Villas and gardens probably extended as far as the Ouse-burn.

In order to render the preceding description intelligible to persons unacquainted with the topography of Newcastle, a plan of the town (Plate V.) and a lithographic view of Pons Ælii are appended. In the plan of the town, Horsley’s demarkation of the station, as well as the one here proposed, is laid down. For the view of Pons Ælii, the frontispiece, I am indebted to the pencil of Mr. G. Bouchier Richardson; the contour of the ground is very accurately delineated, and the probable outline of the 127station marked; the details of the picture are of course filled up according to the artist’s fancy—a fancy regulated by his antiquarian knowledge.

PLATE V.

Plan of PONS ÆLII AND OF THE COURSE OF THE WALL THROUGH NEWCASTLE ON TYNE.
And^w. Reid s.c.

Roman antiquities, which, when they abound, are so serviceable in defining the seat of Roman occupation, are unfortunately here rather scanty and unimportant. This cannot be matter of surprise. In the middle ages, Newcastle abounded in churches and monastic buildings. To the erection of these and of the Castle, the Town-wall, and Gates, every stone whether lettered, sculptured, or plain, that could easily be obtained, would be appropriated.

The precincts of the Castle have afforded the most important discoveries of this kind. The present County-courts occupy the site of a building which used to be called the Half-moon-battery. This was probably the position of the south-east angle of the station of Pons Ælii, and some of the lines of the octagonal face of the battery presented no doubt the actual curve of the station. To a certain extent the Norman builders may have converted to their own uses a portion of the labours of their imperial predecessors; appearances seemed to shew that the Castle wall between the Half-moon-battery and the Black-gate had rested upon a Roman foundation. When the County-courts were built, some important discoveries were made. Mr. Hodgson, who watched the progress of the excavations, has thus described them:—

In digging for the foundations for the Northumberland County Court-house, in 1810, a well was found finely cased with Roman masonry. It still remains below the centre part 128of the present court-house. It had originally been a spring, or sunk low down on the river bank, and its circular wall, raised within another strong wall in the form of a trapezium to the height of the area of the station, and the space between them traversed with strong connecting beams of oak both horizontally and perpendicularly, and then tightly packed up with pure blue clay. Some beams of this timber were taken up and formed into the judges’ seats, and chairs for the grand-jury room, now in use. Two of the perpendicular beams had very large stags’ horns at their lower end, apparently to assist in steadying them till clay sufficient was put around them to keep them upright. On the original slope of the bank next the outer wall, there was a thick layer of ferns, grasses, brambles, and twigs of birch and oak, closely matted together, and evidently showing that before these works were constructed, man had not tenanted the spot.^[61] Here also were exposed large remains of the foundations of other very thick and strong walls, one of which rose into the eastern wall of the Old Moot-hall, which was of exactly the same breadth, bearing, and style of building, and doubtless of the same date as the Roman foundations of which it was a continuance.

The whole site of the Court-house, for several feet above the original surface of the earth, was strewn with a chaos of Roman ruins. I was frequently on the spot while the excavations were carrying on, and saw dug up large quantities of Roman pottery, two bronze coins of Antoninus Pius, parts of the shaft of a Corinthian pillar, fluted, and of the finest workmanship; besides many millstones, and two altars, one bearing an illegible inscription, and the other quite plain. The altars were found near the north-east corner of the Court-house, and near them a small axe, and a concave stone, which bore marks of fire, was split, and had thin flakes of lead in its fissures. The broad foundation walls were firm and impenetrable as the hardest rock. On Aug. 11, 1812, when the foundations 129of the north portico were sinking, a Roman coin was found (of what Emperor I have no minute,) and the original surface of the ground was covered with a thick stratum of small wood, some parts of which were wattled together in the form of crates or the corfs of collieries, but in a decayed state, and cut as easily with the workmen’s spades, as the brushwood found in peat mosses does. As there was much horse or mules’ dung near them, and some mules’ shoes amongst it, I thought they had been fixed there as crates or racks to eat fodder out of.

Since that period, few important discoveries have been made. In cutting the crest of the hill in front of the Castle for one of the piers of the Railway viaduct, a small stone figure of Mercury, represented in the adjoining wood-cut,^[62] was found. It is preserved, among other antiquities, in the Museum in the Castle.

Between the years 1840 and 1844, the White-friar-tower and the contiguous portions of the Town-wall of Newcastle were removed. Two Roman altars were discovered, which are now in the possession of the Society of Antiquaries, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. One of them is destitute of an inscription, and the other seems to bear the word SILVANO. Several coins of the Roman and mediæval age were picked up in its immediate vicinity. The Roman coins were of both the upper and the lower empire.

130From the manner in which the pieces of the middle and ancient periods were commingled, a thing of rare occurrence, it may be inferred that the tower was formed out of Roman materials, and that the Roman coins were re-imbedded without being noticed, whilst the workmen inadvertently added Nuremberg tokens and other contemporary pieces to the numismatic treasures of the spot.

But, perhaps, the structure which gave name to Pons Ælii affords the most interesting foot-prints of Roman occupation in Newcastle.

Horsley received sufficient evidence to convince him, that a Roman road had gone from the south bank of the Tyne to Chester-le-street, and thence to the south of England. A bridge was necessary to conduct the road across the river. In 1771, a flood having carried away several of the arches of the bridge which then existed, and materially damaged the rest of the structure, it was found necessary to erect a new one. In removing the old piers the distinguishing characteristics of Roman masonry were observed; and the workmen were led to believe that the arches of the mediæval structure had been placed upon the foundations which Hadrian laid. Several piles of fine black oak, which had supported the foundation, were drawn out of the bed of the river, and found to be in a state of excellent preservation.^[63]

131The coins that were found imbedded in the piers give decided evidence of the Roman origin of the structure. To some of these, in the possession of George Rippon, esq., of Waterville, North Shields, I have had access; they are here represented.

Obv.—HADRIANUS AUGUSTUS, CONSUL TERTIUM. PATER PATRIÆ. Bare head of Hadrian.

Rev.—GERMANIA. The province personified as a female standing. In her right she holds a lance; her left hand rests upon a German-shaped shield.

Obv.—IMPERATOR CÆSAR TRAJANUS HADRIANUS AUGUSTUS. Laureated head of Hadrian.

Rev.—PONTIFEX MAXIMUS TRIBUNITIA POTESTATE CONSUL TERTIUM. A female figure, with helmet, standing, holding a lance in her left hand, and in her right a patera, under which is an object that appears to be an altar.

Obv.—Same as the former; but CONSUL SECUNDUM.

Rev.—Legend same as the former, but in the exergue JUSTITIA. A female seated; in her right hand a patera, in her left a spear.

Obv.—Same as the two former.

Rev.—Same as in the former, but in the exergue. FEL PR (Felicitas Populi Romani). A female seated; in her right hand a caduceus, in her left a cornucopia.

Obv.—SEVERUS AUGUSTUS PARTHICUS MAXIMUS. Laureated head of the emperor.

Rev.—PROVIDENTIA AUGUSTORUM. The figure of a female standing, with a globe at her feet.

The coins of Hadrian are remarkably bold and sharp, and cannot have been long in circulation before being 132deposited in the bed where sixteen centuries of repose awaited them; that of Severus is a good deal corroded. Besides these, other coins have been found. Brand had one of Trajan, and he engraves a copper coin of Hadrian; he also had in his possession one of Antoninus Pius. Pennant describes, amongst others, a coin of Faustina the Elder, and one of Lucius Verus. Hodgson saw coins of Gordian and Magnentius, all of which had been obtained from the same spot.

The coins posterior to the time of Hadrian were probably deposited during the repairs and alterations which the bridge received after its original construction in A.D. 120.

It is probable that the ancient bridge had no stone arches, but was provided with a horizontal road-way of timber. Pennant^[64] who derived his information from the workmen, says, that ‘the old piers seem originally to have been formed without any springs for arches. This was a manner of building used by the Romans; witness the bridge built over the Danube by Trajan, at Severin, whose piers, I believe, still exist.’

The foundations of the piers of three Roman bridges in the region of the Wall, still remain—one across the Tyne, at Corstopitum, one across the North Tyne, at Cilurnum, and another across the Reed-water, at Habitancum; an examination of these has induced me to believe that they, at least, had no arches. The piers are of a size and strength 133sufficient to withstand the thrust of the waters without the aid of an arch; and in one at least of these cases, the requisite spring of the arch would have raised the road to an inconvenient height. An experienced mason who examined carefully the ruins of the bridge at Habitancum told me that he observed that all the stones which encumbered the spot were square, none of them having the shape of stones used in building arches. It is certain that in the mediæval period the Newcastle bridge had a road-way of timber; for Matthew of Paris tells us that, A.D. 1248, it, and the greater part of the town were destroyed by fire.

Brand, misled by the early numismatists, conceived that the bridge across the Tyne had been honoured by a commemorative medal. He says—

Two coins appear to have been struck upon the building of two bridges by this emperor; one is doubtless to be referred to that of Rome; may not the other have been intended to commemorate the work we are now considering? One of the bridges marked on these coins has seven, the other five arches. The Tiber being a very inconsiderable river, when compared with the Tyne, we must therefore claim that with seven arches—especially as we find a view of the Pons Ælius at Rome in Piranesi’s collection, without the modern ornaments, where it is represented as consisting of exactly five arches.^[65]

Alas! for a theory so beautiful and so grateful to the feelings of Newcastle antiquaries! Mr. Akerman, in his work on rare and inedited Roman coins, has pronounced the relentless verdict—‘The 134medallion with the Pont Ælius, quoted by the early numismatic writers, is a modern fabrication.’

It is perhaps too much to suppose that all the arches of the mediæval bridge rested upon Roman foundations, but it is more than probable that the piers of the original structure would be at least as numerous as those of its successor. The mediæval bridge had twelve arches.

No altar or other inscribed stone has been found to confirm the opinion that Newcastle was the ancient Pons Ælii. Brand was ‘of opinion that the inscriptions belonging to the station of Pons Ælii are all built up in the old keep of the Castle, and that a rich treasure of this kind will some time or other be discovered, lurking in its almost impregnable walls, by future antiquaries.’ May the antiquary never be born that shall behold this treasure! Such evidence is, however, scarcely needed to lead us to the ancient designation of the place. The fact that Pons Ælii occurs in the Notitia between Segedunum and Condercum, and that Newcastle lies between the modern representatives of these two stations, Wallsend and Benwell, is strong presumption in favour of the theory, and the fact that a Roman bridge here crossed the Tyne, renders it almost indubitable. This structure took the name of the Bridge of Ælius, after Hadrian,^[66] who was of the 135Ælian family, and the bridge gave name to the station. The Notitia informs us that Pons Ælii was governed by the tribune of the cohort of the Cornovii, ‘a people,’ says Hodgson, ‘whose name is unnoticed by all the ancient geographers I have access to.’

Before leaving the station of Pons Ælii, a reference to the mediæval structure—the Norman keep—which gives the town its modern name, may be allowed. It is the most perfect specimen of Norman castrametation in the kingdom; and a careful examination of its structure will yield a more correct view of the mode of warfare adopted at the time of its erection, and of the mournful condition of society then existing, than the fullest verbal description could give. Within a recent period its passages have been cleared and its portals opened, so as to afford the antiquary an opportunity of examining it thoroughly. The Corporation of Newcastle, whose property it is, have, in this respect, set an example which might with advantage be followed by the national government. To the student of the Wall, however, the collection of Roman antiquities which the castle contains, will be the object of greatest interest. In the number and importance of its altars and inscribed stones, it excels every other museum in Britain. As the Castle contains so many of the spoils of the Wall, it is much to be wished that it could be made the depository of all that have been discovered on the line. Numerous individual objects of interest are scattered over the country, and he who would examine them all 136must travel several hundred miles, and propitiate the favour of many private gentlemen, as well as public bodies. Documents illustrative of the history of a country may be regarded as the property of the country, so far at least, as to be made easily accessible to all. Pons Ælii is the fitting place to deposit those antiquities of the Wall which cannot be carefully preserved on the spot where the Romans originally placed them.

The reader will probably now be glad to disentangle himself from the intricacies of Pons Ælii, and to pursue with rapid steps the course of the Wall westward.

Between Newcastle and Benwell-hill, the traces of the works are faint but interesting. The turnpike road runs upon the bed of the prostrate Wall, so that, except occasionally in a neighbouring building, not one stone of it is to be seen; its constant companion, the north fosse, may, however, be recognized in a kind of depression or slack, which runs nearly all the way parallel with the road on the traveller’s right hand. On his left, he will sometimes be able to discern with tolerable certainty the course of the Vallum. A small, but well defined portion of it, is met with immediately after leaving the town, behind a row of houses, appropriately termed Adrianople. Though the stone wall has perished, this humble earth-work has survived the accidents of seventeen eventful centuries! Its days, however, are now 137numbered; a contiguous quarry is making rapid encroachments upon it.

CONDERCUM.—About two miles from Newcastle, and near the modern village of Benwell, stood the third station of the line, Condercum.

The present turnpike road runs through it, occupying, in all probability, very nearly the site of its ancient via principalis. So feeble, however, are the traces of it which remain, that the wayfarer who does not scrutinize the spot very narrowly, will pass on his journey without knowing that he is treading ground once jealously guarded by imperial power—the scene, for centuries, of a crowded city’s joys and fears.

The situation of the camp is good; without being much exposed, it commands an extensive prospect in every direction. Northwards, looking over the grounds of Fenham, the Simonside hills appear in the distance, and still more remote, is the lofty range of Cheviot. To the south is the vale of Ravensworth, which is exceeded by the vale of Clwyd only in magnitude, not in beauty, and to the south-west, the lordly Tyne threads its way through the richest of landscapes.

The sunny slope, south of the station, was favourable for the erection of the suburban buildings of the occupants of the camp, the foundations of several having been discovered.

In Horsley’s days, the ramparts were large and distinct; now, their surface is chiefly marked by a 138general elevation, occasioned probably by the accumulated ruins of the ancient fort. It contains in all a space of nearly five acres. Gordon conceived that the Wall was continued right through the station. This would have divided it into two distinct parts. As Horsley and Brand prove, the Wall came up to its eastern and western ramparts, but did not pass through it. The northern wall of the station itself was a sufficient defence in that quarter. About a third of the station was to the north of the line of the Wall, the remaining two-thirds were within it. The Vallum, Horsley tells us, fell in with the southern rampart.

The portion north of the turnpike road is at present under tillage. In Brand’s days it was covered with a plantation. The man who first ploughed it told me that in doing so, his horse, on one occasion, sank up to its middle in traversing some chambers that had been insecurely covered. The quantity of Roman pottery which is found in this portion of the camp is remarkable. Fragments may be seen at every step. The peculiar character of the Roman earthenware, especially of the coral-coloured kind, denominated Samian, renders this an interesting evidence of Roman occupation.

The larger portion of the station, that to the south of the road, is enclosed within the walls of Benwell-park. The inequalities of its grassy surface indicate the lines of its streets, and the position of some of its principal buildings. Near its centre is a large mound, which would probably reward examination. 139The southern rampart, with its fosse, is very distinct.

Two hypocausts have been discovered in connexion with this station; one within its walls, close to the south side of the road, and between forty and fifty yards from the eastern rampart, the other without them, and about three hundred yards to the south-west. Of the latter building a plan is given by Brand. It contained eight or nine apartments, five of which had floors supported upon pillars. The floors consisted of ‘flags covered with a composition of various hard ingredients, about eighteen inches thick, such as small pieces of brick and blue and red pots, mixed up with run lime.’ The pillars were all of stone, and were so arranged as to allow hot air to circulate beneath the apartments. The idea generally entertained of these arrangements is, that they were intended for hot baths and sudatories. In pursuance of this opinion, Mr. Shafto, who discovered this hypocaust, says: ‘Here were found many square bricks with holes in the middle, which were probably joined together by way of pipes, to conduct the water from the top of the hill, where there was also the appearance of other baths, and where, probably, springs had been, but since drained by the colliery.’ However much the Romans in their own luxurious city may have been addicted to the indulgence of the hot-bath and the sweating-room, it may well be doubted, whether, in this cold climate, they would have any great desire for it, or if they had, whether the dread realities of war would allow them to make, on an enemy’s frontier, erections so extensive 140as this has been, for such a purpose. Next to food, warmth would be their most urgent demand, and a more effectual mode of maintaining a uniform temperature in their dwellings could not be devised than that which the hypocaust supplied.

Brand tells us that great conduits or sewers, composed of large wrought stones, were discovered in the north part of the station at the depth of about a yard and a half.

Several inscribed slabs and small altars have been found in the station. The most important one of these, which is preserved in the parsonage at Ryton, is here represented. By comparing it with the Notitia, we learn the ancient name of the station, and the locality of its original occupants.

141The Notitia records that the præfect ‘alæ primæ Astorum’ was stationed at Condercum. This slab, reads Asturum, not Astorum. At two other stations the same people resided; at Cilurnum, the Notitia places the præfect ‘alæ secundæ Astorum,’ and at Æsica, the tribune ‘cohortis primæ Astorum.’ At both these forts, as well as in the case immediately before us, inscriptions have been found which are written Asturum; the probability, therefore, is, that a clerical error has crept into the Notitia, and that it was the Astures, not the Asti (a people of Liguria), who garrisoned these posts. The Astures were a people from the eastern part of the modern Asturias, in Spain. 'Under the empire, the term ala was applied to regiments of horse, raised, it would seem, with very few exceptions, in the provinces.'^[67] This fractured slab, therefore, furnishes us with the information that the camp at Benwell was anciently named Condercum, and that it was garrisoned by a Spanish cavalry regiment. It supplies other facts. This regiment was styled, probably on account of some illustrious achievement, Gordiana. The emperor Gordian, from whom this title is derived, began his reign in the year 238. We have thus a proof of the continued occupation of the camp until a date subsequent to this period. The event recorded by the inscription is to the same effect. A temple which had been erected, probably at the first formation of the station, had through time 142or the chances of war, become so entirely dilapidated, as to require rebuilding, and Titus Agrippa accomplished the work. The Romans, although they had at this time been long in the occupation of the isthmus, had then no thoughts of relinquishing it. The woodland deities, to whom the temple was dedicated, will require separate discussion afterwards.

To the same occasion will be referred a remarkable altar inscribed to the three Lamiæ, which was discovered at this station. Two altars^[68] of less importance, which were found here, may at once be disposed of. They are dedicated to one of the favourite deities of Rome—Mars. The focus, or place for burning the offering, is deep and well marked in each of them. They are small domestic altars, before which the soldier would perform his private devotions. As such, they give us a little insight into the heart and feelings of the worshipper.

Along with this altar, as Brand tells us, were found two stones resembling pine-apples. This is by no 143means an unusual ornament of the works along the line. The pine-apple ornament is frequently introduced in the stained-glass works of the middle ages. As the fruit to which it bears a resemblance could not be known in Europe until after the discovery of America, the origin of the figure is an interesting speculation. I am disposed to think it is of Mithraic origin, and that the prototype of it was a mass of flame proceeding from the torch usually represented in the statues of that deity. The other altar, here given, is inscribed—

Besides these and some other inscribed stones, many coins have been found here; amongst them, Brand mentions denarii of Trajan, Hadrian, Faustina senior, and Domitian; brass coins of Valentinian, Gratianus, Diocletian, Faustina, and Maxentius, with many others not legible. Obscene figures are frequently found in Roman stations. They were worn by females as a religious charm. Benwell has furnished one such example of a very remarkable kind. Before leaving the station, the inquiring traveller will do well to examine the stones of the park-wall. He will soon detect many of Roman mould, whose faces have been scarred by the blasts 144of many centuries. The larger ones have been derived from the Wall—the smaller, from the curtain wall of the station, or the dwellings erected within it.

The pleasant village of Benwell lies a little to the south-west of the station. ‘The old tower of Benwell-hall,’ says Bourne, 'was the place where the prior of Tynemouth resided some part of the summer, and the chapel, which Mr. Shaftoe opens and supplies for the good of the people of his village, was the prior’s domestic chapel.' Who that visits the spot will say that the prior who made the selection was not a man of taste? Benwell, as Horsley remarks, is not improbably thought to have its name from the northern word ben, (Saxon binnan) signifying within, and well for wall, as being seated within, or on the south side of the Wall.^[69] Whitaker derives the Roman name of the station, Condercum, from the Celtic Cond ar gui, the height upon the water.^[70] The river being near, the description is apposite.

Leaving Condercum, we again pursue our journey westward. The road for several miles running upon the base of the Wall, the facing stones may not unfrequently 145be seen for some distance together, protruding through the ‘metal.’ This used to be more the case formerly than at present, for since the diversion of the traffic from the road to the rail, motives of economy have induced the road surveyors to quarry, in some places, the last remnants of this great work of antiquity, for materials with which to repair the highway. The north fosse, as we pursue our journey, becomes more distinct on the right of the road.

Descending Benwell-hill, the village of East Denton is reached. Here we meet for the first time with a fragment of the Wall. The accompanying wood-cut exhibits its present state. William Hutton describes the interesting relic with becoming reverence.

At Denton Dean, situated at the bottom of Benwell-hill, the great road veers a few yards to the right, that is into Severus’ ditch, and gives us for the first time a sight of that most venerable piece of antiquity, The Wall, which is six 146yards south of the road, and twenty short of the brook I am going to pass. The fragment is thirty-six feet long, has three courses of facing stones on one side, and four on the other, and is exactly nine feet thick. An apple tree grows on the top.

It has lost a course of facing-stones since Hutton saw it, and the apple tree is but the shadow of what it was.

The turnpike road, which usually runs upon the site of the Wall, uniformly swerves to the right when passing a village. The truth is, nearly every house and hamlet in the district has sprung out of the Wall. In many instances a mile-castle, slightly added to, has formed a mediæval dwelling of some strength. The nucleus thus provided, became, in the course of time, clustered round with contiguous habitations, so that when, after the last season of strife with which the borders were visited, the road came to be constructed, motives of economy required that these spots of increased value should be avoided.

Beyond the burn, the ground again rises, and the Wall, stretching onwards in a line with the road, forms a distinct, but turf-covered mound. At the distance of a field to the south of it, the Vallum is seen in greater distinctness than before. Both of the aggers and the intervening fosse may be clearly made out. Some young ash-trees grow in the ditch.

Advancing a little further, we have Denton-hall, formerly the seat of the literary Mrs. Montague, on the right; attracted by her influence, many of the great spirits of the age were occasionally found to 147be assembled within its walls. Very nearly opposite the hall, a larger mass of ruin than usual betokens the site of a mile-castle.

Ascending the hill from West Denton, the fosse of the Murus is very distinctly seen. The road is elevated two or three feet above the natural level of the ground, the Wall, probably some courses high, forming its nucleus.

On the left hand, the lines of the Vallum are feebly indicated, but by extending our glance some distance backwards and forwards, we can, with tolerable certainty, distinguish the artificial mounds from the natural heavings of the surface.

Passing the fourth mile-stone, we arrive at Chapel-houses. This name is of sufficiently frequent occurrence along the line to suggest a momentary inquiry into its origin. In the early ages of Christianity, a mile-castle may have occasionally been the resort of the worshippers of the true God; or in the ‘troublesome times’ of border warfare, when the church not unfrequently shared in the general devastation, it may have been set apart as a place for the confirmation of matrimonial vows, and for the performance of religious rites.

From the crown of this hill we have one of the finest views which Northumberland can afford. The Tyne, in all its glittering beauty, stretches far before us. Its southern bank is crowned by the pretty village of Ryton, its left is variegated with the once beautiful, but now furnace-fuming, Wylam. An 148amphitheatre of hills shuts in the distant scene.^[71]

Horsley describes some ruined ramparts, called the Castle-steads near Chapel-houses, to the south of both Vallum and Wall. They were probably temporary encampments and have now disappeared.

Before crossing Walbottle^[72]-dean, the Vallum, which is very distinct, and the Wall (i. e. the road) approach each other, apparently for mutual support. There are no traces of a bridge across the ravine.

As we ascend the next hill, and pass Throckley,^[73] we have, for the most part, the fosse on the right hand, and the mounds of the Vallum on the left, very boldly developed. By the time the traveller has advanced thus far, he will have learnt the necessity of bearing in mind that he is in a mining district. If he overlook this circumstance, he will be in danger of mistaking the track of some old ‘waggon way’ for the terraced lines of Roman cultivation, or an old ‘pit-heap’ for an indubitable British barrow.

Cha^s Richardson, Delt.John Storey. Lith.
THE WORKS AT HEDDON-ON-THE WALL

149After passing Throckley, just where a gate on the left hand enters the field from the road, a mound covered, in winter at least, with greener herbage than the contiguous ground indicates the site of a mile-castle. A little further on, a range of houses of peculiar appearance, called the Frenchman’s-row, attracts the eye. It was the residence, after the first French revolution, of a number of refugees. The dial which ornaments the Row is of their fabrication. The building is now used as a poor-house.

On the top of the little eminence, at which we arrive before reaching Heddon-on-the-Wall, the north fosse is deeper and bolder than it has hitherto appeared; it must be nearly in its original perfection. The works of the Vallum, about fifty yards to the south, are also finely developed. The ditch, in both cases, is cut through the free-stone rock. Here, also, if the traveller will forsake the turnpike, for the road, as usual, diverges to the right in order to avoid the village, he may see a fragment of the Wall much longer and somewhat higher than the one at Denton. Its north face is destroyed, but about five courses of the southern face are perfect. The accompanying lithograph shews the present state of the Barrier here. The Wall is in the foreground, while in the distance (looking eastward) the section of the north fosse, and of the works of the Vallum, is distinctly seen.

About a mile north of the village is a striking prominence called Heddon-law. Horsley remarks—‘Not far from Heddon-on-the-Wall have been some remarkable tumuli.’

150The ditch of the Vallum cuts right through the village, its lowest dip forming the village pond; it is rather remarkable that in such a situation, it should not long ago have been obliterated.

Descending the hill on which Heddon-on-the-Wall stands, the lines of the Barrier keep close together, and not without reason. The crag on the south, now the scene of extensive quarrying operations, completely commands them. Surely a post must have been maintained on this eminence in the days of Roman occupation, though it had only been for the sake of a look-out.

Passing the eighth mile-stone, where the Vallum is in good condition, we approach the fourth great station of the Barrier. A road, crossing the turnpike at right angles, is close to its east rampart.

VINDOBALA.—The station now called Rutchester, stands on flat ground, but commands a considerable prospect. The Notitia places here the tribune of the first cohort of the Frixagi, a people |RUTCHESTER.| whose country does not seem to be mentioned by any ancient geographer. The inside dimensions of this station, from north to south, are 178 yards, and from east to west, 135; it consequently contains nearly five acres. The Wall started each way from the north side of its east and west gates; so that a a greater portion of the station lay on the north than on the south side of it, as is shewn in the plan of it, Plate II. At present, the turnpike road runs between these portions; that on the north has been 151all ploughed, and three of its sides sloped into the ditch; its general outlines may, however, be distinguished; the southern part is irregular in its surface, with heaps of ruins, still covered with sward.^[74] In Horsley’s time, the northern part was sufficiently perfect to enable him to discern six turrets in it, 'one at each corner, one at each side of the gate, and one between each corner, and those adjoining to the gate.'^[75] The Vallum seems to have joined the station in a line with its southern rampart. The ditch on the western side is still tolerably distinct. The suburbs have been to the south of the station, but their site has recently been disturbed by the opening of an extensive quarry which has supplied large quantities of the stone used in carrying the railway over the Tyne, and through Newcastle.

On the brow of the hill, just west of the station, there is still to be seen, hewn out of the solid rock, what Wallis calls a coffin. It has more the appearance of a cistern. It is twelve feet long, four broad, and two deep, and has a hole close to the bottom at one end. When discovered, it had a partition of masonry across it, three feet from one end, and contained many decayed bones, teeth and vertebræ, and an iron implement resembling a three-footed candlestick. In the immediate vicinity of this spot, three fine Roman altars were discovered in 1844; they are now in the possession of Mr. James, of Otterburn, and are described in the Archæologia Æliana, iv. 5.

152The etymology of the name of this station seems to be tolerably plain. ‘Vindobala,’ says Whitaker, ‘signifies merely the fort upon the heights. Bala remains, to the present period, the Welsh and Irish appellation of a town.’ I have received a similar account of the word from those acquainted with the Gaelic language. The station, however, though possessing the advantage of a gentle elevation above the contiguous ground, does not stand upon a lofty eminence.

No inscriptions have been found here mentioning the first cohort of the Frixagi, which, according to the Notitia, was quartered in Vindobala. This is of little consequence; the names of the contiguous stations both east and west having been ascertained, the order of the stations in the Notitia is sufficient evidence as to the identity of this with the ancient Vindobala.

The farm-house at Rutchester partly consists of an ancient building, possessing great strength of masonry. A gothic carving on the interior wall of its principal apartment shews that it is not of Roman construction. It was probably a mediæval stronghold, made out of the ruins of the station. It contains a well, now boarded over, which may be of Roman date.

Most of the stones of the farm buildings and adjacent fences are Roman, and one or two fragments of Roman inscriptions built up in the stables, besides some small altars preserved on the premises, give interest to the place.

153Mr. Hutton is usually very particular in giving a detail of the kind of entertainment he met with at the various points of his journey. The recital of his reception at Rutchester kindles into poetry:

His own appearance, he tells us, was a little peculiar, and archæological pursuits not being in vogue in that day, the farmer probably had grave doubts as to the propriety of tempting the enthusiastic old man to prolong his stay.

It has frequently been my lot to receive the kindly attentions of the inhabitants of the mural region. Often have my eyes, bedimmed with fatigue, been ‘enlightened’ by partaking of the barley cake of the cottager, (excellent food for a thirsty climb) as well as the costlier viands of the farm tenant, or proprietor. Never shall I forget visiting, on one occasion, a frail tenement near Chesterholm. Its only inmate, an old woman, in the spirit of regal hospitality, asked me to join with her in partaking of her only luxury—her pipe. I recently observed with regret, that the cottage was tenantless.

The inhabitants of that part of the district which is remote from towns, do not affect the dress, or the speech, or the manners of polished citizens. They like to know a person before they welcome him, and make their approaches cautiously. But if slow in 154grasping the hand, they do it heartily and sincerely. There is scarcely a latch in the wilder regions of the country, that I would not freely lift in the assurance of a smiling welcome. Often as I have groaned under the toils to which my present undertaking has exposed me, I have reason to rejoice, that the Barrier of the Lower Isthmus has been the means of making me acquainted with many of the true-hearted and intelligent yeomen, both of my own county, and of Cumberland, whom I should not otherwise have known. Although their dialect may sound strangely to a southern ear, yet it is English in its native purity and strength; a great authority, Mr. Thorpe, having said, 'I believe the genuine Anglian dialect to be that which is usually denominated the Northumbrian.'^[76]

Proceeding, now, after this long digression, on our journey, we pass, on the left hand side of the road, an inn generally called the Iron-sign. Some of the buildings are entirely composed of Roman stones. In the erection nearest the road are three centurial stones. One has on it COH VIII, another has the word LVPI, probably to announce the fact, that the portion of the Wall in which it was originally inserted had been built by the troop under the command of the centurion Lupus; the third is illegible.

Passing the ninth milestone, we stand upon the top of an eminence from which there is a good view of Harlow-hill, and of the adjacent country. The Wall here slightly changes its course for the purpose 155of ascending the summit before it. The Vallum keeps company with the Wall for a short distance, but eventually swerves to the south with the design of passing along the base of the hill; it rejoins the Wall on the other side. This is an arrangement which we should not have encountered had the Vallum been intended for an independent barrier against a northern foe. The north fosse is here very distinct, forming a deep groove on the left of the road all the way to Harlow-hill.

Just before entering the village of Harlow-hill, some portions of the heart of the Wall may be seen, and a careful scrutiny will enable us to ascertain its course through the village, a part of its foundation, of the full width (nine feet), yet remaining. As usual, in passing through the village, the turnpike road leaves the Wall for a short distance. There was a mile-castle at Harlow-hill, which, Horsley says, had a high situation, and a large prospect; all traces of it are now gone. A field, about half a mile north of Harlow-hill, bears the ominous name of Grave-riggs; the traditionary account of its origin being, that after a bloody battle in ‘the troublesome times,’ it became the resting-place of slaughtered multitudes.

The village and ancient stronghold of Welton (a corruption no doubt of Wall-town) is about half a mile to the south of the road. The fortlet is entirely built of Roman stones. The adjoining mansion, at present occupied by the farm tenant, bears the date of 1616. Its large hall, with ample 156hearth and spacious bow-windows, is redolent of ancient hospitality. In the memory of the villagers, the freaks of a benevolent ghost, named Silky, which frequented the old tower, and the feats of strength performed by William of Welton, still survive the weekly intrusion of the newspaper.

At Wall-houses, on the south side of the road, traces of a mile-castle are obscurely visible; between this point and the fourteenth mile-stone all the lines of the Barrier are developed in a degree that is quite inspiriting. The north fosse is, for a considerable distance, planted with trees, which will for some time save it from the envious plough.

H. Burdon Richardson, Delt.John Storey, Lith.
THE WORKS NEAR CARR HILL.

Immediately after passing the farm house of Carr-hill, an appearance of great interest presents itself. The works of the Vallum are coming boldly forward in company with the Wall, when suddenly, and at a decided angle, they change their course, evidently to avoid mounting a small barrow-like elevation, called Down-hill.^[77] The Wall pursues its course straightforward. The view, exhibited on the opposite page, taken from the edge of the hill, looking eastward, shews this arrangement. The road, with the ditch on its north side, is the representative of the Wall. The Vallum and Wall again converge as they approach Hunnum. These appearances strongly corroborate the opinion that all the 157lines of the Barrier are but parts of one great engineering scheme. If the Vallum had been constructed as an independent defence against a northern foe, and nearly a century before the Wall, we cannot conceive that an elevation, which so entirely commands the Vallum, would have been left open to the enemy; especially as it would have been just as easy to take the Vallum along the north flank of the hill as along the south. Horsley, who advocates the opinion that the north agger is Agricola’s Military Way, that the southern aggers were the work of Hadrian, and that the Wall was not erected till the time of Severus, is rather at a loss to account for these appearances. He says:—

Before we come to Halton-chesters, somewhat appears that is pretty remarkable. Hadrian’s Vallum running full upon a little hill, turns at once round about the skirt of it, leaving the hill on the north, and thereby, one would think, rendering the Vallum itself a weak defence at that part. The north agger goes close to the south side of this hill; so that they were also obliged to carry the Vallum round the hill in order to preserve the parallelism. If the north agger was the Old Military Way, and prior to the Vallum, there was nothing improper in carrying it on the south skirts of the hill; and then when the Vallum came afterwards to be built, (for a defence, or place of retreat) they were under a kind of necessity to form it after this manner.

Since so able a man as Horsley can devise no better defence of his theory, it may well be abandoned altogether. It cannot be conceived that, under a rule so vigorous as Hadrian’s, the builders of the Barrier would be allowed to give the enemy 158a material advantage, in order to save themselves the trouble of reconstructing the Military Way for a short space.

Down-hill bears marks of having been quarried at some distant period for its limestone. A little to the south of the Vallum are some circular lines, which an experienced observer tells me, are the remains of ‘sow-kilns.’ It would, perhaps, be rash to claim for them a primeval date, though in their appearance there is nothing inconsistent with the supposition.

Halton Red-house is next passed on the right hand. It is entirely built of stones taken from the neighbouring station; they have, however, been fresh dressed. In the farm-yard is a rectangular stone trough, which was found in the station, and which its owner describes as a ‘smiddy trow,’ and shews upon the edge the place which had been worn away by the attrition of the blacksmith’s irons. It might, indeed, serve very well for such a purpose, but troughs of this kind are of too frequent occurrence in the buildings along the line to allow us to suppose that this was their usual application. They are generally very rudely carved both outside and in, and not unfrequently are formed of an irregular unsquared block of stone. I think that they were used for domestic and culinary purposes. There is a fragment of one lying in the hypocaust at Chesters, the edge of which is worn down by the sharpening of knives upon it.

We now approach the fifth station of the line,

159HUNNUM.—This ancient abode of Rome’s warriors, with its walls, streets, temples, markets, and aqueducts, is nearly one unbroken sweep of luxuriant vegetation. The traveller may readily pass by it, as Hutton did, without discerning symptoms of Roman occupation. A small, half-ruined hut stands within its area, a fitting emblem of the surrounding desolation. It is almost needless to name a city, which has no existence, but for convenience sake,|HALTON-CHESTERS.| Horsley conferred upon it the style and title of Halton-chesters. The castle of Halton is close by.

The form of the station is peculiar, as is shewn in the plan of it, Plate II. The Wall joins the station at about one-third the distance between its northern and southern extremity. The portion of the station which is to the north of the Wall is not so broad as the part to the south of it. The only reason which has been assigned for this is, that, as Horsley observes, 'there is a descent or hollow ground joining to the west side of this part, so that the work could not be carried on any farther that way without much trouble and expense; though, it must be owned, the Romans don't usually seem to have valued either the one or the other'. It is remarkable that in adapting the station to the ground, they have not given to the wall, at the north east corner, a slanting direction, as would have been most convenient, but have, as usual, adhered to the rectangular form.

The turnpike road, keeping the line of the Wall, crosses the station from the site of the eastern to that of the western gateway. The section north of 160the road was brought under cultivation about twenty years ago, when immense quantities of stones were removed. It is now called the ‘Brunt-ha’penny field’ in consequence of the number of corroded copper coins which were found in it. The portion south of the road has a gentle slope and a fair exposure to the sun. It has not recently been ploughed, and consequently exhibits, with considerable distinctness, the lines of the outer entrenchments and ditches, as well as the contour of the ruined buildings and streets of the interior. The suburbs have covered a fine tract of pasture-ground to the south. The valley on the west side of the station would materially strengthen the position in this quarter.

The excavations made in the northern section, a few years ago, revealed several points of interest. The careful manner in which the stones, even of the foundation, were squared and chiselled, struck beholders with surprise. The thickness, of one part at least, of the west wall of the station I have been assured, by a person who superintended the work, was nine feet.^[78] In the angle of the north-west 161portion of the station, just outside the Wall, was a large heap, containing numerous fragments of Roman pottery, the bones of animals, the horns of deer, and other refuse matter—it must, in short, have been the dung-hill of the camp. Even now, although the plough has passed repeatedly over it, its position is shewn by the darkness of the soil. On the same occasion, there was laid open an aqueduct of about three quarters of a mile in length, which seems to have conducted water from a spring or burn in the high ground north of the place where Stagshawbank fair is held. My informant, who traced it for between two and three hundred yards, says, that it was formed of stone, and was covered with flags.^[79] In crossing the valley to the west of the fort, it must have been supported on pillars, or a mound. The most remarkable circumstance to be noticed respecting this water-course is, that it was on the north, or the enemy’s side of the Wall. It is scarcely probable that the Romans would depend for that portion of their daily supply, which was required for drinking and culinary purposes, on so precarious a source; but it is not unlikely that the water so introduced was meant to fill the fosse to the north of the station, and thus to give the additional security of a wet ditch to a portion of the camp, which, though much exposed, possessed no natural strength 162of situation.^[80] Crossing the station diagonally from below the eastern gateway to the north-west angle, a sewer or drain was found, of considerable dimensions. My informant crept along it for about one hundred yards. The bottom of it was filled with hardened mud, imbedded in which, were found a lamp and many bone pins, such as those with which the Romans fastened their woollen garments.

The most interesting discovery made on this occasion, however, was a suite of apartments, which have been usually supposed to be ‘the Baths.’ The building was one hundred and thirty-two feet in length, and contained not fewer than eleven rooms. The first of these was forty-three feet long, and twenty wide, and was the place, it has been conjectured, ‘where the bathers waited, and employed themselves in walking and talking, till their turn came to bathe.’ The others beyond are supposed to have been set apart for the purposes of undressing, taking the cold, the tepid, and the hot-bath, sweating, anointing, and robing. If the Roman prefects allowed the most important buildings of their frontier camps to be devoted to the enjoyment of the bath in all its elaborate details, they were more indulgent than some modern generals would be. That one or two of the smaller rooms have been devoted to ablution is not unlikely, this range of buildings having contained two carefully constructed cisterns which may have been 163used as baths. Several of the rooms had hanging floors, with flues beneath; pipes of burnt clay, fixed to the walls by T-headed holdfasts, communicated with the flues below, and conveyed the hot air up the sides of the apartments. But no provision for heating large quantities of water was discovered, such as we might have expected to find, if the whole building had been used for bathing.

The whole of this interesting structure was removed as the process of exhumation proceeded. Our only consolation is, that a minute and able description of it has been left us by Mr. Hodgson.

Several inscribed and sculptured stones have been discovered here. Camden, in 1600, found a monumental slab, erected to the memory of a soldier of the Ala Sabiniana; the regiment which the Notitia represents as being quartered at Hunnum. A stone, bearing the inscription, LEG. II. AVG. F., Legio secunda Augusta fecit, is at Alnwick castle, and belongs, I think, to this station. Wallis says 'as some labourers were turning up the foundations here, for the sake of the stones to mend the road, they met with a centurial stone with the above inscription, within a civic garland, the crest of the imperial eagle at each end, 164and that it was taken into the custody of Sir Edward Blackett. The one here shewn, though not a centurial stone, must be the one in question.^[81] It is one of the most elegantly carved stones that have been found upon the line, and closely resembles the style of those erected by the same legion in the Barrier of the Upper Isthmus. The ornament in the upper margin, and at the sides, has probably formed the type of one that prevailed in the Transition Norman and Early English styles.

Several busts of emperors and empresses, preserved about the house and grounds of Matfen, shew the attention which the ancient inhabitants of Hunnum have paid to the decoration of the camp.

A little to the west of the station, not far from the gateway, was recently found the slab which is here figured. Although the inscription is not deeply cut, it is very legible, and doubtless means—The lightning of the gods. When any spot was struck with lightning, it was immediately deemed sacred, and venerated as such by the Romans, being surrounded by a breastwork of masonry, similar to that put round the mouth of a well. Conscious guilt makes cowards of the most dauntless warriors! Perhaps some member of the 165Sabinian ala, hastening for shelter, and beseeching meanwhile the protection of Jupiter Tonans, was here arrested on life’s journey, and summoned to his great account.

Among the minor antiquities found at this station was a particularly massive finger ring of pure gold, set with an artificial stone, on which a full-length figure was engraved. It was stolen from lady Blackett, to whom it belonged, together with the rest of her jewellery.

An intelligent observer informs me, that an ancient road of Roman construction went direct north from Hunnum. It, no doubt, soon joined the eastern branch of the Watling-street which Horsley lays down, part of whose course is represented in the map accompanying this volume.

Halton-castle is to the south of the station. It is entirely composed of stones taken from the Roman Wall. In the farm-buildings attached to it, are some Roman mouldings, and a weathered figure of primeval aspect.

No probable etymological account of the word Hunnum has yet been offered. If the word Halton can be supposed to have any affinity with Hunnum, besides the initial breathing, this is one of the few instances in which there is any resemblance between the ancient and modern name of the stations.

Leaving Hunnum, we soon reach Stagshawbank-gate, where the ancient Watling-street crosses the road at right-angles. This Roman Way was 166probably first constructed by Agricola, as a means of keeping up a communication with the garrisons in South Britain, while he was forcing his way into Scotland. A fort formerly stood here to guard the passage through the Wall; no trace of it now remains.

The earth-works between this point and the crown of the hill descending to the North Tyne are remarkably perfect. The description which Hutton gives of them happily holds good at the present moment—

I now travel over a large common, still upon the Wall, with its trench nearly complete. But what was my surprise when I beheld, thirty yards on my left, the united works of Agricola and Hadrian, almost perfect! I climbed over a stone wall to examine the wonder; measured the whole in every direction; surveyed them with surprise, with delight; was fascinated, and unable to proceed; forgot I was upon a wild common, a stranger, and the evening approaching. I had the grandest works under my eye of the greatest men of the age in which they lived, and of the most eminent nation then existing; all of which had suffered but little during the long course of sixteen hundred years. Even hunger and fatigue were lost in the grandeur before me. If a man writes a book upon a turnpike road, he cannot be expected to move quick; but, lost in astonishment, I was not able to move at all.

The first time I visited the spot, this passage, through which there runs so fine a vein of youthful enthusiasm, was fresh in my recollection. The shades of evening were beginning to gather round me, and the blackness of the furze which covered the ground, gave additional solemnity to the 167scene. I looked for the venerable old man, as if expecting still to find him fixed in his enthusiastic trance; but he was not there. After all, he had moved on; and a few years more removed him from this scene, to sleep in the church-yard under a humbler and less durable mound than his favourite general and emperor had here raised!

The section given in page 52, exhibits the state of the works at this place. The north fosse is very boldly developed between the sixteenth and eighteenth milestone: the whole of its contents lie strewed on its outer margin. Near the eighteenth milestone, on the left of the road, is a mound, which I take to be the remains of a mile-castle. In one part near here, the Wall, as seen in the road, measures ten feet wide, but it speedily becomes narrower.

Where the ground begins to dip strongly to the North Tyne, St. Oswald’s chapel stands. On the north side of the road, is a field called Mould’s-close, in which a number of bones and implements of war have from time to time been turned up, and which is supposed to be the site of a battle. The tradition runs, that from the fight which was won here, England dates her advancing greatness, and that, from the fatal results of a conflict to be lost on the same ground, she will date her decline. |BATTLE OF HEAVEN-FIELD.|Hodgson says, ‘Was this the site of part of the battle of Heaven-field, which Bede says was fought just north of the Roman Wall, and in memory of which the chapel of St. Oswald was built?’ That it 168was, the narrative of the venerable historian will probably shew—

The place is shewn to this day, and held in much veneration, where Oswald (A.D. 635), being about to engage (with the ferocious British king Cadwalla), erected the sign of the holy cross, and on his knees prayed to God that he would assist his worshippers in their great distress. It is further reported, that the cross being made in haste, and the hole dug in which it was to be fixed, the king himself, full of faith, laid hold of it, and held it with both his hands, till it was set fast by throwing in the earth; and this done, raising his voice, he cried to his army, ‘Let us all kneel, and jointly beseech the true and living God Almighty, in his mercy, to defend us from the haughty and fierce enemy; for He knows that we have undertaken a just war for the safety of our nation.’ All did as he had commanded, and accordingly advancing towards the enemy with the first dawn of day, they obtained the victory, as their faith deserved. In that place of prayer very many miraculous cures are known to have been performed, as a token and memorial of the king’s faith; for even to this day, many are wont to cut off small chips of the wood of the holy cross, which being put into water, men or cattle drinking of, or sprinkled with that water, are immediately restored to health. The place in the English tongue is called Hefenfeld, or the Heavenly Field.... The same place is near the Wall with which the Romans formerly enclosed the island from sea to sea, to restrain the fury of the barbarous nations, as has been said before. Hither, also, the brothers of the church of Hagulstad (Hexham), which is not far from thence (it is in the valley directly below), repair yearly on the day before that on which king Oswald was afterwards slain, to watch there for the health of his soul, and having sung many psalms, to offer for him in the morning the sacrifice of the holy oblation. And since that good custom has spread, they have lately built and consecrated a church there, which has attached additional sanctity and honour to that place.^[82]

H. Burdon Richardson, Delt.John Storey, Lith.
THE WALL AT BRUNTON.

169A little to the south of the road, at St. Oswald’s-hill-head, is Fallowfield-fell, where the Written-rock, of which an engraving is given, page 102, may yet be seen. The face of the rock occupied by the inscription is four feet long; the letters are distinct.^[83] Continuing to descend the hill, we come to Plane-tree-field, where on the left of the road, a conspicuous piece of the Wall remains. It is about thirty-six yards long, and has, in some places, five courses of facing-stones entire; the grout of the interior which rises still higher, gives root to some fine old thorns. This sight may be rendered more interesting by the antiquary’s carrying his eye forward, and tracing the Wall in its onward course; in its modern representative, the turnpike road, it is seen, (having crossed the North Tyne, and passed the station of Cilurnum,) bounding up the opposite hill in its usual unflinching manner, and making for the wastes and mountains which it is speedily to traverse.

In the grounds of Brunton, a little below this, a small piece of the Wall is to be seen in a state of very great perfection. It is seven feet high, and presents nine courses of facing-stones entire. The mortar of the five lower courses is good; the face of the south side is gone. The ditch also is here well developed. The opposite lithograph gives an accurate 170representation of what Hutton calls ‘this grand exhibition.’ The altar which, at present, stands as it is placed in the drawing, formerly discharged the office of a gate-post at the entry of the yard of St. Oswald’s chapel.

For some reason, which it is hard to divine, the turnpike road now recedes from the Wall, and crosses the river at Chollerford, nearly half-a-mile above the spot where the Roman bridge spanned it.

PLATE VI.

REMAINS OF ROMAN BRIDGE
OVER THE
NORTH TYNE.
Reid Lith.

PLATE VII.

Miscellaneous Antiquities, Chesters, Cilurnum

The remains of this bridge may yet be seen when the water is low, and the surface smooth. There seem to have been three piers of considerable size and solidity, set diagonally to the stream. The stones composing them are large, regularly squared, and fastened with metallic cramps.^[84] Luis-holes, indicating the mode in which they have been lowered into their bed, appear in several of them. The firmness with which these foundation courses still retain the position assigned to them by the soldiers of Hadrian is very remarkable; the rolling floods of sixteen hundred winters seem to have spent their rage upon them almost in vain. As the eastern side of the river 171is frequently overflowed, the Vallum is here obliterated, but probably both works approached the bridge in close companionship. On the western side, appearances still bear out Horsley’s statement, that the 'Wall falls upon the middle of the fort, and Hadrian’s Vallum, as usual, falls in with the south side of it.'

A plan of Cilurnum, and adjoining works, as figured by Warburton, is given in Plate II. Probably, few who examine it attentively will question the justness of the conclusion to which he has arrived, that the Wall, Vallum, stations, castles, and turrets, ‘by their mutual relation to one another, must have been one entire, united defence, or fortification.’

We are now arrived at the station called in the locality, Chesters, but by Horsley named, for the sake of distinction, Walwick-chesters. An attentive examination of it will well reward the antiquary.

CILURNUM.—This station has, as usual, the form of a parallelogram, the corners being slightly rounded off. It contains an area of fully six acres. In the latter part of the last century, when the mansion and estate of Chesters came into the possession of the family of Clayton, this area was covered with the ruins of buildings which had apparently stood in strait, narrow streets, and although the surface of the station has since been levelled and made smooth, in order to fit it for its use as part of the park, yet its ramparts and fosse, the Wall and Vallum as they approach and leave it, and the road leading to the river, may all be distinctly 172discerned; even the ruined dwellings of the interior area, as if dissatisfied with their lowly condition, struggle to rear themselves into notice. A portion of the Wall, near the north-west angle, has been freed from the encumbering soil; it is five feet thick, and exhibits four courses of masonry in excellent preservation.

Hutchinson was struck with the linear character which the ruined streets of this fort had in his time, and was reminded, by their appearance, of the arrangements of the Polybian camp. This will be observed in a greater or less degree in all the stations, and there cannot be a doubt but that the dwellings were arranged in rows parallel to the four sides of the stations, and hence, intersecting each other at right angles. It was necessary that the Roman camp, whether of a temporary or permanent character, should be nearly uniform in its plan. If the troops rested but for a night, each man knew the part he had to fill in preparing the fortification, and could set about it at once; in the event of a sudden attack in the darkness of the night, each knew his position, though he may never have rested upon the spot before.

Suburban buildings have occupied the space between the station and the river, and ruins more extensive than usual are spread over the ground to the south. There is no appearance of any habitations having been erected to the north of the Wall. Whenever the surface of the contiguous ground is broken, fragments of Samian ware and other marks of Roman occupation appear.

173Two remains of great interest are found within the station. One of these is an underground vault near the middle. Its masonry is rough, and somewhat peculiar; the sides incline slightly inwards, but the roof, instead of being uniformly vaulted, is formed of three ribs arched in the usual manner, and the intervals between them are in technical language—‘stepped over,’ that is, the stones of each course are made to project inwards a little, until, at length, one laid on the top completes the junction. The woodcut, which is here introduced, together with the following extract from Hodgson’s description of it, will give a tolerably correct idea of this curious structure.

This vault, when it was first found, was supposed to have been the Ærarium of the station. Between the joinings of the floor, which were of thin free-stone flags, were found several counterfeit denarii, both of copper and iron plated with silver. 174The approach to it was by four steps downwards, the lowest of which was a large centurial stone, which had borne an inscription, but nearly all of it had been purposely erased. On the outside of the threshold was found, in a sadly decayed state, its original door of wood, strongly sheathed with plates of iron, and the whole firmly rivetted together with large square nails. Within the door, which had opened inwards, the end wall was two feet thick, plastered and painted. Its internal area is ten feet by nine, and its height to the crown of the arch six feet four inches.^[85]

175

Ground-plan, Hypocaust, Cilurnum.

Some buildings situated near to the spot where the eastern gateway must be, and which have recently been freed from the earth and rubbish that have long enveloped them, are objects of still greater interest. Their general appearance, as seen from a slight elevation, is shewn in the adjoining wood-cut, while, for a more minute knowledge of their size and arrangements, reference may be made to the plan on the opposite page. Eight apartments have 177already been exposed, and a little more research would doubtless display others.

Descending a few steps (at L in the Plan), a street three feet wide at one extremity, and four at the other, is entered. Another, leading from it at right-angles, and which is paved with flag-stones, conducts to the grand entrance (D) of what appears to be the principal section of the building. The steps are very much worn down by the tread of feet, and even some of the stones, which have evidently been put in the place of others that have been too much abraded to be serviceable, exhibit partial wear. This saloon must have been a place of general concourse—can it have been the hall of justice, or the place where the commander of the station transacted the business of the district under his charge? The floor (E) is probably supported on pillars, and has been warmed by flues beneath; but this cannot be ascertained without injuring it. The upper covering is of flags, the fractured state of which induces the belief, that the walls of the surrounding building have been forcibly thrown down upon them. The northern enemies of Rome, knowing the importance of these stations, would not be slow in involving them in entire ruin, when permitted, by the withdrawal of the troops, to do so without molestation. Passages diverge from this saloon, to the right and left, into other apartments. In the room on the left was found, in good preservation, a cistern or bath (C), lined with red cement. A breach had been made in the street 178wall of this chamber (at B), and in the rubbish which encumbered the gap, was found the statue of a river-god, of which a correct sketch is here given. It is probably intended to represent the genius of the neighbouring river—the North Tyne. Although executed in coarse sand-stone, it is not without considerable gracefulness of attitude and proportion. It is preserved in the mansion at Chesters. Of the present state of the apartments beyond, the wood-cut in the previous page, and the lithograph here introduced, will give an accurate conception. The floors have been supported upon pillars, some of them being of stone, others of square flat bricks. The stone pillars are, for the most part, fragments of columns and balusters which have been used in a prior structure.^[86] The student of mediæval architecture will probably recognise in some of them types of the Saxon style. The dilapidated state of the floor of this apartment allows of an easy examination of its mode of construction. Flags, about two inches thick, rest upon the pillars; a layer of compost, five inches thick, and formed of lime, sand, gravel, and burned clay or pounded tile, succeeds, and above that, another covering 179of thin flag-stones.^[87] This apartment has been provided with a semicircular recess at its eastern extremity (G), and, at the angle next the street (A), has been supported by a buttress. A similar alcoved recess existed on the western side of one of the principal rooms of the ‘baths’ at Hunnum, and the same arrangement may yet be observed in the corresponding building at Lanchester. All of these buildings have been strengthened with buttresses, but it is only in these and analogous cases, that the use of the buttress is admitted among the erections of the Barrier; it never occurs in the great Wall or the curtain-walls of the stations. In the circular recess|THE HYPOCAUSTS.| of this apartment is an aperture (G), which probably has served to regulate the current of air circulating in the hypocausts. The furnace which warmed the suite of apartments was situated near the south-east extremity of the building (at F); the pillars near the fire having been much acted upon by the heat, the whole of this part of the floor was reduced, on exposure to the frosts of winter, to the confused heap represented in the drawing. The soot in the flues was found as fresh as if it had been produced by fires lighted the day before.^[88] The walls of this apartment were coated with plaster, and coloured dark red; exposure to the weather 180soon stripped them of this covering. An arched passage curiously turned with Roman tile took the heated air from the furnace through the party-wall (at X) into the chamber to the west of it. The rooms to the westward of the intersecting street (HD), seem to form an independent building, and have less of the aspect of a place of public concourse than the other portions. They may have been the private residence of the commander of the station. They, too, are heated by hypocausts.

H. Burdon Richardson, Delt.John Storey, Lith.
HYPOCAUST AT CHESTERS, (CILURNUM)
Printed by W. Monkhouse, York

In urging the conviction, that the hanging floors of these Roman buildings were meant to produce a comfortable warmth, rather than to generate steam, by having water sprinkled upon them, attention may be drawn to the thickness of their substance. At present, the floor of the principal apartment is nine inches thick, and when its upper surface was overlaid, as it no doubt was, with a tasteful concrete or mosaic pavement, it would be an inch or two more. It would require a very powerful furnace to raise this mass of matter to a considerable temperature. On the other hand, if the production of a genial and uniform warmth were the object in view, no contrivance could be more suitable. The heated air from a small furnace permeating the underground flues and the walls of a suite of apartments, and not passing off until, in its lengthened passage, it had given out the larger part of the warmth it had derived, would, in the lapse of some hours, give to the whole building a comfortable temperature, which it would not readily lose. Any inattention 181to the furnace, either by causing it to burn too fiercely or too feebly, would not be felt. The thickness of the floors would prevent the air from being scorched, and producing that disagreeable sensation which is experienced in rooms that are heated by the stoves in common use. It is not improbable that we may return to this method of warming our churches and public halls, even if we do not adopt it in our private buildings.^[89]

The door-ways of some of these apartments have been provided with double doors, probably for more effectually maintaining the warmth of the room.

The masonry of those portions of the walls which are standing, is in an excellent state of preservation. In the angle near the buttress (A), the action of the trowel in giving the finishing touch to the pointing may be perceived. The walls rest upon two strong basement courses, the angle of the uppermost being bevelled off with a neat moulding.

182Some of the quoins of the door-ways consist of very large stones; one is six feet long, and is probably a ton in weight. This proves that it was not from lack of mechanical means that the interior buildings and walls of the stations were composed of small stones. More than one of the thresholds have a groove very roughly cut in them, apparently to allow of the egress of water. This has probably been done after the departure of the Romans and the general demolition of the buildings, by some houseless wanderers, who, having ‘camped’ in the ruin, were incommoded by the lodgement of rain on the floor.

The hydraulic properties of the concrete used in the floors of Roman hypocausts, has, I believe, escaped the notice of previous writers, and is the only other point which need longer detain us in this interesting building. My attention was drawn to this subject by my brother, Mr. George Barclay Bruce, Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers, in the following communication:—

In many places on the line of the Wall, the mortar has had mixed with it broken tiles or burned clay, to assist it in resisting the moisture of the atmosphere.

The concrete at Chesters placed between the slabs of the bath-room, has a very large proportion of this burned clay, and would thus be better suited to resist the action of heat below and water above than purer lime.

A portion of this concrete was taken, by way of experiment, and burned in a crucible, as though it had been a piece of limestone; it was then ground fine, and mixed with a proper quantity of water; after being allowed to dry for three or four hours, it was immersed in water, where it set in the same manner as common mortar does in the open air, clearly proving 183its hydraulic properties. The same experiment was tried with the ordinary mortar of the Wall, but without the same result, there not being a sufficiently large quantity of burned clay to enable it to stand so severe a test. In the case of the concrete, it did not set so readily as what is called Roman cement, but sufficiently so to prove that it is a strong hydraulic mortar, made by the mixture of burned clay with common lime.

Bidding farewell to these interesting structures, we may now bend our steps a short way down the river, on a visit to the cypress-grove—the burial ground of the station. This, which in Horsley’s days formed a separate field called the Ox-close, is now included in the park of the domain. Never was spot more appropriately chosen. The river here descends with more than usual rapidity over its stony bed, and bending at the same time to the left, exhibits to the eye the lengthened vista of its well-wooded banks. No earthly music could better soothe the chafed affections of the hopeless heathen mourner than the murmur of the stream which is ceaselessly heard in this secluded nook. From this spot have been procured several sepulchral slabs which will presently afford us instruction; meantime, one is given on the next page whose lesson is of a negative character. The blank memorial shews how vain are the efforts which even affection makes to render buoyant on the wave of time the memory of those departed. Our very monuments need memorials. But, passing this, the character of the carving betokens a poor state of the arts, and fixes its date in the lowest times of the empire: in this we have a proof of the long-continued occupation 184of the station. The fate of the stone has been singular. When Horsley saw it, the inscription was legible; but having since been used as the door-stone of the cow-house at Walwick Grange, the letters had, previous to its removal to Alnwick-castle (its present resting place), been entirely obliterated.

Between the station and the cemetery is a well enclosed with Roman masonry; it is now in a great measure filled up.

185

The station of Cilurnum, which is the sixth on the line of the Wall, was garrisoned by the second wing of the Astures, (a regiment of Spanish cavalry) commanded by a prefect. This fact has gradually developed itself to the antiquary. Camden thought it probable. Horsley concurred in the opinion, and, in the absence of better evidence, sagaciously referred to the tombstone of which a drawing is here presented, in proof of its having been occupied by a horse regiment. ‘That some horse,’ says he, 'kept garrison here in the lower empire, seems to be probable from the inscription and sculpture yet remaining at Walwick-grange.'^[90] ‘The letters D. M.,’ he remarks in another place, ‘prove this to be a sepulchral monument, and the figure shews that the deceased belonged to the horse, and therefore probably was one of the Ala secunda Astorum, which in the lower empire kept garrison at Cilurnum, as the Notitia informs us.’

186

More decisive evidence has since been procured. The slab figured on page 61, is part of it. A still more satisfactory document of stone was discovered at Chesters several years ago, where it is still preserved: the wood-cut accurately portrays it.

187Hutton, who has done such good service to the Wall, under-rated the value of inscriptions. ‘When the antiquary,’ says he, 'has laboured through a parcel of miserable letters, what is he the wiser?'—Let this fractured and defaced stone answer the question.^[93] 1. This dedication was made by soldiers of the second wing of the Astures;—we thus learn the name of the people who garrisoned the fort, and by a reference to the Notitia, ascertain with certainty that this was|CILURNUM.| Cilurnum. 2. We acquire the fact, that a temple, which through age had become dilapidated, was restored;—learning thereby, not only the attention which the Romans paid to what they conceived to be religious duties, but their long occupation of this spot. It has been already observed, that some of the pillars of the hypocaust have been portions of a prior building;—the ruin and inscription thus corroborate each other. 3. The date of the dedication is given; the third of the calends of November falls upon the thirtieth of October, and the year in which Gratus and Seleucus were consuls corresponds to A.D. 221;—the data on which antiquaries found their conclusions, are not always so vague as some imagine. 4. Even the erasures are instructive. By a reference to the date, we find that Heliogabalus was reigning at the time of the dedication of the temple; we find that what remain of the names and titles on the stone apply to him; he, consequently, is the emperor referred to. The year following he was slain by his own soldiers, his body dragged 188through the streets and cast into the Tiber. The soldiers in Britain seem to have sympathized with their companions at Rome and to have erased the name of the fallen emperor from the dedicatory slab. Human nature is the same in every age. How often have we, in modern times, seen a name cast out with loathing which yesterday received the incense of a world’s flattery!

The above inscription gives us the station of the Ala secunda Asturum, in the reign of Heliogabalus, A.D. 221. The Notitia Imperii gives us its station in the reign of Theodosius the younger, ‘ultra tempus Arcadii et Honorii,’ A.D. 430, and we find at both periods the same force in the same station, which corresponds with the understood practice of the Roman army with regard to the permanency of the quarters of its auxiliary forces. With reference to the difference between the spelling of the inscription and the Notitia, ‘Asturum’ and ‘Astorum,’ it may be observed that as the Notitia Imperii was preserved for a thousand years in manuscript before the art of printing came to its rescue, it is more likely that the error should be in the book, than on the stone.

The ancient name of the station having been ascertained, the etymology of it may be inquired into. Whitaker says it means a creek. An authority acquainted with the Gaelic language suggests the following derivation; caol, narrow, probably pronounced by the Romans kil, and doir, water (in composition dhoir, the dh not sounded); so that caol-oir is narrow stream; the um is a usual Latin affix. Of course, this branch of the Tyne is narrow 189in comparison with the united floods. The word may have had an Italian origin; the Latin celer, swift, has some resemblance to it, and the river, when swollen by floods, very speedily discharges its superfluous water. Whatever be the origin of the word, the names of the neighbouring places, Chollerton and Chollerford, have had a similar derivation.

The miscellaneous antiquities which have been found here, and are still preserved upon the spot, are of a very interesting character. Chief among them is a broken statue, which is here represented.

The fragment, consisting of a fine-grained sandstone, is six feet two inches long. Statues of so large a size are of very rare occurrence in Roman camps in Britain. It is generally supposed to have been meant for Cybele, the mother of the gods. The gracefulness of the design, and the excellence of the execution, show us that the state of the arts in Roman Britain was not so low as is sometimes supposed. The arrangement of the drapery, and the ornament placed upon its margins, are suggestive of the mode in which these details were managed in 190the statues of the early ecclesiastical architects. The ancient builders professedly followed the Roman modes.

The fine Corinthian capital, which is here shewn, enables us to judge of the beauty of some of the buildings which adorned the ancient Cilurnum. In the drawing, it rests upon one of the foundation stones of the bridge; on the right-hand side of the group are two centurial stones, inscribed—

On the top of these is a pipe of red earthenware.

PLATE VIII

Miscellaneous Antiquities, Cilurnum

PLATE IX

Samian Ware

191Preserved in the collection here, is a tile of the usual Roman fabrication, on which are impressed the foot-marks of a dog, seemingly of the terrier species. The animal must have run over it while the clay was in a soft state. Plate VIII. fig. 4.

In making the excavations at the hypocausts, many coins of silver and brass were found. They extend from the reign of Hadrian to that of Gratian; those of Constantine and his immediate successors prevail. A massive silver signet ring, representing, on a cornelian stone, a cock pecking at an an ear of corn, was found in one of the rooms. As is uniformly the case, numerous fragments of the different kinds of pottery used by the Romans were turned up; some of the fragments of vessels of Samian ware are figured on Plate IX. A key, fig. 4. an iron implement with springs on each side of it, fig. 1. and a spear head fig. 3. drawn on Plate X., were found here. Some soles of sandals, similar in character to those which will afterwards be described, several glass beads of curious fabrication, and broken pieces of glass vessels, were picked up. A piece of cut glass procured here is shewn in Plate VII. fig. 10. One of the most curious relics obtained from this treasury of Roman effects was the tooth of a bear; it is of a large size, and is pierced with two holes to enable its possessor to suspend it by a string, and wear it as a trophy or a charm on his person. It is figured of the full size in Plate VII. Bears, as well as wolves, prowled in the forests of ancient Britain, and no doubt the formidable animal 192which yielded this tusk, cost its captor a severe struggle.

Not the least interesting of the circumstances of a place of very early occupation, are the traditions of the ‘ancients’ respecting it. Notwithstanding their rudeness, some latent truth may generally be educed from them; and they always manifest the modes of thought that prevailed in former times. Sixty years ago the traditions of the Wall might easily have been gathered, but now the old men have nearly forgotten the tales with which their ‘fore-elders’ used to entertain them on a winter’s evening. The products of the press have nearly superseded this unlettered lore. A few fragments relative to Cilurnum have, however, been supplied to me. A belief used to prevail, that there existed a subterranean stable under the camp capable of containing five hundred horse. It was, moreover, currently related, that beneath the river a tunnel was formed, which led to the opposite side. There is a pool in the vicinity of the station, on its western side, called the Ingle-pool, and which, until partially filled up a few years ago, was very deep; the peasantry believed, that it derived its supplies by an underground canal from the North Tyne, at Nunwick-mill, between three and four miles up the river.

PLATE X.

J. STOREY DEL. ET LITH.PRINTED BY AND^W. REID.
Roman Spears, etc.

In these traditions we may perhaps recognise the facts, that a regiment of horse garrisoned the station; that the Romans carefully maintained the means of intercourse with both sides of the river; and that, if in this instance they did not, which is by 193no means certain, in others they undoubtedly did bring water from great distances, either for the purpose of sustenance, or to strengthen their position.

We must now take leave of Cilurnum. Whatever may be the views of the reader, the visitor will do so with regret. As Hodgson well remarks, ‘The Astures, in exchanging the sunny valleys of Spain for the banks of the tawny Tyne, might find the climate in their new situation worse, but a lovelier spot than Cilurnum all the Asturias could not give them.’ During many days spent in the prosecution of my inquiries here—the beauty of the landscape, the instructive nature of the ruins, and the pleasant intercourse which I was privileged to enjoy with the hospitable family at the hall, combined to make a deep impression upon my mind.

Again we bend our steps westward. Behind the garden wall at Chesters stands a fragment of the Wall. The north fosse is filled with water. Ascending the hill which leads to Walwick, the earth works are seen on the left hand. When near the top of it, our out-door antiquary, while he pauses for breath, will do well to look back, and contemplate the scene he is leaving. The lines of the Barrier are seen boldly descending the well-wooded and fertile banks on the east side of the river. Warden-hill is to the south, and will attract attention by its elevation. Its summit is seen still to bear marks of having been occupied by the aborigines of Britain. Whilst the works of the Barrier were going on, they 194may have maintained their position for a while, and, from behind their entrenchments, scowled upon the intruders who were soon to drive them to the remoter region of the Cheviots. After watering both sides|WARDEN-FELL.| of the tongue of land of which Warden-fell consists, the North and South Tyne meet, and their waters roll on in a united stream to the Emporium of the North. We can follow it with the eye for some distance, as it goes sparkling in the sunshine, spreading fertility and beauty on either hand.

Nestled in the fairest part of the valley is the abbey church of Hexham; closely inspected, it is found to be a chaste specimen of the most simple and beautiful of our ecclesiastical styles—the early English, and, when viewed from a distance, as in this case, its venerable towers lend a quiet charm to the landscape.

How different the scene which the Romans beheld! In their day, and for long afterwards, the painful cultivator of the soil knew not who should reap the harvest; those only, therefore, who had power to protect themselves would engage in the occupation. Now, the husbandman dreams not of a foreign foe, or of troops of lawless marauders; 195steadily he evokes the riches of the soil, and something like an Eden smiles!

A strip of the Wall, though in a disordered state, and covered with brushwood, is in a field beyond Walwick; its fosse is finely developed.

Ascending the next hill, called Tower Tay, the earth-works are still very conspicuous. About half way up are the ruins of a tower, erected about a century ago, as an object in the landscape. It stands on the Wall, and has been entirely formed out of its stones. At the summit, the ditches of both Wall and Vallum are cut through the native rock, of which the hill consists, and are in excellent order. The Wall stands very near the edge of a scar, sufficiently elevated to have formed of itself a defence; it is remarkable that the Romans should have thought it necessary to draw a ditch on the north side of it at all.

Looking forward from the top of this hill, we see, for a considerable distance, all the lines of the Barrier proceeding on their course; descending one hill and ascending the opposite, called the Limestone-bank, they keep perfectly parallel. It would have delighted Horsley’s heart to notice that the present road runs upon the north agger of the Vallum, maintaining, as he did, that this was the Military Way of Agricola.

At a short distance, further in advance, the ruins of a mile-castle are seen on the right. The whole of the facing-stones are gone, as is usually the case, and the place where it stood is chiefly marked by the 196vacuity occasioned by their removal. This castellum measures, inside, fifty-four feet from east to west, and sixty-one from north to south; it has been protected by a fosse. A long range of the Wall is next seen in the Black-carts farm, in an encouraging state of preservation; it is between five and six feet high, and shews, in some places, seven courses of facing-stones.

On the summit of the next hill, many objects of great interest await us. The view from it is most extensive. To the north, a vast sweep of country meets the eye; a beautiful undulated valley occupies the foreground, behind it the hills rise boldly, and the lofty Cheviots bound the scene. Chipchase castle occupies a commanding position. The modern mansion of Nunwick, embowered in wood, selects the lower ground. Towards the west, the lofty crags traversed by the Wall come into view.

In the corner of a field adjoining the road, are the remains of another mile-castle; it measures fifty-seven feet by fifty-four. Horsley says, it was detached about a yard from the Wall, the reason of which was not very obvious. A portion of the Roman Military Way may here be seen as it curves towards the gateway of the castellum, and again recedes from it. A good section of it is obtained at the margin of the places where its stones have been removed to form the stone dikes of the field.

H. Burdon Richardson, Del.John Storey, Lith.
THE WORKS, TEPPER MOOR.

The fosse of the Wall and Vallum at this point deserve attentive examination. In passing over the crown of the hill, they have been excavated with 197enormous labour out of the basalt of which the summit consists. The workmen, as if exhausted with the task of raising the splintered fragments, have left them lying on the sides of the moats. A mass on the outside of the north ditch, though now split by the action of the frost into three pieces, has evidently formed one block, and cannot weigh less than thirteen tons. It is not easy to conceive how they managed to quarry so tough a rock without the aid of gunpowder, or contrived to lift, with the machinery at their command, such huge blocks. No luis-holes appear in them.

The lithograph presents a view of the giant works of the Vallum and fosse at this point. It is quite evident that here, at least, the north agger did not form the Military Way. There are several breaks and irregularities in both the mounds; the works have probably been left by the Romans in a rough, unfinished state.

Between this spot and the craggy summit on which Sewingshields farm-house is perched, the ground is flat, and destitute of any decided descent to the north. On this account, and for mutual defence, the lines of the Barrier keep close together, so close, sometimes, as scarcely to leave room for the passage of the Military Way between them.

PROCOLITIA is the seventh stationary camp on the line of the Wall. It was garrisoned by the first Batavian cohort, which, with two others from the same country, and the two Tungrian cohorts, 198was with Agricola in his great battle with Galgacus in the Grampian Hills. That the ruined camp at Carrawburgh was the adopted home of this cohort, is proved by the altar engraved on page 62, and by the fractured slab now introduced,^[94] and which was found here in the year 1838. On this mutilated stone, the words COH I BATAVORVM are quite distinct, and are of themselves sufficient, not only to fix the site of the ancient Procolitia, but to corroborate the testimony of Tacitus, on the presence of Batavians in Britain during the period of Roman occupation. The line following may probably be read INST[ANT]E BVRRIO, and bears the name of the prefect under whose superintendence the building was erected, to which the slab referred. In the last line, the word CO[RNELIANO may be perceived. In 237, when Maximinus was emperor, Titius Perpetuus and Rusticus Cornelianus were consuls. That this is the date of the inscription is rendered likely from a fragment of this emperor’s name appearing in the beginning of it.

Whitaker gives, as the meaning of the word Procolitia, the ‘fortress in the woodlands.’ In the Gaelic tongue, coille signifies a wood.

199There is little in this station to detain us. The course of its ramparts and moats can be easily traced, and the rich green sward of its area is seen to cover numerous irregular heaps of ruins; every building, however, is prostrate; scarcely one stone is left upon another. The Wall forms the northern boundary of the station; its eastern and western gateways are, as usual, opposite to each other, but strike the side walls between the upper end and the middle. The position of the southern gateway cannot be detected; in the present state of the ruins, there is no appearance of one. The southern corners are rounded off, but the side walls of the station, in joining the Murus on the north, seem to preserve their rectilinear course. Outside the western wall are the ruins of the suburbs. A natural valley, consisting at present of boggy ground, gives strength to the fortification on this side. Horsley saw a well in the slack, cased with Roman masonry; it is now removed.

No modern habitation is on the ground or in its immediate vicinity to relieve the general desolation—

Passing onwards, we soon reach the farm-house of Carraw, formerly a rural retreat of the priors of Hexham. On the crown of the next elevation, the works are brought into close proximity, apparently 200for the purpose of avoiding an extensive bog on the north, and of maintaining possession of the point of the hill on the south. The earth-works are very boldly developed, but are in a ragged state. The contents of the north fosse are piled up high on its outer margin. The fosse of the Vallum is cut through free-stone rock; its southern agger is very elevated, and would present a bold and angry front to any intruder from the south.

We must now, to adopt the language of Hutton, ‘quit the beautiful scenes of cultivation, and enter upon the rude of nature, and the wreck of antiquity.’ Four great mountain waves are before us, and seem to chase each other to the north, on which side their crests rise almost perpendicularly. To the highest of these, the second from the south, the Wall directs its course. It is a ridge of basalt, which crosses the island obliquely, from Cumberland to Holy Island. The Vallum here parts company with the Wall, and takes the ‘tail’ of the hill on the ‘crag’ of which the other runs. The accompanying drawing shews the nature of the country before us.

H. Burdon Richardson, Delt.John Storey, Lith.
APPROACH TO SEWINGSHIELDS.
Printed by W. Monkhouse, York

Before approaching Sewingshields^[95] farm-house, which is on the line of Wall, an experienced eye will detect the Roman Military Way. It runs at first nearly parallel with the Wall, at about thirty-six paces from it, but, in its subsequent course, recedes from the Barrier, or approaches it, according 201to the position of the mile-castles, and the nature of the ground. With but few interruptions, it may be traced by the appearance of its herbage, by its slightly elevated, rounded form, and by the occasional protrusion of the stones composing it, all the way from Sewingshields to Thirlwall.

The north fosse, which we have had in view from the very commencement of our journey, accompanies the Wall for a short distance up the hill, as is seen in the lithograph, but when the ground becomes precipitous, it forsakes it until the high grounds are passed, only to appear when the Wall sinks into a gap or chasm between the crags.

A difficulty will here present itself to nearly every mind; why was the Wall drawn along the cliffs at all? Horsley cut the knot instead of untying it. ‘As such steep rocks,’ says he, ‘are a sufficient fence of themselves, I am inclined to think the Wall has not in those parts had either strength or thickness, equal to what it has had in other parts.’ Present appearances give us no reason to suppose that the Wall on the crags was in any respect inferior to what it was in the low grounds. A different method of accounting for the circumstance has been forced upon my attention. It was my fortune to traverse the heights near Sewingshields late in December last year, when the wind blew a violent gale from the north, and the thermometer, even in the valley, was ten degrees below the freezing point. In order to maintain the ordinary temperature of the body, very active exertion was necessary, and to make any progress on 202my way, I was constrained to get under the lee of the hill. The conclusion was irresistible; if the Romans were to keep watch and ward here during the winter, a Wall was necessary, even though only for the sake of sheltering them from the blast. The habits of the enemy demanded continual vigilance; for, as Tacitus tells us, before the time of Agricola they usually repaired the losses they had sustained in summer by the success of their winter expeditions. The loftier the mountain peak, the more necessary, in this view of it, was the friendly shelter of the Wall to the shivering soldiers of southern Europe.

The Wall in the neighbourhood of Sewingshields is not in good condition; its site is marked by the rubble which encumbers it, but the facing-stones are gone, having contributed to the erection of every building in the vicinity, from the time of Honorius to the present day. A considerable tract of it was removed lately. Thorough draining, the life of agriculture, is death to the Wall.

The aspect of the country in the immediate vicinity of the heights of Sewingshields is dreary enough, but the elevation enables the eye to revel in the fertility and beauty of the distant landscape. Hexham is distinctly discernible from the farm-house. On the flats to the north of the crags, there formerly stood the border fortress, Sewingshields castle.^[96] It 203was at one time the property of the late Ralph Spearman, esq., the Monkbarns of The Antiquary.

A situation so remote from the crowded haunts of men is favourable to the preservation of legendary lore. It occurred to me that here, if anywhere, I might ascertain the kind of ideas which the rude forefathers of the mural region entertained respecting the Wall and its builders. Although on the Antonine Wall all tradition of the Romans has been lost, this has certainly not been the case here; the recollection of them is still distinctly preserved, and some stories of them are told, which, though in several respects resembling written history, are not derived from this source. For the following scraps of traditional information, I am chiefly indebted to the master of Grindon school, in the immediate neighbourhood of Sewingshields, who says he has often heard them repeated. Though he denominates them ‘absurd,’ the learned in mediæval legends will probably think them worth preserving.

The Romans are said to have been remarkably lazy, so much so, that in the hot weather of summer, having almost nothing to do, they lay basking in the sun, on the south side of the Wall, almost in a state of torpor. The Scots were in the habit of watching their opportunity, and, throwing hooks, with lines attached to them, over the Wall, caught the poor Romans by their clothes or flesh, and by this means, dragging them to the other side, made them prisoners.

An old man in this neighbourhood told me, that he had often heard people say, that the Romans had remarkably broad feet, with still broader shoes, and that, when it rained, they lay on their backs, and holding up their feet in a perpendicular direction, protected, by this means, their persons from the 204weather.—This legend, under various modifications, seems to have been widely diffused in the middle ages. Sir John Maundevile, describing ‘Ethiope,’ says—‘In that contree, ben folk that han but o foot; and thei gon so fast, that it is marvaylle; and the foot is so large, that it schadewethe all the body azen the sonne, whan they wole lye and reste hem.’ Precisely similar to this is Pliny’s account—'Item hominum genus, qui Monoscelli vocarentur, singulis cruribus, miræ pernicitatis ad saltum: eosdemque Sciopodas vocari, quod in majori æstu, humi jacentes resupini, umbra se pedum protegant.'^[97]

It is the tradition of the country that all the stones of the Wall were handed from one man to another by a set of labourers stationed in a line from the quarry to the place where they were required. Many will tell you, 'I have heard my mother say, that the Wall was built in a single night, and that no one was observed to be engaged upon it, save an old woman with an apron full of stones.'—This, however, is a tradition of almost universal application.

The people say that the Wall was hollow, or, as they express it, had a flue running the whole length of it, through which the sentinels communicated intelligence by a speaking trumpet.

Some of the people of this neighbourhood tell me that the Britons, tired, at length, of Roman oppression, rose in a body, and drove the garrison, with considerable slaughter, from all their stations. The Romans, when making their way to the sea to look for ships to carry them home, were met by a seer, who told them that if they returned home they would all be drowned; and if they went back to their old stations they would all be slain. This prophecy disconcerted them greatly, and they were at their wits’ end; however, after long consultation, they resolved to escape both calamities by marching direct to Wales. This they did, and there the pure, unadulterated Roman breed is to be found to this day.—Can this story refer to the passage of the second legion, at an early period, to Caerleon?

205We next pass on to some tales, which, though not connected with the Wall, belong, as Hodgson remarks, to times nearer the Roman than these degenerate days. They chiefly relate to king Arthur. Sir William Betham observes that this monarch’s name is more celebrated in Scotland than in Wales, which was the chief resort of the conquered Britons, and is disposed to think, that this favourite hero of romance was not a Romanized Briton, but an invading Pictish king. This idea would account for the frequent reference to his name in the region of the Wall.

Immemorial tradition has asserted, that king Arthur, his queen Guenever, his court of lords and ladies, and his hounds, were enchanted in some cave of the crags, or in a hall below the castle of Sewingshields, and were to continue entranced there till some one should first blow a bugle horn that lay on a table near the entrance of the hall, and then with ‘the sword of the stone’ cut a garter also placed there beside it. But none had ever heard where the entrance to this enchanted hall was, till the farmer at Sewingshields, about fifty years since, was sitting upon the ruins of the castle, and his clew fell, and ran downwards through a rush of briars and nettles, as he supposed, into a deep subterranean passage. Firm in the faith that the entrance into king Arthur’s hall was now discovered, he cleared the briary portal of its weeds and rubbish, and entering a vaulted passage, followed, in his darkling way, the thread of his clew. The floor was infested with toads and lizards; and the dark wings of bats, disturbed by his unhallowed intrusion, flitted fearfully around him. At length, his sinking courage was strengthened by a dim, distant light, which, as he advanced, grew gradually brighter, till, all at once, he entered a vast and vaulted hall, in the centre of which, a fire without fuel, from a broad crevice in the floor, blazed with a high and lambent flame, that shewed all the carved walls and fretted roof, and the monarch and his queen, 206reposing around in a theatre of thrones and costly couches. On the floor, beyond the fire, lay the faithful and deep-toned pack of thirty couple of hounds; and on a table before it, the spell-dissolving horn, sword, and garter. The shepherd reverently, but firmly, grasped the sword, and as he drew it leisurely from its rusty scabbard, the eyes of the monarch, and of his courtiers began to open, and they rose till they sat upright. He cut the garter; and as the sword was being slowly sheathed, the spell assumed its ancient power, and they all gradually sunk to rest; but not before the monarch had lifted up his eyes and hands, and exclaimed:

Terror brought on loss of memory, and the shepherd was unable to give any correct account of his adventure, or to find again the entrance to the enchanted hall.^[98]

To the north of Sewingshields, two strata of sandstone crop out to the day; the highest points of each ledge are called the King and Queen’s-crag, from the following legend. King Arthur, seated on the farthest rock, was talking with his queen, who, meanwhile, was engaged in arranging her ‘back hair.’ Some expression of the queen’s having offended his majesty, he seized a rock which lay near him, and, with an exertion of strength for which the Picts were proverbial, threw it at her, a distance of about a quarter of a mile! The queen, with great dexterity, caught it upon her comb, and thus warded off the blow; the stone fell between them, where it lies to this day, with the marks of the comb upon it, to attest the truth of the story. It probably weighs about twenty tons!

A few miles to the north of Sewingshields stands an upright stone, which bears the name of Cumming’s cross. Cumming, a northern chieftain, having paid, one day, a visit to king Arthur at his castle near Sewingshields, was kindly received by the 207king, and was, as a token of lasting friendship, presented by him with a gold cup. The king’s sons coming in, shortly after Cumming had left the castle, and being informed of what their father had done, immediately set out in pursuit of him. They overtook him, and slew him at this place, which has borne the name of Cumming’s cross ever since.

King Arthur’s chair used to be pointed out in this vicinity. It was a column of basalt, fifty feet high, slightly detached from the rest of the cliff. The top of it had something of the appearance of a seat. It was thrown down, several years ago, by a party of idle young men, who were at great pains to effect their foolish purpose.

We now return to our more immediate object, the examination of the Wall.

Soon after leaving Sewingshields, a narrow chasm in the rocks, slightly aided by art, called the Catgate, admits of an awkward descent to the plain below. Here, says Hutton, the Scots bored under the Wall, so as to admit the body of a man. Whether the Romans or the Scots made this passage, it is certain that the garrison on the Wall would sometimes visit the country to the north, for the purposes of plunder and of slaughter, and would require the means of egress.

The mile-castles may now all be recognised in due succession.

The next point of interest is Busy-gap, a broad, basin-like recess in the mountain ridge, about a mile from Sewingshields. The Wall here, being more than usually exposed, is not only strengthened with the fosse common in the low grounds, but has the additional protection of a rampart, of triangular 208form, to the north of this. The wood-cut will give some idea of the arrangement. A common stone dike occupies at present the place of the Wall, the foundations of which, and, for the most part, a portion of the grout of the interior, remain. At a little elevation, on the western side of the valley, is a gate called the King’s-wicket (Arthur’s again, probably), through which a drove-road passes. The gate is well situated for defence, and may have been a Roman passage.

Busy-gap was in the middle ages a place of much notoriety; it was the pass frequented by the moss-troopers and reavers of the debateable country.

The incessant war which was waged between England and Scotland before the union of the two kingdoms, rendered property exceedingly insecure, and nurtured a race of men who had no expectation of holding their own, unless they could repel force 209by force. It was the policy of the governments of both countries, to maintain on the Borders a body of men inured to feats of arms, whom, on any emergency, they might call to their assistance. Habits long indulged are not easily laid aside. When the policy of Elizabeth, and the accession of James to the throne of England, allayed the national strife, the stern warriors of the Border degenerated into sheep-stealers; and, instead of dying in the fray, or yielding their necks honourably to the headsman’s stroke, burdened by the score the gallows-tree at Newcastle or Carlisle. The vales of North Tyne and the Rede, which anciently abounded with warriors, became infested with thieves. It is impossible to imagine the desolation and misery occasioned by such a state of society. Landed property was of little value. Precious life was idly sacrificed. Bernard Gilpin, the ‘apostle of the north,’ was esteemed a brave man because he annually ventured as far as Rothbury to preach the gospel of peace to the lawless people of the vale of Coquet. Camden and sir Robert Cotton, though ardently desirous of examining the Wall, durst not venture in their progress eastward beyond Carvoran. ‘From thence,’ Camden says, ‘the Wall goeth forward more aslope by Iverton, Forsten, and Chester-in-the-Wall, near to Busy-gap, a place infamous for thieving and robbing, where stood some castles (chesters they called them), as I have heard, but I could not with safety take the full survey of it, for the rank robbers thereabouts.’ In such ill-repute were the people of these 210parts, even in their own county, that we find the Newcastle Merchants’ company in 1564, enacting that ‘no free brother shall take non apprentice to serve in the fellyshipe of non such as is or shall be borne or brought up in Tyndale, Lyddisdale, or any such lycke places, on pain of 20ll,’ because, says the order, ‘the parties there brought up are known, either by education or nature, not to be of honest conversation; they commit frequent thefts and other felonys, proceeding from such lewde and wicked progenitors.’ The offence of calling a fellow-free-man ‘a Bussey-gap rogue,’ was sufficiently serious to attract the attention of a guild; a case of this kind being recorded in the books of the Bakers and Brewers’ company of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1645.

The traces of this disordered state of society remained until the early part of the reign of George III., when the sheriff of Northumberland was first enabled to execute process in the north-western parts of the county. ‘Within my own recollection,’ says Mr. Hedley, ‘almost every old house in the dales of Rede and Tyne was what is called a Peel house, built for securing its inhabitants and their cattle in the moss-trooping times.’ Very many of these yet exist. Far different is the state of the district now. The men of the mural region, and of the vales of North Tyne, and Rede-water, are as upright as any in England. With the exception of a few aged individuals, an uneducated person is not to be found. Although, in addition to the ordinary courts of law, they have access to courts-leet and courts-baron, (those admirable 211institutions by which our Saxon forefathers gave to the poorest villager the ready means of procuring redress of wrong,) nowhere has the law less occasion forcibly to assert its claims. Property is secure, and land brings its full price in the market. On some of the extensive farms of the Cheviot range, not fewer than ten thousand sheep are kept; they are counted but twice a year, and seldom is one amissing. The value of land in Northumberland (exclusive of towns and mines) is seven times greater than it was at the commencement of the eighteenth century, and two hundred times what it was in the middle of the sixteenth. The antiquary, who will not fail to rejoice in the prosperity of the country through which he is travelling, as well as in the safety of his own person, may therefore go on his way cheerfully and in confidence.

The second mile-castle from Sewingshields, opposite the farm-house called the Kennel, is remarkable as having been built upon an absolute declivity. Hodgson observes that it had an interior wall on every side of it, at the distance of about twenty feet from the exterior wall.

Shortly after leaving Busy-gap, two narrow, but rather steep gaps are passed in quick succession, which do not seem to have obtained names. Through the first of these the Black Dike has probably run. This is an earth-work of unknown antiquity, which is supposed to have stretched, in a nearly straight line, from the borders of Scotland near Peel-fell, through Northumberland and Durham, to the south of Yorkshire. 212The scantiness of the soil on the crags of the Wall, accounts for its not being discernible there, and the ground immediately to the north and south of it is boggy. In a plantation on the hill side, opposite to where we now are, looking south, the dike exists in excellent preservation. The seuch, or slack of it, may be seen even from the Wall, on the western edge of the plantation, which is called the ‘Black-dike planting.’ From the information of those who knew it half a century ago, I shall set down its probable course in this vicinity. Coming in a south-east direction, it passes the east end of Broomlee-lough; having cleared the Wall and Vallum, it goes by the west of Beggar-bog, the east of Low Morwood, through the Muckle-moss, and so to the Black-dike plantation. Passing afterwards a field called the Black-hall, it is last seen on the north bank of the Tyne near the Water-house. It re-appears on the south bank at Morley, and passing Tedcastle and Dean-row, is supposed to go by Allenheads into the county of Durham. In the best piece of it which I have seen, the ditch is ten feet across the top, and about five feet deep, reckoning from the top of the mound on its east side. Within the memory of my informants, it was much deeper. The sheep were often covered up in it in a snow-storm, as they naturally went there for shelter. The earth taken out of the ditch is uniformly thrown to the east side, where it forms an embankment. No stones, or such only as were derived from the cutting, have been used in its formation. The only conjecture hazarded respecting its origin is, that it formed the line 213of demarcation between the kingdoms of Northumbria and Cumbria; and certainly the course pursued by the Black-dike is very nearly similar to the boundary assigned to these regions in the most authentic maps of Saxon England. The antiquity of the cutting may be inferred from the circumstances, that for some distance it forms the division between the adjacent parishes of Haltwhistle and Warden, and that it passes through bogs which probably owe their origin to the devastations committed in the north of England by William the Norman.^[99] The Black-dike is laid down in the map of Northumberland which was prepared to accompany Horsley’s Britannia, and in Kitchin’s Map of Northumberland, under the name of the ‘Scots’-dike.’

South of the turnpike road, and behind a small house, called Beggar-bog, is a low freestone crag, which exhibits some quarry-like excavations, filled with the chippings of stone. It has probably furnished material for the Wall, the stone being of the same character.

The stream which we next cross is the Knag-burn; it forms the eastern boundary of Housesteads. Passing it, we scale the ramparts of this far-famed station.

214BORCOVICUS.—‘This’ says Gordon, ‘is unquestionably the most remarkable and magnificent station in the whole island;’ and ‘it is hardly credible what a number of august remains of the Roman grandeur is to be seen here to this day, seeing in every place where one casts his eye there is some curious Roman antiquity to be seen: either the marks of streets and temples in ruins, or inscriptions, broken pillars, statues, and other pieces of sculpture all scattered along the ground.’ Stukely, in the vehemence of his admiration, denominates it ‘the Tadmor of Britain.’ Let not the visitor, however, approach it with expectations too greatly excited. There is very much to admire, but not a great deal to strike the eye at first sight. The altars and sculptured figures which lay in profusion on the ground when Gordon and Stukely were there, have been removed,^[100] but the ruins of the place remain as complete and vast as ever. The city is, in a great measure, covered with its own debris, but the excavations which have recently been made, shew us that when they are continued throughout the entire station, the ancient Borcovicus will be the Pompeii of Britain.

The station of Housesteads contains an area of nearly five acres. 'Half of it hangs on a slope, with a southern aspect: the other, or northern half, is flat, floored with basalt, covers the summit of a lofty ridge, and commands a prospect on the east, south, 215and west, far away beyond the valley of the Tyne, over blue air-tinted grounds and lofty mountains; and to the north of the Wall, over the vast waste of the forest of Lowes, where indeed, a proud, stupendous solitude frowns o’er the heath.'

The Wall forms its northern boundary, and the Vallum, it is probable, came to the support of its southern rampart.^[101] It is naturally defended on all sides, except the west. In order duly to protect this side, the gateway seems to have been walled up at an early period, and a triple line of ramparts drawn along it.

Although the position of Housesteads clearly indicates that this fort was erected for the accommodation of a mural garrison, it would seem to have been built independently of the Wall. The first anxiety of the soldiers engaged in that great work would be to erect a secure habitation for themselves. The west wall of the station, instead of coming up to the great Wall in a straight line, makes the curve which is usual in those corners of a camp that are independent of the Wall; as is shewn in the wood-cut at the top of the next page.

216

All the gateways, except the north, have been explored, and present very interesting subjects of study to the antiquary. The western|WEST GATEWAY OF BORCOVICUS.| is in the best condition, and is specially worthy of attention. Its arrangements will readily be understood by an inspection of the ground plan which is here introduced, together with the views of it as seen from the outside and inside of the station, on the next page. This gateway, as well as the others which have been explored, is, in every sense of the word, double. Two walls must be passed before the camp can be entered; each is provided with two portals, and each portal has been closed with two-leaved gates. The southern entrance of the outside wall has alone, as yet, been entirely cleared of the masonry that closed 219it. The jambs and pillars are formed of massive stones of rustic masonry. The doors, if we may judge from the fragments of corroded iron which have been lately picked up, were of wood, strengthened with iron plates and studs; they moved, as is apparent from the pivot-holes, upon pivots of iron. In the centre of each portal stands a strong upright stone, against which the gates have shut. Some of the large projecting stones of the exterior wall are worn as if by the sharpening of knives upon them; this has probably been done by the occupants of the suburban buildings after the closing of the gateway. The guard-chambers on each side are in a state of choice preservation, one of the walls standing fourteen courses high. Were a roof put on them, the antiquary might here stand guard, as the Tungrians did of old, and, for a while, forget that the world is sixteen centuries older than it was when these chambers were reared. At least two of the chambers in this part of the camp have been warmed by U shaped flues running round three of their sides beneath the floor.^[102] These chambers, when recently excavated, were found to be filled with rubbish so highly charged with animal matter as painfully to affect the sensibilities of the labourers. The teeth and bones of oxen, horns resembling those of the red-deer, but larger, and boars’ tusks were very 220abundant; there was the usual quantity of all the kinds of pottery used by the Romans. It is not improbable that this rubbish may have been derived from some dunghill outside the walls, and thrown here when the gateway was walled up; it is, however, a remarkable fact, that the soil of the interior area of the stations on the Wall is, for the most part, thickly mingled with bones. Is it possible that the Romans have thrown on the floors of their apartments, and suffered to remain amongst the straw or rushes which may have covered them, the refuse of their food?

Outside View of the West Portal of Borcovicus.

Inside View of the West Portal of Borcovicus.

The view of Housesteads in the accompanying lithograph, is taken from beside the eastern gateway, and gives a general idea of the scene of desolation which it presents.^[103] The only habitation near is a shepherd’s cottage to the south of the station. A peculiarity in the upper division of the eastern gateway requires attention; the lower division, as seen in the lithograph, has been walled up at an early period. A rut, nearly nine inches deep, appears in the threshold, on each side of the central stone against which the gates closed. Grooves, similar in character, are seen in the gateways of the camps at Birdoswald and Maryport. Were it not for the central stone, which presents an impediment to the passage of chariots, no one would doubt that these hollows have been occasioned by the action of their wheels. The following extract, explanatory of the condition 221of the city of Pompeii, will probably throw light upon this and other things belonging to the camp.

H. Burdon Richardson, Delt.John Storey, Lith.
HOUSESTEADS (BORCOVICUS) FROM THE EAST.
Printed by W Monkhouse, York

The Domitian way which led to it was narrow, the carriage-way seldom exceeding ten feet in width. The streets of the city itself are paved with large irregular pieces of lava, joined neatly together, in which the chariot wheels have worn ruts, still discernible; in some places they are an inch and a half deep, and in narrow streets follow one track.... In most places, the streets are so narrow, that they may be crossed at one stride; where they are wider, a raised stepping-stone has been placed in the centre of the crossing. This, though in the middle of the carriage-way, did not much inconvenience those who drove about in the biga, or two-horsed chariot, because the width of these streets being only sufficient to admit the carriage, the wheels passed freely in the spaces left between the curb on either side, and the stone in the centre.^[104]

The stone in the centre of the doorway would not be a greater impediment than the stepping stones in the streets of Pompeii.

The remains of the gateways of Borcovicus shew that in plan and construction they must have resembled the Roman Gateway which, under the name of the ‘Porta nera,’ is preserved entire at Treves, AUGUSTA TREVIRORUM, once the seat of government of the Western Empire.

In examining this and other Roman camps, the spectator will, perhaps, be struck with the narrowness of the streets, and the very small capacity of the the dwellings. It is well to recollect that in their encampments the Romans studiously avoided occupying a larger space than was absolutely necessary. 222Gibbon observes that a modern army would present to the enemy a front three times as extended as a Roman one of the same force. In the field, ten men were apportioned to a tent, ten feet square;^[105] a similar proportion would without doubt be followed in the stationary camp.

It is not easy to ascertain the precise character of the dwellings of the soldiers; the more perfect of the ruins in this and other forts, induce the belief that they were dark, bare, and cheerless. The roofs were probably formed of free-stone slate. Several thin slabs of this kind, with nail-holes in them, as well as some of the nails themselves, have been found in this and other stations.^[106] On Plate XIII, figs. 1, 7, are drawn some door or window heads, found here; these most likely belonged to buildings of a superior class. The entrance into a chamber at Habitancum, recently excavated, was found to be only fourteen inches wide; it was rudely ‘stepped over’ at the top. Fragments of a sort of window glass are frequently found in some of the stations; this would probably be a rare luxury.^[107]

At Housesteads, two or three of the ruined chambers 223will, above the rest, attract the attention of the visitor. Near the centre of the northern division is one which is seventy feet long and eight broad; it must have been a place of public concourse. In the front of it is a kiln which has probably been used for drying corn; near the southern gateway is another which was nearly destroyed in the endeavour made to extricate a cow which had fallen into it, and, in struggling to relieve herself, had thrust her head and neck into the flue. The Romans seem to have kiln-dried their corn at the close of the harvest; it would not have been safe to stack it in the open fields. They would the more readily do this, as it is still by no means unusual, in the central and southern parts of Europe, to thrash the corn at the close of harvest on the field where it grew.

Three hypocausts have been found here, two within the station, and another to the east of it, on the Knag-burn; the flues of the latter were full of soot; very slight traces of any of them now remain.

In this and most other stations, writes Hodgson, ‘there are found considerable quantities of limestone, having partly the character of stalagmite, and partly that of such cellular stone as forms about the mouths of petrifying wells. Some of it is in amorphous lumps; but the greatest part of it has been either sawn into rectangular pieces, or formed in a fluid state in moulds.’ They are probably artificial; at Habitancum, where this calcareous substance is abundant, it seems to have acquired its porosity by being mixed with straw. The use to which it has 224been applied is by no means obvious. Hodgson thought that it had been inserted in the side walls of the hypocausts, to allow heat to arise from below without smoke. This is doubtful. At Habitancum, the blocks, I am told, have been used as ordinary stones. In the construction of the Pharos at Dover, (where building stone is scarce) the calcareous composition has been largely used. Why it should have been employed at Habitancum, and other places, where free-stone is abundant, does not appear.

The suburbs of Borcovicus have been very extensive, the ruins of them distinctly appearing on the east, south, and west sides of the station. A little to the south of it, and stretching westward, the ground has been thrown up in long terraced lines, a mode of cultivation much practised in Italy and in the east. Similar terraces, more feebly developed, appear at Bradley; I have seen them very distinctly marked on the banks of the Rede-water, Old Carlisle and other places.

A well, cased with Roman masonry, is in front of the shepherd’s house, south of the station; a spring, yielding excellent water, is at the bottom of the same field; the Knag-burn washes the station on its eastern side, and there is ‘a fine well under the high basaltic cliff’ on which the northern wall of the station stands, ‘which is still well walled round,’ and has occasionally been used as a bath. None has been discovered within the station itself.

PLATE XI

Broken Columns, Borcovicus

PLATE XII

Sculpted Figures, Borcovicus

PLATE XIII

Sculpted Figures, etc.

In the valley below is a small sandstone ridge, called Chapel-hill, from the idea that a temple stood 225upon it. Two fine altars have been found here.^[108] The ruins that contained the Mithraic antiquities, to which reference will be made afterwards, stood a little to the west of this hill. All traces of the small, dark temple, where the horrid mysteries of the god were performed, are now nearly obliterated.

The fragments of columns which are engraved in Plate XI, enable us to imagine the original grandeur of the place.^[109] With some of the certainty with which a comparative anatomist decides upon the character and habits of an animal, from an inspection of a fragment of its osseous system, an architect determines the size and style of a building from an examination of some of its parts. Thus, the circular column, of which one of the stones (Plate XI.) that now lies in the valley below the station, has formed a part, was probably not less than twenty feet high; how imposing must the entire temple have been!

Plates XII and XIII exhibit several of the carved figures which formerly lay in confusion among the ruins of the station. They are interesting, as exhibiting the state of the arts in Britain at that time, the mode of dress adopted by the Romans, and the high degree of attention which they paid to the decoration of their stations. Roman art in Britain has surely been rated too low.

226The figure introduced on this page was found here. It represents one of old Rome’s most favourite deities,—Victory, careering, with outstretched wings, over the globe. How strong must the passion for conquest have been in the breast of a people, who, though nurtured in a southern climate, braved for more than three centuries, the fogs, and storms, and desolation of this wild region! Wherever the winged goddess led, they followed, and, most pertinaciously too, maintained their ground. But, there is a tide in the affairs of men.

A Roman poet, in the fulness of his heart, sang—

How different the strains which, in a distant age, 227and in another clime, were to flow from the lyre of a brother bard, and how appropriate to the present condition of the deserted Borcovicus!—

That Housesteads is the Borcovicus of the empire, appears plain from the numerous inscriptions that allude to the first cohort of the Tungrians, which, according to the Notitia, was quartered there. One of these inscriptions is shewn on page 63; another, a sepulchral stone, is here presented. The figure on the top of the slab I take to be a rabbit, and suspect that it had some reference to the worship of the obscene god, Priapus. The inscription is usually read in the following manner, though, perhaps, ordinario 228might with equal propriety be read ordinato:—

From an inscription found at Castlecary, it appears that this cohort of Tungrians built one thousand paces of the Antonine Wall in Scotland. They were from about Tongres, on the banks of the Mæse, in Belgic Gaul. Their rank, as a milliary cohort, conferred on them the dangerous honour of advancing in the van of the army to battle, and their acknowledged valour probably procured for them the appointment to this exposed and dangerous post.

The etymology of Borcovicus is easy. A high hill to the south of the station is called Borcum or Barcomb, a neighbouring stream is designated Bardon-burn, and a village near its confluence with the Tyne, Bardon-mill. Bar, in Celtic, means a height, and probably forms the root of all these names; the termination, vicus, is a Latin word, signifying a village.

The stone used in the inside of the walls of the station, and for other ordinary purposes, has been quarried out of the cliffs in the sandstone ridge, along which the present military road passes. 'The altars, columns, and quoins, and much of the ashlar work, have been taken from a stratum of freestone on the north side of the Wall, and similar to that in 229which the recesses, called the King and Queen’s Caves, on the south side of Broomlee-lough, are formed.'^[110]

Again taking the Wall as our guide, we will pursue our course westward. For the greater part of the way along the high ground, the Wall is in a sufficiently good state of preservation to make it a varied and interesting study; it not unfrequently exhibits five, six, and even seven courses of facing-stones. The Northumbrian lakes also lend a charm to the scene. Though appearing in native simplicity and rude grandeur, they will not on that account be less appreciated by men of taste. The Vallum is generally very boldly developed, and runs for several miles in the valley below, completely commanded by the hill on which the Wall stands, as is shewn in the section, Plate IV. This fact is surely fatal to the theory of its having been erected to withstand the brunt of a northern foe. It would have been impolitic to allow the enemy to occupy these heights even as a post of observation. It is true, that the Vallum is occasionally commanded by the rising ground on the south: opposite Sewingshields it is so, and opposite Hot-bank, a little to the west of where we now are, it is overlooked on both sides. This difficulty is not a very formidable one. The engineer of the Barrier has drawn the Vallum chiefly in straight lines from one point to another, and has not thought it necessary to guard with excessive jealousy every little 230rising ground to the south; he never, however, departs from his course to go round the north of a hill, as he does to go round the south of that one near Halton-chesters. The cases, moreover, in which the Vallum is exposed to observation from the south, are very few. Horsley’s own testimony upon this point is decided. He writes—

It must be owned, that the southern prospect of Hadrian’s work, and the defence on that side, is generally better than on the north; whereas the northern prospect and defence have been principally, or only taken care of in the Wall of Severus.^[111]

After passing a mile-castle we come to a depression in the ridge of basalt, that places us opposite the west end of Broomlee-lough; the crag on the west side of this slack is called Cuddy’s-crag. A little farther on, we reach a more extensive pass, called Rapishaw-gap; a road passes through it under the same circumstances as that through Busy-gap, a little above the bottom of the valley. The traveller may here with advantage go to the north of the Wall, in order to examine the geological character of the cliffs he has passed; they are seen ‘to rise in rude and pillared majesty.’

Regaining the high grounds, the Wall for a short space is found to possess less than its usual interest; the ground on the east side of the Bradley estate was formerly common, and the object of our study was every man’s prey. Other objects of inquiry, 231however, abundantly relieve the attention. Langley castle, on the south bank of the Tyne, is in sight, and during our western journey will long continue to be so. It is a square building strengthened by rectangular towers at the corners. Formerly a seat of the Percys, it became afterwards the property of the Radcliffes. It passed, on the rebellion of 1715, along with the other possessions of the earl of Derwentwater, into the hands of the commissioners of Greenwich Hospital, who at present retain it. Destroyed by fire at an early period, it has never been repaired; its masonry is notwithstanding in excellent preservation. On a clear day the singularly strong tongue of land on which are the ruins of Staward-le-peel, may also be discerned to the south. But, more to our present purpose, the high, brown hill of Borcum, from which the Romans obtained much of the stone used in the construction of this part of the Wall, is in the foreground. |ANCIENT QUARRY| An interesting discovery was made here in 1837, to which subsequent reference will be made. On opening an ancient quarry on the top of it, near the ‘longstone,’ a workman found a small copper vessel, containing a large number of Roman coins; four of these were of the time of Hadrian, and all the rest, of previous reigns. Those of Trajan and Hadrian were as fresh as if new from the die. The conclusion is natural, that the quarry had been last wrought in the time of Hadrian, the Wall itself being possibly of the same date. An extensive earthen camp is on the summit of the hill, probably raised by the soldiers who were engaged in quarrying the rock.

232Greenlee-lough is to the north; on its western margin is a modern structure, Bonny-rig, the property of sir Edward Blackett.

Proceeding westward, the Wall again rises into notice. ‘Much of it remains of very various thicknesses, the whole of the perpendicular outsets and insets being on the south side.’

On the tail of the crag on which we now are, the farm-house of Bradley stands. Built up in the doorway of its old kitchen, was a stone, now at Matfen, bearing the fragment of an inscription. Another fractured slab, formerly in the possession of the ‘judicious’ Warburton, and now at Durham, when joined to it, gives an inscription precisely similar to one immediately to be noticed, with the exception of a letter or two in the line of the fracture. The fragments, doubtless, as Hodgson conjectures, formed one stone, deposited in the foundation of some castellum in this neighbourhood, as a memorial of its erection by Hadrian. The wood-cut annexed has been prepared from drawings carefully made of the two portions in their separate localities.

233

Once, at least, since the days of Hadrian, this central region of the Wall has been honoured with the presence of royalty. Hodgson says,—

On the authority of documents in Rymer, Prynne, and the Calender of Patent Rolls, I find Edward the First testing records in the presence of several great officers of state, at Lanchester, on Aug. 10; at Corbridge, Aug. 14; at Newburgh, Aug. 28, 30, 31, and Sep. 4; at Bradley ‘in Marchia Scotiæ,’ Sep. 6 and 7; at Haltwhistle on the 11th, and at Thirlwall on the 20th of the same month; and at Lanercost on Oct. 4, A.D. 1306, at which last house he continued all winter. The Bradley here mentioned is probably Bradley-hall, on the right bank of Craglough-burn, and a little south both of Vallum and Wall, not the farm-house of Bradley, which is between the two barriers.—Northd. II. iii. 288.

The exigencies of war have again and again drawn to this secluded spot the mightiest potentates of earth; as yet this imperial ground has not been trodden by the feet of Majesty, attracted by the sweet allurements of peace.

On the margin of the military road, opposite to us, is the only Inn in the district, which is known by no other name than that of Twice Brewed. Before the construction of the Railway it was much resorted to by the carriers who conducted the traffic between the eastern and western portions of the island. As many as fifty horses and about twenty men would be put up here for the night. Now, it is nearly forsaken. Hutton took up his abode here on a carrier’s night. The difficulty he had in procuring an exclusive bed was compensated by the amusement of observing the carriers at their meal—he soon perceived 234that they had ‘no barricade in the throat; and became convinced that eating was the chief end of man!’

The next break in the basaltic ridge, is the Milking-gap. As we approach it, Crag-lough is seen laving the base of the perpendicular cliff along which the Wall runs. In order to take the high ground, westward of the gap, the Wall here turns at a considerable angle. In this valley, the north fosse again comes to the help of the structure. In front of the farm-house, called Hot-bank, are distinct traces of a mile-castle. In taking up its foundations, the slab, of which the annexed drawing is a faithful copy, was found, which would seem to be a tablet precisely similar to that which is formed by the junction of the two fragments referred to above.

235Of all the inscriptions discovered in Britain, Hodgson pronounces this to be of the greatest historical importance, inasmuch as it leads to the true reading of several fragments of similar inscriptions throwing|MILKING-GAP INSCRIPTION.| light upon the authorship of the Wall. One of these was known to Horsley, and seems to have puzzled that great antiquary. It and other fragments which have since been found in different mile-castles, tend to produce the conviction, that the mile-castles, (which are on the line of the Wall, ascribed to Severus,) were built by Hadrian. The simplicity of the inscription will strike the classical reader, who will not fail also to observe the peculiarity of the name of the emperor being in the genitive case.

Although the station of Vindolana lies considerably to the south of the lines of the Barrier, it is ranked by the Notitia among the stations per lineam valli, and as such, must be examined by us in our mural peregrination. Leaving Milking-gap with this view, and crossing the low grounds to the south of the Wall, the Vallum is observed, contrary to its usual tendency, making two rapid curves, something in the form of the letter S, to avoid, apparently, the swellings of the contiguous marsh. At High-shields, a cottage on the little ridge south of the turnpike-road, the station comes into view. It stands upon a partially detached eminence, surrounded, though not so closely as to be commanded, by hills of superior elevation. On all sides, except the western, it is naturally defended, whilst the summits of the surrounding heights afford it a degree of shelter 236which would be peculiarly grateful to the natives of southern Europe. The Chineley-burn flows past it, and the situation is altogether one of peculiar beauty. In modern times, the place has been variously designated Little Chesters, the Bowers, and Chesterholm.

VINDOLANA.—As this station is detached from the Wall, and lies upon the line of the ancient road which ran from Cilurnum to Magna, it is not improbable that it was one of Agricola’s forts. The road which connected it with the Wall may yet be distinctly traced between High Shields and the farm-house of Chesterholm.

The walls, ditches, and gateways of the station are all discernible. The northern gateway would be the one chiefly used by the garrison, as it opens directly upon the Great Military Way. An examination of the western gateway, some years ago, led to the belief that it had been walled up at an early period; this is the most exposed side of the camp. A portion of the wall of the station near the north-east corner, when cleared by its late owner, Mr. Hedley, stood twelve courses high. In this case, as in many others, the researches of the antiquary have only facilitated the operations of the destroyer; much of it has since been removed. The size of the stones, which is considerable in the foundation course, gradually diminishes upwards.

At least two buildings provided with hypocausts, have been discovered here. One of these stood about fifty yards beyond the western rampart, and 237when discovered, contained a square apartment, vaulted above. Some of the vaulting-stones are still preserved at Chesterholm; they are grooved near the lower extremity, apparently to allow of the joints being strengthened by the insertion between them of keys of slate or wood. The remains of this building were more complete when Hodgson wrote the following paragraph than at present:—

The pillars of the hypocaust are still very black with fire and soot; and people say that the Bowers, from the Roman age till within the last century, was the elysium of a colony of fairies; and this ruined bath, the kitchen to one of their palaces, of which the soot among the stones was undeniable evidence; and confident belief affirmed, that long passages led from this laboratory of savoury messes to subterranean halls that ever echoed to the festivities and music of the Queen of the Bowers, and her aërial court.

The other hypocaust was partially explored by Warburton in 1717, but more fully by the rev. Ant. Hedley in 1831. It stood within the area of the camp not far from the eastern gateway. In its ruins, Warburton found the fine altar to Fortune, here engraved. It is now preserved in the Library of the Dean and Chapter at Durham, the ‘judicious’ antiquary not having been able to obtain 238his price for it of my lord Oxford.^[112] Here also Mr. Hedley discovered the three noble altars which are still preserved at Chesterholm. The pillars which supported the floor of the hypocausts were of different shapes and diameters; some of them were portions of square columns, as in the annexed example, some circular, like the balusters of stairs, as may be seen by the specimens of them in the garden at Chesterholm. The Romans themselves, Hodgson remarks, seem to have treated the fallen works of their predecessors here with very little ceremony, when they cut down the handsome columns of halls and temples into pillars for sooty hypocausts.

About a furlong west of the camp is a copious spring, from which the water was taken by a channel formed of large stones into the station. The water still, in some measure, follows its ancient track, as the appearance of the herbage shews, and pours itself, by a covered passage, into the Chineley-burn on the opposite side.

H. Burdon Richardson, Delt.John Storey, Lith.
MILE STONE AT CHESTERHOLM.

In the vicinity of the camp is an object of peculiar interest. On the line of the ancient Roman road which skirts its northern rampart, stands a mile-stone at the spot where the soldiers of Agricola or 239Hadrian placed it. The opposite lithograph shews it in the foreground; the camp is in the distance. It is upwards of six feet high, and is nearly two feet in diameter. There are traces of an inscription on its western face, but scarcely a letter can now be deciphered.|ROMAN MILE-STONE.| Another mile-stone formerly stood to the west of this, but it was removed and split up by its tasteless owner, into two gate-posts. Horsley says that it bore the inscription—

an inscription which, supposing it to be perfect, though this is a little doubtful, is happily contrived to be complimentary to each successive emperor. The Romans, with wise policy, paid great attention to their roads; the stones which they erected at every mile were generally inscribed with the name of the consul or emperor under whose auspices they were made. Horsley mentions another mile-stone, which was to the east of the present one.

Close by the mile-stone is a tumulus of considerable size.

In the house and grounds of the late Mr. Hedley, are preserved some very valuable antiquarian remains. A very fine altar to Jupiter is reserved for subsequent description. Another, whose focus is reddened by the action of fire, is here introduced on account of the evidence which it affords, in corroboration of the conjecture of Horsley, that Little Chesters was the Vindolana of the Romans, where, 240according to the Notitia, the fourth cohort of the Gauls was stationed.

Several other inscriptions by the fourth cohort of the Gauls have been found here since the time of Horsley.

The altar to Fortune, given in a previous page, shews us that at least a detachment of the sixth 241legion had, at some period, its abode here. |THE TWENTIETH LEGION.| A stone,

preserved at the place, and of which an engraving is here given, bears testimony to the presence of the twentieth legion also, which was surnamed V[ALENS] V[ICTRIX], ‘the valiant and victorious’, and of which the symbol was a boar. This legion was first sent over to Britain by Claudius, and remained in it until the island was abandoned by the Romans. Horsley conceives that this legion was concerned in the erection of the Vallum, though, he adds, we have no inscriptions to prove it. He suspects that it was no-way concerned in building the Wall, because, among all the centurial inscriptions which had come under his notice, not one mentioned this legion, or any cohort belonging to it. The discovery, since the publication of the Britannia Romana, of this and other memorials to be noticed as we proceed, renders

it probable that the twentieth legion was engaged upon both the Wall and the Vallum; and as, according to Horsley, ‘it is evident that this legion was at Chester in the year 154,’ where it long continued, the probability is strengthened, that the Wall, as well as the Vallum, was built before that period. A fragment of an inscription, represented above, bears direct reference to Hadrian. The Milking-gap slab, to which it has a very close resemblance, enables us to supply the parts that are 242wanting. The only difference seems to be, that the emperor’s name is in the dative case instead of the genitive as in the other example.

The cottage which Mr. Hedley erected for his own residence is, with the exception of the quoins,

entirely formed of stones procured from the station. In addition to the altars which stand in front of the house, several objects of considerable interest are built up in the covered passage which leads from the kitchen to the burn; among them is a range of Roman coping-stones, of the form shewn in the cut. The ‘broaching’ of the stones has been alluded to previously.

Near the stables attached to the house, is a Roman altar converted into a swine-trough; the figure on its side seems to have been intended for an eagle, the emblem of the imperial Jove. A foretaste this of the day when every idol shall be cast to the moles and to the bats. May it speedily arrive!

John Storey, Del. et Lith.
THE CRAGS, WEST OF CRAG LOUGH.

The probable meaning of the word Vindolana, is ‘the hill of arms;’ vin, with slight variations of pronunciation, signifying, in all the Celtic dialects, a height; and lann, in the Gaelic, weapons. The name well accords with those common in Ossian’s poems.

243Rejoining the Wall at Milking-gap, and continuing our course westward, we soon arrive at a conspicuous gap, on the Steel-rig grounds. The Wall on the eastern declivity of this pass may be studied to great advantage. The courses are laid parallel to the horizon; the mortar of each course of the interior seems to have been smoothed over before the superincumbent mass was added. In order to give the in-door antiquary an idea of its condition, a drawing of it is here introduced.

Mounting another hill, and again descending into the valley, we find another gap, in which the remains of a mile-castle will be noticed, from which it has received the name of the Castle-nick. A little farther removed is Peel-crag, one of the most precipitous faces which the Wall has had to traverse. The military way ingeniously avoids the sudden descent by winding round the southern projections of the rock. After passing a cottage, called the Peel, a modern road is encountered which leads to Keilder, and so into Scotland; in its progress northwards, however, it soon degenerates into a mere track. As this pass is more than usually open, the fosse again appears surmounted by a mound on its northern margin; the earth-works are strongly marked, but the Wall is gone.

The lithographic view represents the northern aspect of the crags, as they appear here.

On the western side of this, sheltered by a few trees, is the farm-house of Steel-rig. Attaining the next elevation—Winshields-crag—we are on ground 244reputed to be the highest between the two seas; a turf cairn has been erected on it for the purposes of the ordnance survey. From this lofty summit, the vessels navigating the Solway may easily be descried.

Proceeding in the same direction, we reach another gap of wide dimensions, but very steep on both declivities. Here the Wall has been provided with a ditch, strengthened, as usual in dangerous situations, with a rampart on its outer margin. If the local vocabulary does not furnish this pass with a name (and I have not been able to find that it does), Bloody-gap, from the following circumstance, well befits it. Nearly direct north from it, is a rising ridge of ground, called Scotch-coulthard. When the moss-troopers, who abounded in these parts, succeeded in safely reaching it, their pursuers commonly considered farther chase useless. Between the Wall and this point of safety, therefore, the race and the conflict were necessarily of the most desperate character; that many deadly conflicts have taken place, is evidenced by the numerous skeletons which are turned up in draining the ground.

A lonely cottage, upon an exposed part of the ridge, is called Shield-on-the-Wall.

Near the modern military way, two large stones, called ‘the mare and foal,’ are standing. In Armstrong’s map of Northumberland, three are marked; they are probably remains of a Druidical circle.

H. Burdon Richardson, Delt.John Storey, Lith.
THE WALL AT STEEL-RIG.
Printed by W. Monkhouse, York

Shortly afterwards we come to a gap of very bold proportions. Popular faith asserts it to have been the abode of evil spirits, and it is known by the ominous name of Bogle-hole. The sides of the 245gap are steep; on the western declivity the courses of the Wall are for the most part conformable to the ground, but they are stayed up by occasional steps parallel to the horizon. In the valley, to the south, the Vallum is seen bending up towards the Wall, apparently to assist in defending the pass; it would not have done so, had it been an independent fortification. The vicinity of Bogle-hole seems a fitting place for introducing the following passage from Procopius, a writer of the fifth century. We can readily conceive that at a period when the inroads of the Caledonians were still fresh in the memory of the inhabitants, the country north of the Wall would be regarded with superstitious dread. Doubtless, many who passed the boundary, found, to their cost, that in this region lay the pathway to the world of spirits:—

Moreover, in this isle of Brittia, men of ancient time built a long wall, cutting off a great portion of it: for the soil, and the man, and all other things, are not alike on both sides; for on the eastern (southern) side of the Wall, there is a wholesomeness of air in conformity with the seasons, moderately warm in summer, and cool in winter. Many men inhabit here, living much as other men. The trees, with their appropriate fruits, flourish in season, and their corn lands are as productive as others; and the district appears sufficiently fertilized by streams. But on the western (northern) side all is different, insomuch indeed, that it would be impossible for a man to live there, even half an hour. Vipers and serpents innumerable, with all other kinds of wild beasts, infest that place; and, what is most strange, the natives affirm, that if any one, passing the Wall, should proceed to the other side, he would die immediately, unable to endure the unwholesomeness of the atmosphere. Death also, attacking such beasts as go thither, forthwith destroys them.... They 246say that the souls of men departed are always conducted to this place; but in what manner I will explain immediately, having frequently heard it from men of that region relating it most seriously, although I would rather ascribe their asseverations to a certain dreamy faculty which possesses them.—Giles’s Ancient Britons, I. 404.

The next defile is Caw-gap; some ruined cottages, formed of Wall-stones, stand in it. The extreme jealousy with which the Romans defended an exposed situation is well shewn here. The fosse, which guards the pass through the low ground, is discontinued on the western side as soon as the Wall attains a sufficient elevation, but upon the the ground drooping, though only for the space of a few yards, it re-appears for that short distance.

A road runs through this pass to the north, which soon becomes a mere track. It passes a solitary house, called Burn Deviot, nearly due north from the gap, which was long the resort of smugglers and sheep-stealers. The memory of its last tenants, Nell Nichol and her two daughters, who were a pest to the country, is still fresh in the district. Though many years have elapsed since any one occupied the dwelling, lights are said often to be seen at the windows at night, visible tokens of the presence of the spirits of the murdered children of Nell’s daughters.

The crags along which we soon find ourselves to be proceeding, possess a perpendicular elevation of nearly five hundred feet above the plains below. Passing another small gap, called the Thorny Doors, we come to a tract of Wall in an excellent state 247of preservation. The lower courses have lately been freed from the rubbish which for centuries has covered them, and the fallen stones replaced in their proper order. The whole face of the Wall has a remarkably fresh appearance, and nowhere can the tooling of the stones be examined with more advantage. Amongst the fallen stones, one was lately found which furnishes us with additional evidence, that the twentieth legion was engaged in the erection of this part of the Wall. It

is preserved amongst the antiquities at Chesters, and is represented in the adjoining cut. This sculpture cannot have been derived from the Vallum, in the construction of which, in the time of Hadrian, the twentieth legion is acknowledged to have been employed; for the Vallum is here distant more than three hundred yards from the Wall. The reader will of course perceive the bearing which this fact has upon the question of the contemporaneous origin of the two structures, and the construction of the Wall, as well as the Vallum, by Hadrian.

While the antiquary is eagerly scrutinizing indentations in stones which were chiselled sixteen centuries ago, his eye will occasionally rest upon the memorials of an antiquity so indefinite as to throw into the shade even his primeval records. Lepidodendra, and other fossils of the mill-stone-grit and coal series, are of occasional occurrence. Who shall tell 248when these giant plants flourished, how they were enveloped in their sandy bed, and how hardened into the flinty stone made use of by the Roman soldiers? Imagination reels at the questions suggested.

We are now arrived at the most perfect mile-castle remaining on the line, generally named, from the farm-house to the north of it, the Cawfields Castle. The gap which it guarded was denominated by the peripatetic party of 1849, in commemoration of their visit, the Pilgrims’-gap, a name which is beginning to be recognised by the inhabitants of the neighbourhood.

Until recently, the castellum was nearly covered with its own ruins. Since the annexed drawing was taken, the rubbish has been entirely removed from the inside, as well as the out.

The building is a parallelogram, but the corners at its lower side are rounded off. It measures, inside, sixty-three feet from east to west, and forty-nine feet from north to south. The great Wall forms its northern side. The stones used in the construction of this building are of the same size and character as those employed in the Wall itself; the mortar has disappeared from between the courses of the facing-stones, but portions of lime are seen in the grout of the interior. In the western wall, nine courses of stones are standing. The side walls of the castle have not been tied to the great Wall, but have been brought close up to it, and the junction cemented with mortar.

H. Burdon Richardson Delt.John Storey, Lith.
MILE-CASTLE NEAR CAW-FIELDS
Printed by W. Monkhouse York.

It is provided with a gateway of large dimensions, 249both on its northern and southern side. In Horsley’s day, it was a matter of doubt whether there was any opening through the Wall, excepting at the points where the Watling-street and the Maiden-way crossed it; the disinterment of this mile-castle sets the question at rest, and justifies us in believing that the passages at Busy-gap, Rapishaw-gap, and other places, are of Roman formation.

The gateways are formed of large slabs of rustic masonry, and to give them full development, the walls are thicker here than in other parts. The width of the wall at the lower gateway is nine feet three inches; at the upper, which was, of course, the more exposed, ten feet six inches. The opening of each gateway is ten feet. Two folding-doors have closed the entrance, which, when thrown back, have fallen into recesses prepared for them. Some of the pivot holes of the doors remain, which exhibit a circular chafing, and are slightly tinged with the oxide of iron. The security of the northern gateway did not entirely depend upon the solidity of its masonry, or the strength of its doors. It opens upon a sort of cliff, and the road from it does not lead directly away, but runs for a little distance under the Wall, so as to give an opportunity of more readily acting against an enemy.

The masonry of the whole building, but particularly of the gateways, is peculiarly fresh. The lines that have been lightly chiselled on some of the large rustic slabs of the gateways, in order to guide the workmen in correctly placing those above which 250project less than than the others, are still quite distinct. The stone is of a very durable nature, but it is difficult to conceive how such slender markings, particularly when in a horizontal position, could long resist the action of the weather. Were we to judge only from the appearance of the masonry, we might be led to suppose that the building had been enveloped in its own ruins not long after its erection—perhaps in that dreadful irruption of the Caledonians which brought Severus to this country—and that it was never afterwards repaired.

In clearing out the interior of this building, no traces of party-walls, of a substantial character at least, were found. It stands upon a slope of about one foot in five, and, towards the hanging side of it, the ground has been rendered horizontal by ‘made earth.’ Some fragments of gray slate, pierced for roofing, were found among the rubbish; it is therefore not improbable that a shed was laid against the southern wall for the protection of the soldiers. At about the elevation which the raised floor would reach, the Wall is, in one place, eaten away by the action of fire. Here, probably, was the hearth round which the shivering soldiers of the south clustered, to forget, in the recital of their country’s tales, the fierce Caledonians who prowled around them, or the still fiercer tempests, which all their valour and all their engineering skill could not exclude from their dwellings. With the exception of such sheds, or mere temporary erections, the whole building seems to have been open above. Two large fragments of funereal slabs 251were found in the castellum; one of them has been roughly shaped into a circular form, and is reddened by fire; the letters which remain are distinct and well formed. Has it been the hearth? The inscription has been erased from the other. Another stone of still greater interest was found here, furnishing additional evidence of the erection of the mile-castles by Hadrian. From the annexed cut, it will at once be perceived that it is a duplicate of the inscription, already described, in which the second legion endeavours to perpetuate its name, and those of its emperor, Hadrian, and Aulus Platorius Nepos, his legate. There cannot be a doubt that the castellum and the Wall were built at the same time, and by the same parties; if Hadrian therefore built the one, the other is erroneously ascribed to Severus.

Two small silver coins were found amongst the rubbish within the castellum, one of Vespasian, the other of Marcus Aurelius. Although their testimony is of a negative character, it will be observed, that it is not inconsistent with the idea, that the castle was erected in the time of Hadrian, and with the opinion already hazarded, that it was dismantled at an early period. There were also found large pieces of earthen-ware, chiefly of the coarser kinds, and fragments of millstones formed of lava, which shew that culinary operations were carried on within these cold, bare walls, and a solitary oyster-shell among 252the rubbish bore testimony to the attachment of the Romans to this article of luxury. The mile-castle is very nearly midway between the seas.

Besides the articles already enumerated, there were picked up within the castellum some large glass beads of somewhat singular appearance, (Plate VII., figs. 7, 8) and a fibula of brass. The whole of these relics are safely deposited in the collection of antiquities at Chesters. The interesting building is, happily, upon an estate belonging to John Clayton, esq.; the hand of the spoiler will therefore not be allowed to touch it.

About one hundred and fifty yards south of the castellum, is a spring of excellent water. Near it, about midway between the Vallum and the Wall, an altar to Apollo was lately discovered, which will afterwards be described.

A road leads from the vicinity of the mile-castle to the town of Haltwhistle, in the sheltered valley of the Tyne, whither, should the shades of evening be approaching, the way-worn antiquary may be glad to bend his steps. At the point where the path joins the modern military road, a Roman camp will be observed. On the sides which are most exposed, double and triple lines of earth-works have been raised. The rock on the western face of the ground where the camp stands, has been wrought by the Romans for stones, and the camp has given them temporary protection. It was here that the inscription on the face of the rock, LEG. VI. V., was discovered in 1847, as already mentioned, page 81. The quarry, 253not being required for the use of the district, was shortly afterwards closed.

The Castle-hill at Haltwhistle is, apparently, a diluvial deposit; ramparts, still quite distinct, run round the margin of its summit. Several peel-houses in the town and its vicinity, will interest the antiquary.^[113]

To those who cherish the religious views of the early Anglican reformers, it will be interesting to remember, that this is the native district of Nicholas Ridley, bishop and martyr. Willimoteswick-castle, his reputed birth-place, is on the south bank of the Tyne, about three miles below Haltwhistle.^[114]

254Rejoining the Wall, Haltwhistle-burn-head is the first object of interest that we meet with in our course westward. The burn, to which important reference will presently be made, is derived from the overflowings of Greenlee-lough. Between its source, and the gap by which it passes the ridge on which the Wall stands, it is called the Caw-burn; below that point it bears the name of Haltwhistle-burn.

As the width of the defile, and the passage of the stream, render this a weak point in the barrier, the two lines of fortification approach very near to each other; they afterwards again diverge.

Westward of Burn-head farm-house, the fosse is boldly developed, but the Wall is traceable only in the ruins of its foundation. As we proceed onwards to Great Chesters, the foundations of a mile-castle which has stood half to the north of the Wall, and half within it, may be, though not without careful scrutiny, observed. The tower which formerly stood at Portgate is the only other known example of a similar arrangement.

ÆSICA, or Great Chesters, is the tenth stationary camp on the line of the Wall. Its superficial contents are 3 acres, 35 poles. The ramparts and fosse are clearly defined. The southern gateway may be traced; it is nearer the eastern than the western side. A double rampart of earth seems to have given additional security to the western side, which, by situation, is the weakest. A vaulted room in the centre of the camp still answers very correctly to 255the description given of it in 1800 by Dr. Lingard, (quoted by Hodgson, II. iii. 203.)

It is 6½ feet square, and 5 feet high. It was descended by steps, and had, at the opposite end to its entrance, a sort of bench, raised on mason work, 2½ feet wide and high, and covered with a slab of stone. The roof consisted of six similar and contiguous arches of stone, each 15 inches broad. It had also one pillar. The floor had on it a great quantity of ashes, was flagged, and on raising one of the stones, a spring gushed out, which converted the vault into a well.

About one hundred and fifty yards south of the station, in a field which has for years been furrowed by the plough, the remains of a building of somewhat rude construction have just been discovered. Its floor, consisting, for the most part, of the usual compost, is nearly a foot thick. Further examination would probably disclose, in its vicinity, the foundations of numerous suburban buildings.

An ancient road leads from the southern gateway of the station to the great military way which ran from Cilurnum to Magna.

The station of Æsica, according to the Notitia, was about the year 430, garrisoned by the cohors prima Astorum.^[115] Horsley (writing in 1731) observes, that no inscriptions had been found here mentioning the first cohort of the Asti, or any other cohort. In 1761, however, an inscription was dug up in this station, which is now deposited in the museum at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, recording that in the reign of Alexander 256Severus (200 years before the date of the Notitia) the ‘cohors secunda Asturum’ rebuilt a granary here which had fallen into decay from age—‘horreum vetustate conlabsum.’ It is to be observed that the spelling of ‘Asturum’ is similar to that of the inscription at Cilurnum, and we do not find that the second cohort, either of the Asti or Astures, is mentioned elsewhere as part of the Roman auxiliary forces in Britain.

Near the eastern gateway of the station there has been lately dug up a large mural tablet, shewn in the wood-cut, and bearing the following inscription:

IMP. CÆS. TRAI[A]N. HADRIA
NO AVG. P[ATRI] P[ATRIÆ].

To the emperor Cæsar Trajanus Hadria-
nus Augustus, the father of his country.

It is not probable that this slab has been derived from the Vallum, which is upwards of a quarter of a mile from the station.^[116] Why the upper part of the 257tablet was left blank does not appear; enough, however, has been inserted to support the theory, that Hadrian built the Wall. Although several of the stations were probably built before the Wall, and were quite independent of it, this can scarcely have been one of them; its position seems to indicate that it was called into existence in order to accommodate the mural garrison.

SURVEYED BY I. T. W. BELL 1860A. Reid’s Lithog. 117 Pilgrim St. Newcastle.
Plan of
AN ANCIENT WATER COURSE EXTENDING FROM
SAUGHY BIG WASH POOL TO ÆSICA GREAT-CHESTERS.

Celtic authorities all agree in tracing the name Æsica to a word signifying water. The propriety of such an appellation does not at first sight appear. The camp is far from either the eastern or western sea; no lake is visible from its ramparts; the only water which is near is the Haltwhistle-burn, a somewhat tiny stream. The low ground to the south has a fenny aspect, but the station itself stands high and dry, though upon a part of the mural ridge less elevated than usual. It is not improbable that it may have derived its name from an aqueduct which leads the water from the Greenlee-lough to the camp. As this water-course has hitherto escaped the notice of writers upon the Wall, and is a work of considerable interest, a somewhat detailed description of it may be allowable.

The camp, though not greatly elevated, stands higher than the ground, either north or south of it. The country to the north, though generally flat, is studded with numerous hills of moderate elevation. On the sides of some of these, about two-thirds up, may be noticed a line that reminds the spectator of the parallel roads in Glenroy and other 258places. On examination, it is found to be an artificial cutting, made with evident reference to the maintenance of the water level. The sections given in Plate XVI., shew its size and form. In some places the water stands in it yet; in others a mass of peat fills it; and very frequently, where the channel has been obliterated, its course is shewn by a line of rushes, which grow on the damp ground. Wherever the water-course can be distinctly discerned, it has been laid down in the accompanying plan by a green line; where the traces of it are lost, the line of the water level has been pursued, and is indicated by dots of the same colour.

The whole length of the water-course is six miles; the distance in a straight line is little more than two miles and a quarter. It takes its commencement at the Saughy-rig-washpool, which is formed by the occasional damming up of the Caw-burn, at about a mile from its exit from the Greenlee-lough. In the immediate vicinity of the burn, the side of the water-course next the rivulet which would be endangered by the overflowing of the natural stream, is made up with flat stones put in endwise, some of which still remain as shewn in the section at B, in the plan. In its course to the station, in order at once to preserve the level, and avoid the necessity of using forced embankments or stone aqueducts, it is taken along the sides of the moderately elevated hills which rise from the plain. So ingeniously is this done, that once only has it been necessary to cross a valley by an artificial mound of earth. This has been at a spot between the third and fourth mile of the water-course, and which is still known in the district by the name of Benks-bridge, though probably few of the inhabitants are aware of the evident origin of the term. Some ingenuity has been employed in fixing the site of this mound. It is placed in that part of the valley where there is a slight descent on each side of it; the drainage of the surface is thus provided for without the use of a culvert; the surface water on the west, naturally making for the Halt-whistle-burn, that on the east for the river Tipalt. The mound which has taken the water-course across the valley at Benks-bridge 259has entirely disappeared, having probably been absorbed, in the course of ages, by the mossy ground on which it stood. The whole fall of the water-course, reckoning from the Wash-pool to the bottom of the arched chamber in the centre of the station is thirty feet. This is distributed over its entire length in the way shewn in the following table:—

The nature of the ground threw considerable difficulties in the way of the engineer, which accounts for the exceedingly tortuous nature of the track pursued. It is indeed remarkable that without the aid of accurate levelling instruments, any one could be so fully assured that the requisite fall existed as to venture upon the task of its formation. The workmen in the execution of the design probably drew the water along with them as they proceeded. In one place, (G) they seem to have made too free with the fall, and after proceeding for some distance, (upwards of a furlong) have retraced their steps, and constructed the cutting at a higher level. In crossing the valleys, there is sometimes an unusual loss of fall. This is particularly the case at the third mile (E) where there is a difference in the level of the course, on the opposite side of the slack, of nearly ten feet. This valley is permeated by a streamlet, and to take the water 260across it at the level previously preserved, a stone aqueduct would have been necessary. Appearances seem to indicate that an easier plan was adopted. A dam being formed across the hanging side of the valley, the water of the course was allowed to deliver itself freely into it, and eventually rising after the manner of a mill-head to the level of the course on the western side, pursued its way as before. That this plan was the result of a change in the design of the architect seems evident, for on the eastern side of the valley a second cutting (E) has been made at a lower level than the other, apparently with the view of leading the water more gradually to the lower point.

Unfortunately all traces of the water-course are lost for some distance before approaching the station, so that it cannot be ascertained where it entered it, if it did so at all.

That some important object was gained by the formation of so long a cutting is undoubted, but what that object was is a perplexing question. It can scarcely be supposed that the garrison at Æsica were dependent for their daily supply of so important an article as water upon an open cutting outside the Barrier. The feeblest of their foes could, in an instant, cut off the provision. No doubt the country, for some distance north of the Wall, was held in subjection by the Roman forces, but when the Wall was built, and the station planned, such was not the case. The station itself is not destitute of water. A well, sunk some years ago, to the depth of twenty-four feet, yields to the tenants of the farm-house an unfailing supply. I am disposed to think that the water brought by the cutting was to give to the north rampart of the station the advantage of a wet ditch. By throwing an embankment across the depression on the north of the station, as it begins to slope down to the bed of the Haltwhistle-burn, a considerable body of water would lodge here. The station of Æsica was an important one. In a particularly wild district, at an unusual distance from the great lines of Roman communication, and close beside the great opening in the mural ridge, by which the waters of the Forest of Lowes effect a passage to the low grounds, it would be peculiarly exposed to the 261attacks of the enemy. Although somewhat elevated above the ground north of the Wall, it is not so much so as to be impregnable on that quarter. A body of water collected here to keep the enemy at a still greater distance might not be beneath the attention of the garrison. Any temporary interference with the aqueduct would in this case be productive of no inconvenience. The existence of a water-course on the enemy’s side of the Wall at Hunnum, which may have served a similar purpose, has already been noticed. At Bremenium, High Rochester, some guttered stones, covered with flags, were recently found lying in a direction which led to the supposition, that they brought water from some springs outside the station to the eastern moat.

In the Archæologia Æliana^[117] is a plan and description of an ancient aqueduct, which brought water from some distant rivulets to the station at Lanchester. It consists of two branches, the longer of which is nearly four miles in extent. Earthen embankments, to preserve the level, are occasionally used in both of them, and, as they run over sandy ground, the bottom of them has been puddled. The two lines, after uniting, deliver their water into a reservoir outside the station, near to its south-west corner. That the water of this aqueduct cannot have been used for domestic purposes appears from what Hodgson, the author of the paper, adds—‘Several wells have, from time to time, been discovered here by labourers, on the outside of the walls, and there is a plentiful spring at a short distance from where the bath stood.’

Whatever may have been the object served, the water-course at Æsica is a striking memorial of the skill, forethought, and industry of the Roman garrisons. At the present day, in a highly civilized country, and after the enjoyment of a long period of internal peace, we are but beginning to see the necessity of bringing water from a distance into our large towns. An individual garrison, exposed to all the hazards of war, scrupled not, even fourteen or sixteen centuries 262ago, for some purpose which they thought important, to cut a water-course six miles long!

It is not a little remarkable too, that after the lapse of so long a period, the cutting should be distinctly visible through so large a portion of its track.

The view which is here taken of the object of the water-course is not given because it is absolutely satisfactory, but because it presents the fewest difficulties. We might have expected that if a miniature lake had been formed on the north of the station, some remains of the embankment necessary to confine its waters would appear; none are, however, to be observed. The soil, on being turned up, has not the black and sludgy aspect, which might be anticipated, but is of a yellow hue; the bottom of a pond at Wall-mill, which was drained within living memory, has, however, a precisely similar appearance.

To the south of Great Chesters is Wall-mill, near to which the burying ground of the station seems to have been. Brand observed here several remarkable barrows, and was shewn some of the graves which had been opened. ‘They consisted,’ he tells us, ‘of side stones set down into the earth, and covered at top with other larger stones.’ He took them to be very early Christian sepulchres; this is more than doubtful. The progress of agricultural improvement has obliterated all traces of the cemetery; to one, however, of its sepulchral monuments reference will afterwards be made.

The Romans systematically avoided intra-mural interments. The following is one of the laws of the Twelve Tables:

It is remarkable that at so early a period of the history 263of the republic, attention should have been turned to this subject, and that in a digest of legislation so brief as that referred to, this should form one of the enactments.

Shortly after leaving Æsica, the crags again appear, and the Wall ascends the heights. At Cock-mount-hill, about a quarter of a mile forward, the Murus is four or five feet high. On the Ollalee ground, it is six and seven feet high, and shews on the north, nine courses of facing-stones; at another place, ten courses appear, and the height is six feet four inches.^[118] The earth-works are seen in the valley below, covered with the whin, called by botanists, Genista Anglica. The continuous sandstone ridge is deeply scarred with ancient quarries.^[119] Here the view is most extensive, Skiddaw, Crossfell, and other celebrated summits, shewing themselves conspicuously on the south, and Burnswark, a peculiar flat-topped eminence, and several more distant hills, on the north. A truncated pyramid of stones and earth, used by the ordnance surveyors,^[120] has been left upon the elevated ridge, called Mucklebank-crag.

The next defile that we reach is a very wide one, and is denominated Walltown crags. Walltown consists of a single house, which, though now occupied by the tenant of the farm, bears marks of having formerly been a place of strength, and the residence of persons of consideration. Ridley the 264Martyr refers with much affection in his valedictory letter to his brother who resided here:—

Farewell, my dearly beloved brother John Ridley of the Waltoune, and you my gentle and loving sister, Elizabeth, whom, besides the natural league of amity, your tender love, which you were said ever to bear towards me above the rest of your brethren, doth bind me to love. My mind was to have acknowledged this your loving affection, and to have requited it with deeds, and not with words alone. Your daughter Elizabeth I bid farewell, whom I love for the meek and gentle spirit that God hath given her, which is a precious thing in the sight of God.

In the crevices of the whin rock, near the house, chives grow abundantly. The general opinion of the country is, that they are the produce of plants cultivated by the Romans, who were much addicted to the use of this and kindred vegetables. This belief is but a modification of the more extended statements of our earliest writers on the Wall. Sampson Erdeswicke in 1574, says—

The Skotts lyches, or surgeons, do yerely repayr to the sayd Roman Wall next to thes, (Caer Vurron) to gether sundry herbs for surgery, for that it is thought that the Romaynes there by had planted most nedefull herbes for sundry purposes, but howsoever it was, these herbes are fownd very wholesome.

Camden gives an account precisely similar.

On the eastern declivity of the gap, and near the line of the Wall, is a well, which, in the district, is generally called king Arthur’s Well. Brand, however, gives a different account of it:—

At Walltown, I saw the well wherein Paulinus is said to have baptized king Ecfrid. It has evidently been enclosed, 265which indicates something remarkable in so open and wild a country. Some wrought stones lay near it. The water is very cool and fine.

The western ascent is steep. Hutton tells us he was sometimes obliged to crawl on all fours. On the summit are evident traces of a mile-castle.

We now enter upon a most interesting part of the line. The mural ridge, divided by frequent breaks into as many isolated crags, is denominated the Nine Nicks of Thirlwall. The view from the edge of the cliff is extensive; stunted trees unite with the craggy character of the rock in giving variety to the foreground. The Wall adheres, with tolerable pertinacity, to the edge of the crags, and hence pursues a course that is by no means direct. The accompanying wood-cut, which exhibits the view looking eastwards, shews the zig-zag path which it adopts. Nearly all our historians agree in stating that the 266most perfect specimens of the Wall now remaining, are on Walltown crags. Certain it is that all who have examined the other parts of the Wall with care, will visit this with peculiar pleasure; but such are the varied features which each section of the Barrier presents, and the consequent interest which each excites, that it is difficult to determine which part, on the whole, is most worthy of attention.

For a considerable distance along the crags, the Wall is in excellent preservation, presenting, on the north side, in several places, ten courses of facing-stones, and in one, twelve. In the highest part it is eight feet nine inches high, and nine feet thick. The military way may in many places be seen, avoiding very dexterously the more abrupt declivities of its rocky path.

At length the cliffs, which extend in a nearly unbroken series from Sewingshields to Carvoran, sink into a plain, and the fertility and the beauty of a well-cultivated country re-appear.

However pleasing the change, the traveller will not fail occasionally to look back upon the road he has trod, and view with secret satisfaction those bold and airy heights which so well symbolize the austere and undaunted spirit of that great people whose works he is contemplating; and when in after years, and it may be in some region far distant, the image of them rises in his imagination, he will be ready to exclaim—

267MAGNA, the modern Carvoran, lies to the south both of the Vallum and Wall. The nature of the ground in its neighbourhood seems to have dictated this arrangement. The Wall occupies the edge of a strip of elevated ground, the benefit of which, as a position of strength against an enemy, it was desirable not to lose. Had the station been placed as usual on the line of the Wall, the Vallum, in skirting its southern rampart, would have been brought into a swamp that occupies the valley between the high ground on which the Wall stands, and the somewhat commanding site of the station. Both the lines of the Barrier have therefore been allowed to pursue their parallel course nearly together, and the station has been placed about two hundred and fifty yards within the Wall, on a platform which is sufficiently defended on the south by the declivity that slopes from it to the modern village of Greenhead.

It is not impossible, however, that Magna may have been one of Agricola’s forts, the valley, through which the river Tipalt flows, requiring the adoption of this method of resisting the aggressions of the Caledonians.

The station has enclosed an area of four acres and a half. Having, a few years ago, been brought under tillage, it is with difficulty that even its outline can now be traced; some fragments of the north rampart, however, remain, and the north fosse is distinct.^[121]

268In the front of the farm-house which was erected in the year—long to be remembered in these parts—1745, is built up a Roman altar, apparently without an inscription. In the garden, and behind the dwelling, are several other interesting memorials of Roman occupation. Amongst them are broken capitals and fragments of columns, moulded coping-stones, gutter-stones, and troughs, of various shapes and rude construction. Several bases of columns lie scattered about, the prevailing form of which is square, as shewn in Plate XIII., fig. 5; one of them is, however, of circular shape, and is ornamented with a cable-pattern moulding, resembling the Housesteads pedestal, given in Plate XI.^[122] There are also preserved here a small altar, in perfect preservation, inscribed, D[E]O BE[L]ATVCADRO, some imperfect altars, several centurial stones, a broken effigy of the bird of Jove, a pair of bronze shears (figured of the full size on Plate XIV., fig. 1), evidently, from their proportions, meant to be handled by fair fingers, fragments of Samian ware and amphoræ, a few beads, and some implements of iron. Amongst the articles disinterred from the stations on the line, there are generally to be found numerous small flat circular implements, of which examples 269are engraved (of the full size) on Plate XI. They vary from half-an-inch to two inches in diameter, and have a circular hole in the centre. For the most part they are composed of sherds of Samian ware, occasionally, of jet, and of amber; at Carvoran are some of rude shape, made of imperfectly burnt clay and shale. Various conjectures have been hazarded respecting their use; the most probable is, that they were employed as tallies, the small beads representing units, the large, tens. In the inn at Glenwhelt are preserved a magnificent pair of stag’s horns, nearly perfect, which were found in the well of the station; each antler is a yard long. In the possession of the Society of Antiquaries, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, are several valuable inscribed stones derived from this station, which have been presented by Colonel Coulson of Blenkinsop Hall.

PLATE XIV.

Lamp, Fibula, Shears, and Compasses

Magna, during the days of Roman occupation, must have been a place of considerable importance. Not only did the road which leads directly from Cilurnum, come up to it, but the Maiden-way, from Whitley Castle and the south, ran through it, as is supposed, to Bewcastle and the other stations north of the Wall, as shewn on the Map, Plate I.

Rejoining the lines of the Barrier, we find them about to descend into the valley watered by the Tipalt, insaniens flumen, as Camden calls it. The moat of the Wall is peculiarly well developed, that of the Vallum, though less so, is still distinct; they are exactly parallel to each other. Before the traveller forsakes his present elevation, 270it will be well for him to mark the westward course of the objects of his study, lest he lose their track in the swampy ground fronting Thirlwall Castle. A valley of considerable extent stretches before him; on the north brow of it, at the distance of about three miles, Gilsland Spa is situated; the works of the Barrier stand upon its southern edge. The trough of the north fosse may easily be discerned where it is intersected by the railway.

It has been suggested that one of the objects contemplated by the Romans in the construction of a double line of fortification, was the enclosure of a space of ground which might be cultivated by the garrison, and where their cattle might graze in security. If this had been the case, the Wall would have been drawn along the northern margin of the wide and fruitful valley of Gilsland, and the Vallum along its southern edge.

Thirlwall Castle is, as Hutchinson calls it, ‘a dark, melancholy fortress’ of the middle age.^[123] It was for many centuries previous to its purchase by the ancestors of the earl of Carlisle, the residence of an ancient Northumbrian family of the name of Thirlwall. Amongst the witnesses examined on the occasion of the famous suit between the families of Scrope and Grosvenor, for the right 271to bear the shield ‘azure, a bend or,’ which was opened at Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1385, before king Richard II. in person, was John Thirlwall, an esquire of Northumberland. The witness related what he had heard on the subject of the dispute, from his father, who ‘died at the age of 145, and was when he died the oldest esquire in all the North, and had been in arms in his time sixty-nine years.’ Such is the language of the record of these proceedings, preserved in the Tower of London.

This locality may also bring to the reader’s remembrance the lines in Marmion—

It is not generally known that this ‘ancient ditty,’ which sir Walter Scott gives at length in a note as a genuine antique, is a modern fabrication, the production of his correspondent Surtees, the historian of Durham. The ballad, however, breathes the very spirit of the fierce borderers, or it would not have deceived so accomplished an antiquary as Scott.

The walls of the castle are nine feet thick, and are faced, both inside and outside, with stones taken from the Roman Wall. It is a singular thing to see a building, formed out of a prior structure, itself 272in ruins, and becoming a prey to yet more modern depredators. The stones remain meanwhile, whether in the primeval structure, or in those of mediæval and recent date, as good as ever. Brand observes—

There is built up near the inn at Glenwhelt, a most barbarous, gigantic head of stone, which is most certainly not Roman. It came from Thirlwall Castle, and has no doubt belonged to some of those hideous figures made use of anciently in such castles to frighten the distant enemy.

Brand’s original still graces the vicinity of the inn, and its effigy, this page. Its ugliness is no proof that it is not Roman; but, after all, whose beauty would not be tarnished by exposure such as it has endured?

That portion of the line which lies between the Tipalt and the Irthing is probably weaker than any other between Wallsend and Bowness. Not only is the ground flat, but it is destitute of the aid which copious rivers give it, both at its eastern and western extremities. Throughout the whole of this district, both barriers keep close together. Except in the neighbourhood of Rose-hill, no portion of the stone Wall remains in all this tract.

The country between the Tipalt and the Solway is characterized by a number of diluvial hills, not unfrequently resembling barrows. To the south of Brampton, they are so numerous and so nearly uniform in size and shape as to suggest to the playful 273imagination the idea of their being gigantic mole-hills. The occurrence of these in the line of the Barrier must have caused some trouble to the engineer of the Wall. The difficulty, however, was overcome. The first hill of this description that we meet with, occurs immediately westward of the point where the Newcastle and Carlisle railroad crosses the mural line. The Wall unhesitatingly ascends it on the one side, and descends it on the other, though it would scarcely have described a larger arc had it gone round its base.

About half-a-mile onward is a small village, called Wallend. The earth-works are, for a short distance, in an admirable state of preservation; nowhere else is the Vallum seen to greater advantage.

A peculiarity in the relative position of the Wall and Vallum will here force itself upon the attention. The Wall, which, for the larger portion of its course, stands considerably above the Vallum, now takes a lower level, and for nearly the whole space between this point and the Irthing, is completely commanded by the earthen ramparts. The following diagram will give a general idea of the country, and of the mutual relation between the two structures. Had the Wall (A) and Vallum (B) been independent undertakings, 274this arrangement would not have been adopted. The earth-works ascribed to Hadrian having been found inefficient, would have been relentlessly cut in upon by the officers of Severus, who would doubtless have planted the Wall in those positions which were naturally the strongest, irrespective of any prior work. As it is, to give the Vallum the advantage of an eminence in resisting a southern foe, the Wall relinquishes a portion of the acclivity which it might with advantage have taken.

Chapel-house and Fowl-town, two contiguous farm-houses, are next met with in our course. Chapel-house is probably the site of a mile-castle, it having been constructed out of the materials of a prior building, which boasted walls of great thickness. An inscribed stone, of which the woodcut is a copy, is to be seen lying in an out-house, from the walls of which it has recently been taken. The letters on one end have been worn away. The inscription may be read—

This is another testimony which recent research has brought to light, of the part which Hadrian and the twentieth legion bore in the construction, both of the Wall and the Vallum.

275At the village of Gap, the Vallum, which is very distinct, stands considerably above the Wall. The place is said to take its name from the Wall having been broken through here at an early period.

Rose-hill is a hill no longer. The top of the diluvial mount was thrown into the surrounding hollow, in order to afford a site for the railway station, that has assumed the name of the summit which it displaced.

In the immediate neighbourhood of Rose-hill is Mump’s-hall, formerly the residence of the Meg Merrilies of sir Walter Scott:—

'Mump’s-hall,' says Hodgson, 'according to tradition, was once a public-house, kept by a notorious person of the name of Meg Teasdale, who drugged to death such of her guests as had money. In Guy Mannering she glares in the horrid character of Meg Merrilies. But certainly all this tradition is deeply coloured with unpardonable slander against the ancient and respectable family of the Teasdales of Mump’s-hall.'

Sir Walter Scott was in early life an occasional resident at Gilsland. The broad, flat stone is pointed out, a little above the Shaws Hotel, on which tradition asserts he was standing when he declared to the subsequent lady Scott the emotions which agitated his bosom. He had therefore the opportunity of becoming acquainted with the district and its traditions.

The small thatched cottage, opposite to the road leading from the railway station, is usually pointed out as the residence of Meg, but it is not the one which was occupied by her. She lived in the larger building beyond, round which the road bends at a right angle. The front of the house is modernized, but the back of it still retains the character of a border fortress. My information upon this and other subjects respecting her, has been derived from an individual residing in the district, whose mother knew Meg well, and visited her upon her death-bed. Although the heroine of Mump’s-hall was cast in a mould 276somewhat suited to the state of the district at that time, she was not the fiend-like woman that she is generally represented. One murder, however, the tradition of the country lays to her charge. A pedlar having called upon Meg’s brother, who kept a school at Long Byers (mid-way between Rose-hill and Greenhead), accidentally presented to him a box filled with guineas instead of his snuff-box. The traveller was requested to convey a note to Mump’s-hall, which he did, but was not seen alive afterwards. Suspicion arising, the house was searched, and the body found concealed among hay in the barn; but the parties who made the discovery durst not reveal it, for fear of injury to themselves and families. About six weeks afterwards the body was found lying upon the moors. My informant added to his narrative—‘probably the laws were not so active in those days as at present, for these things could not escape now.’

When Meg was upon her death-bed, the curiosity of the neighbourhood was excited, and many of her cronies visited her, in hopes of hearing her disburthen her conscience respecting the death of the pedlar. They were, however, disappointed; for whenever she attempted to speak upon the subject, some one of the family, who always took care to be present, placed a hand upon her mouth.

Upper Denton church is hard by. It is evidently a very ancient building, and possibly exhibits some Saxon work. It is one of the smallest churches in England, and is as damp and mouldy as felons’ dungeons used to be. Meg and several of the members of her family lie in the church-yard. Four tombstones, ranged in a row, mark their resting places.

The works of the Barrier are crossed by the railway a little to the west of Rose-hill station. The Wall here exhibits three or four courses of facing-stones. A little beyond this point, the lines, still clearly defined, cross the stream called Poltross-burn, which divides the counties of Northumberland and Cumberland. The gorge in which the stream flows is deep 277and well-wooded. There are no remains of a bridge in the valley, but traces of a mile-castle, by which the defile has been guarded, are distinct upon its western bank. Before reaching the Irthing, at a farm-house called Willowford, the site of another castellum may be discerned. From this point to the water’s edge, the Wall and Vallum have probably gone in close companionship; but this is a matter which cannot now be ascertained. The western bank of the river is lofty and precipitous. Consisting, as it does, chiefly of diluvial soil and gravel, on which the water of the stream below is continually acting, it is not surprising that all traces of the Wall, if it ever ascended the height, have long since disappeared. On the very brink of the precipice above, the remains of the Wall and fosse re-appear. The faithful followers of the Wall, who have closely pursued its track from the eastern sea, will not be willing to desert their companion, even for a brief space, at this point. The cliff, however, will test their constancy. Hutton had his troubles; he says, somewhat magniloquently—

I had this river to cross, and this mountain to ascend, but I did not know how to perform either. I effected a passage over the river by the assistance of stones as large as myself, sometimes in and sometimes out; but, with difficulty, reached the summit of the precipice by a zig-zag line, through the brambles, with a few scratches.

The latest historian of the Wall attempted to ascend the bank in a right line; he has given us the result of his experience, as a warning to others.

278None of the party completely succeeded in ascending the precipitous bank by the course of the Wall. The attempt is very dangerous, and, as success accomplishes nothing, should never be tried by those whose life and existence are in any way useful.

On the top of the cliff is a mile-castle. To the north, two conical summits appear, which strongly resemble barrows. We now approach Birdoswald, the twelfth station on the line.

AMBOGLANNA, the Birdoswald of the present day, is an interesting station.

Numerous inscriptions have been found within its walls, mentioning the first cohort of the Dacians, surnamed the Ælian, which, according to the Notitia, was quartered at Amboglanna. One of them, in the possession of Robert Bell, esq., of the Nook, Irthington, is here figured.

The name Amboglanna seems to signify, the circling glen. The former part of the word, meaning about, is met with in most of the western languages; as the Welsh am, the Irish and Gaelic umain, the Saxon ymb or embe, the Greek αμφι, and the Latin (in compound words) amb. Glanna is obviously 279synonymous with the modern glen, a term of very frequent use in the land of the Gäel.

Here the name has been most appropriately bestowed. The camp stands upon the precipitous edge of a tongue of land, which, on every side except the west, is severed from the adjoining ground by deep scars. Hodgson describes the spot with great accuracy—

The Irthing, in front of the station, makes two grand and sweeping turns, under red scars, which have rich flat grounds before them, deeply fringed along the margin of the river with a border of alder, heckberry (Prunus Padus, or bird-cherry,) and other upland trees. When the banks are not steep, they are deeply wooded: and diluvial hills, rounded into vast and beautiful varieties of form, present to the eye rich sylvan and cultivated scenes, while their component parts, as the river passes their sides, expose to the geologist rounded specimens of the different kinds of rocks to be found in the plains of Cumberland, and the high mountains that lie on each side of the Firth of the Solway.

The modern name presents greater difficulties than the ancient one. Had king Oswald been a denizen of these parts, which he was not, we might have supposed that Birdoswald was a burgh of his. The name is one of old standing, but the etymology of it can only be a subject of conjecture.^[124]

The station contains an area of between five and six acres. The walls are in an unusually good state of preservation; the southern rampart shewing eight courses of facing-stones. Camden’s statement 280is still true to the letter;—‘it has been surrounded with a stately wall of free-stone, about five feet thick, as may be fairly measured at this day.’ The moat which surrounded the wall may also be satisfactorily traced.

Although the Wall adapts itself to the north rampart of the fort, the station is entirely independent of the Wall (see the wood-cut p. 84), and must have been built before it. Probably the first step taken in the construction of the Barrier, in every case, was the erection of the stationary camps.

The Vallum cannot now be traced in the immediate vicinity of the station; but Gordon tells us, that it came close up to the southern rampart.

The southern gateway may be discerned, though it is encumbered with rubbish; the eastern and western have recently been divested of much of the matter that has for ages obscured them. The wood-cut, representing the western portal, as seen from the inside, exhibits the pivot-holes of the gates, and the ruts worn by the chariots or wagons of the Romans. The ruts are nearly four feet two inches apart, 281the precise gauge of the chariot marks in the east gateway at Housesteads. The more perfect of the pivot-holes exhibits a sort of spiral grooving, which seems to have been formed with a view of rendering the gate self-closing. The aperture in the sill of the doorway, near the lower jamb, has been made designedly, as a similar vacuity occurs in the eastern portal; perhaps the object of it has been to allow of the passage of the surface water from the station.

The whole area of the camp is marked with the lines of streets and the ruins of buildings. The present farm-house occupies, according to Horsley, the site of the pretorium. On the east side of the southern gateway are the remains of a kiln for drying corn; the stones are reddened by fire. Near the eastern gateway a building, furnished with a hypocaust, has been partially excavated. From its ruins a sculptured figure, draped, and in a sitting posture, has recently been taken. The head and other highly relieved parts were found to have been broken off: it remains on the ground.

A large altar with an inscription, which is in a great measure illegible, lies within the walls of the camp. A stone broken in two pieces, and which is preserved on the spot, bears testimony to the presence of the sixth legion here; it may be read, LEGIO SEXTA VICTRIX FIDELIS—The Sixth legion the Victorious and Faithful.

282The boldness of the lettering, and the depth and clearness of the cutting, give reason to suppose that the inscription is of early date. Besides these, several centurial stones, mill-stones, and coping-stones, as well as portions of tile, and fragments of pottery, are preserved in the farm-house, and yield to the visitor indubitable proofs of Roman occupation. In draining the field to the west of the station, many small altars, without inscriptions, have been found, which were remorselessly broken, and used with other materials for filling the drains. Strange, that altars before which Romans of ‘fierce countenance’ have bowed, should be put to such a use!

On the east of the station are extensive and well-defined marks of suburban buildings.

The accompanying lithograph is taken from the western side of the station. It well represents the chilly and somewhat forbidding aspect of this now nearly deserted place.

H. Burdon Richardson, Delt.John Storey, Lith.
BIRDOSWALD, WESTERN RAMPART.
Printed by W. Monkhouse, York.

Westward of Birdoswald, the Wall is in an unusually good state of preservation. Taking into account, not only the height, but the length of the fragment, and the completeness of the facing-stones on both sides, it may be pronounced the finest specimen of the great structure that now remains. Some portions of it, however, are beginning to exhibit evident signs of decrepitude and decay.

283

Within a short mile of the station, the remains of a castellum appear. Here the Vallum exhibits the unusual feature of a second ditch, as is represented in the subjoined section.^[125] Hodgson says—

Through a bog, about a mile west of Amboglanna, the Vallum has had two ditches, probably intended for draining the military road that ran between them. They are still very distinct.

A careful examination of the spot induces me to think, that the additional fortification was intended to give increased security to a defile, which, running from the vicinity of the Wall to the bed of the Irthing below, renders the works in this part more than usually liable to attack from the south.

At the western extremity of this extra ditch, the Wall and Vallum come into close proximity; the space between them was, with the exception of room for the military way, occupied by the foundations of a castellum. The place bears the name of Wallbours.

The Barrier next crosses a small hill called the Pike. The Vallum is a little below the summit of the eminence, on its southern side; if this fortification had been formed irrespective of the Wall, it would 284doubtless have been drawn along the top of the height. The same remark applies to Hare-hill.

The view from the Pike, of the flat and fertile vale below is truly magnificent.

Soon after passing Banks-burn, we arrive at Hare-hill, where a portion of the Wall stands nine feet ten inches in height. This is the highest piece of the Wall that is anywhere to be met with; but, owing to the smallness of the fragment, and to its being entirely deprived of facing-stones, it is less imposing than it would otherwise be. Hutton’s enthusiasm, however, never fails him; his remark at Hare-hill is—

I viewed this relick with admiration: I saw no part higher.

At this point of our progress, the antiquary may be disposed to turn aside for a little, to view two relics of the mediæval period of great interest—Lanercost Priory and Naworth Castle. The priory is a beautiful specimen of the early English style, and bears architectural evidence of having been built somewhere between the years 1155 and 1160. Besides the church, partially in ruins and partially in repair, the refectory and some portions of the monastic buildings remain. The whole structure has been formed of stones taken from the Roman Wall. In addition to some altars preserved in the crypt of the church, several centurial and carved stones are to be seen in the walls of the adjacent buildings.

Naworth Castle, though still an interesting building, is destitute of some of the attractions which it once 285possessed. The Roman altars and other primeval monuments collected by lord William Howard, have long been dispersed, and a fire in 1844, almost entirely destroyed the baronial residence of that renowned border-chief, which, until that event, remained nearly in the state in which it was in his own day. The dungeons, however, in which the daring moss-troopers were immured, remain, and two magnificent oak trees near the grand entrance still extend those brawny arms on which, according to tradition, lord William suspended the victims of his lawless power. The load of twenty gasping wretches would not materially weigh down the larger boughs of these fine trees. That the government of lord William—the Belted Will of Border tales—was of a vigorous character, there cannot be a doubt; but that he used his power capriciously, cruelly, or tyrannically, there is no evidence. Lord William seems to have sent the most desperate of his prisoners to Newcastle-upon-Tyne or Carlisle. They would probably have as good a chance for life at Belted Will’s tribunal as at the assizes of either of these towns, if we may judge of the state of feeling towards them from North’s Life of Lord-keeper Guildford. His lordship, then sir Francis North, came to Newcastle, on the northern circuit, in 1676. His biographer says—

The country is yet very sharp upon thieves; and a violent suspicion, there, is next to conviction. When his lordship held the assizes at Newcastle, there was one Mungo Noble, supposed to be a great thief, brought to trial before his lordship, upon four several indictments; and his lordship was so 286much a south-country judge as not to think any of them well proved. One was for stealing a horse of a person unknown, and the evidence amounted to no more than that a horse was seen feeding upon the heath near his shiel, and none could tell who was the owner of it. In short the man escaped, much to the regret of divers gentlemen, who thought he deserved to be hanged, and that was enough. While the judge at the trial discoursed of the evidence and its defects, a Scotch gentleman upon the bench, who was a border commissioner, made a long neck towards the judge and said—'My laird, send him to huzz, and ye’s ne'er see him mair.'

On rejoining the Barrier, we find, that though the line of the Wall, in its course to the Eden, may yet be distinctly discerned, in very few instances any portion of the masonry remains.

The site of a mile-castle nearly opposite Lanercost Priory, is termed Money-holes, in consequence of the efforts made to discover some treasure supposed to be concealed in it. At Crag-hill the north ditch is very bold. At Hayton-gate, a drove road, probably an ancient pass, crosses the line of the Wall from north to south. At Randilands the north fosse is still well developed. After crossing the rivulet, called Burtholme-beck, a piece of the Wall is seen, which stands about seven feet high; its facing-stones are gone, but the rough pebbly mortar possesses its original tenacity. As is often the case, the ruin is tufted with hazel bushes and stunted specimens of the alder and oak. The Vallum is about seventy yards to the south of the Wall.

Approaching Low-wall,^[126] something like an out-work 287appears on the north side of the Barrier. Has there been a double line of wall here? After crossing a road, denominated Friar-wain-gate, which leads from Bewcastle to Lanercost, we reach another house called Wall; Roman masons might claim many of the stones as theirs. At How-gill is a cottage, where probably a mile-castle stood to defend the ‘beck,’ In the modern structure may be observed stones broached in the Roman fashion, and others variously tooled by Roman hands.

The farm-house of Dove-cote is on the eastern bank of the King-water. The fosse and the foundation of the Murus are seen crossing the hill on the northern side of the summit: the Vallum, which is indistinctly marked, probably took a corresponding position on the southern side.

The village of Walton, by its very name, bears testimony to its relationship with the great Barrier-line. Many of the stones of the Wall may be detected in its cottages. One of its dwellings furnishes a good specimen of the mode of cottage-building formerly prevalent in the North. The rafters of the house, which consist of large and rudely-shaped pieces of timber, instead of resting upon the walls, come down to the ground; they are tied together near the top by a transverse beam, and the mud walls, as well as the thatched roof, partially depend upon them for support. Horsley says, 'at Wal-town there seems to have been some fortification or encampment. One side of the square is yet very visible, and the ramparts pretty large, about eighty 288yards long. It is high ground and dry. Perhaps it has been a summer encampment or exploratory post for the garrison at Cambeck.'

At Sandysike farm-house the foundation of the Wall as well as abundant traces of mural vicinage are to be seen. The barn consists of Roman stones marked with the diamond-broaching. Several sculptured stones are built up in the garden-wall; amongst them is one which displays the thunderbolt of Jove; the wall-fruit peacefully rests upon it. Another, exhibiting the wheel of Nemesis, the emblem of swift justice, and which no doubt once formed part of an altar to Jupiter, is built into a pig-sty. A mill-stone of peculiar shape, and closely resembling one at Naworth Castle, is preserved on the grounds; it is probably Roman.

PETRIANA, the Cambeck-fort of Horsley, and the Castle-steads of the locality, is to the south of the Vallum and Wall. A deep scar separates it from the lines of the Barrier. The site of the station may be recognised, but it is long since its ramparts were overthrown, and the ruined buildings of the interior entirely obliterated.

Its rich soil and sunny exposure recommended it to the father of the present proprietor of Walton-house as a fitting site for a garden, and such it is at the present day. It has yielded many altars and|CAMBECK-FORT.| sculptured stones, some of which are still preserved upon the spot, and from time to time the spade still reveals to the numismatist, treasures, over the loss of 289which, Romans in ancient days may have mourned, though not in a degree proportioned to their present value. Wood-cuts of three of the coins which have been found at Castlesteads are here introduced, as they commemorate the family of a man whose name is intimately connected with the Wall. They are in the cabinet of Robert Bell, esq., of Irthington.

Julia, the second wife of Severus, and the mother of Caracalla and Geta. Severus, who was a believer in astrology, on the death of his first wife, looked out for another whose nativity was favourable to the ambitious views which he at that time entertained. He heard of a woman in Syria whose destiny it was to marry a king, and accordingly solicited and obtained in marriage Julia Domna.

Bassianus, commonly called Caracalla. He was created Cæsar by his father, A.D. 196, when he took the names of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. In A.D. 198, he was invested with the dignity of Augustus. Amongst his other titles, he bore the name of Britannicus, as is shewn on the coin. The engraver of the die from which this coin was struck, has probably given a correct likeness of his subject; at least, he has represented an individual who appears capable of attempting an aged father’s life, and of imbruing his hands in the blood of a brother. Vengeance at length overtook him.

Geta, who, together with his brother Caracalla, accompanied his father to Britain. He was murdered by Caracalla A.D. 212.

The finest of the altars, standing in the garden of Walton-house, is here engraved. The thunderbolt 290of Jupiter adorns one side of it, the wheel of Nemesis the other. The inscription has been read by Mr. Thomas Hodgson, of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, in the following way, after a careful and learned examination of it, and kindred inscriptions.

The Notitia places the ‘Ala Petriana,’ under a prefect, at Petriana. Although two inscriptions belonging to this place mention the second cohort of the Tungri, none have been found here which name the Ala Petriana. It is possible that this cohort may have been a part of the Ala Petriana, but until this point be settled, or some further light thrown upon the subject, the occurrence of Cambeck-fort|CAMBECK-FORT.| next in order to Amboglanna, must be regarded as the 292best evidence of its being the Petriana of the Notitia.

Before crossing the Cambeck-water it may be well to remind the reader, that the river Gelt, on whose rocky banks the Roman quarrymen have left lettered memorials of their toil, is about four miles to the south of this place. With the view of clearly displaying the inscription, which has frequently been inaccurately engraved, the lithograph opposite to page 81, has been drawn to a scale which precludes the possibility of shewing the height of the cliff. The 293adjoining wood-cut partly supplies this deficiency; it exhibits another inscription, not of a very intelligible.|PIGEON-CRAG.| character, on the Pigeon-crag, which is a little higher up the water, and shews the general character of the scenery on this beautiful stream.

The distance of these quarries on the Gelt, from the line of the Barrier, renders it very questionable whether large supplies were derived from them for the Wall. Hodgson remarks—

The quarry at Helbeck-scar (the Written-rock) might serve for the largest stones for part of the Murus, and the stations at Brampton-old-church, and Walton-castlesteads; for the general purpose of the Murus, stone, however, could be got in places much nearer than Helbeck-scar.

At the quarries of High and Low Breaks, about a mile and a half north of the Wall, there are marks of extensive ancient workings; the quarries are still in use and yield stone of good quality.

The Written-rock will not be easily found by a stranger, but directions and assistance may generally be obtained from the workmen employed upon a modern quarry, which is not far from the spot.

We now rejoin the Barrier. The passage of the Cambeck-water seems to have been guarded with some care. On the eastern margin of the stream, to the north of the Wall, is an earth-work raised a little above the general level of the surface, which here is somewhat depressed. Stones, which do not appear in the contiguous parts, lie scattered about the place. These circumstances seem to favour the idea of there having been some additional fortification 294in this part. The western bank of the stream consists of a bold breastwork of red-sandstone, rising about fifty feet above the level of the water. The fosse of the Wall has been deeply cut into this rock; it still remains in a state of great perfection. The old drove-road between Newcastle and Carlisle, which, for some distance west of this, runs upon the site of the Wall, or close by it, here avails itself of the fosse as a means of climbing the bank. The ditch of the Vallum is also discernible. The farm-house of Beck is partially constructed of Roman stones, and on the east side of the rivulet of Beck a few stones of the Wall are in their original situation. Headswood, as its name implies, occupies a commanding position. The ditch of the Vallum is at this place peculiarly bold, and is about thirty-five yards distant from the Wall. The fosse of the Wall bends round an object which has the appearance of being an additional fortification outside the Wall. At the west end of Newtown-of-Irthington are the remains of a large mile-castle; the stones still lie in confusion upon the site. The stone represented in the margin was found at this place. We next come to White-flat, where the rubble of the foundation of the Wall is very discernible and the ditch very deep. Hurtleton (the town of strife) is next reached; both lines of fosse are distinct and in close contiguity.

In the corner of a field, called Chapel-field, there are 295evident signs of a mile-castle; the plough, however, has been drawn over the site. The two works, which between White-flat and this point have approached each other very closely, now quickly diverge, the Wall bending to the north.

The village of Irthington is a little to the south of the Barrier. Here formerly stood one of the strongholds of the powerful Norman family of De Vallibus; the building is now entirely removed, its site being occupied by the Nook, the residence of Robert Bell, esq. The foundations of some of its walls have recently been exposed. The keep probably occupied a lofty earthen mound which is now crowned with thriving trees. The parish church has recently been renewed with much skill and taste. The old fabric was entirely built of Roman wall-stones. In the course of its restoration, a striking proof of the disturbed state of the border district in the middle ages was disclosed; a number of skeletons, confusedly thrown together, being found buried within its area. The church, originally a Transition-Norman building, had evidently at some period after its erection, been contracted in its dimensions by the rejection of the side aisles. The outer walls consisted of the original columns of the aisles, filled up very roughly with common rubble. The columns bore decided marks of fire. The neighbouring parish church of Kirklinton, which has also been recently rebuilt, exhibited similar appearances. On taking down the old tower, which was a fortified stronghold, the bony remnants of upwards of sixty bodies were found in a space of not more than five 296yards square; others were found in confused masses in other parts. |BORDER STRIFE.| The probable explanation of these circumstances is this:—After the battle of Bannockburn, the Scottish forces, flushed with success, entered England, and the inhabitants, unable to withstand them, fled to the churches for protection. But neither the strength of the buildings nor their supposed sanctity could yield them effectual succour; the miserable people were slain, and their bodies left among the smouldering ruins. Those of their countrymen who escaped, buried them in a hasty manner upon the spot. When the desolated district had recovered energy enough to repair the churches, its utmost efforts were barely sufficient to enclose those parts which had, by their solidity, withstood the fire; and the reduced population required nothing more.

The coins of Edw.I. and II. are comparatively abundant in this district, the armies of that monarch and his immediate successors, frequently taking the western route, in their marches to and from Scotland.

Rejoining the Wall, we meet, when within a quarter of a mile of Old-wall, with the site of a mile-castle. The ruins of the building slightly raise it above the general level, and prevent the plough biting into it. The road formerly deviated from its track to go round it. An altar, an urn, and several coins of Edward I., have been found in it. In the buildings at Old-wall, many Roman stones will be noticed, and the earth-works of both lines of the Barrier may be traced. The Wall is entirely uprooted; 297upwards of six hundred cart-loads of stones, within the recollection of the inhabitants, have been taken from it in this immediate vicinity.

Between this point and Stanwix, the works may be traced with tolerable satisfaction, an ancient drove-road running upon the site of the Wall for the greater part of the way.

At Bleatarn (blue tarn or lake), on the south side of the Wall, is a mound of earth resembling an elongated barrow; between this earth-work and the Wall, is a marshy hollow, which is said to have formerly been the bed of a lake or tarn. The Vallum takes a sweep to avoid this morass, and at its greatest distance is removed from the Wall about two hundred and twenty yards.

About half-a-mile south from Bleatarn, is the site of a Roman camp, which Horsley conceived to be one of the stations per lineam Valli; it is now called Watch-cross. If it be a station of this class, and if the order in which the stations are arranged in the Notitia exactly corresponds with their consecutive positions in reality, the name of it was Aballaba, which was garrisoned by a numerus or troop of Moors, under a prefect. There is, however, reason to doubt whether this was a stationary camp at all, as will presently appear.

As already remarked, no inscribed stones have been found to identify any of the stations west of Amboglanna with the list given in the Notitia. Even though this difficulty respecting Watch-cross had not occurred, to go on appropriating the names of 298the Notitia, station after station, guided solely by the slender thread of the order of their succession, would be a hazardous undertaking, and is rendered still more so by the uncertainty existing as to those which are, and which are not, stationes per lineam Valli. In our journey from this point westward, the stations will, therefore, be designated by their modern names; when the Latin names are added, it is to be understood that they are conjectural.

WATCH-CROSS.—Horsley gives the following account of this station:—

A little detached from the wall, to the south, is a Roman fort, of about four chains and an half square, called Watch-cross; and as I was assured by the country people, and have had it since further confirmed, a military way has gone near it, or between it and the military way belonging to the Wall; for they often plough up paving stones here, and think part of the highway to Brampton to be upon it. This is the least station on the line of the Wall, and is as usual, plundered of its stones, as that at Burgh and Drumburgh. However, the ramparts and ditches are very fair and visible.

The common on which it stood having been enclosed about seventy years ago, and brought into cultivation, all traces of the camp have been obliterated. On a careful examination of its site, I failed to discover any fragments of Roman pottery, or other marks of Roman occupation. In those parts of Cumberland where the soil is not naturally stony, the site of a mile-castle or station, which has been brought into cultivation, may often be distinguished by the occurrence in that particular spot of numerous fragments of freestone. No such appearance here 299presents itself. The person who farms the ground says it is of better quality than the surrounding land; still, it does not seem to possess the peculiar fertility of a spot that has at any period for a length of time been the resort of a crowded population. Hutchinson describes ‘the whole ground-plot’ as being covered, in his day, ‘with a low growth of heath;’ the sites of all the other cities of the Wall are too replete with animal remains to yield, even unaided by cultivation, so coarse a product. I am therefore strongly disposed to think, with Hodgson, that it was a mere summer encampment. The spot has been well chosen; for, though not greatly elevated, it has an extensive prospect. Horsley himself had some doubts of the propriety of admitting it into the rank of a stationary camp, ‘by reason of its being so small, and having no remains of stone walls.’ The distance, however, between Cambeck-fort and Stanwix, which is rather greater than that between any other two stations, induced him to give it this position.

From Bleatarn the antiquary will, with some care, be able to trace the Barrier by Wall-head, Walby, and Wall-foot, to Tarraby. From this village to Stanwix, a rural road runs upon the foundations of the Wall; the ditch on its north side, which within living memory was very boldly marked, although partially filled up is yet distinctly traceable.

STANWIX.—The church and church-yard of Stanwix occupy the site of the station which guarded the northern bank of the Eden. Recent explorations have displayed distinct remains of ancient 300edifices. In pulling down the old church, to make way for the present structure, a very fine figure of Victory, somewhat mutilated, was disclosed, which is now in the museum at Newcastle-upon-Tyne. The name of the place indicates, that whilst the dwellings in the vicinity were made of clay, as many of them are yet, by reason of the plunder of the Roman station, it could boast of being a town of stones. The situation is one of great beauty. To the east, at a considerable distance, the Nine-nicks of Thirlwall rear their rugged peaks; and to the south and south-west, appear the beautiful grounds of Rickerby-house, the river Eden permeating a rich and well-cultivated country, the ancient city of Carlisle crowned with its venerable cathedral, and the long vista of country terminating in the Cumbrian mountains.

Between the station and the north bank of the river Eden, the fosse of the Wall is distinctly marked, and a hollowed line, formed by the excavation of the foundation of the Wall itself, shews its track to the water’s edge, near to the Hyssop-holme-well. We are told by Camden—

That the Wall passed the river over against the castle—where in the very channel, the remains of it, namely, the great stones, appear to this day.

That the Wall, on the other side of the river, clambered up that part of the castle-bank which projects most boldly forward, is rendered probable by the appearance of masonry, resembling its foundations, beneath the grassy surface. At this point, however, we lose all trace of the great structure until we 301get beyond the boundaries of the famous Border city of the West.

All antiquaries agree that Carlisle is the Luguvallium of the Romans. It is not improbable that it was one of Agricola’s forts. It is not named in the list of the stations per lineam Valli given in the Notitia. The Notitia mentions only the forts having separate garrisons, and it is probable that after the erection of the camp at Stanwix, Luguvallium became subordinate to that camp, and had no distinct garrison, which will account for its omission.

Whitaker says Luguvallium signifies, in the ancient Celtic, the fort upon the Waters.

Extensive remains of the ancient city lie beneath the modern Carlisle; seldom is the ground penetrated to any considerable depth without disclosing ancient masonry, Samian ware, and Roman coins.

Carlisle contains two interesting structures of the mediæval period—the castle and the cathedral. The keep of the castle is a good specimen of the Norman donjon, though some parts of it have been modernized. On the walls and door of one of its chambers, used as a prison in the ‘Fifteen’ and the ‘Forty-five,’ are to be seen the coats of arms, the devices, and marks of the ‘sorrowful sighings,’ of the unhappy rebels, who beguiled their wretched hours in carving them. The cathedral exhibits some interesting specimens of the Norman as well as later styles. Its east window, which is of the decorated period, is the finest in the kingdom, with the exception, perhaps, of the west window at York.

302About a quarter of a mile beyond the canal basin, and nearly midway between the canal and the river, the track of the Wall may again be discerned. Owing to the difficulty of entirely uprooting it, its foundations have been suffered to remain; they form a cart-road which is used for farm purposes. A little farther on, the plough has won the day, and a uniform green sward or luxuriant harvest baffles our research.

A turf-covered mound on the east side of the church of Kirk-andrews, is occasioned by a portion of the ruins of the Wall. In the village is preserved the altar of which the wood-cut gives a representation. It was found at Kirk-steads, about a mile south of the Wall, and bears marks of having been 303cut down to suit the purpose of some comparatively modern builder. The focus of the altar is unusually large; the boldness of the lettering indicates an early date. It may be read—

This is a vivid memorial of deeds of common occurrence during the period of Roman occupation. The original possessors of the isthmus, driven from their homes, and forced to seek an asylum in the hills to the north of the Wall, would be accounted the lawful prey of the aggressor.

Whilst the Roman warrior gloated over his success, and feasted, and thanked his gods, and recorded his exploits on the votive stone, the routed remnants 304of the Caledonian bands would mourn over their slaughtered comrades and desolated home-steads.

The great scarcity of stone in the western part of Cumberland has rendered the Wall a valuable quarry to the inhabitants from time immemorial. In our future progress we shall see little of it, except in the buildings contiguous to its site. The heart of the antiquary will, however, occasionally be gladdened by the recognition of the lines of the earth-works—their slightly elevated mounds appearing to his eager gaze scarcely less beautiful than the moulded forms produced by the genius of the sculptor, in districts more rich than this, in the remains of antiquity.

The Vallum appears to have gone nearly due west, along the valley, from Kirk-andrews to Burgh; the Wall proceeds, after its usual manner, from eminence to eminence.

BURGH-UPON-SANDS is the next station. In Horsley’s day the remains of its ramparts were to be seen at a place called the Old-castle, a little to the east of the church. He says—

On the west side these remains are most distinct, being about six chains in length. And Severus’s Wall seems to have formed the north rampart of the station. I was assured by the person to whom the field belonged, that stones were often ploughed up in it, and lime with the stones. Urns have also frequently been found here. I saw, besides an imperfect inscription, two Roman altars lying at a door in the town, but neither sculptures nor inscriptions are now visible upon them. ...... If besides all this, we consider the distance from the last station at Stanwix, I think it can admit of no doubt 305but there must have been a station here, though most of its ramparts are now levelled, the field having been in tillage many years. I shall only further add, that it was very proper to have a station at each end of the marsh, which, if the water flowed as high as some believe, would make a kind of bay.

At present, little meets the eye of the inquirer, to inform him of the spot where the station stood, but when the surface of the ground is broken, the traces of a Roman city are still sufficiently distinct. The church-yard is filled with fragments of red sandstone blocks. At the depth of two feet, it contains several distinct lines of foundations. Entire ‘lachrymatory’ vessels and fragments of unglazed jars and urns have repeatedly been dug up. A small bronze figure was recently found. When the canal was cut, blocks of stone, blackened by smoke, were dug out of the soil to the south-east of the church.

A few inscribed stones have been found since Horsley’s day, but none of them name the cohort which was stationed in the camp. Hence we have no means of knowing whether Watch-cross has been rightly thrown out of the list of ‘stations along the line,’ and whether Burgh is, as Horsley states it to be, the Axelodunum of the Notitia, or Congavata, according to the opinion of Hodgson.

In the absence of more decided remains of the camp or Wall, an examination of the church of this long straggling town will reward the attention of the antiquary. It is a good specimen of the fortified Border churches. It has served the threefold purpose of a church, a fortress, and a prison.

306In case of an inroad from the Scottish coast, the cattle appear to have been shut up in the body of the church, and the inhabitants to have had recourse to the large embattled tower at its western end. The only entrance to this tower is from the inside of the church, and it is secured by a ponderous iron door, fastening with two large bolts. The walls of the tower are seven feet thick. Its lowest apartment is a vaulted chamber, lighted by three arrow-slits. At the south angle is a spiral stone staircase, leading to two upper chambers.

Many of the stones of which the church is built, are Roman, and exhibit reticulated tooling.

Near to Burgh is the site on which the castle of sir Hugh de Morville, one of the murderers of Thomas à Becket, formerly stood. The adjoining field is called—‘Hang-man-tree,’ doubtless because my lord had his gallows here, always ready for use. A neighbouring enclosure bears a designation not less ominous—‘Spill-blood-holm.’ But the most interesting historical memorial which the neighbourhood of Burgh affords, is the monument to king Edward I., which stands on the marsh.

Longshanks had marshalled his army: his numerous host lay encamped upon the sandy flat on the north of the town: the waters of the Solway alone separated him from the objects of his vengeance. Here the mighty Edward was called to enter into conflict with an enemy whom he had often braved on the battle-field, but who was now to approach him by a new method of assault. In this struggle, his valour availed him nothing, his chivalrous hosts could yield him no aid, and no devoted Eleanor was there to abstract from his veins the subtle poison which the king of terrors had infused. On Burgh-marsh the ‘ruthless king’ breathed his last. A monument, represented in the vignette at the close of this part, marks the spot.

307Another structure, on the opposite side of the Firth, may be noticed by the traveller. The history of the ‘Tower of Repentance’ is strikingly illustrative of the disordered state of society in this district before the union of the two kingdoms.

A chieftain from the northern side having made a successful inroad into the English border, was crossing the Solway on his return, laden with booty, when a sudden storm arose. In order to lighten his labouring vessel, he threw his prisoners overboard in preference to the cattle which he had stolen. The danger past, he was smitten with remorse. In order to make such amends as he could, he built a beacon-tower which overlooks the Solway, and to this day is called the Tower of Repentance. Tradition avers that the penitent himself carried all the stones used in its erection to the top of the hill. It is not far from the town of Ecclefechan.

In passing along the village of Burgh, the observing visitor will notice the large number of boulder-stones, some of them half a ton in weight, which are strewed over the ground; several of them have been used in forming the foundations of the cottages. They are of granite, and in some distant age have been wrenched from the summit of Criffel, the hill which lends so much beauty to the landscape on the northern side of the Solway.

On the western side of the village of Dykesfield, which we next encounter, is a common that contains several earthen ramparts and temporary camps.

Between Dykesfield and the next station, Drumburgh, an extensive marsh occurs, which even now is occasionally overflowed by the waters of the Solway. Hodgson inclines to the belief, that the Wall 308ran directly across it. Horsley, however, took a different view of the subject.

From hence to Drumburgh Castle no vestige of the Wall is to be seen; though I think it certain that the Wall did not pass through the marsh, but by Boustead-hill and Easton, for both tradition and matter of fact favour this course of it. The country people often strike upon the Wall, and could tell exactly several places through which, by this means, they knew it had passed, and always by the side of the marsh. Besides it is no way reasonable to suppose that the Romans would build their Wall within tide-mark.

After careful inquiry, I am disposed to adopt Horsley’s view; even now, stones which appear to be Wall-stones, are turned up by the operations of the husbandmen in the line which the Wall is supposed to have taken by Boustead and Easton. It need not be a subject of surprise, that the Wall in this district has been so thoroughly removed, as there is no quarry within a convenient distance, and the Wall, therefore, has been the source from which the inhabitants of the country have drawn their supply of building stones. The Romans seem to have gone to Howrigg quarry, which is not less than eight miles south of the Barrier, for their facing-stones; those which they used for the interior of the Wall correspond in character with the proceeds of Stone-pot-scar, a quarry on the north shore of the Solway.

We must now part company with the Vallum. This wonderful earth-work, which has outlived the accidents of seventeen centuries, and which we have traced, with but few interruptions, from the modern representative of Pons Ælii to this point, is not 309observed going beyond it. As the Vallum falls short of the Wall at its eastern extremity by about four miles, so it does at its western. Horsley, who wrote more than a century ago, and who, consequently, had better opportunities of judging than we can now have, says—

Whether Hadrian’s work (the Vallum) has been continued any further than this marsh, or to the water-side beyond Drumburgh, is doubtful. But I am pretty confident that it was not carried on so far as the Wall of Severus at this end, any more than at the other. And I can by no means yield to Mr. Gordon’s sentiments, that the one, for a good space at each end, was built upon the foundation of the other. However, it is certain that from the side of the marsh to the west end of the Wall there is no appearance of Hadrian’s work, or any thing belonging to it.

DRUMBURGH contains distinct remains of a small stationary camp. This, if Watch-cross be rejected, was the sixteenth station of the Wall, and consequently, the Axelodunum of the Notitia, which was garrisoned by the first cohort of the Spaniards. The camp is on the grounds of Richard Lawson, esq. The ramparts are well defined, as well as the ditch which surrounds them. The whole area is covered with a luxuriant sward, and its northern margin is shaded by some thriving ash-trees. No portion of the Wall remains in its vicinity, but its present proprietor remembers witnessing the removal of the foundation. The northern rampart of the station did not come up to the Wall, but was removed a few yards from it; probably the military way ran between the station and the Wall. The station at 310Barr-hill, on the Antonine Wall, is similarly situated.

South of the station is a well, enclosed by a circular wall of Roman masonry. It is still in use, though the water is drawn from it by a pump.

The mediæval castle, of which there are considerable remains, is a very fine specimen of the ancient fortified manor-house. It is built of Roman stones. Extensive alterations were made upon it in the reign of Henry VIII. The habitable part of it is now occupied as a farm-house.

The tranquillity of this region was not always what it now is.

Standing on the northern rampart of the station, Mr. Lawson, the aged proprietor, directed the attention of the Pilgrim-party of 1849 to a small cottage on the opposite shore. ‘There,’ said he, ‘lived a Scottish reaver, who in the days of my grandfather made, on nineteen successive Easter-eves, a successful foray on the English side. A twentieth time he prepared to go; his family remonstrated, he however persisted, saying that this should be his last attempt. Our people were prepared for him and slew him.’ Some of the party asked ‘what notice did the law take of the transaction?’ 'None; the law which could not protect a man, would not punish him for taking the law into his own hands.'

Now, nearly arrived at the western extremity of the great Barrier, we meet with but few traces of its characteristic masonry; enough, however, remains to lure us pleasantly to our journey’s end.

In cutting the canal from Carlisle to the Solway Firth, in 1823, a prostrate forest of oak was discovered, which belonged to an age anterior to that of Hadrian. The engineer of the canal says—

311A subterraneous forest was cut through in the excavation of the canal, near the banks of the Solway Firth, about half a mile north-west of the village of Glasson, and extending into Kirklands. The trees were all prostrate, and they had fallen, with little deviation, in a northerly direction, or a little eastward of it.—Some short trunks, of two or three feet in height, were in the position of their natural growth; but although the trees, with the exception of their alburnum and all the branches, were perfectly sound, yet the extremity of the trunks, whether fallen or standing, were so rugged, that it was not discoverable whether the trees had been cut down, or had fallen by a violent storm. The level upon which the trunks lay, was a little below that of high tides, and from eight to ten feet below the surface of the ground they were embedded in; which, excepting the superficial soil, is a soft blue clay, having the appearance of marine alluvion.... Although the precise period when this forest fell is not ascertainable, there is a positive proof that it must have been long prior to the building of the Wall because the foundations of the Wall passed obliquely over it, and lay three or four feet above the level of the trees.—Arch. Æl. ii. 117.

The forest extends over a considerable tract of ground. It is probable that it was overthrown by a tempest from the south or south-west, at a time when the sea occupied a lower level than it does at present. The wood was so sound, that it was used in common with other oak timber in forming the jetties at the outlet of the canal into the Solway Firth. The president’s chair of the Society of Antiquaries, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, is formed of it.

At Port-Carlisle is a mound resembling an ancient British barrow, called Fisher’s-cross. About half-a-mile to the westward of it is another which has been somewhat encroached upon by the road that 312runs along the margin of the Solway, and is denominated Knock’s-cross. The proverb is common throughout Cumberland, 'As old as Knock’s-cross.'

In the front of the Steam-packet hotel, Port-Carlisle, is built up the fragment of a small Roman altar, bearing the inscription, SVIS MATRIBVS. It is one of the numerous instances that we meet with, along the line of the Wall, of altars dedicated to the Deæ Matres.

Between Port-Carlisle and Bowness, the site of the Wall may be traced nearly the whole way; not unfrequently the foundations of it and its fosse may be discerned. In one place some large stones resembling those used in forming the gateways of the mile-castles will be noticed. In Brand’s day some considerable portions of the Wall remained, between these points. He says—

About three quarters of a mile to the east of Bowness, some fragments of Severus’ Wall remain, of a great height; on measuring one of them, we found it to be about eight feet high; it was bound and overgrown with ivy in a most picturesque manner. The facing-stones on both sides have been taken away.

On my first visit to Bowness, I saw a portion of it as Hodgson describes it—

It is six feet high. Its rugged and weathered core, still hard as a rock, is thickly bearded with sloe-thorn and hazel, and mantled below with ivy and honey-suckle.

This interesting object has been entirely removed, which is the more to be regretted, as no advantage has been gained by its destruction; it served as a fence between two fields.

H. Burdon Richardson, Delt.John Storey Lith.
BOWNESS.

313BOWNESS is the name of the low, bow-shaped ness, or peninsula, at the extreme point of the left bank of the Solway Firth. It is slightly elevated above the surrounding country, as is plainly seen when it is viewed from a distance. A little to the east of the site of the station, the Solway is easily fordable at low water; but no one, in the memory of the inhabitants of these parts, has forded the estuary westward of the town. This circumstance would render Bowness a fit place at which to terminate the Barrier Wall. With difficulty the antiquary detects some slight traces of the walls of the station, its southern lines near the church being those which are most apparent. No quarry being within several miles of the spot, the Wall and station have furnished the materials of which the church and most of the habitations of the town are composed. A small altar built up in the front of a barn in the principal street, has an inscription importing that it was dedicated to Jupiter the best and greatest, by Sulpicius Secundianus, the tribune of the cohort for the safety of our lords, the emperors Galbus and Volusianus.

Bowness may be the Gabrosentum of the Notitia; Horsley reckoning Watch-cross among the stations of the line, conceives it to be Tunnocelum.

Over that beautiful expanse of waters bounded by the Criffel and other Dumfriesshire hills, which we see from the somewhat elevated beach that has formed the northern margin of the station, the eye of the Roman sentinel must often have listlessly rolled, as he paced his tedious hours away. The 314memory of Roman and Caledonian feuds gives to the picture, as we now behold it, a charm enhanced by contrast with the state of things which existed in ancient days. |CHANGE OF TIMES.|The hills have the aspect which they formerly bore, the waters of the Solway ebb and flow as they were wont, the same clear sky spans the vault of heaven which was outstretched in Roman days;—but then, the occupants of the opposite shores scowled upon each other with deadly hate, and planned the means of mutual slaughter. Stealthily they cast the net and threw the leister into the margin of the sea, or when they openly appeared upon the waters, it was in galleys armed for sanguinary aggression;—now, with each returning tide, the fisherman plies his peaceful trade, fearless of harm, and the inhabitants of both the northern and the southern shore hail each other as friends and fellow-countrymen.

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Altho’ we have now traversed the line of the mural Barrier from one extremity to the other, and examined all the camps that lie upon its track, we have met with but seventeen or eighteen of the twenty-three that are mentioned in the Notitia as stations per lineam Valli. According to Horsley, five remain to be accounted for, and according to Hodgson, who rejects Watch-cross, six. These must be sought for among the 316stations which support the great Barrier on its northern or southern side. As the names of the camps north of the Wall have been ascertained by independent authority, and as they do not correspond|SECONDARY FORTS OF THE NOTITIA.| with those of the remaining stations of the Notitia, it is agreed on all hands, that the list is to be completed from among the fortified places which support the Barrier on the south. Without dwelling upon the reasons which have guided the conjectures, (for they are but conjectures at the best), of the great author of the Britannia Romana, and other antiquaries, in appropriating the remaining names supplied by the Notitia, it may be sufficient to say, that as the primary stations, so far as they have been ascertained, are found to be arranged in that document in regular consecutive order, beginning at the eastern extremity of the line, it is conceived to be highly probable that a similar course has been pursued with the secondary camps. If, therefore, we could correctly ascertain which, of all the camps that dot the country in the southern vicinage of the Wall, are mural stations, we might, with tolerable plausibility, bestow upon them in their order the remaining names of the Notitia roll. But this is a task of great difficulty, and considerable uncertainty must necessarily attend the appropriation of the names upon this principle.

An examination of the forts themselves, however, on both sides of the Wall, is a task equally easy and instructive, and it is one which is essential to a correct estimate of the strength of the principal fortification—the 317Wall. Sir John Clark must have altogether overlooked the existence of these supporting stations, when he wrote in the following strain to his friend Gale:—

After all, I cannot but take notice of two things with regard to the Wall, that have given me great matter of speculation. The first is, why it was made at all, for it could never be a proper defence, and perhaps at Bowness less than at any other place, since our barbarian forefathers on the north side could pass over at low water, and if the sea was higher or deeper than it is now, could make their attacks from the north-east side by land.—The second is, why the Scots historians, vain enough by nature, have not taken more pains to describe the Wall, a performance which did their ancestors more honour than all the trifling stories put together which they have transmitted to us. It is true the Romans walled out humanity from us; but it is as certain they thought the Caledonians a very formidable people, when they at so much labour and cost built this Wall; as before they had made a Vallum between the Forth and the Clyde.

The Romans did not oppose to the enemy a single line of fortification only, which, by some casual negligence on their part, or a sudden exertion of desperate bravery on the side of their antagonists, might in a moment be rendered useless. In addition to the Wall, stationary camps were planted along its whole course, at a few miles distance from it, both to the north and the south; so that, in reality, a triple line of fortresses was opposed to the passage of an enemy from either quarter. These subsidiary stations were connected with the garrisons on the Wall, and to some extent with each other, by good roads. In maintaining a surveillance over an enemy, whether to the north or the south of the chief member 318of the fortification, in furnishing a secure retreat for the soldiery when venturing beyond their line, and in stemming the first shock of an onset, the importance of the out-stations cannot be over-rated.

It is not contended that all the stations which are immediately on the north and south of the Wall were erected with the express view of supporting it. Several of them doubtless were, but others, there is reason to believe, were made by Agricola, before the Wall was projected or thought of. All that is necessary for us to admit is, that they contributed materially to the strength of the main structure, and as such, formed an important element in the calculations of the engineer of the Wall.

In taking a cursory survey of the supporting stations of the line, it may be well, first, to examine those which defended its eastern extremity: next, those which are upon Watling-street—the great channel of communication between the northern and southern sections of Britain on the east side of the summit level: afterwards, those which are on the Maiden-way—the road on the west of the summit level: and reserve to the last, the important stations which strengthened the works on the northern and southern shores of the Solway.

TYNEMOUTH.—The Castle and Priory stand upon a peninsula so strong and so easily defended, that it could not have escaped the attention either of the aboriginal Britons or the Romans. The altar, which was erected by the fourth cohort of the Lingones,

319

has been already described (p. 109). Another lettered stone, found along with it, is here represented.

About the reading of the first line of this inscription, which Brand translates, ‘a circular harbour for the shipping,’ there is some uncertainty; but there is no doubt about the other lines, which import that—

The mere circumstance of its selection as the site of a temple, proves this to have been a place of some importance in the Roman age. The name of the builder of the temple fixes, with a near approach to precision, the date of its dedication. Caius Julius Verus Maximinus was a Thracian shepherd of great personal strength; he attracted at an early period of his life the notice of Septimius Severus, and under Caracalla attained to the rank of centurion. On the assassination of Alexander Severus, in 235, he assumed the purple, and was himself assassinated in 238. He probably accompanied Septimius Severus into Britain, and on this occasion erected the temple commemorated by this inscription. The following amusing account of the personal qualifications of Maximinus, is given in Dr. William Smith’s admirable Dictionary of Biography and Mythology.

320His height exceeded eight feet, but his person was not ungraceful, for the size and muscular developement of his limbs were in proportion to his stature, the circumference of his thumb being equal to that of a woman’s wrist, so that the bracelet of his wife served him for a ring.... The remarkable magnitude of his eyes communicated a bold and imposing expression to his features. He was able single-handed to drag a loaded wagon, could with his fist knock out the grinders, and with a kick break the leg of a horse; while his appetite was such, that in a day he could eat forty pounds of meat, and drink an amphora of wine. At least such are the statements of the ancient writers.

Nearly all traces of the camp at Tynemouth have been erased. Some years after the modern well near the entrance into the castle was sunk, another of wide diameter, and cased with masonry, was discovered, in consequence of the falling in of its covering; it is supposed to be Roman, but was again closed by order of the commander of the garrison, before it could be properly inspected.

The mediæval remains at Tynemouth are of great interest. The castellated gateway which formerly defended the approaches to the priory precincts has been sadly mutilated by tasteless renovators, but the ecclesiastical buildings, which have happily been left to the mercy of the elements, exhibit even in their ruins, much of their original beauty. The church-yard, affords a resting place to many who for years had been tossed upon the restless ocean, and to some who, venturing into the briny flood in search of health and pleasure, met with an untimely end. Friendly tomb-stones, speak of them; some names, however, are in danger of being forgotten.

321The murdered body of Oswin king of Deira, was deposited in the church-yard of this monastery. Here too, were buried Malcolm Canmore king of Scotland—the friend of the Saxon—and his son, prince Edward, so named after his maternal ancestor the Confessor; they were both slain in the same fatal battle fought near Alnwick, A.D. 1094. Queen Margaret, through whom her present majesty, queen Victoria, derives her Saxon blood, survived the slaughter of her husband and son but a few days.

BLAKE-CHESTERS, at the high end of North Shields, is the site of another camp. Waterville, the residence of George Rippon, esq., is within its bounds. Several carved stones, much worn by the weather, are on the ground, and many Roman building-stones may be observed in the contiguous fences.

These are not the only camps which were situated on the east coast north of the Wall. Hodgson says—

From the Wall northward, are numerous small square camps, strengthened with deep ditches, scattered over the country, as if they had been intended for rural purposes.^[128] A line of them may still be 322traced through the parishes of Long-Benton, past Cramlington, into the Plessy grounds.

There is every probability that the site of Morpeth castle was fortified by the Romans. Some portions of the curtain-wall still standing have been pronounced by competent judges to be of Roman masonry.

SHIELDS LAWE.—The southern shore of the estuary of the Tyne was as well protected as the northern. A camp, comprehending several acres, stood upon the slightly elevated headland at South Shields called the Lawe. The excellence of the situation, as a post of observation, is proved by the acts of the pilots who have planted a beacon and erected many of their residences upon it. In 1798, the foundations of many old walls, which obstructed the plough, were removed. The lowest course of some of them consisted ‘of rough whinstone, evidently brought from the shore, as the barnacles were still adhering to them.’ The remains of a hypocaust were discovered at the same time. Several coins were also found, and as some of them were of the reign of Valentinian (A.D. 380), it may be presumed that the station was in use only a short time before the desertion of Britain by the Romans. An altar, despoiled of its inscription, which was found in this station, is preserved in the library at Durham.

The ancient military-way called the Wreckendike terminated at this station. Until a recent period, one branch of it could be traced by Lay-gate, the Dean-bridge, and Jarrow-slake, to Gateshead-fell. It also led to Lanchester, Binchester, and the South.

323JARROW.—At nearly the same distance from the camp on the Lawe, on the south side of the river, as Blake-chesters is from Tynemouth, on the north, the site of another Roman fort occurs. Hodgson, who first drew attention to it, says—

At Jarrow, an oblong square of about three acres, with its corners rounded off, overlooking the estuary of Jarrow-slake, and fronting on the south the bank of the navigable stream called the Don, is, on good grounds, supposed to have been the site of a station or fortified town of the Romans. Under-ground foundations of a wall of strong masonry mark out its area on every side, and include within them the site of the present church and church-yard, and some ragged remains of the ancient monastery of Jarrow. In digging up part of the remains of these walls in 1812, a silver denarius of Aulus Vitellius was found embedded in mortar in the heart of the wall; and when the road was formed past Jarrow-row, in 1803, two square pavements of Roman brick were discovered.

Two inscribed stones have been found here which give strength to the opinion that Jarrow was a Roman station. One of them, now at Somerset-house, is shewn in the wood-cut. As Brand observes, it is interesting as containing the name of our island at length. It has been read—

The army erected this, on the extension of the Roman dominion in Britain, from the western to the eastern sea.

The other stone has formed part of an altar erected in honour of the adopted sons of Hadrian.

324The church of Jarrow is a simple building, but it contains some undoubted Saxon work. Within the walls of the ancient monastery, some portions of which exist, the venerable Bede passed his useful and unostentatious life. Of him, Surtees, the Historian of Durham, observes—

The lamp of learning, trimmed by the hand of a single monastic who never passed the limits of his Northumbrian province, irradiated from the cell of Jarrow, the Saxon realm of England with a clear and steady light; and when Bede died, history reversed her torch, and quenched it in deep night.

This venerable man died, A.D., 735, in the act of completing a translation into Anglo-Saxon of the Gospel of St. John. His name would have been worthy of all reverence, even had he done nothing more than give to his countrymen the Scriptures in their vernacular tongue. It must however be confessed that ‘he fell on evil times,’ and that his works embody many of the errors and superstitions of the period.

WARDLEY.—An ancient entrenchment containing an area of upwards of six acres, may yet be observed at Wardley, in the parish of Jarrow, nearly opposite to Wallsend. Hodgson, who resided for several years in this neighbourhood, was not able to learn that any Roman antiquities were ever found in it. He was disposed, however, to think that it belonged to the Roman era. It may have been a summer encampment of the garrison at Wallsend, and as such, would contribute not a little to their comfort, and the defence of the river.

325Wardley, there is some reason to suppose, is the Wredelau of the chroniclers, where the body of St. Cuthbert became immoveable, and where the wandering monastics received the revelation which directed them to Durham.

Such were the strongholds by which the garrisons on the eastern extremity of the Wall were assisted in maintaining their ground against the foe.

Watling-street, running north and south, crossed the Wall at about twenty miles from its termination at Wallsend. The modern turnpike-road between Corbridge and West-Woodburn adheres very closely to its track, and occasionally the ancient ditches protecting it on both sides are to be seen. Its stations were probably planted by Agricola, but were not on that account less useful to the soldiers of the Barrier. Our examination of them must be brief.

CHEW-GREEN.—Here, close upon the Scottish border, is an extensive Roman camp; investigation is necessary to decide whether it was of a temporary or permanent character; it is probably only an earthen entrenchment.

BREMENIUM, or High Rochester, is a station of considerable interest. It stands upon Watling-street, at about twenty two miles north of the Wall. Between Rochester and Chew-green the pavement of the Roman road may be distinctly traced for many miles together. The site on which the station stands is high and much exposed; but, in a military point of view, it is very strong. On all sides the ground slopes 326from it, but on the north it sinks so rapidly, as to give it the protection of a bold breastwork. The walls of the station are stronger than those of the forts on the line of the Wall; they are not only thicker, but are composed of larger stones.|BREMENIUM.| A moat has surrounded the camp; on the east side, which is by nature the weakest, two ditches have been formed, which there is reason to believe were supplied with water. All the gateways may be traced with considerable distinctness; the southern one has suffered least from depredation. The interior of the station is filled with the ruins of buildings; some of them would well repay examination. Of the modern structures which have been raised within its area, two are peel-houses or fortified dwellings of considerable strength. The suburban buildings of the station have been situated on the west side, where their foundations still appear. Here they would be protected by the valley along which, at about a quarter of a mile’s distance, the Sills-burn runs. The stones of the ramparts are strongly marked by the diamond broaching. The station contains an area of four acres and three roods.

At about half-a-mile distant from the station, in a south-east direction, there have recently been discovered the foundations of some Roman cippi or funeral monuments. They are close by the road, and as was usually the case, on the south side of it. Three of them are square, the fourth, which is the largest, is circular. The masonry of all of them is remarkably fresh. The circular tomb has two 327courses of stones standing, besides the flat stones which form the foundation. On clearing out the interior, a jar of unburnt clay was found; it had no bones in it. The natural soil was found to have been acted upon by fire to the depth of more than a foot. Mixed with the rubbish was a quantity of white ashes. A coin of Alexander Severus was found within the area, a circumstance which strengthens the presumption that the station was occupied by the Romans until a late period.

There are several temporary camps in this neighbourhood. Persons well acquainted with the country, and who have noticed the peculiar structure of Roman roads, give it as their opinion that a Roman way has proceeded eastwards from Rochester by Yatesfield, Potts-Durtrees, Yardhope, Holystone, and Glanton, in a direction which renders it probable that it joined that branch of Watling-street which traversed the eastern side of Northumberland, and is often inelegantly termed the Devil’s-causeway.

Some distance south of the station, and near to the point at which Watling-street crosses the modern high-way, (in front of Redesdale cottage) the remains of an ancient lime-kiln were recently found. It was situated on the slope of a rocky hill, and had been formed partly by the excavation of the natural rock, and partly by regular courses of masonry. In order to take advantage of the form of the ground, the mouth for drawing out the lime was placed in front. The stones were much reddened by the action of fire, and portions of lime were adhering to them. There is 328excellent limestone near the kiln, and several beds of coal are in the vicinity. Several heaps of rubbish, on the line of Watling-street, where the coal crops out, render it probable that this mineral was wrought by the Romans.

In ascertaining the Roman names of the stations on the line of the Wall, reference has hitherto been made only to the Notitia Imperii. Another document has come down to our time, of which we may now avail ourselves—the Itinerary of Antonine. It does not mention any of the stations immediately upon the Wall, but names some to the north and and south of it. It is a sort of road-book of the whole Roman empire, and is supposed to have been made by one of the emperors who bore the name of Antoninus. Horsley thinks that Caracalla is best entitled to be accounted its author. That part of it which relates to Britain contains fifteen routes; the towns upon each are named, and the distances from one to another given in Roman miles. The aid which such a document gives in ascertaining the ancient designations of the stations that occur in it is obvious. The first ‘Iter’ is entitled ‘A Route from the Limit, that is, from the Wall, to Prætorium, 156 miles.’ It begins thus—

The second ‘Iter’ also begins at the Wall, and goes to the Ritupian-port, Richborough, 481 miles.

329The first portion only, of it also, bears upon our present investigation.

The tenth ‘Iter,’ which is from Glanoventa to Mediolanum, 150 miles, begins with towns which are supposed to be in the vicinity of the Wall.

That Rochester is the Bremenium of the first route, is established by the discovery of an altar in it, which professes to be erected by the duplares of the exploratory troops stationed at Bremenium. In no position would exploratory troops be more needed than here, and no place could be more appropriately fixed upon as the starting point of an ‘Iter’ than this. Several of the inscriptions belonging to this station bear the name of Caracalla. Both Bremenium and Habitancum seem to have undergone important repairs in the time of this emperor.

Eight miles south of High Rochester, and on the line of Watling-street, is another Roman station.

HABITANCUM is the name which Camden, and Horsley, on the authority of a stone found near the station, and which was inspected by them both, agree in bestowing upon the modern Risingham.

The position of Habitancum will strike a stranger with surprise. Instead of occupying an eminence, 330it is placed in a valley, and close upon the banks of the Rede. Hills environ it, though not very closely, on every side. They who, in early spring, have been exposed on the neighbouring heights to the sleety shower, will know the reason of the selection. The climate of Risingham is peculiarly mild. The west wind blows with the steadiness of a trade wind, and the harsh east seldom descends into this favoured valley. The village of Woodburn is on the opposite side of the river. The lines in ‘Rokeby’ well characterize the spot, though its wood is fast disappearing—

Notwithstanding the secluded nature of the situation, it is not destitute of military strength. The Rede defends it on the north, which was the point of greatest danger; and, excepting on the south, where an out-post seems to have been maintained, an enemy could be descried long before approaching the camp.

The walls of the station have been constructed of the same strong masonry as those of Bremenium. Owing to the excellence of the stone, the marks of the tool upon them are peculiarly distinct. In the hill behind the station, called the Bell-knowe, the ancient quarrymen have left numerous wedge-holes and other indications of their labours. Although a fosse usually surrounded the ramparts of a station, and although sir Walter Scott has sung of—

Risingham does not appear to have been defended in 331this way. In company with the owner of the property, who had a little before thorough-drained the ground bordering on the south and east sides of the camp, I sought in vain for any traces of a fosse. The ruins of the interior would yield a rich harvest to the careful explorer. Recent excavations have revealed some chambers of great interest; but, with the exception of those near the south-east corner, they have been removed as soon as displayed. Some of the buildings were evident restorations of prior structures: a circumstance which confirms the conclusion deduced from other considerations, that the station was long occupied by the Romans. After being deserted, a portion of its north rampart has been carried away by the river. Until recently, the remains of the bridge by which Watling-street crossed the Rede, on the west side of the station, were distinctly visible. The soil which covers the camp is peculiarly rich, being replete with animal matter. Many important antiquarian treasures have been procured from this spot. The large slab, six feet long, which forms the ground-work of the initial letter at the beginning of this part, was found among the ruins of the south gateway. The inscription mentions the restoration of the gate with the walls of the station (PORTAM CUM MURIS VETUSTATE DILAPSIS). The upper part, which is lost, probably contained the name of Severus; in what remains, some of the titles of Caracalla appear. Geta’s name seems to have been erased. The stone is now at Newcastle. Another very fine slab found at this 332station, is at Cambridge. Some of the altars discovered here will be described in the last part.

Horsley is naturally surprised that Habitancum is not named in the Antonine Itinerary. One conjecture in which he indulges, in order to account for this is, ‘that the station might be neglected before the reign of Caracalla,’ which is proved to be unfounded by the slab already referred to, and by the discovery last year of some large fragments of inscriptions, mentioning that emperor by his title Adiabenicus. A second supposition which he entertains may be the correct one. He says—

It is not improbable that the two stations may have been under one command. The exposed situation of Bremenium would render it highly desirable that the exploratores, after having battled for a season with the elements and the Caledonians, should be allowed a period of comparative relief in some more sheltered spot, such as Habitancum.

CORSTOPITUM is the next place that occurs in this ‘iter,’ in which it is set down as being twenty miles from Bremenium. At the distance of about twenty-three English miles from the camp of High Rochester, and on the line of Watling-street, are now to be found the remains of the station of Corchester.

333This, which is a little to the west of the town of Corbridge, is doubtless the ancient Corstopitum. The station, which is now entirely levelled, and can with difficulty be traced, has stood upon a gently swelling knoll on the north bank of the Tyne. A bridge, the foundations of which the floods of seventeen centuries have spared, connected it with the opposite bank of the river; the remains of this bridge are precisely similar in appearance to those on the North Tyne at Cilurnum. The bridge has crossed the river obliquely, a circumstance which corroborates the opinion formerly expressed, that the bridges in these parts consisted of horizontal roadways, supported upon piers—unless, indeed, we suppose that the Romans were acquainted with the construction of the skew-arch. Hutchinson states, that a ‘military way passes from this place south-west through Dilston Park, over Hexham Fell to Old Town in Allendale, and meets with the Maiden-way at Whitley Castle.’ Abundance of medals, inscriptions, and other Roman antiquities, have been found at Corchester. Pieces of Roman bricks and pots are spread over the surface of the ground. The church at Corbridge has been raised at the expense of the station. Horsley conceives that this fort was abandoned before the compilation of the Notitia, as it is not mentioned in that document. It is about two miles south of the Wall.

The large altar which is figured in the initial letter at the beginning of this volume, formed, in Horsley’s days, the shaft of the market-cross at Corbridge. It is now on the stairs of the entrance-tower, 334at the castle of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. The inscription is defaced, but the carving on both sides remains; on the one side is a soldier, armed—the representative probably of war; on the other is a warrior, having laid aside his weapons, dragging an amphora of wine—a picture, emblematic of peace. The singular use made of this heathen relic suggests the insertion here of the story of the ‘Fairy stone,’ as it is still told in this neighbourhood.

A Roman altar in the vicinity of Bywell was, during the ‘troublesome times’ of 1715, put to a use little contemplated either by the ancients or moderns. It was employed as the post-office of the non-juring gentry of the district. The parties, wishing to keep up a correspondence with each other, arranged to deposit their communications in a hollow of the altar. In the gray of the morning little girls clad in green, and trained to the task, approached the stone with a dancing step, and, having got the letters, retired with antic gestures. So well did they perform their part that they were mistaken for fairies, and the object of their visits was not discovered for a long time afterwards. The stone was known by the name of the Fairy stone.

But the greatest curiosity which has been discovered at Corstopitum, is the silver lanx, or dish, which is represented on the next page. A piece of plate so massive, is of rare occurrence in the stations of the North. It is in the possession of the duke of Northumberland. There is an accurate cast of it in the Newcastle Museum of Antiquities.

'It was found (says Mr. Robert Cay, in a letter of 4th March 1734) near Corbridge, by some ignorant poor people who have cut off the feet in such a vile barbarous manner, that they have broke two holes through the table, and a small 337piece off one of the corners too.' It is 19½ inches long, and 15 broad; it weighs about 150 ounces. The rim of the plate rises nearly an inch above the interior. The figures have been punched into form. Gale’s conjecture as to its use is probably the correct one. ‘This is big enough (he says) to contain the exta of a sheep, or other small victims, which seems to me to be the likeliest employment for it, and that it was one of these sacrificing utensils that Virgil calls Lances:

The principal figures on the plate are probably, those of Diana, Minerva, Juno, Vesta, and Apollo.

On the left side of the design is Diana, armed with a bow and arrow. Below her feet is an urn with water flowing from it; in front of her, is an altar with an offering, of a globular form, upon it, and below the altar, is a dog of the greyhound species, looking up to the goddess.

The next figure is Minerva. She wears a helmet, and her breast is adorned with the Gorgon’s head. A spear is in her left hand. The thumb and first two fingers of her right hand are uplifted, as if in the act of bestowing a benediction.

The next figure is supposed to be Juno, though no symbol is given by which she can be decisively distinguished. Her right hand is uplifted in a manner similar to Minerva’s. At her feet lies a dead buck.

Vesta succeeds. She is seated; part of her peplus or mantle is drawn over her head; the two fore-fingers of her left hand, which is apparently resting upon her bosom, are upraised. Beneath the goddess is an altar with the fire burning.

On the right of the piece is Apollo, standing under a canopy. His bow is in his left hand, a flower in his right. His lyre is on the ground by his side, and a griffin is below him.

An eagle and some other birds are among the branches of the tree in the upper part of the piece.

Under the whole representation some recondite meaning is probably concealed, which can only be a subject of conjecture. (See Hodgson’s Northumberland, II. iii. 246.)

338

Two important altars, with Greek inscriptions have been found at Corbridge. One is dedicated to the Tyrian Hercules; the other, which is represented in the adjoining wood-cut, to Astarte, the Ashtaroth of the Scriptures.

Josephus tells us, that Hiram king of Tyre, built two temples, which he dedicated to these deities. The Israelites, in forsaking the living God, not unfrequently betook themselves to the abominations of the Sidonians.

It is deeply and painfully interesting to dig up in our British soil decided traces of this gross idolatry.^[129]

339HEXHAM is generally admitted by antiquaries to have been a Roman town, though the proof of it is not absolutely decisive. St. Wilfrid built a church and monastery here about the year 673, after the Roman manner, which was considered the wonder of the age. We are told by the historians of that period that ‘secret cells and subterranean oratories were laid with wondrous industry beneath’ the building. Some vaults still remaining probably formed the crypt of this ancient structure. The stones which compose this under-ground building are all Roman; the peculiar mode in which they are chiselled is exhibited in the annexed wood cut, representing one of its chambers. The walls exhibit several Roman mouldings and cornices, besides inscriptions.^[130] It is not 340likely that these stones would be brought from Corbridge (the nearest Roman station, if Hexham be not one), which is on the other side of the river, and three miles distant; especially as there is abundance of stone in the immediate neighbourhood. The most important of the inscribed slabs which are walled up in the crypt, is here exhibited; it is one|INSCRIPTION TO SEVERUS.| of the inscriptions bearing the names of the emperor Septimius Severus (who added to his own name that of his predecessor, Pertinax), of his eldest son, Caracalla, who styled himself Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Pius, and of Geta, his younger son, whose name and title have obviously been erased from the tablet, an operation which we find has been studiously performed on many similar inscriptions, doubtless after his murder by his unnatural brother Caracalla. The date of this inscription is marked by the union of Severus and his two sons in the imperial title. Its object does not appear from what remains of the stone, further than that it recorded some act done by a vexillation of some portion of the Roman forces.

The mediæval antiquities of Hexham are highly interesting. The gateways and embattled towers will 341repay examination; but the gem of this fine old town, which in the Saxon era was an episcopal see, is the Abbey-church. The choir and transepts alone remain; they exhibit much beauty of detail, and their several parts blend most harmoniously together. The church formerly possessed the right of sanctuary. The frid-stool is still in its place. The cross which marked the eastern boundary of the privileged territory is nearly entire, and is kept near its original site, in the yard of the poor-house. The disjecta membra of that which marked the northern boundary of the sanctuary lie by the side of the road going over Cross-bank, a hill between two and three miles north of Hexham, and from which the traveller approaching the town from the north first obtains a view of the venerable abbey-church, and surrounding town. The prospect is now, to the peaceful antiquary, guiltless of his neighbour’s blood, singularly interesting—what must it have been when descried in ancient times by panting fugitives, pressed by an avenging hand, and fleeing to the sanctuary! This cross remains a monument of the disordered state of society in the middle ages, and leads the reflecting passenger to contrast his present tranquility with the insecurity of former times. No favoured spot is now necessary to shield the innocent from the rage of a stronger assailant, or will be allowed to stay the course of justice upon the guilty.

EBCHESTER, situated upon the line of Watling-street, is, as its name indicates, a Roman station. Surtees thus describes it:—

342Ebchester stands at the foot of a long descent, yet on the edge of a still steeper declivity. Its cottages and trees are scattered along a lofty brow overhanging the green haugh-lands of the Derwent. On the very edge of the steep, the vallum of a Roman station is still extremely distinct, and the little chapel of Ebchester, a farmhold, and a few thatched cottages, stand within the very area of the ancient Vindomora—if Vindomora it be, for the point is by no means stated as beyond controversy.

LANCHESTER is, on the authority of the itinerary of Richard of Cirencester, conceived to be the Epeiacum of the Romans. Though several miles removed from the Wall, its position upon Watling-street would render it useful as a supporting station. It occupies a lofty brow to the west of the village, on a tongue of land formed by the junction of two small streams. On three sides the ground falls from the camp; on the west only it is commanded by a high moorland hill, whose prospect ranges from the Cheviots, in the north, to the Cleveland hills, in the south. The station is one of the largest class, containing an area of about eight acres. The walls may be distinguished on all sides. The south wall, though deprived of its facing-stones, stands eight feet high, and shews nine courses of thin rubble-stones arranged edgewise in a leaning direction. A layer of very rough mortar has been placed on each course of stones after they have been placed in their bed. On the outside of the south-east angle a subterranean chamber has been discovered; the descent to it is by steps. It is difficult to conjecture the use to which it has been put; a similar chamber was found 343to occupy the same position outside the camp at Plumpton. The masonry of some chambers near the south-east corner of the station, which when first opened were found to be full of bones, is very perfect. The remains of a hypocaust may be seen near to the place where the pretorium has probably stood. Lanchester seems to have been garrisoned almost throughout the entire period of Roman occupation; a large proportion of the coins found at it are of the higher empire, but the series extends down to Valentinian. The name of Gordian occurs on two inscriptions as the restorer of some of its buildings. The destruction of the station was probably owing to some sudden and violent catastrophe. The observations of Surtees on this subject, are applicable to many of the camps of the Barrier.

The red ashes of the basilica and bath, the vitrified flooring, and the metallic substances evidently run by fire, which occur amongst the ruins, form a strong indication that the structure perished in the flames.

It has already been observed (p. 261) that two aqueducts have brought water to the station from a distance of some miles. This is the more remarkable as several deep wells have been found near the camp, and there are open springs within fifty paces from the south and east wall.

The surrounding moor abounds in iron-stone; of this the Romans seem to have availed themselves, for immense heaps of slag, of ancient production, have been found in the neighbourhood.

344BINCHESTER is still farther to the south, on the same line of road; but, on account of its distance, would have but little intercourse with the stations immediately connected with the Barrier. It contains some hypocausts, which are peculiarly worthy of careful examination.

Retracing our steps and again penetrating the region of fierce Caledonian onslaughts and border feuds, we find Bewcastle occupying a position north of the Wall, on the Maiden-way, corresponding with that which Risingham does on Watling-street.

BEWCASTLE stands in the bottom of a basin formed by a wide amphitheatre of bleak and lofty hills. The camp occupies a platform slightly elevated above the rivulet, the Kirkbeck, which washes its southern ramparts and permeates the valley. The northern side is the weakest part of the position, but even here there is a depression in the contour of the ground, which would render it more easily defensible. In this quarter too there are marks of artificial fortifications beyond the station wall. The fort, in order to suit the nature of the ground, is not of the usual square form, but is six-sided; it probably encloses an area of about four acres. The ground on which the camp stands is reckoned the most fertile in all Cumberland. It was in the depth of winter that I visited it (1, Jan. 1850) but even then the space occupied by the fortifications might be distinguished by its peculiar verdure. To the east of the camp are some barrow-like mounds, and 345on the west of it are terraced lines, bearing testimony to the agricultural industry of the Romans. On the eminence westward of the camp are the foundations of square buildings, probably posts of observation. On the lofty summits of some of the adjacent hills the concentric lines of British encampments plainly appear. They still seem to bid defiance to the Roman fort in the valley.

Within the lines of the camp, and protected by a moat of its own, is a dark and frowning castle; it is tersely described in an ancient manuscript, ‘as a strength against the Scots in time of warre.’ The captain of Bewcastle was a military chief of considerable power; he is frequently mentioned in Border minstrelsy. The castle is built with the stones of the station. Its masonry is very rude; the mortar which has been used is rough, containing, besides gravel and sand, pieces of coal, charcoal, burnt clay, and broken bricks. A tower, apparently added after the main structure was reared, guards the entrance-gateway.

This, or some previous building, gives name to Bewcastle—Bueth’s-castle.

Bueth was, before the conquest, lord of Bewcastle and Gilsland. After some previous changes, Henry II., by a grant, dated ‘apud Novum Castrum super Tynam,’ gave the manor of Gilsland to Hubert de Vallibus, one of his Norman retainers. The Saxons were not men quietly to submit to wrong. Gilbert Bueth, son of the dispossessed proprietor, collecting a band of followers, made frequent incursions into his ancient patrimony. Robert de Vallibus, son of Hubert, the former possessor, suggested a conference, at which he basely assassinated 346the unarmed Saxon. Expiation was easy; the|ORIGIN OF LANERCOST PRIORY.| priory of Lanercost was founded and richly endowed. It is traditionally said that part of the expiatory ceremony consisted in the demolition of the walls of his castle at Castle-steads (Cambeck-fort), and sowing the site with salt. The baronial residence was transferred to Irthington, where, as already observed, some traces of it remain. Robert de Vallibus was afterwards employed by Henry II. as a judge of assize. How lax must the state of morality have been, when a murderer was allowed to sit upon the bench! His ill-gotten lands were not permitted to descend to his posterity, William, his only child, dying before him.

The far-famed Runic cross, respecting which so much has been written, holds its ancient place in the church-yard of Bewcastle. The inscription, which is now hardly legible, is pronounced by Kemble (Archæologia xxviii. 347) to be an Anglo-Saxon, not a Norse one. Two Roman inscriptions, not now to be found, have been described as belonging to this station. One of them, which Camden saw used as a grave-stone, bore the letters,

The other, much fractured, Horsley saw fulfilling the same office. He says, ‘I take it to have been an honorary monument erected to Hadrian, by the Legio secunda Augusta, and the Legio vicesima.’

WHITLEY CASTLE is the modern name of another outpost, which is situated on the Maiden-way, as far south of the Wall as Bewcastle is north 347of it. An imperfect inscription found here, and described by Camden and Horsley, commemorates the dedication of a temple to Caracalla, in his fourth consulship (A.D. 213), by the third cohort of the Nervii. As the Notitia places the third cohort of the Nervii at Alionis, it is conceived that such may have been the ancient designation of the camp at Whitley Castle. The station stands upon the gently inclining side of a hill, about two miles north of the town of Alston. The railway approaches within a few furlongs of it. The form of the camp is peculiar, being that of a trapezoid, whereas the usual figure is that of a parallelogram. In another respect it differs from all the other camps that we have hitherto examined; it is surrounded by an extraordinary number of earthen entrenchments. On the western side, which is the most exposed, there are no fewer than seven ditches, with corresponding ramparts, and on the north, four. These earth-works are in a state of wonderful preservation. The strength of these lines, and the comparative absence, both within and without the station, of Roman stones, render it probable that the garrison trusted to breastworks of earth, rather than of masonry. The general level of the camp is elevated above the surface of the contiguous ground, in consequence, probably, of the mass of ruins which it contains. Its whole area, including the entrenchments and ditches, amounts to nine acres.

A large altar procured from the station is in the neighbouring farm house; the inscription is illegible, 348but it has on the upper part of its four sides, a carving in bold relief.

It is no unusual thing to find in the neighbourhood of a Roman station manifest traces of the dunghill of the fort. As might be expected, such a repository is replete with objects which, though once despised and cast away as worthless, well repay the search of the antiquary. Not far from the north-east angle of this camp a large dunghill was found, which has been recently removed for farm purposes. It contained numerous fragments of Roman earthenware and glass, as well as armillæ of jet or fine cannel coal. Its most curious product, however, was a large store of old shoes or sandals. The soles were all made ‘right and left,’ and consisted of several folds of leather fastened together with round-headed nails. (See Plate XVIII. figs. 3, 4, 5.) Were this the only place where these curious objects have been found, we might hesitate to assign to them a primeval date, but very many having been discovered in digging the foundations of Carlisle gaol, and some in clearing the buildings at Cilurnum, as well as other places, and being accompanied in every instance by other articles of undoubted Roman manufacture, we are entitled to consider them as the produce of Roman hands. Modern artists might examine them with advantage; Roman shoe-makers thought it no dishonour to let nature prescribe the form that their handy-work should assume.

Wallis, the author of the Natural History and Antiquities of Northumberland, was born within the 349ramparts of this camp; the house is now removed. In the preface to his work he accounts for the antiquarian bias of his mind in the following strain:—

Northumberland being Roman ground, and receiving my first breath in one of their castra, I was led by a sort of enthusiasm to an inquiry and search after their towns, their cities, and temples, their baths, their altars, their tumuli, their military ways, and other remains of their splendour and magnificence; which will admit of a thousand views and reviews, and still give pleasure to such as have a gust for any thing Roman; every year almost presenting new discoveries of the wisdom, the contrivance, ingenuity, and elegance of that respectable people.

Although nearly a century has elapsed since Wallis wrote this, the field of Romano-British antiquities still retains much of the fertility he ascribes to it, and doubtless, has stores yet in reserve for the assiduous inquirer.

Before proceeding to the stations which supported the western extremity of the Wall, there are two camps, one to the east, and another to the west of the Maiden-way, which demand a little of our attention.

OLD TOWN.—Horsley entertained the idea that he had found the remains of a Roman camp at Old Town, near Catton Beacon, in Allendale. Hodgson treats the opinion with some degree of ridicule. I am disposed to think that Horsley is right, though the inquiries I made on the spot did not lead me to a decision of the question.

BRAMPTON.—About a mile west of the modern town of Brampton, upon a gentle eminence commanding a view in every direction of a most beautiful 350country, are the traces of a small Roman camp. The father of English topography, guided in some measure by the similarity of the names, fixed the ancient Bremetenracum at Brampton; but Horsley, in consequence of the absence of Roman remains, demurred to the correctness of the conclusion. It is not surprising that this camp escaped the attention of Horsley, as it is situated within the ancient park of Brampton, considerable portions of which were, a century ago, covered with tangled brushwood and venerable forest trees. Its trenches, though still visible, are fast disappearing; every time it is ploughed, the furrow is turned into the hollow of its fosse. Though hundreds of cart-loads of stones have been taken from it, the ground on which the camp stood is thickly strewed with stony fragments. On walking over the spot, I picked up a piece of dove-coloured pottery, part of a millstone, and several portions of Roman tile. Besides individual coins which have occasionally been found here, an earthen jar, containing a large hoard, was turned up by the plough in 1826. It contained not fewer than five thousand pieces, all of them of the lower empire.

If Whitley Castle be the Alionis of the Notitia, this, as coming next in order, may be, as Camden conjectured, Bremetenracum.^[131]

351In the plain to the south of the camp, are some remarkable tumuli. One mound of large dimensions, standing alone, is covered with oak trees. Three others of small size, and close to each other, are at the eastern extremity of the same field. Two of them are circular, and about twelve yards in diameter; the third is elongated, and measures about thirty-two yards in length. Whatever opinion we may form respecting the larger mound, there can be no doubt that the smaller ones are artificial barrows; the hollow made by the excavation of the soil for their formation is discernible. They do not appear to have been opened, but will no doubt soon yield up their long-hoarded treasures to some enterprising antiquary.

Between the station and the town of Brampton, may be noticed the faint traces of an earthen encampment of the usual Roman form; it is fast disappearing under the action of the plough. West of the station, stands an ancient church, formed of Roman stones. Though the living have forsaken the venerable pile, the dead are still being laid in its church-yard.

We now approach the stations which supported the Barrier near its western extremity; it will be well to examine first those north of the Wall.

352NETHERBY.—The nucleus of the seat of sir James Graham is a border tower, with walls of great thickness. These walls were doubtless erected at the expense of the ramparts and buildings of the camp, within which the mansion is situated. The form of the station cannot now be satisfactorily defined; but the number and importance of the coins, altars, and sculptures, which have been found within it, prove that it was a place of consequence during the period of Roman occupation. The site, though not greatly elevated, commands an extensive prospect in every direction. The bank on its western side, which slopes down to the valley of the Esk, is said to have been washed in ancient days by the waters of the Solway.

Among the many important inscriptions discovered here, is one to Hadrian, closely resembling those which have been found at Milking-gap, Bradley, and other places. The stone has long been lost, but in Gough’s Camden the inscription is given thus—

Some very fine sculptured stones, found in the station, are preserved on the spot. Amongst them is one which is figured on the adjoining page. A youth stands in a niche, a mural crown is on his head, a cornucopia in his left hand, and a patera, from which he pours out a libation on an altar, in his right; it is one of the finest carvings that is to 353be met with on the line of the Wall. From the grooves which are cut in the lower part of the stone, we may naturally conclude, that the figure has been formerly set in masonry, perhaps to adorn the approach to some temple. Gordon supposes the figure to be intended for Hadrian; Lysons thinks that it was meant for the ‘Genius of the Wall of Severus’—let us combine the two ideas, and suppose, that the figure is that of Hadrian, representing, as he had the best right to do, ‘the Genius of the Barrier.’

Reference will afterwards be made to the figures of the Deæ Matres which have been found here.

Netherby is supposed to be the Castra Exploratorum of the second Antonine ‘Iter,’ which was garrisoned 354by a numerus exploratorum. Its situation is very suitable for an exploratory garrison; and its distance from Carlisle on the one hand, and Middleby on the other, nearly corresponds with the distance at which it is set down in the Itinerary both from Luguvallium and Blatum Bulgium.

MIDDLEBY.—To the south of Middleby Kirk, in the county of Dumfries, is a camp which is called in the district Burns, or Birrens. It occupies a low and sheltered situation, but possesses, notwithstanding, considerable natural capabilities of defence. The water of Mein washes the earthy scar which forms its southern margin, and the Middleby burn, which joins the Mein at the south-east angle of the camp, runs parallel to its eastern rampart. It appears, from the plan given in Roy’s Military Antiquities, to have been protected, in addition to its stone walls, on three sides by four earthen ramparts, with intervening ditches; and on the north, which was at once by nature the weakest, and the quarter most exposed to the attack of the enemy, by not fewer than six. The northern ramparts remain in nearly their original completeness, but the overflowings of the Mein on the south, the construction of a road on the east, and the operations of agriculture on the west, have destroyed the ramparts on these sides. A procestrium, or out-work, protected by its own ramparts, appears to have been appended to the west side of the original camp; or, perhaps, to speak more correctly, the suburban buildings, which were situated 355in this quarter were embraced by an additional fortification. In so exposed a situation, such a precaution would be highly proper. The field in which the procestrium was, has been brought into cultivation, and a great number of carved stones, which were found in it, taken to Hoddam Castle. The corners of the camp are, as is usually the case, rounded; the four gateways are clearly discernible. The interior area of the station measures three acres and three-quarters. On the south side of the station a large vault, arched with stone, was laid open more than a century ago. Popular credulity has magnified it into an underground passage, which extended all the way to Burnswark; the people in the neighbourhood aver that they have known persons go a considerable way along it.

The altars and sculptures found at this place are engraved and described, apparently with great accuracy, in Stuart’s Caledonia Romana. Amongst them is a stone tablet, bearing the words—

A piece of another, with the inscription—

The lamented author of this work says—

With the exception of a brass coin of Germanicus, and the inscription containing the name of Hadrian, the greater part, if not all the antiquities found at Birrens, may be ascribed perhaps to the third or fourth century. The striking similarity of style and execution which exists between them and the bulk of those discovered in the north of England, of which the dates can be ascertained, is sufficient to stamp them as the productions of a period subsequent to the reign of Septimius Severus.—Caledonia Romana, 130.

356It did not belong to the author’s subject; to inquire, how the fact of so few of the memorials of the mural line being of the age of Severus, comported with the popular idea that he built the Wall!

BURNSWARK, or Birrenswork.—A solitary hill, nearly three miles to the north-west of Middleby, rises to the height of nearly seven hundred and forty feet above the level of the sea. 'On its top lies an unequal plain, about nine hundred feet long, by four hundred and fifty of mean width—almost inaccessible on two of its sides, and by no means of easy attainment on any.'^[132] From this elevated summit, the mountain ridges which are scattered over not fewer than six of the Scottish counties can be descried; looking eastward, the Nine-nicks of Thirlwall are in sight; southward, the familiar forms of Skiddaw, Saddleback, and Cross-fell rise into view; to the south-west, the craggy peaks of the Isle of Man arrest the attention in favourable states of the atmosphere; and, not unfrequently a long, black streak, on the distant verge of the ocean, indicates the position of Ireland. According to the former political divisions of the British empire, four kingdoms were thus to be seen from Burnswark-hill.

So commanding a position was not neglected by the ancient Britons. 'Around the area of the summit may still be traced the remains of a wall, composed of earth and stones, which seems to have been raised at every spot where the precipitous rock did 357not of itself afford sufficient protection.' Unhappily most of the stones have been hurled into the valley below, to form a long boundary fence. The enclosure is divided into two compartments of nearly equal size; one of them contains a circular range of stones, the remains apparently of an ancient cairn or watch-tower.

On two of the sides of Burnswark are the vestiges of Roman military works. The largest, which is on the southern slope, encloses an area of twelve acres. It has been originally encompassed by two ramparts, separated, as usual, by a deep trench; it had three gates on the upper, and apparently the same number on the under side, with a single one at each end. These gateways have been protected by circular mounds, thrown up before them, and fortified on the top. The pretorium, or general’s quarters, defended by an entrenchment of its own, was placed on the north-west angle of the camp. This circumstance would seem to warrant us in supposing, that, even in the stationary camps of the Wall, the pretorium was not uniformly placed in the upper part of the central area, where, according to the usual theory, we should expect to find it. All the entrenchments are of earth, and on the north side they are peculiarly bold.

The camp on the northern face of the hill has been constructed upon the same principle, but is in a less perfect condition. It is of the same length, but has only half its breadth. A covered way conducts from the one to the other. It is probable that both these 358camps have been the summer quarters, castra æstiva, of the garrison at Middleby. So important a position would not, however, at any period of the year be abandoned to the enemy; 'when not filled with the tents of its summer inhabitants, it is probable that a small garrison was maintained on its summit.'^[133]

PLUMPTON.—Several camps south of the line, and at nearly equal distances from the Wall and from one another, added security to the fortification in the western district. Plumpton, or Old Penrith, called in the locality by the common name of Castlesteads, is a large station about thirteen miles south of Carlisle. The conjecture of Horsley ascribed to it, the name of Bremetenracum. The turnpike-road goes close past it, as did the ancient Roman way which led from Luguvallium to the south of Britain. The station presents the usual characteristics of a Roman camp. Though not much elevated, it is sufficiently raised to enjoy a most extensive view of the surrounding country. The western side is the strongest, being protected by the deep but narrow valley in which the river Peterel flows. Its ramparts are boldly marked, and the interior of the station is filled up to their level by a mass of prostrate habitations. The largest heap of ruins is on the north-east quarter; it may be the remains of the pretorium. The fosse is well defined on the north, south, and west sides. Enough of the eastern gate remains to shew that it has been a double portal. 359One stone of the threshold yet retains its position; it is worn by the feet of the ancient tenants of the city, and is circularly chafed by the action of the door in opening and shutting. Several very large stones, which have been used in the construction of the south gateway, lie near their original site—some of them yet exhibit the holes in which the pivots of the doors turned. The line of the street, which went from the eastern to the western gateway (via principalis), is discernible. On the outside of the south-east corner of the station, an arched chamber, or passage, was discovered a few years ago; but it is now filled up with rubbish.

Extensive remains of ancient foundations have been removed from the field on the east of the station; here, according to tradition, Old Penrith stood. There are also indications of suburban buildings to the west of the station. In the neighbourhood of the camp, and even at some distance from it, we meet, in the houses and stone fences, with such a number of the small neat stones which were usually employed in the construction of Roman dwellings, as to impress us with the idea, that the suburban buildings were very extensive in every direction.

In recently lowering a part of the turnpike-road, about a quarter of a mile south of the station, a well, cased with Roman masonry, was exposed. It is square, and is set diagonally to the road; it now copiously supplies the neighbouring farm-houses, which formerly were, in dry seasons, much inconvenienced by the scarcity of water.

360Several sculptured, and inscribed stones, as well as coins, have been found here; but none of them are of a nature sufficiently interesting to detain us longer at Plumpton.

OLD CARLISLE is nearly two miles south of Wigton. The station is a large one; the ruins of its ramparts and interior buildings are boldly marked. A double ditch, with intervening vallum, seems to have surrounded the fort. The rivulet Wiza runs in a deep ravine immediately below the station, on its west side, and at a remoter distance, on its south also, thereby lending to it additional strength. The remains of suburban buildings may still be seen outside the walls, on the south, east, and west. Within the fort, a street may be distinctly traced from the north to the south gate, and another from the east towards the west. Near the centre of the station is a moist spot of ground where we may conceive a well to have been. Up to a recent period, the Roman roads leading from this station on the one hand, to Carlisle, and on the other to Maryport, were distinctly visible. Of the many important inscribed stones dug out of this station, that which is represented above is probably the most interesting. It was found in the 361year 1775, about two hundred yards east of the camp, and is now in the collection at Netherby.

MARYPORT.—On the cliffs overhanging the modern town of Maryport, are the manifest remains of a large Roman station. Its position gives it a commanding view of the Solway Firth and Irish Channel. The camp is a very large one, and the lines of its ramparts are very boldly developed. The eastern side, which is the only one that is not defended by a natural defile, or valley, was protected by a double ditch. There are some traces of masonry also near the gateway on this side, which render it probable that this entrance had been guarded by additional outworks. Some portions of this gateway remain; the sill of it is strongly marked by the action of chariot wheels. The ruts are about five inches deep, and five feet ten inches apart. Within the station is a well, encased with circular masonry. The interior of the station was excavated in 1766. The following account of the appearances which were then observed, is given in Lysons’ Cumberland:—

362The workmen found the arch of the gate beat violently down and broken; and on entering the great street, discovered evident marks of the houses having been more than once burnt to the ground and rebuilt; an event not unlikely to have happened on so exposed a frontier. The streets had been paved with broad flag-stones, much worn by use, particularly the steps into a vaulted room, supposed to have been a temple. The houses had been roofed by Scotch slates, which, with the pegs which fastened them, lay confusedly in the streets. Glass vessels, and even mirrors were found; and coals had evidently been used in the fire places. Foundations of buildings were round the fort on all sides.

In the grounds of Nether Hall, the seat of J. Pocklington Senhouse, esq., is a small entrenchment containing an area of about an acre and a half; it is in a low and sheltered position, and has probably been a retreat for invalids. Ancient roads have diverged from this station, leading to Bowness, Wigton, and Papcastle. On draining, lately, the fields on the line of road leading towards Old Carlisle, its pavement was met with, and to a great extent removed. The body of the road was composed of large granite boulders, some of them a quarter of a ton in weight; the interstices being filled up with smaller stones. On the south side of this way several slabs of stone were found, lying flat on the ground. They probably covered the ashes of the dead; fragments of red pottery and glass were found beneath them.

Very numerous and very important are the remains of antiquity which this station has yielded. With the exception of one fine altar, they are all carefully preserved in the house and grounds at 363Nether Hall. Many of the sculptured stones which have been found here, are more highly carved and more tastefully designed than is usual in the mural region. An altar to the genius of the place, which has been removed to Whitehaven Castle, and will be described in the last Part of this work, is characterized by Camden as ‘ara pulcherrima affabrè artificio antiquo exculpta,’ and a more graceful altar than that which is shewn in this cut, we have not met with in our mural peregrination. It is important, also, as proving the residence here of the 'prima cohors Hispanorum.' In consequence, probably, of some service done to Hadrian this cohort 364seems, subsequently to the dedication of this altar, to have obtained the title of Ælia and the rank of milliaria equitata. The inscription may be read.—

A plain, square, but now partially fractured, pillar, inscribed, ROMAE AETERNAE ET FORTVNAE REDVCI, is reserved to form the concluding cut on the last page of this volume. It is a striking memorial at once of the aspiring pretensions and blighted prospects of the imperial city. A boar, the symbol of the twentieth legion, exhibiting more than the usual spirit, forms the vignette at the close of this Part; and the slab which bears testimony to the labours which the second, and twentieth, legion underwent in constructing the works of this station, is introduced at the close of the Part devoted to the discussion of the question ‘Who built the Wall?’ There is preserved in the piazza at Nether Hall, a carving in relief of a warrior on horseback trampling on a fallen enemy; the drawing is not strictly correct, but is very spirited, and the foreshortening of the horse’s head remarkably good. Besides these, there are several large and instructive altars and funereal slabs, as well as a tablet having a Greek inscription to this effect—Aulus Egnatius Pastor set up this to Æsculapius.

365The minor antiquities consist of fragments of tiles, one of which bears the stamp of the first cohort of the Spaniards, a bronze pot bearing a marked resemblance to some which are in modern use, several earthenware vessels of large size, and quite perfect, implements of iron, and weapons of war. Amongst the coins which have been found in the station, are a great many forged denarii of Trajan and Hadrian. They are chiefly formed of lead, and are badly made; in some instances the metal has not reached the centre of the mould, and in scarcely any have the edges of the casting been properly dressed. Genuine coin must have been exceedingly scarce among the soldiery of the camp, and their credulity very great, to allow of the circulation of such base imitations.

A large artificial mound or barrow is to the left of the station. The inhabitants had an old tradition respecting it; they conceived it to be the sepulchre of a king. It was opened in 1763; near its centre ‘the pole and shank bones of an ox’ were found, but neither urns, burnt bones, nor coins, were discovered.

There is great uncertainty about the ancient name of this fort. Camden pronounced it to be Olenacum, chiefly influenced by the resemblance in sound between it and the name of the neighbouring village of Ellenborough (Maryport is but of recent origin). This supposition gathers force from the fact that in ancient documents the river Ellen, which gives name to the place, is written ‘Alne’ and ‘Olne.’

366PAPCASTLE is about six miles south-east of Maryport. Numerous relics of antiquity have been found here, but little now remains to mark it out as the site of a Roman station except its extraordinary fertility. The town of Cockermouth, a mile to the south of the fort, is supposed to have risen from its ruins.

The forts which we have already examined may be thought sufficient to support the line of the Wall. The peculiar circumstances of its western extremity will perhaps justify us in reckoning Moresby, notwithstanding its distance from the Wall, among the out-stations of the Barrier. Not only does the Scottish coast, by projecting considerably beyond the western termination of the Wall, facilitate the invasion of the intra-mural portion of the island—but Ireland, the native land of the Scoto-Celts, is nigh at hand. It was necessary to prevent, not only the inhabitants of Caledonia landing on the coast of Cumberland, but the ‘Scots,’ also, who at that time ‘poured out of Ireland.’ Another sea-port station, south of Maryport, was therefore requisite.

MORESBY, within a short distance of Whitehaven, still exhibits the remains of a Roman camp. It occupies a commanding position, enjoying especially an extensive marine prospect. Its western and southern ramparts are still good. The parish church and church-yard border upon its eastern wall. A sculptured stone, evidently chiselled by Roman hands, lies upon the spot, under the ruined 367chancel-arch of the old church. The important slab, of which the wood-cut gives a representation, was found in digging for the foundations of the present parish church. It is another of the interesting testimonies which we have of the energy and influence of the emperor Hadrian in those parts. Like the Milking-gap inscription, it gives the name of the emperor in the genitive case.

A military way ran along the coast from this station, by way of Maryport, to the extremity of the Wall, at Bowness. By this means, the defence of the coast could be more effectually secured. As the distance between Maryport and Bowness is considerable, a small camp was planted at Malbray, which is about midway between the two places. The site of it is now a ploughed field.

We have now taken a hasty review of the stations on both sides of the Wall, which have supported that structure. Never, assuredly, was a dangerous frontier more securely guarded. So long as the stations were supplied with vigilant and well-disciplined troops, no foe, however well armed, could successfully attempt the passage of the Barrier of the Lower Isthmus.

368Even the cursory view that we have taken of the subject, entitles us to say, that the boldness of the design was worthy of Rome in the zenith of her glory; and that the manner in which the project was carried out was becoming a nation with whom to conceive was to execute.

If we turn our attention for a moment from the work, to the object for which it was intended, regret, that man should use his ingenuity for the purposes of aggression and bloodshed, will take the place of admiration. Milton aptly describes the scenes which this region would often witness:—

Symbol of Leg. xx. v. v.

369

Our course hitherto has been a detail of facts; now we enter upon the region of speculation. In the former Parts of this work, the history of the Roman occupation of Britain has been briefly told and an attempt made to depict the present condition of the Vallum and Wall, with their camps, castles, and outworks; now the question must be put—Is the Barrier the Work of one master-mind, or are its several parts the productions of different periods, and of different persons? Had the statements of the ancient historians upon the subject been explicit and 370consistent, the inquiry would involve simply an appeal to their authority; unhappily, the information which they afford is not only very meagre, but of a character so unsatisfactory, as to compel us to sift their evidence, and to compare it with the facts which we glean from an examination of the fortifications themselves.

Agricola, we are informed by Tacitus, erected forts both on the Lower and Upper Isthmus; we are nowhere told that he drew walls, whether of earth or stone, across either of them. The northern rampart of the Vallum has by many been conceived to be the work of Agricola. In the absence of any direct historical testimony bearing upon this subject, the circumstance that the lines of the Vallum pursue a course precisely parallel to each other, must be considered as fatal to this theory. It is altogether incredible, that two engineers should at different periods construct independent works, without crossing each other’s ramparts. In Roy’s Military Antiquities, several instances are given where the trenches of one encampment cut arbitrarily those of another, the troops who last occupied the post, not seeming to pay the least attention to the works of their predecessors; the lines of the Vallum would doubtless exhibit the same appearance had they been the works of different periods. The claims of Agricola to the authorship of any part of the Vallum may therefore at once be set aside, and the inquiry be confined to the relative claims of Hadrian and Severus.

371If the parallelism of the lines of the Vallum be fatal to the theory, that one of the mounds is the work of Agricola, and the others the work of Hadrian, a similar mode of reasoning leads to the conclusion, that the Vallum and the Wall cannot be independent structures. If Severus, finding that the earth-works of Hadrian had fallen into decay, or were no longer sufficient to wall out the Caledonians, had determined to erect a more formidable Barrier, would he not have mapped out its track without any reference to the former ruinous and inefficient erection? Had he done so, we should find the lines taking independent courses—sometimes contiguous, occasionally crossing each other; sometimes widely separated, seldom pursuing for any distance a parallel course, but the Wall, as the latest built, uniformly seizing the strongest points, whether previously occupied by the Vallum or not. This, however, is not the case; the Wall and Vallum, in crossing the island, pursue precisely the same track from sea to sea; for the most part they are in close companionship, and in no instance does the Wall cut in upon the trenches of the Vallum. At the first view of the subject, therefore, we should be disposed to question the accuracy of the opinion which gives to these works distinct dates, and ascribes the Vallum to Hadrian, and the stone Wall to Severus. Before further prosecuting this inquiry, it will be well to lay before the reader all the statements of the ancient historians upon the matter in question; he will by this means see the necessity of appealing 372to the structures themselves for a satisfactory decision of the question.

Herodian was contemporary with Severus, and professes to have been an eye-witness of all that he relates. He gives a detailed account of the emperor’s proceedings in Britain, but does not once mention the Wall. Dion Cassius was also contemporary with Severus. As before observed, that part of the original work which treats of Britain is lost; we have, however, Xiphiline’s abridgment of it. The only reference which he makes to the Wall, comports with its existence previous to the arrival of Severus in Britain, Speaking of that emperor’s expedition against the Caledonians, he says—

Nor did he ever return from this expedition, but died three years after he first set out from Rome. He got a prodigious mass of riches in Britain. The two most considerable bodies of people in that island, and to which almost all the rest relate, are the Caledonians and the Meatæ. The latter dwell near the Barrier Wall (οιχουσι δε οἱ μεν Μαιαται προς αυτῳ τῳ διατειχισματι, ὁ την νῆσον διχῆ τεμνει) which divides the island into two parts.

Spartian, writing about A.D. 280, is the first person who gives us any direct information about the erection of a Wall; and it is on his testimony chiefly that the credit of the work has been given to Severus. Speaking of Hadrian, he says—

He went to Britain where he corrected many things, and first drew a Wall (murumque primus duxit) eighty miles long, to separate the Romans from the barbarians.

No testimony could be more explicit than this in favour of the view that Hadrian built the Wall. As 373this writer, however, subsequently ascribes the work to Severus, many are of opinion that Spartian here speaks of the Vallum, not of the stone Wall. Mere verbal criticism will not decide the point, but it may be observed in passing, that although the words murus and vallum are occasionally interchanged by Latin authors, the term (murus) which Spartian uses in the passage, taken strictly, means a stone wall. Speaking of Severus, the same writer says—

He fortified Britain with a Wall drawn (muro ducto) across the island, and ending on each side at the sea, which was the chief glory of his reign, and for which he received the name of Britannicus.

The same writer, in a subsequent chapter, makes a second reference to the Wall, which is of some importance in discussing the question. Narrating an incident which occurred near the Wall, he says—

After the Wall or Vallum in Britain was completed, and the emperor was returning to the next stage not as conqueror only, but as founder of eternal peace, and was thinking within himself what omen might happen to him, an Ethiopian soldier, famous as a mimic, and noted for his jokes, crossed his path, crowned with cypress. Struck with the colour of the man, and his crown, he was angry with him, and ordered him to be put out of his sight, when the fellow is reported, by way of a joke, to have said—'Thou hast been everything—conquered everything: now conqueror, be a god!'

Julius Capitolinus, a writer who flourished about the same time as Spartian (A.D. 280) speaking of the Antonine Wall, uses an expression which seems to imply, that the only previously existing Barrier was one of turf. He says—

374Antoninus, by his legate Lollius Urbicus, conquered the Britons, the barbarians being secluded by another earthen wall (alio muro cespiticio ducto).

All the remaining classical historians sum up in favour of Severus; they, however, probably only re-echo the statements of Spartian, with a slight addition of errors of their own. Eusebius Pamphilius says, that—

Clodius Albinus being slain at Lyons, Severus made war upon the Britons, and in order to render the subject provinces more secure from barbaric invasion, he drew a Wall from sea to sea, an hundred and thirty-two miles long.

Aurelius Victor, who wrote about A.D. 360, recording his great exploits, says—

He achieved greater things than those, for after repulsing the enemy in Britain, he drew a Wall from sea to sea.

The younger Victor, in his epitome of the work of the elder, says—

He drew a Vallum thirty-two miles long from sea to sea.

Eutropius wrote about the year 360. He says—

Severus’s last war was in Britain; he drew a Wall of thirty-two miles from sea to sea.

Paulus Orosius, who wrote A.D. 417, says, that the conqueror Severus—

Having fought many severe battles, determined to separate the part of the island which he had recovered, from the tribes that remained unsubdued, and, therefore, drew a deep fosse, and a very strong Vallum (magnam fossam firmissimumque vallum), strengthened with numerous towers, from sea to sea, over a space of one hundred and thirty-two miles.

375Cassiodorus, who wrote A.D. 520, gives a similar testimony. Among the events of the consulship of Aper and Maximus (A.D. 207), he enumerates the transference of the war by Severus to Britain—

Where, that he might render the subject provinces more secure against the incursions of the barbarians, he drew a Wall (vallum) from sea to sea, one hundred and thirty-two miles in length.

Such are the statements of the Roman historians respecting the authorship of the Wall. Several circumstances tend to invalidate the claim which they make in behalf of Severus. The first author who attributes the Wall to Severus is Spartian, a weak writer, who lived in an ignorant age, and nearly a century after the time of Severus. Surely his assertion will not be allowed to outweigh the negative testimony of Herodian and Dion Cassius, the contemporaries of Septimius Severus. Of all the authors who mention the length of the Wall, the only one who approaches correctness is Spartian, when speaking of the Wall, which he states that Hadrian drew from sea to sea; eighty Roman miles is very nearly the true length. The other writers call it thirty-two, |SPARTIAN INCONSISTENT.|or one hundred and thirty-two. Admitting, as some have supposed, that the larger number is an error, occasioned by some careless transcriber’s inserting in the copies the centurial number (C), which did not exist in the original, the difficulty is not removed. Thirty-two Roman miles is the length of the Barrier of the Upper Isthmus, not of the Lower, and these writers seem to have confounded the one with the 376other. Buchanan, Usher, and several writers, who were as capable of weighing the evidence furnished by the ancient historians as we are, have accordingly maintained, that the Wall which extended from the Forth to the Clyde, is that which was reared by Severus. This opinion we now know, from the inscriptions found upon it, to be erroneous; but the fact that it was entertained by such able scholars, proves the incompleteness of the historic evidence upon the subject. Milton correctly estimates the vague nature of this testimony. He writes—

Severus, on the frontiers of what he had firmly conquered, builds a wall across the island from sea to sea; which our author judges the most magnificent of all his other deeds; and that he thence received the style of Britannicus; in length a hundred and thirty-two miles. Orosius adds, it is fortified with a deep trench, and between certain spaces many towers or battlements. The place whereof, some will have to be in Scotland, the same which Lollius Urbicus had walled before. Others affirm it only Hadrian’s work re-edified; both plead authorities, and the ancient track, yet visible: but this I leave, among the studious of these antiquities, to be discussed more at large.—(History of England, bk. ii.)

Spartian, moreover, invalidates his own testimony when he says, that the erection of this Wall was the greatest glory of Severus’s reign (quod maximum ejus imperii decus est). The Wall is indeed a magnificent work; it is, as Stukely characterizes it, ‘the noblest monument’ of Roman power ‘in Europe;’ but if reared by Severus, it is, a lasting monument of his failure. He came to Britain panting for renown—he resolved to reduce the whole island to his 377subjection—to make the sea-girt cliffs of Northern Caledonia his barrier. The efforts which he put forth were worthy of his resolve—‘In a word,’ says Dion Cassius, ‘Severus lost fifty thousand men there, and yet quitted not his enterprise.’ Were the abandonment of the Wall of Antonine, and the withdrawal of the frontier to the southern Isthmus, where Hadrian, eighty years before, had prudently fixed it, the glorious results of all his aspirations? Spartian assuredly errs, if not in saying that Severus built the Wall, at least in stating that this was the great boast of his reign.

When, too, we may ask, did he build the Wall? not assuredly when he issued forth on the expedition that was to win him so much renown, and which occupied him the greater part of the time he was in Britain. He was then bent upon aggression, not defence. Neither is it probable that he would do it on his return. According to Spartian, he had at that time proved himself not only victorious, but the founder of eternal peace, and thus had removed all ground for apprehension in the direction of Caledonia. Or, on the other hand, according to the more accurate and trustworthy historians, Herodian and Dion Cassius, he was returning worn out with disease and the endless fatigues he had sustained; chagrined at the havoc which the islanders had made in his army, though they uniformly refused to hazard a general engagement; and broken-hearted at the misconduct and ingratitude of his sons, and so would, we may suppose, have been deficient in the spirit 378and the means to embark in so large a work. That he should have repaired some of the stations, particularly those upon the line of his march, when about to enter upon what he hoped to be the crowning enterprise of his life, and that he should have maintained garrisons in them to make good his communications with the south, is not only probable, but is rendered almost certain by the inscriptions which several of them have yielded; but that, in such circumstances, he should have planned and executed the whole line of the Wall, its castles and turrets, and several of the stations, is almost incredible.

But it may be asked, if Hadrian formed the whole Barrier, how is it that the popular voice should ascribe the most important part of it not to him, but to Severus? That the Wall is generally called by the name of Severus, is at once admitted. So long ago as the reign of Elizabeth, Spencer wrote—

Popular testimony, apart from the authentic records of history, is of value for our present purpose only so far as it is the traditional statement of the knowledge of those who lived when the event took place. The nearer to its source that we trace a tradition, the clearer and more unequivocal it will become, if it have its origin in truth. The popular opinion that Severus built 379the Wall, will not stand this test. Whatever value may be attached to the testimony of Gildas, the first British historian, it is not denied that he records correctly the hear-say evidence of his day. He does not mention Severus, but tells us, that after the departure of the Romans, the Britons, distressed by the Picts and Scots, sought the assistance of their former conquerors, and at their suggestion, and with their assistance, raised first a wall of turf, and afterwards, when that was found insufficient, a wall of stone. The narrative of Gildas has been already given. (p. 29.)

Bede refers to the opinion that Severus built the stone Wall, only to refute it; he says—

Severus was drawn into Britain by the revolt of almost all the confederate tribes; and, after many great and dangerous battles, he thought fit to divide that part of the island which he had recovered from the other unconquered nations, not with a wall, as some imagine, but with a rampart. For a wall is made of stones, but a rampart, with which camps are fortified to repel the assaults of enemies, is made of sods, cut out of the earth, and raised above the ground all around like a wall, having in front of it the ditch whence the sods were taken, and strong stakes of wood fixed upon its top. Thus Severus drew a great ditch and strong rampart, fortified with several towers, from sea to sea; and was afterwards taken sick, and died at York.

He then repeats Gildas’ account of the origin of the Wall, and adds—‘that it was not far from the trench of Severus.’

These quotations are made simply to prove, that the testimony of tradition, at a period not long subsequent to the departure of the Romans, was by no 380means decisive; no stress ought, therefore, now to be laid upon it.

The popular report, which ascribes the building of the Wall to Severus, is the less worthy of credit, inasmuch as it imputes to him also the building of the northern Barrier, which we know was the work of Lollius Urbicus, in the reign of Antonine. Pinkerton says, 'As to the Welsh name of Gual Sever, which it is said they give to the Wall in the North of England, it is also given to that between the Firths of Scotland.^[134] A small grave-stone, which was discovered in Falkirk church-yard, in the immediate neighbourhood of the Antonine Wall, about the year 1815, confirms the testimony of Pinkerton upon this point. The inscription, a cast of which I have seen, records the burial there, in the reign of Fergus II., of ‘a knight, Rob. Graham, who first threw down the Wall of Severus’ (ILLE EVERSVS VALL. SEVER). If popular opinion has erred with reference to the one Wall, it may have erred with respect to the other also.^[135]

But we ought not to expect minute accuracy in a tradition transmitted through many generations. It is enough that the general impress of the truth remains. It is nothing surprising, that, after the lapse even of a century or two, the name of Severus should have been connected with every military stronghold in the northern section of the island. As 381having inflicted the last and heaviest blow upon it, his hated memory would be the longest retained.

In the absence of any decisive testimony from the historians of Rome, respecting the emperor who upreared the Murus, we may next examine the inscribed stones which have been found upon it.

In some instances, inscriptions attached to Roman buildings give their history with great particularity. This is the case with the Antonine Wall in Scotland. Slabs inserted at intervals, record the name of the reigning emperor, of his legate, of the troops engaged upon the work, and also the number of paces executed by each detachment. Unfortunately these commemorative slabs are of rare occurrence in the Lower Barrier, and the information given by such as do exist, is very scanty. This will appear the more surprising, if we bear in mind that the English Wall is not only twice as long as the other, but is built of stone throughout; the Scotch Wall is chiefly formed of earth. On the theory, that Hadrian reared all the members of the Barrier, the paucity of inscriptions admits of easy explanation. The custom of raising these memorials did not commence until his day, and at the time of the erection of the Wall was probably in its infancy; the practice was in vogue during the reigns of several of his successors, and was not discontinued until after the time of Caracalla. If, on the other hand, Severus built the Wall, it is a most unaccountable thing that his soldiers have left no record of the fact upon the line of the Wall itself, and but very scanty 382traces of his name even in the out-stations. This is |PAUCITY OF INSCRIPTIONS TO SEVERUS.| the more remarkable, when we remember that the Wall was built by the same legions as were employed upon the Vallum of the Upper Barrier. The Antonine Wall was constructed by the twentieth legion and by vexillations of the second, and sixth. On the mural line of the Lower Barrier we frequently meet with stones inscribed with the names and insignia of the second, and sixth, legion, and occasionally with those of the twentieth. If the English Wall was built in A.D. 210, as is generally stated, how is it that the troops disregarded a custom so natural and so laudable as that which was practised so extensively by their predecessors, in A.D. 140? Extensive repairs were made by Caracalla at Habitancum, Bremenium, and some other stations; of these we have distinct records in the inscriptions which remain. How is it, if the mind and hand of his father gave being to the magnificent fence of the English isthmus, that not one of the many stones which he upreared records the fact? Mural slabs and contemporary historians are alike silent upon the subject, and, probably, for the simple reason that Severus did not build it.

It will serve the purposes of truth to cite all the instances in which the name of either emperor has been found upon the line; wood-cuts of all to which I have had access, have been already presented to the reader.

The name of Hadrian occurs in many instances. At Jarrow a stone was found, and is figured in Brand, 383which was inscribed OMNIVM FIL. HADRIANI. In the foundations of the castellum at Milking-gap a stone was discovered (p. 234), bearing in bold letters the name of the emperor, and of his legate Aulus Platorius Nepos. At Chesterholm a fragment of a precisely similar inscription was found (p. 241). In the neighbourhood of Bradley, two fragments were discovered, which, when placed together, give us an accurate copy of the same inscription (p. 232). In the ruins of the castellum near Cawfields, was a portion of another, with a precisely similar inscription (p. 251); and near the eastern gateway of Æsica a large tablet was dug up, bearing the name of the same emperor (p. 256). In an outhouse, which probably occupies the site of a castellum, at Chapel-house, in Cumberland, a stone was found, which mentions Hadrian and the twentieth legion (p. 274). Horsley describes a slab which he saw at Bewcastle, bearing the following inscription—

In Gough’s Camden, a stone, inscribed to Hadrian by the second legion, is stated to have been found at Middleby; and at Moresby we have the fine slab now at Whitehaven castle (p. 367).

It will perhaps be said that these inscriptions prove nothing beyond the universally admitted facts, that many of the stations existed in Hadrian’s day, 384and that the Vallum was raised by him. The reply to this is, that several of them have been found at a distance from any station, and on the line of the Wall itself, and that too, in positions where it is farther removed than usual from the Vallum. The occurrence of three or four of them in mile-castles, seems to prove that they owed their position there to no accidental circumstance, and no one will deny that these mile-towers were contemporaneous with the Wall.

The force of these remarks will more clearly appear after ascertaining what inscriptions bear the name of Severus. If we turn to the inquiry with the impression that he built the more important member of the Barrier, we might expect to find the evidences of the activity which prevailed in his day more abundant than in the time of Hadrian. Such, however, is not the fact. The one at Hexham (p. 340) was the only inscription to Severus which was known to Gordon and Horsley. Well might Gordon, who maintained the Septimian theory, denominate it—‘a very precious jewel of antiquity.’ Hexham is nearly four miles south of the Wall. To this must be added the altar discovered at Old Carlisle (p. 360), which is about ten miles distant from the Wall; and another in a dilapidated state, found at the same place; and the gateway slab found at Habitancum (p. 315), one of the castra exploratorum nearly ten miles in advance of the Wall, recording the restoration of part of the fortifications there. Besides these, I know not of any inscriptions to Severus. I purposely 385omit all reference to an altar, said to have been discovered at Netherby, bearing the inscription SEPT. SEVERO IMP. QVI MVRVM HVNC CONDIDIT, because, both Gordon and Horsley pronounce it to be spurious.

Much importance is attached by those who advocate the claims of Severus to the inscription on the face of the ancient quarry, on the river Gelt. Here, it may be said, is the very spot from which the stones of the Wall were taken, and the precise date is fixed—the consulship of Aper and Maximus. That the quarry was used by the Romans at this period, is not a matter of dispute, but it is very questionable whether much of the stone from it was used in the building of the Wall, because, suitable materials could be procured nearer at hand. The year in which Aper and Maximus were consuls was A.D. 207; the year in which, according to the received reckoning, Severus came to Britain, was that in which Geta and Caracalla were consuls, A.D. 208.^[136] It is not likely that Severus would order the stones to be quarried before his arrival in Britain. But, allowing that the chronology of Severus’ reign is to be received with some latitude, and granting that he had landed in Britain in A.D. 207, some time would necessarily elapse in making inquiries into the state of the country, and no inconsiderable period would be occupied in making surveys, even after the construction of the Wall had been determined on. The 386quarry has probably been wrought for some ordinary purpose, perhaps for the erection of some buildings in the station near Brampton, at the period in question.

Evidence is not wanting to prove, on the other hand, that quarries near the line of the Roman Wall were wrought in the time of Hadrian. In an old quarry near the top of Borcum, or Barcombe (a hill near the village of Thorngrafton, and opposite to the station of Borcovicus), a large number of Roman coins was found. They are described and figured in the last Part of this work. Since none of the pieces of this hoard were later than the time of Hadrian, and the coins of his reign and Trajan’s were peculiarly fresh, it is agreed that the treasure must have been deposited in Hadrian’s time. The quarry on Haltwhistle-fell (p. 81), it will also be remembered, bore the name of the sixth legion, which, if the reasoning in the next paragraph be admitted, will appear to have been inscribed before the arrival of Severus in Britain.

It has already been observed that numerous stones along the line bear, without any addition, the names of the second legion, the sixth, and the twentieth. There can be no doubt that these legions and their vexillations executed the principal part of the Work. The main bodies of these forces, however, had their head-quarters, at the time of the arrival of Severus, in districts of the country southward of the Barrier line. The second legion, after the building of the Antonine Wall, appears to have gone to Carleon, in 387South Wales, the Isca of the Romans. The sixth legion removed to York before A.D. 190, where it continued as long as the Romans remained in the island. Horsley, speaking of the inscriptions on the Wall which mention this legion,|MOVEMENTS OF THE LEGIONS.| says, ’some of them, from the characters and other circumstances, may be supposed as ancient as Hadrian’s reign.' The twentieth legion had taken up its abode at Chester, the Deva of the Romans, as early as the year 154. Though it is probable that Septimius Severus may have taken detachments of these legions with him in his Scottish campaign, it is not likely that he would withdraw the main bodies from forts of such importance; and those which did accompany him would find the discharge of their military duties sufficiently onerous, without engaging in a work so vast as the building of the Wall.

But, after all, the works themselves furnish us with the best proof that the whole is one design, and the production of one period. It is difficult to conceive how any person can traverse the line of the Barrier without coming to the conclusion, that all the works—Vallum, Wall and fosse, turrets, castles, stations, and outposts—are but so many parts of one great design, essential to each other, and unitedly contributing to the security of a dangerous frontier. The Murus and the Vallum throughout their whole course pursue tracks harmonizing with each other; the Murus, however, selecting those acclivities from which an attack from the north can be best repulsed—the Vallum, those from which aggression 388from the south can be repelled. Stukeley was unable to resist the evidence of his senses. Speaking of the works in the neighbourhood of Carvoran, he says—

I suppose this Wall built by Severus is generally set upon the same track as Hadrian’s Wall or Vallum of earth was; for, no doubt, they there chose the most proper ground; but there is a Vallum and ditch all the way accompanying the Wall, and on the south side of it; and likewise studiously choosing the southern declivity of the rising ground. I observe, too, the Vallum (Wall?) is always to the north. It is surprising that people should fancy this to be Hadrian’s Vallum; it might possibly be Hadrian’s work, but may be called the line of contravallation; for, in my judgment, the true intent, both of Hadrian’s Vallum and Severus’s Wall, was, in effect, to make a camp extending across the kingdom; consequently, was fortified both ways, north and south: at present, the Wall was the north side of it; that called Hadrian’s work, the south side of it; hence we may well suppose all the ground of this long camp, comprehended between the Wall and the southern rampire, was the property of the soldiers that guarded the Wall.—Iter Boreale, p. 59.

Speaking of the works westward of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, he says—

The Vallum runs parallel to the Wall, but upon the declining ground south, as the other north; this confirms me in my suspicion, that both works were made at the same time, and by the same persons, and with intent that this should be a counter-guard to the other, the whole included space being military ground.—Iter Boreale, 66.

The reader needs scarcely to be reminded of the striking illustration of these remarks which is furnished by the appearance of the works a little to the west of Carrhill, and by the fact, that for nearly ten 389miles in the middle of their course, the Vallum is commanded by the heights on which the Wall stands.

Whenever the distance between the Wall and Vallum varies, it is generally with some obvious design in view. Thus, as Hodgson, who powerfully supports the view here taken, remarks—

The Vallum and Murus always contract the width of the interval between them as they approach a river, apparently for no other purpose than a close protection of the military way, and the defence of one bridge; for if they had passed the brooks and rivers on their line at any considerable distance from each other, two bridges would have been necessary, and two sets of guards to defend them: and here it is not unimportant to remark, that the Murus always takes that brow of the ridge it traverses, which is precipitous to the north, and never deserts its straightest or most defensible course to find a convenient situation for a bridge, while the Vallum almost invariably bends inwards as it approaches a bridge, and diverges outwards as it leaves it.—Hist. Nor. II. iii.

Horsley’s plan of the Barrier between Cilurnum and Magna, which is copied on Plate II., will afford several examples of the truth of these remarks.

The position of the Vallum and Murus, in relation to the stations, furnishes additional evidence. The Murus usually forms the northern wall of the station, or comes up to the northern cheek of its eastern and western gates, while the Vallum protects its southern rampart, or comes up to the lower side of its doorways. The two lines give complete protection to the camps, and to the roads leading to and from them. On the supposition that the Vallum is an independent fortification, and that it was 390constructed nearly a century before the Wall was thought of, we must concede that its plan was such as to give the stations the least possible support, to leave them, in short, in a great measure exposed to the enemy. The manner in which the two walls combine in giving strength to a station, is very well shewn in Warburton’s plan of the works in the vicinity of Cilurnum (Plate II). It is scarcely possible to deny the justice of the remark, which he appends to the title—‘A Plan of Cilurnum ... with part of the Plan of Severus’ Wall and Hadrian’s Vallum, shewing how they are connected at the stations, and by their mutual relation to one another, must have been one entire united defence or fortification.'

It is not improbable that Severus may have repaired some portions of the Wall, and perhaps added some few subsidiary defences. Richard of Cirencester gives us correct information upon several points connected with Roman Britain, which we do not learn from other authors; it is not unlikely that his view of the subject of our present study may be the correct one. He says—

About this time the emperor Hadrian, visiting this island, erected a Wall, justly wonderful, and left Julius Severus his deputy in Britain.... Virius Lupus did not perform many splendid actions, for his glory was intercepted by the unconquerable Severus, who, having rapidly put the enemy to flight, repaired the Wall of Hadrian, now become ruinous, and restored it to its former perfection. Had he lived, he intended to extirpate the very name of the barbarians.

The supposition that Hadrian built the Wall is consistent with the accounts which historians give 391us of his attachment to architectural undertakings. One writer, of great research, says of him—

No prince, perhaps, ever raised so many public and private edifices as Hadrian. In every city of note, throughout the empire, some erection perpetuated his memory: bridges, aqueducts, temples, and palaces, rose on every hand. Many cities, likewise, were either wholly built or repaired by him. Building seems, indeed, to have been a main feature in his system of government. He was the first who appointed that each cohort should have its quota of masons, architects, and all kinds of workmen needed for the erection and adornment of public edifices.—Hist. Rome, Tract Soc. London 277.

It is perhaps needless to pursue the subject further. More might easily be said; but I was unwilling, on a point of so much importance, to say less. The reader will not fail to perceive what an impressive view the works of the mural barrier, considered as one vast scheme, and not as a series of after-thoughts, give of the mighty conceptions and energies of imperial Rome.

In taking leave of those renowned men, Hadrian and Severus, it may be allowable to advert to the testimony which, before departing this life, they are said to have given as to the vanity of all earthly things. Hadrian, who used to say, that an emperor should be like the sun, visiting all the regions of the earth, found himself then, in darkness. His knowledge of the Eleusinian mysteries gave him no peace; he addressed his soul in these words:—

392These lines are thus happily imitated by Prior—

Severus’ restless pursuit after happiness was equally vain. His dying words are said to have been, 'Omnia fui et nihil expedit'—I have tried everything, and found nothing of any avail. What a contrast to the language addressed to him by the Ethiopian soldier—'Thou hast been everything—conquered everything: now, conqueror, be a god!'

393

The Roman Barrier of the Lower Isthmus.

Most apposite is the remark of Dr. Johnson, that ‘Whatever withdraws us from the power of our senses; whatever makes the past, the distant, or the future predominate over the present, advances us in the dignity of thinking beings.’ Few things are so well calculated to produce this effect, as the altars and lettered tablets that have been left on our soil by the Romans. When we but glance at them, who is not moved at the reflection, that they were chiselled by 394hands which for so many centuries have mouldered nerveless in the dust!

On proceeding to decipher the antique records, our emotions are more varied and more intense. The old Roman seems to arise from the tomb, and to reveal his modes of thought and principles of action. His breast heaves; his heart is laid bare. In lines which his own fingers have carved, the gods before whom he trembled are declared. Looking on the very altar at which he knelt, we almost seem to see ‘the mean man bowing down, and the great man humbling himself.’

The region of the Wall has yielded more inscribed stones of the Roman period than any other portion of the kingdom. Many of them have already been presented to the reader; a few others will here be described. The lettered stones of the mural line may be divided into three classes—altars, funereal slabs, and centurial stones.

ALTARS.

The offering of such sacrifices as were supposed to be acceptable to their deities, formed an essential part of the religion of the Greeks and Romans. Very numerous are the altars which 395have been discovered on the line of the Wall. Many of them are small, some not larger than the palm of the hand, rough in the workmanship, and without any inscription; others are of large size,

and of ornate character. The usual form of them is shewn in the annexed cut. The inscription is on the face of the altar; the base and upper portion project a little beyond the sides. A small cavity on the top called the focus, or hearth, received the offering. The sides of the altar were frequently adorned with carvings representing the victims, the implements used in sacrifice, and insignia of the god. On the altar^[137] before us, we have represented the præfericulum, or pitcher, which contained the wine for the offering; the patera, a round, shallow dish, generally with a handle, which was used in throwing a small portion of the wine upon the altar; the securis, or axe, with which the animal was slain; and the culter, or knife, used in flaying or dividing it. In the Chesterholm altar, figured p. 240, the sacrificial ox is represented; and on the sides of the altar to Jupiter, which is shewn on page 290, the thunder-bolt of the god, and the wheel of Nemesis— 396the emblem of swift vengeance—are given. The small size of the focus proves that the offerings presented to the deities occupied a very small bulk. When an animal was slain, a portion of the entrails was often all that fell to the lot of the god.

Frequently the offering consisted of a little barley-meal, some fruit, some frankincense, or chips of fragrant wood, with wine or milk. Occasions of sacrifice were often times of merry-making. The slain victim and the dedicated wine formed the ready materials of a feast. Ovid sarcastically represents an old woman performing the rites due to the goddess of Silence; upon her offering (three grains of incense) she allows a few drops of wine to fall, and assisted by her companions, though needing little help, she drinks up the remainder, departing from her devotions tipsy, and anything but taciturn.

As might be expected, many altars are dedicated to Jupiter, the king and father, as he was styled, of gods and men. The wood-cut represents a very fine one, which was found in the station at Chesterholm, 397and is now preserved under the piazza of the House.

Two lines have been purposely erased, perhaps in 398consequence of some error committed by the sculptor. The town of Brixia, the modern Brescia, is situated on a feeder of the Po. Petronius, it would appear, still remembered, and doubtless with affection, his former home in sunny Italy. Storks adorn both sides of the altar; the object of their introduction is rather doubtful. In the Risingham slab, now at Cambridge, to which reference has already been made (p. 332), a cock is associated with the figure of Mars, and a stork with that of Victory. Can the stork have been the emblem of victory, as the cock was of the god of war? The powerful wing and stately motions of this bird render it a fitting emblem of the goddess whose favours Petronius must often have sought. The inscription is distinct, and strikingly displays the polytheism of the Romans. Petronius associates with Jupiter, not only all the immortal gods, but the genius of the pretorium also.

Not only were the superior deities and invisible genii blended in one invocation, but mortal men were not unfrequently associated with the greatest of the gods on the same altar. This is the case in one already described (p. 63). Quintus Verius, on an altar found at Housesteads, calls upon Jupiter, the best and greatest, together with ‘the deities of Augustus.’ The emperor himself is probably intended by this phrase, not the gods whom the emperor worshipped. The use of the noun in the plural number, numina, is not opposed to this view. Horsley remarks that numina is frequently, in classical writers, applied to a particular deity; thus we 399have numina Dianæ in Horace, and numina Phœbi in Virgil. The emperors, we know, were frequently worshipped as gods. The Mantuan bard, addressing Augustus, has no doubt of his divinity, though he knows not what region to assign to his especial care;

An altar, which is not less remarkable for the ornate character of its decorations, than for the striking display which it affords of the polytheism of 400the Romans, was found in the camp at Maryport, and is now in the possession of the earl of Lonsdale, at Whitehaven Castle. An accurate representation is given of it in the preceding engraving.

The lower lines of the inscription of this altar are much injured; they probably refer to the restoration of some buildings. The upper portion is sufficiently plain. Peregrinus addresses first the deity of the place over which his arms had triumphed; lest the local god should not smile benignantly, he resorts to Fortune, who had conducted him safely to the land of his adoption; if this deity should fail him, he thinks to find a refuge in the genius of the eternal city; but driven from this resource, there is nothing for it, but to trust to fate or chance.

On the back of this altar (which as it is at present placed at Whitehaven Castle, cannot be seen), are inscribed the words, VOLANTI VIVAS. This was probably the expression of the good wishes of some party for his friend, inscribed for greater efficacy on the sacred stone; and may be translated, Volantius, long may you live!

401Mars is occasionally addressed, though not so frequently as we might expect in a chain of mural garrisons. Two small altars dedicated to him have already been introduced. On several altars, chiefly found in Cumberland, he is addressed by the name of Cocidius. One which was found at Bank’s-head, and is now preserved at Lanercost Priory, is here introduced. An altar found at Lancaster bearing the inscription, DEO SANCTO MARTI COCIDIO, is the authority for supposing that Cocidius was a name of Mars. The altar before us has been dedicated by the soldiers of the twentieth legion, surnamed the Valiant and Victorious; the boar, the badge of the legion, is at the bottom of the altar. It appears also that Mars was sometimes styled Belatucadrus, the expression DEO MARTI BELATUCADRO being found upon some altars; the altars to Belatucadrus are, however, confined to Cumberland. One of them is here given. It was found at Walton Castlesteads, where it still remains. The letters are rudely carved, and the last two lines not very intelligible. The name Belatucadrus or Belatucader is derived from the words Baal and Cadir; and probably means—The invincible or omnipotent Baal. The fact that Baal, the great idol of the east, found votaries in Britain shews how easy it is to propagate error.

It was the practice of the Romans to adopt the 402deities of the countries which they subdued, and they may be supposed to have sought to amalgamate with their own god of war, the corresponding divinity worshipped in that part of Britain where these altars were reared.

The worship of Minerva was not neglected by the soldiers of the Wall. The wood-cut exhibits an altar to the virgin goddess, which was found in the station at Rochester; it is now at Alnwick Castle. Several others exist. Science is required in the arts of war as well as peace. The victory which mere daring achieved, was by the Greeks and Romans ascribed to the intervention of Mars; that which was the result of skilful strategy to the influence of Minerva. This altar was consecrated by Julius Carantus.

Fortune was one of the favourite deities of Rome. The great confidence which the Romans placed in her is expressed in the story related by Plutarch, that on entering Rome she put off her wings and shoes, and threw away her globe, as she intended to take up her permanent abode among the Romans. Several altars addressed to Fortune have been found on the line of the Wall. One of the most remarkable is shewn in the annexed cut. It was found in a building in the south-east corner of the station at Risingham, and is now in the Museum of

403Antiquities, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. The great peculiarity of it is, that the projecting base of the altar is provided with a focus, and that on the projection the inscription is repeated. It reads—

The altar, when in its original position, was raised by means of two courses of masonry considerably above the level of the ground. The object of the 404second focus is a matter of conjecture. According to the grammarians, altare (alta ara, high altar) was dedicated only to the gods above, whilst the ara was both lower, and employed in sacrificing to the gods below as well as those above. Can Fortune have been viewed in the double capacity of a superior and inferior divinity, and can the tribune, Valerius Longinus, have sought to secure the favour of the powerful deity both in this life and the one to come!

Several of the altars found on the line of the Wall are dedicated to the god Mithras. Mitra, it appears, is one of the names for the sun in Sanscrit; and that

405Mithras was, by the Romans, identified with the sun, is clearly proved by many of the inscriptions on the altars of that deity. One, found in the Mithraic cave at Housesteads, and which is now at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, is figured on the former page. The inscription upon it may be read thus;—

Another small and roughly-cut altar procured from the same place, and also now at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, has a figure of the sun on its capital: Hodgson reads the inscription in this manner—Hieronymus, performing a vow, freely and duly dedicates this to the sun.

When we contemplate the powerful and beneficial influence of the sun, we cannot be surprised that the worship of this luminary, especially in the east, constituted the first form of idolatry—

The various ceremonies which were observed in 406the worship of Mithras, are supposed to have been emblematic of the different influences exercised by the sun upon vegetable and animal life. The notices which we have of the meaning of these emblems are, however, a mass of mysticism and absurdity. The god is commonly represented as a youth wearing the Phrygian cap and attire, and kneeling on a bull thrown on the ground, the throat of which he is cutting. He is usually accompanied by two attendants, the one bearing an uplifted torch, representing the sun in the vernal equinox, ascending to the zenith of his power, the other, an extinguished torch, resting on the ground, emblematic of the orb of day, when hastening to the winter solstice. The wood-cut here introduced exhibits one of these figures (now at Newcastle-upon-Tyne), which was found in the cave at Housesteads.

The Mithraic worship was introduced into the western world, from Persia, about the time of Julius Cæsar, and speedily spread over all parts of the empire. It appears to have outlived other forms of idolatry in Europe. Its favourers seem to have abandoned polytheism; on the line of the Wall at least, the name of Mithras is not combined with that of any other deity. This circumstance, together with the laborious, though vain, researches of its philosophical supporters, recommended it to those 407who rejected the pure and simple truths of Christianity.

Another of the Housesteads altars to Mithras is here figured. It is inscribed—

———

CC

The temples of Mithras generally consisted of a cave, or a small building from which the light was excluded. A cave was adopted, ‘because,’ says Porphyry, ‘a cave is the image and symbol of the world,’ and it was dark, ‘because the essence of the virtues is obscure.’ All who sought the favour of this god were subjected to a long course of painful initiatory discipline. Nonnius, a Greek poet, says—

No one can be admitted into his mysteries, unless he has previously undergone all the punishments, the number of which they say is eighty, some of them of the gentler sort, 408others more severe. The milder are undergone first, then the severer; and after the whole course is gone through, they are initiated. Fire and water are the sorts of punishment which they endure. These torments are said to be inflicted to produce examples of piety and greatness of mind under sufferings. After they have been many days in water, they cast themselves into fire; then live in desert places, and there subdue the cravings of hunger; and thus, as we have said, the aspirant goes through the whole course of eighty torments; which if he survive, then he is initiated into the mysteries of Mithras.

Human sacrifices seem to have been used in the worship of Mithras. Photius, in his life of Athanasius, asserts that there was a Greek temple in Alexandria, in which, in ancient times, the Greeks performed sacred rites to Mithras, sacrificing men, women, and children, and auguring from their entrails. Pliny tells us that in the year of Rome 657, a decree of the senate was passed, forbidding the immolation of man; for till that time monstrous solemnities were openly celebrated.^[139] The emperor Heliogabalus, a native of Syria, styled himself high priest of Mithras. His assassination is partly ascribed to the horror with which the people listened to the tales of magic rites in which he was concerned, and of human victims secretly slaughtered.^[140]

The cave at Housesteads in which the Mithraic sculptures were found, was situated in the valley to the south of the station. It was discovered in 1822 by the tenant of the farm in which it stood, who fixed 409upon the spot as one likely to yield him the material which he required for building a stone fence hard by. The building was square; its sides faced the cardinal points. It had been originally, as was usually the case in a Mithraic temple, permeated by a small stream. Hodgson, who saw it as soon as it was laid bare, says, ‘The cave itself seems to have been a low contemptible hovel, dug out of a hill side, lined with dry walls, and covered with earth or straw.’ Though the building has been entirely removed, a small hollow is left which marks the spot where it stood. All the sculptured stones have happily been placed in the custody of the Society of Antiquaries, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Amongst them, besides the altars already given, and some which it has not been thought necessary here to engrave, is the curious stone shewn in the wood-cut. It represents Mithras, surrounded by the zodiac. The signs of cancer and libra are omitted. The zodiacal tablet assumes an egg-like form, probably to symbolize the principle of generation. The god holds a sword in his right hand, and a peculiar spiral 410object in his left. It more nearly resembles an ear of corn than the flame of a torch. We are reminded by it of the ornaments resembling pine apples, which are frequently found on the line of the Wall; and were probably connected with the worship of this deity. The example here figured, as well as the small altar which accompanies it, was found at Housesteads; both are now preserved at Chesters.

The accompanying wood-cut represents a subject which is supposed to be connected with the mysteries of Mithraic worship. The slab was found at Cilurnum, and is now at Alnwick Castle. Though not satisfied with Hodgson’s description of it, I am unable to supply a better. He says;—

The sculpture is in two compartments: that on the left seems to contain a lion, statant, raising the head of a naked and dead man: that on the right, a figure of Mithras seated on a bench, and having a flag in one hand, a wand in the other, and on its head the Persian tiara.(?) I would hazard a conjecture that the whole relates to the Mithraic rites called Leontica; for the lion, in the zodiac of the ancient heathens, 411stood for Mithras, or the sun, which threw its greatest heat upon the earth during its course through the constellation Leo.

Numerous as are the altars on the line of the Wall to the Persian god, only one has been found dedicated to Apollo, the Grecian representative of the luminary of day. It was discovered in the summer of 1850, lying near a spring in the vicinity of the Cawfield mile-castle, about midway between the Wall and the Vallum, and is now preserved in the collection of antiquities at Chesters. The following reading must be regarded as, in a great measure, conjectural; no doubt, however, can exist as to the deity to which it is dedicated.

It is believed that this is the only inscription to Apollo yet discovered in England, though one at least has been found in Scotland. The Roman soldiers in Britain were probably not much given to the study of the belles lettres, which were under the peculiar patronage of the god of the silver bow.

The next is an inscription of unusual importance.

412

A slab was found at Carvoran in 1816, and is now in the castle of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, which contains an exposition in iambic verse of the creed of a Roman tribune respecting the mother of the gods. Faber remarks, that Ceres, Cybele, Venus, the Syrian goddess Derceto, the Phœnician Astarte, and the Egyptian Isis, were all one and the same deity. The inscription, which is an unusually long one, is here arranged in lines of the length which the scansion requires—

413Cæcilius probably prepared this exposition of his faith on being admitted into the mysteries of Ceres. However unintelligible, we cannot but admire the humility and teachable disposition of the tribune.

A glance at some of the minor, and local deities must conclude our review of the gods of the Barrier.

The deities of Greece and Rome were without number. Every fountain and river, every hill and forest, had its tutelary deity; every product of earth, air, or sea, its guardian; every place its genius; every household its penates. The antiquities found on the Wall furnish us with numerous illustrations of this fact. The engraving represents an altar which was found at Birdoswald, and is now at Lanercost.

414Silvanus seems to have presided over woods and boundaries. Several altars have been erected to him along the line. Forests must at that time have covered a great portion of the country, and given shelter to beasts of chase worthy of the martial prowess of the occupants of the Isthmus.

A host of female forms, denominated nymphs, haunted mountain, valley, and stream.

When in the Iliad, the father of the gods calls together his council,

An interesting altar, dedicated to these deities, was found by the side of a spring overlooking the station of Habitancum. It is now in the garden of Spencer Trevelyan, esq., of Long Witton.

The inscription is roughly cut, but quite legible, no contraction is used in it, and no ligature is admitted, even in the case of diphthongs. The construction of the sentence is peculiar, and 415admits of two renderings. Taking nupta est to signify dedicated, a peculiar use of the word, suggested perhaps by its etymological relationship with the one which it governs, nymphis, the inscription will read—

A soldier, warned in a dream, directed the erection of this altar, which is dedicated by Fabius to the nymphs to whom worship is due.

The other method of rendering it is the following,—

A soldier, warned in a dream, directed her (eam supplied) who is married to Fabius to erect this altar to the nymphs to whom worship is due.

According to either interpretation the altar was erected to the sylphs of the fountain, in consequence of a dream. The lively imagination of the Roman has invested the humble spring where it originally stood with such an air of romance, as to render it a matter of regret that the altar does not still grace the spot.

The adjoining wood-cut represents a small altar found at Rutchester, Vindobala, and now in the Castle of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. The inscription reads—To the gods of the mountains, Julius Firminus, the decurion,^[141] erected this. Epona, to whom the next altar is dedicated, was the protectress of horses; images of her were to be seen in most stables. Juvenal’s dandy jockey swore by her alone. This 416altar was found at Carvoran, and is now in the High School of Edinburgh. The accompanying example is not the only instance of a toad being represented on an altar. This was found at Chesters, Cilurnum, where it is still preserved. Did the Romans stoop so low as to worship reptiles? If so, the superstitious practice has probably been derived from the east. Dr. Kitto remarks, ‘The importance attached to the frog, in some parts of Egypt, is shewn by its being embalmed, and honoured with sepulture in the tombs of Thebes. In the Egyptian mythology, the frog was an emblem of man in embryo.’

Many altars have been found on the line dedicated to gods unknown to Rome’s Pantheon, and supposed to have a purely local celebrity. The engraving exhibits one of a numerous class.^[142] It was discovered near Thirlwall Castle about 1757, in the course of the formation of the military road, and shortly after presented to the Society of Antiquaries. Vitres, or Viteres, or Veteres, is a god whose name is confined to the north of Britain. Hodgson remarks, that Vithris was a name of Odin, as we find in the death-song of Lodbroc—'I will approach the courts of Vithris, 417with the faltering voice of fear.' If Viteres and the Scandinavian Odin be identical, we are thus furnished with evidence of the early settlement of the Teutonic tribes in England. The altar given on page 395 is also dedicated to Viteres. The occurrence of the name of this god in a plural form, as in the annexed example, which was found at Condercum, and is now at Somerset-house, has suggested the idea, that Viteres is not the proper name of a god, but that diis veteribus—the ancient gods—is the inscription intended. Most probably, however, Viteres was the name of a local deity.

The next altar is also dedicated to a local goddess; at least it is not easy to give any more satisfactory account of the Dea Hamia. The altar was found near Thirlwall castle, and belongs to the Society of Antiquaries, London.

We now proceed to an important group of altars and sculptures, which, if not strictly local, are yet chiefly found in those regions of Europe which were swept by the Teutonic wave in its progress westward. They have been met with in England, the Netherlands, along the banks of the Rhine and other parts of Germany, and in France. These deities, when sculptured, are represented as triple, generally seated, clothed in long flowing drapery, and bearing in their laps baskets of 418fruit. A slab, of which a drawing has already been given (p. 140), is inscribed MATRIBUS CAMPESTRIBUS, to the mothers of the plains; it probably refers to the deities in question. An altar found in the same station, Condercum, and now in the vaults of Somerset-house, is inscribed LAMIIS TRIBUS, to the three Lamiæ. The wood-cut accurately represents it. In Rich’s companion to the Latin Dictionary, the Lamiæ are represented as ‘Vampires; believed to be malignant spirits of the female sex, who wandered about at night in the guise of old hags, sucking blood, and devouring the flesh of human beings. This superstition,’ continues the writer, ‘originated in Egypt.’ In corroboration of the Egyptian origin of this class of demons, it may be stated that small images, arranged in triplets, are of common occurrence among

the antiquities of Egypt. The cuts here introduced exhibit two groups of this class of idols, selected from a large number of similar sets, in the possession of his Grace the duke of Northumberland, at Alnwick Castle. Their resemblance to some of those found upon the line of the Wall is striking. The foreign origin of these mother-deities is 419further proved by their being denominated in inscriptions MATRES TRAMARINÆ, Transmarine Mothers. The altar here figured is an example of this kind; it was found at Habitancum, and is now preserved at Alnwick Castle. The inscription records, that Julius Victor dedicated it in discharge of a vow freely and deservedly to the Transmarine Mothers. This Victor, it appears by another inscription, was a tribune of the first cohort of the Vangiones, a Germanic tribe. On none of these altars are the deities distinguished by a proper name. This would seem to be in conformity with the superstitious feelings of the middle ages in England and Germany, where it was thought unlucky to call the fairies and elves by any other denominations than the respectful titles of ‘the ladies,’ or ‘the good people.’ Several sculptures representing, as is supposed, the mother-goddesses, have been found on the line of the Wall. One group, found at Housesteads, and now in the castle of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, is drawn (fig. 4) on Plate XI. When seen by Horsley, this slab had in the upper part of it two fishes and a sea-goat in relief. Two other sets got at the same place, are figured in the Britannia Romana. In one of them, the central or chief figure is represented as bound by the legs. The ancients, in order to prevent a deity, whose favour they coveted, taking his 420departure against their will, not unfrequently used the unwarrantable liberty of securing him by chains. At Netherby, there are three sculptures belonging to this class. One of them, shewn in the wood-cut, is in a perfect condition. The figures are standing, an ample covering envelopes their heads, and a short tunic scantily invests their bodies. Another group, here engraved, has met with the usual fate of Roman sculptures in the north of England—they have suffered decapitation; the ample folds of the garments by which they are clothed have happily not been disturbed, and the central or chief personage holds a basket of fruit. The third sculpture is of larger size and has suffered more extensive injury; the left hand figure of the group only remains; she is seated, and holds fruit in her lap. The Byzantine character of the drapery will 421be noticed. At Nether-hall another fragment of a group, procured from the neighbouring station, is preserved—the left hand figure has been broken off; the two remaining ladies wear the same cowl-like head-dress as the Netherby mothers; shewn on the former page. Mr. Thomas Wright, speaking of these mythic personages, says—

The ancient mythology of the Germanic race was not entirely eradicated by Christianity; and it is interesting to trace it as reflected in the popular superstitions of the present day. The reverence for the three goddesses who presided over the woods and fields, pre-arranged the fates of individuals, and dispensed the blessings of Providence to mankind, may thus be traced down to a comparatively late period, both in Germany and in England. They are sometimes regarded as the three Fates—the Norni of the north, the wælcyrian of the Anglo-Saxons (the weird sisters, transformed in Shakespeare into three witches), disposing of the fates of individuals, and dealing out death and life. But they are also found distributing rewards and punishments, giving wealth and prosperity, and conferring fruitfulness. They are the three fairies who are often introduced in the fairy legends of a later period, with these same characteristics.^[143]

After so long a companionship with the heathen relics found on the line of the Wall, the reader will naturally ask—Have no Christian remains been found?—Does no memorial record the name of Jehovah, the living God? A negative reply must 422be given to the inquiry. There is, however, abundant evidence to prove, that Christianity was extensively diffused through the world long before the Romans departed from Britain. Tacitus tells us, that in his day there was a great multitude of Christians at Rome itself. The younger Pliny, in the second century, addressing the emperor, complains that the heathen temples were almost deserted. Justin Martyr says, there is not a nation in which prayers and thanksgivings are not offered up in the name of the crucified Jesus; and Tertullian, the most ancient of the Latin fathers, appealing to the magistrates, says, ‘We are but of yesterday, yet we have filled every place, your cities, garrisons, and free towns, your camps, senate, and forum; we have left nothing empty but your temples.’ Britain early received the glad tidings. ‘The concurrent voice of antiquity,’ says Mr. Thackeray, ‘although it has not designated the individuals who were the immediate instruments of Providence in enlightening Britain, assigns the year 60 as about the period when the Christian religion was introduced into this island.’ At this time there were not fewer than 48,000 Roman soldiers, including their auxiliaries, in this country, some of whom must have been well acquainted with the name of Christ. In the army there would be some centurions like Cornelius, some deputies like Sergius Paulus, who, not content with knowing the truth themselves, endeavoured to communicate it to others, and yet these Christian soldiers have, along the line of the Wall, 423left no memorial of their faith. The God whom they served required not the erection of an altar of stone, or an offering of frankincense. Their ‘inscription’ was, a holy life, ‘seen and read of all men.’ Notwithstanding the example and teaching of such men, it is a lamentable fact, that heathenism continued to rear its head in Britain until near the close of the period of Roman occupation, as several of the altars found on the line of the Wall clearly testify.

Brand conceived that an altar discovered at Rutchester, and now in the museum at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, exhibited the Christian symbol. It may well be doubted whether the rude carving to which he refers, is any thing more than a partially obliterated letter. There are other letters, evidently of modern fabrication, carved on this altar.

Fas est ab hoste doceri. An obvious remark clothed in Horsley’s own language, and extracted from a work that is now scarce, will form a suitable conclusion to this section. Speaking of vows in sickness he says—

There is one thing in these pagan votive altars that may be a shame and reproach to a great many who call themselves Christians; and that is, the willingness and cheerfulness with which they paid, or pretended to pay, the vows they had made. Such as have any acquaintance with those things, know how commonly these letters V. S. L. M. or V. S. L. L. M., are added at the end of inscriptions that are on such altars, whereby they signified how willingly and cheerfully, as well as deservedly, they performed the vows they had made, viz., votum solvit libens merito, or votum solvit libens, lubens (or lætus) merito. Much more deservedly, and therefore more willingly and 424cheerfully, should the vows made to the Most High, to the true and living God, be paid or performed to him, and particularly the vows made in trouble.^[144]

SEPULCHRAL INSCRIPTIONS.

Extreme importance was attached by both Greeks and Romans to the due discharge of the rites of sepulture. Until earth had been three times sprinkled over the body of the departed, his spirit was conceived to be denied admission into the Elysian fields. The practice of burning the dead became common at Rome about the latter period of the republic. The inconvenience and expense of the process would necessarily restrict it to persons of some wealth. After the pile was consumed, the ashes of the deceased were gathered up by the nearest relative, and deposited in an urn. There are numerous instances in Britain of the Romans having buried their dead entire. Skeletons have been found in London, which Mr. Charles Roach Smith considers must have been deposited in the higher empire. As Christianity gained ground, the custom of burning the dead fell into disuse; the early Christians were unwilling to do needless violence to the dust of a fellow disciple, and resolved to discontinue the superstitious ceremonies which usually attended cremation.

Whether the body was previously reduced to 425ashes, or deposited in the ground unburnt, it was usual to raise a mound over the spot.

Sometimes, instead of a mound of earth, a monument of stone covered the place where the sepulchral urn was deposited. This was the case at Bremenium, as already described (p. 326). With the ashes or body of the deceased, it was usual to deposit a small brass coin to answer the demands of Charon. 'This custom of burying valuables and coins with the dead is by no means extinct; the humbler Irish will pawn their clothes to provide fresh pieces of money to throw into the coffins of their departed friends.'^[145] The Romans, as formerly observed, did not usually deposit either the unburnt bodies of the dead, or their ashes, within the walls of towns or stations. A curious exception to this practice has lately been noticed. In the month of October last (1850), a funereal urn was discovered within the station of Borcovicus, near the north-west corner. It was sunk in the earth, and was covered by an oblong flat stone, without inscription. The vase, which was of earthen-ware, and altogether devoid of ornament, was globular in its form, and of large dimensions. It measured two feet in diameter, and two feet in height. It contained ashes, amongst which was found a solitary silver coin of Hadrian. This urn is preserved at Chesters. On the slab covering 426the remains of the deceased person, the name and age were not unfrequently inscribed. The carving, which sometimes includes an effigy of the individual, is often very rude; the back of the stone is, for the most part, undressed. The inscriptions on these ‘frail memorials’ which in the mural region have come down to our times, and ‘implore the passing tribute of a sigh,’ almost uniformly commence |DII MANES.| with the letters D. M.—diis manibus. The shades or departed spirits are, probably, themselves intended in this address, though much confusion exists upon the subject in the works of the ancient writers. In the following lines, Ovid represents the manes as being objects of worship:—

Some of the ceremonies here referred to by the Latin poet, are still in use, as all know who have visited the cemetery of Père la Chaise, in Paris. On the sepulchral slab, death is rarely mentioned; but the number of years, months, and days, that the deceased lived, is recorded with great particularity. The altar, of which an engraving is here introduced, was found at Cilurnum, and is now in the Library of the Dean and Chapter 427at Durham. It bears the following inscription—

‘Tender souls!’ exclaims Hodgson, ‘your last act of piety to a beloved daughter has not been forgotten: the altar that bears the memorial of your affection still exists, though it has been banished from the custody of the ashes which were committed to its care.’ Though painful, it is yet pleasant to notice the heavings of natural affection in the martial bosom of a Roman soldier. This stone differs from most of the sepulchral monuments, in being an altar instead of a slab, and in not mentioning the age of the deceased. It has been remarked that the larger proportion of the tomb-stones of the mural region record the deaths of young persons. The climate of the north of England, particularly of the exposed district of the Barrier, must have told with fearful severity upon the constitutions of those who had been reared under the sunny skies of Italy and Spain.

428

The large slab which is here figured, was found at Carvoran, and is now in the castle of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. It reads—

429It is not unnatural that a soldier while bemoaning the loss of a beloved wife in a land of strangers, should so dwell upon her virtues as to conceive that hers was a faultless character. Gruter gives an inscription which nearly resembles this. It was erected by Marcus Aurelius Paullus—

To his incomparable wife, with whom he had lived twenty-seven years without having had a single squabble.

‘This couple,’ says Mr. Akerman, ‘must for ever throw into the shade all the candidates for the Dunmow flitch.’

At Chesterholm is a slab which, though suffering from exposure to the weather, is still distinct:—

To the divine Manes; Cornelius Victor ordered this to be erected over himself. He was a soldier twenty-six years, a citizen of Pannonia, and the very dutiful (P.P. pientissime) son of Saturninus. He lived fifty-five years and eleven days. I, his wife, saw his order executed.

The tomb-stone to a young physician has already been given, page 227.

The only other class of inscribed stones to which reference will now be made, is that of centurial 430stones. The centurions seem to have been in the habit of placing a common stone, inscribed with the name of their century—company or troop, in that section of the Wall which they had built. The letters are usually very rudely cut; sometimes they are enclosed in a border, as in the annexed example, which, probably found in the vicinity of Cilurnum, is now at Alnwick Castle.

COH[ORS] V

> (centuria) CAECILI[I]

PROCVLI

The fifth cohort.

The century of Cæcilius

Proculus.

More frequently, however, the stone is entirely unadorned, as in this example, which, along with the former, was removed from Walwick Chesters to Alnwick Castle. The letter C, reversed thus Ↄ, or more frequently an angular mark resembling the letter V, laid upon its side thus >, is the sign usually adopted for centuria, century. Two centurial stones are shewn in the wood-cut introduced in page 190. The upper one, that of Valerius Maximus, was described, a century ago, by Horsley, who found it near Haltwhistle-burn. Afterwards it was built up in a gable of the Cawfield farm-house, against which a coal-shed was formed. Here, though sadly begrimed, it was protected from further injury, until rescued by the present owner of 431the farm, and safely deposited in the museum of antiquities at Chesters.

COINS.

Next in importance to the inscribed stones found on the line of the Wall, the student of history will reckon the coins which the spade and plough of the husbandman turn up in considerable numbers in the mural region. In a rude state of society the commercial transactions of the residents of a district are almost entirely confined to an interchange of the commodities produced by each. A body of soldiery, however, liable to be removed from place to place, and compelled to expend their energies in unproductive industry, are necessarily obliged to resort to the use of money. It is chiefly in the stations where the Roman legions lodged, or on the roads which they traversed, that the imperial coin is found. These metallic pieces, bearing the insignia of Rome, thus become exceedingly important in tracking the march of Roman armies. As works of art, the design and execution of many of them are truly admirable. The copper coins of Hadrian are especially worthy of study. The custom which prevailed during the best periods of the empire, of rendering the circulating medium of the market-place the means of commemorating the leading events of the day, gives them increased value. Were all the other records of Roman story destroyed, its most stirring incidents might be recovered by a careful examination of the coins which the cabinets of the antiquary contain.

432Ample use has already been made of this source of information in the first Part of this work. Why is it that Britain neglects this means of rousing the spirit of her people, of communicating information, and of securing an almost imperishable memorial of her mighty acts? Had she recorded upon her coinage the events of the last half-century, she would have transmitted to posterity the memory of a series of warlike achievements and peaceful triumphs unparalleled in extent and unequalled in glory. As it is, our metallic currency has little value beyond its commercial worth, and generation after generation is compelled to contemplate, with what complacency they may, the same lady sitting immoveably upon the same enduring rock, and the same mounted knight making his interminable attempt to slay the same deathless dragon. The immense number of the coins found upon the line of the Wall, and the extension of the series from the earliest periods down to the time of Honorius, prove incontestibly the length of time that the Romans maintained their hold of this isthmus. The accidental loss of pieces of money will not, alone, account for the large quantity which has been found. In times of danger the possessors of treasure seem to have been in the habit of concealing it in the earth; the secret of their having done so must often have perished with them. In excavating that portion of the station of Cilurnum which was opened in 1843, not fewer than seventy Roman coins were found. In 1833, near the west gateway of Vindolana, three hundred small brass 433coins, mostly of Constantius and Mangentius, were found, not in a heap or vessel, but dispersed among the soil. The Rev. John Walton, who, about a century ago was vicar of Corbridge, made a considerable collection of Roman coins, by purchasing such as were turned up in the neighbouring station of Corchester. The following circumstance is related concerning him. A party of Jews having established in the neighbourhood a prussian-blue manufactory, felt disposed to enter the market with the vicar. Mr. Walton, unwilling to compete with them by offering a larger price, had the fields where the coins were found, strewed with imitations of the genuine pieces. These, on being picked up, were freely bought by the Jews, who, soon finding the trade a losing one, abandoned it altogether.

The station, notwithstanding such systematic gleaning, is not yet deprived of its treasures. Not long ago, a rustic eked out a livelihood by searching for its coins, and disposing of them to occasional customers. The other day a plough-boy being asked if he had found any lately, produced straight-way from his pocket not less than thirty, most of them, indeed, highly corroded.

The coinage of Rome seems to have continued in circulation in the north of England for a very short time after the departure of the Roman forces from Britain. Saxon money is found in Northumberland of a date coeval with the arrival of that people, but is never mingled with the Roman coinage. The coins of the Romans, on the other hand, are 434never accompanied by those of their successors. Within about forty years after the departure of the Romans, the circulation of the imperial coinage seems to have ceased. This circumstance proves incontestibly that a mighty political revolution had taken place in the interval. The present appearance of the stations corroborates the idea. The walls have been forcibly thrown down, the statues and other objects within them purposely mutilated, and the whole inclosure rendered, as far as possible unfit for human habitation.

To attempt a description of even the principal coins that can still be ascertained to have been procured from the district of the Wall, would be to compose a treatise upon numismatics. It will perhaps be sufficient to lay before the reader a brief account of the hoard which was discovered in 1837, in an ancient quarry near Thorngrafton. The coins, sixty-five in number, were contained in a small skiff-shaped receptacle with a circular handle. The vessel represented in the adjoining wood-cut is about six inches long; the lid has a hinge at one end, and fastens with a spring at the other. The coins are at present in the possession of the brother of the quarryman who discovered them, and he holds them with such tenacity, that my artist was refused permission 435to see even the case which contained them, though he had taken a journey of thirty miles for the purpose of drawing them. Mr. Fairless, of Hexham, was more fortunate, and obtained leave to take sealing-wax impressions of the coins, from which the wood-cuts have been prepared. I am indebted to Mr. Fairless for the description of the coins, which he took from the pieces themselves.

Obv. TI. CLAVD. CAESAR. AVG. GERM. P.M. TRIB.POT. P.P.

Rev. NERO CLAVD. CAES. DRVSVS. GERM. PRINC. IVVENT.

Obv. NERO CAESAR AVGVSTVS.

Rev. SALVS.

Obv. IMP. CAESAR VESPASIANVS AVG.

Rev. A Victory holding a garland over the head of a Roman soldier, and in the exergue, COS. VIII.

1. Obv. IMP. NERO CAESAR AVGVSTVS.

Rev. SALVS. Device same as in gold above.

2. Obv. IMP. SER. GALBA CAESAR AVG.

Rev. DIVA AVGVSTA.

436

3. Obv. IMP. SER. GALBA CAESAR AVG.

Rev. S.P.Q.R. OB. C.S. (Within a wreath.)

5. Obv. OTHO CAESAR AVG.

Rev. PONT. MAX.

6. Obv. IMP. CAESAR VESPASIANVS AVG.

Rev. IMP. XIX. A basket filled with corn or bread.

7. Obv. CAES. VESP. AVG. P.M. COS. III.

Rev. CONCORDIA AVGVSTI.

8. 9. 10. Obv. IMP. CAESAR VESPASIANVS AVG.

Rev. PON. MAX. TR.P. COS. VI.

11. Obv. IMP. CAES. VESP. AVG. CENS.

Rev. PONTIF. MAXIM.

12. Obv. DIVV. AVGVSTVS VESPASIANVS.

Rev. No inscription. A figure standing.

13. Obv. IMP. VESP. AVG. P. M. COS. VIII.

Rev. VES (figure) TA.

437

14. Obv. IMP. CAES. VESPASIANVS AVG.

Rev. COS. ITER.—(figure)—TR. POT.

15. Obv. Same as last.

Rev. COS.—(an eagle standing on cippus)—VII.

16. Obv. Inscription same as last.

Rev. Reversed goats’ heads, bearing a shield.

17. Obv. Inscription same as last.

Rev. COS. ITER. TR. POT.

18. Obv. Inscription same as last.

Rev. GENIVM—(figure)—P.R.

19. Obv. IMP. CAES. DOMITIANVS AVG. P.M.

Rev. TR. POT. II. COS. VIIII. DES. X. P.P.

20. 21. Obv. Same as last.

Rev. IMP. XXI. COS. XVI. CENS.P. P.P.

22. 23. Obv. CAESAR AVG. DOMITIANVS.

Rev. COS. IIII. Pegasus.

438

24. Obv. CAES. DOMIT. AVG. GERM. P.M. T.R.P.

Rev. IMP. XIIII. COS. XIII. CENS. P. P. P.

25. Rev. IMP. XXII. COS. XVI. CENS.P. P. P.

26. Obv. IMP. CAES. DOMITIANVS AVG. P. M

Rev. TR. POT. II. COS. VIIII. DES. XII.

27. Obv. CAES. AVG. DOMIT. COS. III.

Rev. PRINCEPS IVVENTVT.

28. Obv. IMP. NERVA. CAES. AVG. P.M. TR.P. COS. III. P.R.

Rev. FORTVNA P.R.

29. Obv. IMP. CAES. NERVA. TRAIAN. AVG. GERM.

Rev. PONT. MAX. TR. POT. COS. II.

30.31. Obv. IMP. CAES. NERVA TRAIAN. AVG.

Rev. P.M. TR.P. COS. VI. P.P. S.P.Q.R.