PART VI.—MISCELLANEOUS ANTIQUITIES FOUND ON THE 393

LINE OF THE WALL.

133. Initial M, bronze ornament, an Eagle, found at 393

MAGNA

134. Altar, DEO VETRI 395

135. Large Altar to Jupiter 397

136. Altar, GENIO LOCI, etc. 399

137. Altar, DEO COCIDIO 401

138. Altar, DEO BELATUCADRO 401

139. Altar to Minerva 402

140. Altar to Fortune 403

141. Altar to Mithras 404

142. Altar to the Sun 405

143. Attendant of Mithras 406

144. Altar to Mithras 407

145. Zodiacal Tablet, BORCOVICUS 409

146. Pine-apple Ornament, etc., CILURNUM 410

147. Presumed Mithraic Sculpture, CILURNUM 410

148. Altar to Apollo, Cawfield mile-castle 411

149. Inscription to the Syrian Goddess, MAGNA 412

150. Altar to Silvanus, AMBOGLANNA 413

151. Altar to the Nymphs, HABITANCUM 414

152. Altar to the Gods of the Mountains, VINDOBALA 415

153. Altar to Epona, MAGNA 415

154. Altar, sculptured with a Toad, CILURNUM 416

155. Altar to Viteres, Thirlwall-castle 416

156. Altar to Viteres, CONDERCUM 417

157. Altar to the Dea Hamia, Thirlwall-castle 417

158. Altar to the Three Lamiæ, CONDERCUM 418

159-60. Egyptian Idols 418

161. Altar to the Transmarine Mothers, HABITANCUM 419

162. Sculpture to the Deæ Matres, at Netherby 420

163. Sculpture to the Deæ Matres, at Netherby 420

164. Sculpture to the Deæ Matres, at Netherby 420

165. Sculpture to the Deæ Matres, at Nether-hall 421

166. Sepulchral Altar to the Manes of Fabia Honorata, 426

CILURNUM

167. Sepulchral Slab to the Manes of Aurelia Faia, 428

MAGNA

168. Sepulchral Slab to the Memory of Cornelius Victor, 429

VINDOLANA

169. Centurial Stone, COH. V. CÆCILII PROCULI, CILURNUM 430

170. Centurial Stone, CILURNUM 430

171. Vessel, in which the Thorngrafton Coins were found 434

172-224. The Thorngrafton Coins, imperial, consular, and 435-441

others

225. Samian Ware, from Wallsend and Lanchester _facing_

445

226. Bronze Vessels _facing_ 445

227. Iron Pot, Bronze Vessel, Tongs, etc. _facing_

445

228. Soles of Sandals, etc. _facing_ 445

229. Tail piece—ROMÆ ÆTERNÆ FORTUNÆ REDUCI 450

-----

Footnote 1:

The Plan represents the position of each stone now remaining in the

river. It is the result of a series of observations made during the

summer of 1850, by Mr. Robert Elliot, of Wall. Most of the stones have

luis-holes.

-----

------------------------------------------------------------------------

_PLATE I_

[Illustration:

_A. Reid, Sc 117, Pilgrim S^t. Newcastle._

~Plan~

_OF THE COURSE OF THE_

ROMAN WALL

_FROM THE_

TYNE TO THE SOLWAY.

]

------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Illustration]

~The Roman Barrier of the

Lower Isthmus.~

PART I.

AN EPITOME OF THE HISTORY OF ROMAN OCCUPATION IN BRITAIN.

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 to 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.

[Sidenote: EARLIEST NOTICES OF THE BRITISH ISLES.]

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, for 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'—

Intactus aut Britannus ut descenderet

Sacra catenatus via.

and Propertius, in the same spirit, describes it as ‘unconquered,’

_invictus_. There is, therefore, little exaggeration in the lines of

Shakspere—

... A kind of conquest

Cæsar made here; but made not here his brag

Of, came, and saw, and overcame: with shame

(The first that ever touched him) he was carried

From off our coast, twice beaten; and his shipping

(Poor ignorant baubles!) on our terrible seas,

Like egg-shells moved upon their surges, cracked

As easily 'gainst our rocks.

[Sidenote: PLAUTIUS AND CLAUDIUS VISIT BRITAIN.]

During the reigns of Augustus, Tiberius, and Caligula, Britain was

unmolested by foreign invasion.

At 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.

[Illustration]

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 BRITANN_is_—Over the Britons. This is the first occasion on

which allusion is made to Britain, on the coinage of Rome.

[Sidenote: ITS PARTIAL SUBJUGATION. BOADICEA.]

On 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.

During 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.

[Illustration]

[Sidenote: VESPASIAN ASSUMES THE PURPLE.]

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 in 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.

[Sidenote: HIS PROPRÆTORS SUBJUGATE THE ISLAND.]

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.

[Sidenote: THE OPERATIONS OF AGRICOLA.]

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 and 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 incursions 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 garrisons 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.

[Sidenote: AGRICOLA IS RECALLED.]

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.

[Sidenote: HADRIAN ARRIVES IN BRITAIN.]

In 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]

[Illustration]

[Sidenote: THE BARRIER OF THE UPPER ISTHMUS.]

The 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]

[Illustration]

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. Graham’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.

[Sidenote: DECLINE OF THE ROMAN POWER.]

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.

[Sidenote: THE BRITONS PREVAIL.]

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 Roman 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 presently 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.

[Sidenote: THE ARRIVAL OF SEVERUS.]

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.

Herodian 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.

[Sidenote: THE OPERATIONS OF SEVERUS.]

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 to 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.

[Sidenote: THE NARRATIVE OF DION CASSIUS.]

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, entered 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:

.... Die the race!

May none escape us! neither he who flies,

Nor even the infant in the mother’s womb

Unconscious.

[Sidenote: THE DEATH OF SEVERUS.]

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.

[Sidenote: THE RECORDS OF HIS VICTORIES.]

[Illustration]

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?

COMALA. 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.

[Sidenote: BRITAIN REVOLTS.]

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.

[Sidenote: CARAUSIUS ATTAINS THE SOVEREIGNTY.]

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 ravages 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 dearest friend. For about three years the assassin held, though with

a less firm grasp, the power formerly possessed by his victim.

[Illustration]

[Sidenote: THE SUCCESSES OF CARAUSIUS.]

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!"

[Sidenote: BRITAIN UNDER DIOCLETIAN AND SUCCESSORS.]

It 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 _Chi_ 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]

[Illustration]

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.

[Sidenote: BRITAIN OVER-RUN BY THE PICTS.]

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 a bloody revenge upon

the Britons for having supported their countryman: meanwhile the Picts

and Scots harassed them, on the north, with redoubled fury.

[Sidenote: THEODOSIUS REPAIRS THE WALL.]

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.

[Sidenote: THE ISLAND DRAINED OF ITS YOUTH.]

In 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 minister 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.

[Sidenote: BRITAIN BECOMES INDEPENDENT.]

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—

[Sidenote: THE NARRATIVE OF GILDAS.]

The Britons, impatient at the assaults of their enemies, send

ambassadors to Rome, entreating, in piteous terms, the assistance 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, they,

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.

[Sidenote: THE DISTRESSES OF THE BRITONS.]

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.

The 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

describe, as existing in their day, that which was not to be for

centuries.

[Sidenote: THE BRITONS SUPINE IN YIELDING TO THE PICTS.]

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.

[Sidenote: THE BRITONS HAD BREATHING-TIME.]

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, and 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?

[Sidenote: 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 less 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

power of command, which characterized the Teutonic tribes; hence they

would fall before them in any contest which required sustained exertion.

[Sidenote: 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.’

[Sidenote: ANTAGONISM OF THE RACES.]

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, they 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!

[Sidenote: THE ROMAN ESTIMATION OF BRITAIN.]

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—

Et penitus toto divisos orbe Britannos.

_Virg. Ec._ I.

Serves iturum Cæsarem in ultimos

Orbis Britannos.

_Hor. Od._ I. 35.

Visam Britannos, hospitibus feros.

_Hor. Od._ III. 4.

Te belluosus qui remotis

Obstrepit oceanus Britannis.

_Hor. Od._ IV. 14.

—and yet Britain, which, according to these authorities, scarcely 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

Coming events cast their shadows before.

[Sidenote: ROME FORESHADOWS BRITAIN’S DESTINY.]

It seems as though there was an affinity between England and Earth’s

rulers—and that thus early it was pointed 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]

[Sidenote: CAUSE OF THE ROMAN OCCUPATION.]

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 question ‘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 an

energetic blow, found it necessary to maintain the show at least of

conquest and of triumph.

[Sidenote: WEALTH OF ANCIENT BRITAIN.]

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 ancient 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—

The Roman taught thy stubborn knee to bow,

Though twice a Cæsar could not bend it now.

[Sidenote: THE FATE OF ROME.]

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—

. . . . . Her haughty carcass spread,

Still awes in ruins, and commands when dead.

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 from that which Virgil intended, the words in his

third Georgic are peculiarly striking—

Vel scena ut versis discedat frontibus, utque

Purpurea intexti tollant aulæa Britanni.

Or see how on the stage the shifting scenes

In order pass, and pictured Britons rise

Out of the earth, and raise the purple curtain.

[Sidenote: PROSPECTIVE FATE OF BRITAIN.]

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?

... Valet ima summis

Mutare, et insignem attenuat Deus

Obscura promens.

The power that did create, can change the scene

Of things; make mean of great, and great of mean.

[Sidenote: LESSON INCULCATED.]

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 Britain 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.'

[Illustration: Base of Column at BORCOVICUS.]

-----

Footnote 2:

This coin is in the possession of Mr. Bell, of the Nook, Irthington,

to whose cabinet of coins, chiefly procured from the line of the wall,

the author has kindly been allowed free access.

Footnote 3:

This interesting coin is thus described by

Akerman:—_OBVERSE_—HADRIANUS · AVG_ustus_, CO_nsul_ III. [tertium]

P_ater_ P_atriæ_. Laureated bust of Hadrian, with the chlamys buckled

over his right shoulder. _REVERSE_—ADVENTVS AVG_usti_ BRITANNIAE. In

the exergue—S_enatus_ C_onsulto_. An altar, with the fire kindled,

placed between the emperor in his toga, who holds a patera, and a

female figure, a victim lying at her feet.

Footnote 4:

Numismatists differ as to the appropriation of the female. The same

figure in other coins of this reign being used to personify Rome, it

probably does so in this case; and represents the secure possession

obtained by the Eternal City, of Albion’s rocky shore. However this

may be, the same figure has been placed by many successive generations

of mint-masters on the reverse of the copper coinage of Great Britain.

Britain in this still bows to Rome!

Footnote 5:

The Roman Eagle.

Footnote 6:

Walsh on Coins.

Footnote 7:

In the collection of Geo. Rippon, Esq., North Shields.

Footnote 8:

Historians differ as to the degree of credibility due to this author.

Mr. Wright, in his Biographia Britannica Literaria, says that his is

‘a name of very doubtful authority.’ Sharon Turner thinks that ‘as far

as he can be supported, and made intelligible, by others, he is an

acceptable companion, but that he cannot be trusted alone;’ and Mr.

Stevenson, in the preface to his edition of the original Latin of

Gildas, writes ‘We are unable to speak with certainty as to his

parentage, his country, or even his name, the period when he lived, or

the works of which he was the author.’ Thus much, however, is certain,

that he lived before the time of Bede, and is quoted by him.

Footnote 9:

This point is well put by Sir Francis Palgrave, in his History of the

Anglo-Saxons. ‘The walls of the cities fortified by the Romans were

yet strong and firm. The tactics of the legions were not forgotten.

Bright armour was piled in the storehouses, and the serried line of

spears might have been presented to the half-naked Scots and Picts,

who could never have prevailed against their opponents.’

Footnote 10:

The supposition is not destitute of support. The migratory tendencies

of the Gothic tribes have always been conspicuous. From the earliest

periods of our history, the inhabitants of Jutland and its

neighbouring provinces were in the habit of making descents upon the

coasts of Britain. After the departure of the Romans, their attempts

were probably more bold and frequent, but they did not then, for the

first time, commence. The Norfolk and Suffolk coast was, from its

position, peculiarly exposed to these incursions, and as early as the

close of the third century, was placed under the command of a military

Count called _Comes litoris Saxonici_. This district was called ‘the

Saxon shore,’ as Sir Francis Palgrave observes, not merely because it

was open to the incursion of the Saxons, but, most probably, because

they had succeeded in fixing themselves in some portion of it. The

weak hold which the Romans, at all times, had of Scotland, would

render it an easier prey than England to the Franks and Saxons.

Tacitus informs us, that the ruddy hair and lusty limbs of the

Caledonians indicate a Germanic extraction. Richard of Cirencester

tells us, that a little before the coming of Severus, the Picts landed

in Scotland; from which we are at least entitled to infer, that the

Picts were not the original inhabitants of North Britain; and probably

the statement is substantially correct, inasmuch as large

reinforcements landed in Scotland at this period, as previously

observed. The Scots—the other branch of the people classed under the

general term Caledonians—are confessedly of Irish origin. When St.

Columba, whose mother tongue was Irish Gaelic, preached to the Picts,

he used an interpreter. Fordun, the Father of Scottish History, tells

us, ‘The manners of the Scots are various as to their languages; for

they use two tongues, the Scottish and the Teutonic. The last is

spoken by those on the sea-coasts and in the low countries, while the

Scottish is the speech of the mountaineers and the remote islanders.’

The proper Scots, Camden describes as those commonly called

Highlandmen; ‘for the rest,’ he adds, ‘more civilized, and inhabiting

the eastern part, though comprehended under the name of Scots, are the

farthest in the world from being Scots, but are of the same German

origin with us English.’ Dr. Jamieson, whose researches in philology

are well known, is decidedly of opinion that the Picts and Saxons had

a common origin. Upon what other theory, he argues, can the prevalence

of the Saxon tongue in the Lowlands of Scotland be accounted for?

William the Conqueror could not change the language of South

Britain—was it likely that a few Saxon fugitives at the Scottish court

could supplant that of their benefactors?

The theory of the Germanic origin of the Picts removes another

difficulty. How is the disappearance of the Celtic tongue from England

to be accounted for? The Saxons, on seizing the soil, would not

exterminate the inhabitants, but retain them as bondsmen. Had the

majority of the occupants of England been the original Britons or

Romanized Celts, we should have found in our daily speech, and in the

names of our towns and villages, a large intermixture of Gaelic and

Latin; but such is not the case. Grant that the Picts were a branch of

the great Gothic family—and that successive waves of them had, long

before the time of Cerdic, poured from the lowlands of Scotland over

the plains of England, and the almost entire extermination of the

ancient British is easily accounted for.

If the theory here advocated, cannot be sustained, it must at least be

allowed, that the population of North Britain was largely leavened

with individuals of the Saxon race. These strangers would doubtless

obtain that supremacy over the natives which the Franks did in Gaul;

so that, even upon this limited view of the question, the influence of

the Germanic race in fixing the destinies of Britain, at this critical

period, is apparent.

Footnote 11:

The whole of these are accurately figured and described in the

"Materials for the History of Britain," published by the government.

It is to be hoped that a work so auspiciously begun will not be

strangled in its birth, by a false application of the principles of

national economy.

Footnote 12:

Whitaker’s History of Manchester, i. 228.

Footnote 13:

"Politically speaking, Rome is now the city of the dead."

_Times_, March 18th, 1850.

-----

------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Illustration]

~The Roman Barrier of the

Lower Isthmus.~

PART II.

A GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE LINE OF THE WALL.

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, must be added, the Thirl Wall, the Kepe Wall, and

that by which it is best known at present, the ROMAN WALL.

[Sidenote: GENERAL VIEW OF THE WORKS.]

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

valley. 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._

[Illustration: PLAN OF THE BARRIER BETWEEN CILURNUM AND MAGNA AFTER

HORSLEY.]

[Illustration:

_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.

[Sidenote: GENERAL VIEW OF THE WORKS.]

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.

[Sidenote: THE COURSE OF THE WALL.]

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, in 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 constrained 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.

[Sidenote: THE HEIGHT OF THE 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 an 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.

[Sidenote: THE WIDTH OF THE WALL.]

Camden, 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 face 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.

[Sidenote: THE NORTH FOSSE.]

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.

No 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 paragraph

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]

[Illustration: The works near the 18th mile-stone West of Newcastle.]

[Illustration: The works half a mile west of Carraw.]

[Sidenote: THE VALLUM.]

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.

The 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]

[Sidenote: USE OF THE VALLUM.]

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

stone 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.

[Sidenote: PECULIAR CONSTRUCTION OF THE VALLUM.]

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 Vallum 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—

An iron race, ...

Foes to the gentler genius of the plain.

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.

Those portions of the great barrier which yet await our consideration,

are the STATIONS, the MILE-CASTLES, the TURRETS, and the ROADS.

[Sidenote: THE STATIONS.]

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 stand upon ground which slopes to the south, and are

naturally defended upon one side at least.

[Sidenote: THE PLACE OF THE STATIONS.]

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.

[Sidenote: THE FERTILITY OF THE STATIONS.]

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, lave 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 to be more valuable for farm purposes, than the recent

produce of the fold-yard, and is used as such.

[Sidenote: THE NAMES OF THE STATIONS.]

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.

[Sidenote: THE STATIONS ACCORDING TO THE NOTITIA.]

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 were 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.

[Sidenote: THE CORROBORATION OF LETTERED STONES.]

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 _per 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.

[Illustration]

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 stone, and bears at the end of the

third and the beginning of the fourth lines the words—

· · · · · · ALAE

II ASTVR[UM]· · · ·

[Sidenote: CILURNUM APPROPRIATED.]

[Illustration]

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—

FORTVNAE

COH I BATAVOR[UM]

CVI PRÆEST

MELACCINIVS

MARCELLUS PRÆ[FECTUS]

To Fortune

The first cohort of the Batavians

Commanded by

Melaccinius

Marcellus, Prefect.

[Illustration]

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

[Sidenote: BORCOVICUS ASCERTAINED.]

Moving 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.

I[OVI] O[PTIMO] M[AXIMO]

ET NVMINIBUS

AVG[USTI] COH[ORS] I TV-

NGRORVM

MIL[LIARIA] CVI PRÆE-

ST Q[UINTUS] VERIVS

SVPERSTIS

PRÆEFECTVS

To Jupiter, the greatest and best,

And the Deities

Of Augustus; the first cohort of the

Tungri,

A milliary one,[32] commanded by

Quintus Verius

Superstis,

Prefect.

The correspondence between the Notitia and the sculptures derived from

this station, is again too striking to admit a doubt, that the

Housesteads of the modern shepherd is the BORCOVICUS of the Roman hosts.

[Sidenote: THE FATE OF LETTERED STONES.]

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] [Sidenote: 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

ascertained 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 from 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.

[Sidenote: THE EXTINCTION OF ROMAN NAMES.]

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,

And, like this unsubstantial pageant faded,

Leave not a rack behind.

[Sidenote: THE CASTELLA OR MILE-CASTLES.]

In 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 outer 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.

[Sidenote: THE TURRETS OR WATCH TOWERS.]

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.

[Sidenote: THE MILITARY WAY.]

But 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:—

Newcastle, November 10th, 1745, 7 o’clock.

GENTLEMEN,

I have just now the favour of your letter by express, with an account

of the Rebels’ approach near your city. 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,

And am, Gentlemen, your

Most obedient humble servant,

GEORGE WADE.[35]

[Sidenote: THE IMPORTANCE OF MILITARY ROADS.]

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 Rome 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 of

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.

[Sidenote: MILITARY ROADS.]

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, the 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.

[Sidenote: THE MILITARY WAY.]

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.

[Sidenote: CONSTRUCTION OF THE ROAD.]

THE 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 in 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]

[Sidenote: ADDITIONAL ROAD.]

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.

[Sidenote: SPEAKING TUBES IN THE WALL.]

If tradition is to be credited, the Romans were not satisfied with roads

as a means of rapidly communicating information; 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]

[Sidenote: THE THEORY PROBABLY INCORRECT.]