I met with this story in my own rambles. Such myths will not long
outlive the introduction of the electric telegraph. ‘There are no old
people upon the Wall now,’ as a man of three-score lately said to me,
when I was endeavouring to persuade him to gather up from his still more
ancient neighbour the fire-side lore of by-gone times.
It is curious to observe that a similar statement is made respecting the
BARRIER of the UPPER ISTHMUS. A correspondent writes—
One old man told me, that when he was young, on digging through one of
the wall stations—at Upper Croy—they came upon stone pipes, laid
horizontally in the soil, and joined at the ends like those for water.
From the elevation of the place, it is quite obvious that they could
not be water conduits. This old person said that the idea he had heard
‘learned people’ give of these pipes, was, that they were for speaking
through. That the pipes were found, and made of stone, not clay, is
certain.
Pipes of lead are occasionally met with in the ruins of the stations,
and pipes of burnt clay are of very frequent occurrence. To this
circumstance the tradition probably owes its rise. They are not,
however, found in the Wall, and when placed in the stations, seem to
have served a different purpose. One use to which the tile-tubes have
been put has been the transmission of warm air throughout an apartment.
The walls of one of the chambers of the ‘baths’ at HUNNUM were lined
with them. Others may have been used, especially in high situations, for
collecting rain-water from the roofs of the dwellings, and conveying it
to cisterns. Besides, the inutility of the contrivance militates against
the probability of its adoption: the sentinels at their posts could
easily transmit hasty intelligence from end to end, by the voice or by
horns, without pipes imbedded in the Wall, which, even if constructed,
would probably be useless for such a purpose.
This traditionary fiction is probably of more than mediæval antiquity.
Xiphiline, in his life of Severus, tells some such marvellous tale about
the towers of Byzantium.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: THE MASONRY OF THE WALL.]
A description of the MASONRY of the erections which have passed in
review before us will conclude this general examination of the Barrier.
The following extract of a letter with which I have been favoured by
Robert Rawlinson, esq., Inspector of the Board of Health, will form an
excellent introduction to the subject.
I have several times thought over the subject of the Roman Wall since
I had the pleasure of seeing you. The Romans constructed works with
many different kinds of masonry; no doubt all chosen to suit the
material used, the place, and the skill of the builders. In Rome, and
Italy generally, works of great magnificence were constructed, when
the art displayed was equal to the grandeur of the design. Such a work
was the famed Arch of Trajan, the Arch of Septimius Severus, the Arch
of Constantine, the Baths of Diocletian, and others. In these works,
construction of the highest order was used, and the sculptor emulated
the architect. The lettered altars and sculptured figures found on the
line of ‘the Wall’ must not be compared with the best workmanship of
Rome.
[Sidenote: NATIVE LABOURERS EMPLOYED.]
I am quite satisfied, in my own mind, that the general character of
the work on the Wall was adapted to suit the time, the country, and
more especially, the labourers employed on the work. The Wall, being a
work of defence, had to be constructed in haste; the country was wild,
rude, and without roads, excepting such as the Romans caused to be
made. This ‘caused to be made’ is I think, the key to the character of
the masonry chosen.... The form of construction is the easiest and
strongest which rude, uneducated men could accomplish; and, with good
mortar, such as the Romans knew so well how to make, is the kind of
work calculated to endure for centuries, as we find it has done....
The works of the Wall I consider to have been chiefly constructed by
the natives, under the armed superintendence and teaching of the
soldier. The Roman knew no right but that of the conqueror; his object
was conquest for use; use of the land, and the labour that was upon
it. The Roman soldier was a fighting animal, and was so far civilized
as to know how to make the comparative savage do his work upon his
plan, and this was shaped to suit the labour used. Consider the length
of the Wall, and the extent of the works upon it, and it will be seen
that for the army to have constructed it, would have been to have kept
them constantly working instead of watching and fighting.
Some years ago I had a large quantity of heavy masonry to construct on
one of the railways. It was not unlike the Roman Wall in character. I
found a difficulty in dealing with the regularly educated mason, and
bought several scores of trowels and hammers; these I placed in the
hands of uneducated labourers, set them to work under the
superintendence of educated foremen, looking after the whole myself.
This is a case similar to the one I have imagined for the great Wall;
only the work my labourers performed had more difficulties about it
than the Wall, and yet, these uneducated men performed the work
perfectly.[40]
Think of the Roman bringing in at the sword’s point, hundreds of
captive natives, placing for the first time tools in their hands,
indicating the work to be done, and compelling the trembling slaves to
do it![41]
The stones employed in building the Wall and stations were very
carefully selected. When good stones were to be had near at hand, they
were taken; but those of inferior quality were never used to avoid the
labour of bringing better from a distance. In some parts of the line, in
Cumberland especially, the stone must have been brought from quarries
seven or eight miles off. A quartzose grit was generally selected not
only on account of its hardness, but because its rough surface gave it a
firmer adhesion to the mortar. The stone which has been used in the
works at Wallsend is of a much coarser grit than any that is found in
the neighbourhood.
[Sidenote: THE QUARRIES USED.]
The quarries from which the stone has been procured can in many
instances be precisely ascertained. At Fallowfield, not far from
CILURNUM, is an ancient quarry on the face of which the words,
[P]ETRA FLAVI CARANTINI,
the rock of Flavius Carantinus—are still to be traced. The vignette at
the close of this part represents its present condition. On opening out,
in the year 1837, some old quarries on the high, brown hill of Borcum,
near Thorngrafton, a small copper vessel was found, containing a large
number of coins, all of the upper empire. Another Roman quarry existed
on Haltwhistle Fell. In a paper recently read before the Society of
Antiquaries of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Mr. John Clayton says—
In riding over Haltwhistle Fell, before its enclosure, in the summer
of 1844, I came upon some workmen employed in re-opening an old
quarry. They told me they had met with a ‘written stone’; I
dismounted, and climbed the face of the rock, when I found inscribed
in letters clear and fresh
LEG. VI. V.
From its position on a wide waste, far removed from any abode, but in
the immediate vicinity of the Roman Wall, this quarry could not
possibly have been used for any other purpose than to supply stones
for the building of the Wall; and from the freshness of the letters of
the inscription, it must have been filled up with earth soon after the
soldiers ceased to use it. The workmen promised to spare the ‘written
rock,’ but the next time I rode that way it had been shivered to
atoms.
[Illustration:
Drawn & Lithographed by John Storey
WRITTEN ROCK ON THE RIVER GELT.
]
[Sidenote: INSCRIPTIONS ON THE QUARRIES.]
In Cumberland, there are several Roman inscriptions on the face of the
ancient quarries. About a mile west of Birdoswald, and little more than
a quarter of a mile south of the road, is Coome Crag, which, besides
other markings, presents the following inscription—
SE · · RVS
AI · · · ·
· · · VSTUS
This perhaps may be read—SEVERUS ALEXANDER AUGUSTUS. The most remarkable
of this class of Antiquities, however, is the ‘Written Rock of the
Gelt,’ near Brampton. The lithograph on the opposite page is a very
accurate representation of this curious relic of antiquity. As the scar
is nearly perpendicular, and the river Gelt washes its base, it is not
without some difficulty that the inquiring visitor can give it a
satisfactory examination; it will, however, well reward his exertions,
and the beauty of the surrounding scenery will give additional zest to
the ramble. [Sidenote: INSCRIPTIONS ON THE QUARRIES.]The inscribed part
of the rock is fully fifty feet above the water. The letters seem to
have been made by connecting with a chisel or pick a [Illustration:
‘Letters] number of holes drilled in the rock in the required order; at
all events, the terminations of the strokes have been thus formed. Some
doubt exists as to the precise reading of the inscription, but the
general purport of it is this:—The vexillarii of the second legion under
an optio called Agricola, were, in the consulship of Flavius Aper and
Albinus Maximus (A.D. 207), employed to hew stone here for the
Romans.[42] It is piteous, when surveying so interesting a relic of
antiquity, and one which has outlived the accidents of upwards of
sixteen centuries, to observe that it has been approached by men who
cannot sympathize with the mighty dead, and who care not what violence
they do to the feelings of those who can. To the defacement, as I
believe, of some portion of the inscription, the names of F. GRAHAM, W.
HARDCASTLE, T. THOMPSON, W. NELSON, have been carved upon the rock.
Notoriety is easily earned, but it is not always of an enviable
character.
[Illustration: Form of Wall-Stone]
[Sidenote: CHARACTER OF THE FACING-STONES.]
The exterior masonry of the Wall consists, on both sides, of carefully
squared free-stone blocks[43]; the interior, of rubble of any
description firmly imbedded in mortar. The character of the
facing-stones is peculiar, yet pretty uniform. They are eight or nine
inches thick, and ten or eleven broad; their length, which is perhaps
their characteristic feature, not unfrequently amounts to twenty inches.
The part of the stone exposed to the weather is cut across ‘the bait,’
so as to avoid its scaling off by the lines of stratification; the stone
tapers towards the end which is set into the Wall, and has a form nearly
resembling that of a wedge. The cut shews its usual form. Owing to the
extent to which the stones are set into the Wall, the necessity of
bonding tiles—so characteristic of Roman masonry in the south of
England—is altogether superseded. There does not appear to have been a
single tile used in any part of the Wall. Stones of the shape and size
which have now been described were just those which could be most easily
wrought in the quarry, most conveniently carried on the backs of the
poor enslaved Britons to the Wall, and most easily fitted into their
bed. The uniformity in their appearance is such as to enable us, after a
little practice, at once to recognize them in the churches, castles,
farm-buildings, and fences of the district through which the Wall runs.
[Illustration: Junction of the west wall of Birdoswald with the Wall]
[Sidenote: MASONRY OF THE STATIONS.]
In Cumberland, the stones are rather larger than in the eastern portion
of the line, a thickness of twelve inches not being uncommon, with a
corresponding breadth. The blocks in the north face of the Wall, also,
are not unfrequently larger than those in the south. The stones of which
the walls of the stations are composed are smaller than those of the
main Wall. Their average thickness is from five to seven inches, and
their breadth from six to eight. The woodcut which is here introduced,
depicts the junction of the west wall of the station of AMBOGLANNA with
the Wall, and well displays the different character of the stones used
in two erections. As already observed, the stations appear to have been
built before the Wall, and as the necessity of the case required that
they should be run up as quickly as possible, a smaller class of stone
was allowed to pass muster here than was used in the Wall. The
workmanship also is of inferior quality.
[Sidenote: THE TOOLING OF THE STONES.]
[Illustration: diamond broaching]
The front of the stones, both of the Wall and stations, is roughly
‘scabbled’ with the pick. In some parts of the line, this tooling takes
a definite form; when this is the case, the marking called the diamond
broaching is most common. Sometimes the [Illustration: waved lines]
stone is scored with waved lines, or with small squares, or with nearly
upright lines. The woodcuts illustrative of the masonry at Chester Holm,
and of the Crypt at Hexham, to be introduced along with [Illustration:
upright lines] the account of these places, will exemplify some of these
kinds of broaching. It was not until I had become tolerably familiar
with the Wall, that my attention was called to this peculiar kind of
tooling. A visit to HABITANCUM and BREMENIUM, where the stones are
nearly all broached in the diamond fashion, induced me to inspect the
Wall more narrowly in this respect. I have since frequently detected it,
especially in Cumberland. It is rare in the Northumbrian portion. Is
this broaching peculiar to a particular legion, or to a certain period?
The station of HABITANCUM is understood to have been rebuilt by
Caracalla—can the other stations, and those parts of the Wall where this
kind of marking appears, have also undergone repair at the same time, or
is it the work of some particular legion? The same kind of broaching may
be noticed in some of the stones at Chester, the DEVA ICENORUM of the
Romans, which was for a long time the head quarters of the 20th legion.
Though unable to resolve the doubt, I think that the prosecution of the
inquiry may lead to some worthy result.
[Sidenote: MASONS' MARKS.]
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
Cuttings resembling masons’ marks occasionally occur. Sometimes they
consist of a single or double stroke; sometimes of a diagonal cross,
sometimes of a rectangular. The other marks which are here represented
are less frequently met with.[44]
[Illustration]
[Sidenote: ROMAN MORTAR.]
The tenacity of the mortar which was used, forms an important element in
the strength of the whole fabric. That which is in use now is generally
spoiled, from a variety of circumstances. The prevailing practice is,
first of all, to slack the lime by pouring a quantity of water upon it
when lying in a heap; in most cases this does not sufficiently pulverize
it: it is then mixed with any earth bearing the least resemblance to
sand, and the two are worked together very imperfectly with a shovel.
The mortar thus made often stands and hardens, so as to require to to be
once and again mixed with water, and worked up before it is used. It
thus becomes quite impoverished; and, after all, for the convenience of
the mason, it is employed in so dry a state that the stone soon takes
all the moisture from it, and it becomes little better than powder. The
gigantic railway operations of recent times have driven men out of the
beaten track, and compelled them afresh to discover the Roman method of
preparing mortar. On the authority of engineers well acquainted with the
Roman Wall, I am enabled to state, that the mortar of that structure is
precisely similar to the grout and concrete[45] of the railway mason of
the present day. Specimens of the ancient and modern grout are before
me, and there cannot be a doubt as to the identity of their preparation.
The following is the mode in which the railway engineer prepares his
mortar. The lime, in the state in which it comes from the kiln, is first
ground to powder, and is then mixed with sand and gravel, and chippings
of stone. The purposes for which the mortar is required indicate the
coarseness and quantity of the intermingling gravel. When wanted as
concrete, to form, independently of other materials, the foundation of
some heavy structure, stony fragments of larger size are mingled with
the lime than when the mortar is to be used to cement chiselled stones,
or even than when wanted to constitute with rubble the interior of a
wall. The mixture of pounded lime and gravel, when made, is not mingled
with water, until the moment of its application to the work for which it
is required, but it is then intimately united with an abundant quantity
of it. When used as concrete, the mass will, in three hours, have
solidity sufficient to bear the weight of a man, and in about three days
it will have acquired a rock-like firmness.
Such, doubtless, is the way[46] in which the mortar of the Roman Wall
was prepared, and it would have this very important advantage over that
generally used at present, that, in a very short time, the work would
acquire a massiveness and strength, sufficient to resist the attacks of
an enemy. The mortar of the Saxon and Norman periods is of the same
character.
Occasionally, but by no means frequently, small pieces of charcoal are
mixed with the mortar. These have evidently been derived from the wood
used in burning the lime. Excepting in the buildings of the stations,
pounded tile, so characteristic of the Roman mortar in the south of
England, is by no means a common constituent of the mortar of the Wall.
Limestone is abundant in most parts of the district through which the
Wall passes. The Romans probably burnt it in ‘sow kilns.’ The limestone
and fuel being arranged in alternate layers, the whole was carefully
covered with turf and ignited. This simple method is still much resorted
to when the lime is wanted for farm purposes.
_PLATE III_
[Illustration: Sections and Elevations of the Masonry of the Wall]
[Sidenote: THE MODE OF BUILDING.]
Supposing the stones to be now quarried and squared, the lime burnt and
mixed with sand and gravel, the next point to be attended to is the
method of using them. The foundation has been prepared by the removal of
the natural soil to the width of about nine feet. In the hill district,
a very scanty portion of earth covers the rocks; in the richer regions
an excavation of from fifteen to eighteen inches has been made before
the subsoil was reached. On the outer and inner margins of the ground
thus bared, two rows of flags of from two to four inches in thickness,
and from eighteen to twenty in breadth, were generally laid; no mortar
was placed under them.[47] On these lay the first course of
facing-stones, which were usually the largest stones used in the
structure. In higher courses the facing-stones are uniformly of
free-stone, on the ground course a ‘whin-stone’ is occasionally
introduced. The flagstones of the foundation usually project from one to
five inches beyond the first course of facing-stones, and these again
usually stand out an inch or two beyond the second course, after which,
the wall is taken straight up. In some parts of the line the flagstones
do not appear in the foundation—the first course of facing-stones being
laid directly upon the ground. In the neighbourhood of Sewingshields,
where large tracts of the Wall have been recently removed, a careful
observer informs me, that the entire foundation has for some distance
been laid upon a bed of clay of three or four inches thick.
[Sidenote: THE RUBBLE OF THE WALL.]
One or two courses of facing-stones having been placed in their beds and
carefully pointed, a mass of mortar in a very fluid state was poured
into the interior of the wall, and stones of any kind or shape that were
of a convenient size were ‘puddled’ in amongst it. Whin-stones, as being
most abundant in the district, are generally used for the filling.
Course after course was added, and one mass of concrete imposed upon
another, until the Wall reached the required height. When the whole was
finished it formed a solid, compact mass, without any holes or crevices
in the interior, and in a short time became as firm as the unhewn rock.
In some parts of the line the mortar has been ‘hand-laid.’ The rubble of
the interior having been first disposed in its place, the mortar has
been laid upon it with a trowel. In this case the mortar never
penetrates the interstices of the mass, and does not make such solid
masonry as the method generally pursued. When, however, this plan is
adopted, the rubble stones are often laid upon their edges in a slanting
position; and when those of the next layer, as occasionally occurs, are
made to lean in the opposite direction, we have the kind of
[Illustration: herring-bone work] masonry represented in the adjoining
diagram, which is appropriately called herring-bone work. The nearest
approach to this that I have seen upon the line of the Wall is at
Steel-rig, and Hare-hill. In Hodgson’s Northumberland[48] a section of
the Wall on Walltown crag is given, exhibiting herring-bone masonry. In
this instance the stones are disposed transversely to the Wall, at
Steel-rig and Hare-hill they are disposed longitudinally; the latter
method is the easier of the two.[49]
On wavy ground the courses of the Wall follow the undulations of the
surface, but on steep inclines the stones are laid parallel to the
horizon. The Wall, in this case, must have been built up from the bottom
of the defile, where also, in order the better to resist the
superincumbent mass, it not unfrequently has a greater breadth than
usual. As shewing that different sections of the Wall have been erected
under distinct superintendents, it may occasionally be observed that,
whilst on one slope of a ‘gap’ the stones are laid parallel to the
horizon, on the other, differing little perhaps in inclination, they are
laid even with the ground.
[Sidenote: DURABILITY OF THE STRUCTURE.]
We must now take leave of this important part of our subject, the
masonry of the Wall. Judging from those portions of it which remain, it
may safely be asserted, that no structure can be conceived to possess
greater strength and durability. The first time I happened to visit
Bowness (in the year 1831), some portions of the Wall, seven feet high,
were in the course of being removed; it was found necessary to resort to
the force of gunpowder in order to effect its destruction. In the
substantial nature of their works, the Romans have left the impress of
their own mighty minds. They built not for the day. They did not
conceive that their existence was bound up in the fate of a single
generation, but that it was spread over the destinies of succeeding
ages. Their works contrast strongly with the efforts of some modern
builders. The editor of the pictorial volume, styled ‘Old England,’
seems, in the following passage, to speak from personal observation.
Passing by the fragments of which we have spoken, we are under the
north wall [of Richborough]—a wondrous work calculated to impress us
with a conviction that the people who built it were not the petty
labourers of an hour, who were contented with temporary defences and
frail resting places. The outer works upon the southern cliff of
Dover, which were run up during the war with Napoleon, at prodigious
expense, are crumbling and perishing, through the weakness of job and
contract, which could not endure for half a century. And here stand
the walls of Richborough, as they have stood for eighteen hundred
years, from twenty to thirty feet high, eleven or twelve feet thick at
the base, with their outer masonry in many parts as perfect as at the
hour when their courses of tiles and stones were first laid in
beautiful regularity.
[Sidenote: ITS EVENTUAL DECAY.]
If the meddling hand of man had been withheld from the Barrier of the
Lower Isthmus, the Wall might have stood, even to the present hour, in
almost its original integrity. It is necessary to say ‘almost,’ for
nothing can be more correct than the observation of Hodgson—
Though man has had the chief labour in effecting its destruction, its
whole line and all its stations, castles, and towers, ever since it
was deserted by the Romans, have been incessantly suffering
prostration by the hand of nature. The feeble roots of grasses, ferns,
and shrubs, have been assisted by the more destructive wedges and
levers of forest trees in levelling it with the ground; and, in many
places in the west of this county, for considerable distances
together, the ruins that time has thrown from its brow, lie in a deep
green mound at its feet; and thorns, briars, hazel, and mountain ash
(entwined with relentless ivy), are still, in the parts that remain
above ground, at the labour of demolition in which, for the last
fourteen centuries, they have been unceasingly engaged.
In this day, when the Arabic numerals assert an influence quite as
potent as that which the lictors’ rods obtained in ancient Rome, the
inquiries may not be destitute of interest—What amount of labour was
involved in the construction of the Barrier, in what time could it be
accomplished, and what, at the present value of labour and materials,
would be the cost of its construction?
[Sidenote: MONEY VALUE OF THE BARRIER.]
The Wall is sixty-eight miles long; granting that it was only sixteen
feet high, but had a continuous thickness of eight feet, we have
1,702,115 cubic yards of masonry, to say nothing of stations,
mile-castles, and turrets.
Twelve shillings per cubic yard is as near as may be the present value
of masonry, such as that of which the Roman Wall consists—the cost of
this part of the structure would therefore be 1,021,269_l._
Taking into account that the labour was forced, each cubic yard of the
Wall would, at the least, require, in quarrying the stone, its
carriage to the Wall, its setting, and other operations, one entire
day’s exertions of one man. In this way we have 1,702,115 days’ labour
in the stone Wall.
Taking the north fosse at the dimensions already given, its excavation
would involve the removal of 5,585,072 cubic yards. A modern
excavator, stimulated by pay proportioned to his work, enjoying food,
and raiment, and shelter, such as the ancient Briton was a stranger
to, and possessing the advantage of good tools, and good organization,
can remove the enormous quantity of twenty cubic yards of earth per
day. The labourer, driven to his ungrateful task by a Roman
task-master, and compelled to support himself as best he might, and to
labour with tools of the rudest construction, would not accomplish the
half of this task; the removal of eight yards _per diem_ would
probably be an average day’s work. The excavation of the north fosse
would thus, under these circumstances, involve 698,134 days’ labour.
At the present time, when twenty cubic yards may be removed per man in
a day, and when a day’s wages may be set down at half-a-crown, the
whole cost of the excavation of the fosse would be 34,906_l._
In this estimate no account has been taken of the increased labour
occasioned by cutting through the rocks that are sometimes met with.
The entire absence of the ditch, however, in the hilly district,
compensates for this omission.
The fosse of the Vallum is rather less than that of the Wall. Making a
deduction of one-third on this account, and supposing that the
distance which the Vallum falls short of the Wall at each extremity,
makes amends for the increased labour of cutting through the rocky
ground, we have 3,723,382 cubic yards to be removed, involving 465,422
days of forced labour. The whole could now be done for the sum of
23,271_l._ No account is taken of the labour expended in raising the
earthen ramparts, or the cost of their construction, for the reason,
that the removal of the earth from the fosse implied its being
deposited somewhere; no place would be more convenient for this
purpose than the mounds of the rampart.
[Sidenote: TIME REQUIRED FOR ITS CONSTRUCTION.]
Adding together these results, we find that the cost of the Wall and
its north fosse would be 1,056,175_l._, and that the cost of the
Vallum, added to this would form a total of 1,079,446_l._ The number
of days’ labour involved in the Wall would be 2,400,249, and, adding
to this, that of the Vallum, we have for the whole 2,865,671 days’
labour.
The largest number of men that we can conceive to be brought to bear
at once upon the Wall, including such of the Roman troops as could be
spared from military operations, is ten thousand. This body, at the
rate already supposed, would, by continuous labour, execute the Wall
and its ditch in 240 days, and, taking the Vallum also into account,
in 286 days. In the exposed district over which the Wall runs, it is
not probable that the weather would allow of the work being pursued
during more than two hundred days in the year. If, in addition to
this, we make deductions for the chances of war, two years may be
stated as the shortest time in which the whole of the works could be
executed.
A recent writer, who, in a work denominated ‘A History of the Picts or
Romano-British Wall,’ adopts the notion of Gildas, that the stone wall
was built, not by Hadrian or Severus, but by the trembling Britons on
their abandonment by the Romans, supports his opinion by denominating
the work an un-Roman-like defence, and argues that men who were
unaccustomed to fear, would not seek the assistance of a wall and a
ditch. However regardless of life the Romans may, in the abstract, have
been, they knew how to economize their resources. In the battle of the
Grampians, Agricola withheld his legionary soldiers, and made use only
of his auxiliary troops. He could better afford to expend the one than
the other. As well might a warrior despise the protection of a helmet or
a shield, as refuse the defence of a stone wall.
[Sidenote: WALLS NOT UNWORTHY OF ROME.]
The best refutation, however, of this theory, is the fact, that in other
places the Romans, about the same period, raised similar barriers. At
two of these we shall glance, before beginning a detailed inspection of
the Barrier of the Lower Isthmus. The comparison will probably afford
valuable instruction.
[Sidenote: THE GERMAN BARRIER.]
The DEVIL’S WALL, in Germany, bears many marks of resemblance to the
English Wall. It seems[50] to consist of the _Pfahl_, a mound of stakes,
or vallum, ascribed to Hadrian, and a stone wall which is said to have
been executed by some of his successors. The works extended westwards
from Regensburg [Ratisbon] on the Danube, towards the sources of that
river, a distance of nearly two hundred miles. They formed the boundary
of the Roman empire in those parts where the Danube was not broad and
deep enough to be of itself a sufficient protection. A deep trench ran
along the Wall on its northern side, and along its southern face roads
and camps were formed. At regular intervals of one mile, towers of
observation were placed of the same size, though, being circular, not of
the same form as the mile-castles on the English Wall. It is not
possible, from the present remains, to determine with certainty the
height or breadth of the Wall. ‘I found it in many places,’ says
Professor Buchner, ‘from four to six, in others from ten to twelve, feet
broad. We may therefore perhaps conclude, that its medium breadth was
from six to seven feet, and that its height, as corresponding to this
breadth, may have been from eighteen to twenty-four feet.’ The works
have the same tendency to advance in a straight line as those of our own
Barrier. ‘No mountain is so high, no abyss so steep, no wood so thick,
no morass so profound, through which it does not penetrate.’ ‘The whole
line of the fortification has been laid down and executed according to a
well-digested plan.’
[Sidenote: THE ANTONINE WALL.]
GRAHAM’S DIKE, so denominated probably from the Celtic words _grym_,
strength, and _diog_, a ditch, is a barrier which fortified the Upper
Isthmus of Britain. It extended from Borrowstoness, on the Firth of
Forth, to West Kilpatrick, on the river Clyde, a distance of about
twenty-seven English miles. It was constructed by Lollius Urbicus in the
reign of Antoninus Pius, the adopted son of Hadrian. The following
succinct account of this important design is taken from the ‘Caledonia
Romana,’ a work of great ability, by the late lamented Mr. Robert
Stuart, of Glasgow:—
This great military work consisted, in the first place, of an immense
fosse or ditch—averaging about forty feet in width, by some twenty in
depth—which extended over hill and plain, in one unbroken line, from
sea to sea. Behind this ditch, on its southern side, and within a few
feet of its edge, was raised a rampart of intermingled stone and
earth, strengthened by sods of turf, which measured, it is supposed,
about twenty feet in height, and twenty-four in thickness at the base.
This rampart, or _agger_, was surmounted by a parapet, behind which
ran a level platform, for the accommodation of its defenders. To the
southward of the whole was situated the Military Way—a regular
causewayed road, about twenty-feet wide—which kept by the course of
the Wall at irregular distances, approaching, in some instances, to
within a few yards, and in others receding to a considerable extent.
Along the entire line there were established, it is believed, nineteen
principal stations or forts. The mean distance between each may be
stated at rather more than two English miles. Along these intervals
were placed many smaller _castella_, or watch-towers. While the
continuous rampart seems to have been little more than a well-formed
earthen mound, it is probable that many, if not all, of the stations,
were either rivetted with stone or entirely built of that material. In
some places, it would even appear that the Vallum itself had been
raised upon a stone foundation—probably in situations where the ground
was low and marshy, and where it was found necessary to form drains
beneath the works, to prevent the accumulation of water on their
anterior side.
[Sidenote: MUTUAL SUPPORT OF THE BARRIERS.]
The Barrier of the Upper Isthmus never consisted of more than a single
line of fortification. This circumstance may seem to militate against
the view that we have taken of the double line of the Southern Barrier.
If in the one case the conquered tribes to the south were disregarded,
why should they not be so in the other also? We shall not, however,
greatly err if we regard the Antonine Wall as but an advanced work of
Hadrian’s entrenchment. On this view of the matter, the difficulty is at
once removed, for the Lower Barrier would be a sufficient security
against danger in the rear. Certain it is, that the southern line was
not abandoned when the other was constructed. Several altars have been
found on the Lower Barrier inscribed with the name Antoninus Pius.[51] A
slab bearing the names of the consuls Sex. Sulpicius Tertullus, and C.
Tineius Sacerdos, elicits the following remarks from judge Cay[52]:—
These were consuls in A.D. 158; consequently, we have undeniable
authority to assert, that Antoninus Pius repaired Hadrian’s Vallum
(or, at least, the stations _per lineam Valli_), as well as built one
between the Scottish Firths. This stone is certainly most valuable, as
it clearly proves, that though Antoninus extended the boundary so far
north, he could not, or durst not, trust the Mæatæ, but thought
himself obliged to keep up the southern pretenturæ, lest they should,
on any disturbance, join the Caledonians.
Such prudence is characteristic of good generalship. Napoleon never made
an important move without first resolving what to do in case of failure.
Assuredly Hadrian did not act in a manner unbecoming a Roman, when, at
the same time that he shewed a stony front to the Caledonians, he placed
an earthen rampart between himself and the doubtful fidelity of his
southern subjects.
[Sidenote: THE BARRIERS IN RELATION TO THE RIVERS.]
The position of the Barriers of the Lower and of the Upper Isthmus, and
of the Devil’s Wall, in relation to the rivers in their vicinity,
requires some remark. The Tyne in the eastern, and the Irthing and the
Eden in the western part of the island, are uniformly to the south of
the English Wall. A similar remark applies to the Devil’s Wall, in
Germany, which is drawn along the northern shore of the Danube, the side
exposed to the enemy. The Clyde, and its feeders, are to the south of
the Antonine Wall. Why did the Romans not avail themselves of the
natural trenches of these river-basins? The valley of the Tyne is
peculiarly broad and deep. A chain of camps on its southern bank, where
the mediæval castles afterwards stood, would alone, we might suppose,
have bid defiance to the passage of any foe.
A similarity of practice in these cases favours the belief that
important objects were to be accomplished by it. What are they?—
By erecting a chain of posts on the high grounds to the north of the
rivers, a better observation of the movements of the enemy was obtained
than would otherwise have been practicable. In the days of Roman
occupation, large tracts of country, the banks of rivers especially,
would be covered with forests. The conquerors, unless they had secured
the enemy’s side of the river-basins, would have been perpetually
subject to unexpected attacks. They could not be so easily taken by
surprise on the high grounds of the northern slopes.
[Sidenote: IMPORTANCE OF RIVER BASINS.]
Probably the value of the land on the margin of the rivers, was an
additional motive for the course pursued. The alluvial soil by a river’s
side is usually the most fertile portion of a country. The banks of the
Tyne and the Eden are peculiarly productive. Without a wall the enemy
would have had undisputed possession of the slopes which enjoyed the
finest aspect—that to the south—while those on the other side would have
been subject to frequent depredation. This consideration is of the more
importance, as the lands of the district were given to the soldiers who
garrisoned the frontier, as a means of securing their fidelity.
[Sidenote: PRUDENCE OF THE ROMANS.]
So far from the importance of the natural boundary, the river, being
overlooked by the Romans, I am disposed to regard the works on its
northern bank as a proof of the value which they set upon it. The
natural and the artificial barriers were probably regarded by them as
but separate members of one complete fortification. In case of a rush of
invasion from the North, the Wall would arrest the attack and the river
entirely repel it. The stone and earth works would impede the progress
of a foe, however formidable, and give time for the formation of an army
on the southern bank of the stream. It was, moreover, ‘political in the
Romans,’ as Stukely remarks,[53] 'to leave on the north side of the Wall
that huge tract of waterless and dismal moor, a great barren solitude,
where in some places you may walk sixty miles endwise, without meeting
with a house or tree; to ride is impracticable. Thus, as much as in them
lay, without the horror of barbarity, did they remove the barbarians
from their territories; whilst within the Wall, either naturally or by
their industry, all things smiled like the garden of Eden.'
The vast hosts which the Caledonians were able to muster rendered all
these precautions necessary; and it was, moreover, becoming in the
Romans—a generation of warriors the mightiest the world has ever seen—to
plant the foot firmly on any land they thought fit to occupy. Assuredly
they did so in the Lower Isthmus of Britain.
[Illustration: Written Rock, at Fallow-field.]
-----
Footnote 14:
Hodgson states the mean of nineteen measurements to be one hundred and
twenty six yards.—_Northumberland_, II. iii. 310. This high number is
obtained by its including the mountain districts, where the works are
widely separated.
Footnote 15:
Harl. MSS. 374,—impr. Hodg. North’d. II. iii. 273.
Footnote 16:
Harl. MSS. 373,—impr. Richardson’s Reprints and Imprints, divis.
Miscell.
Footnote 17:
It will be observed here that the erection of this structure has not
been _always_ ascribed to Severus.
Footnote 18:
Greater extremes are met with, but they are rare. Hodgson in a note p.
276 says, The foundations in the turnpike-road, just west of Portgate
are scarcely seven feet broad; but opposite a plantation a little
further west, ten feet and a half. Hutton found the Wall at Brunton
only five feet and a half thick.
Footnote 19:
This is particularly the case about Old Wall in Cumberland.
Footnote 20:
Hutton’s Roman Wall, 139.
Footnote 21:
Hodg. North’d. II. iii. 276.
Footnote 22:
Horsley, in the profiles of the barrier which he gives, represents the
marginal rampart or _agger_ as being much larger than the south one.
The present aspect of the works does not warrant such a delineation.
Footnote 23:
When travelling along the road west of Birdoswald, I have seen a
ploughman and his team entirely disappear, on descending into the
fosse of the Vallum.
Footnote 24:
An inspection of Horsley’s own sections will at once show
this.—_Britan. Romana_, 158.
Footnote 25:
In corroboration of this statement, it may be mentioned that an
intelligent and substantial farmer offered to take, on a twenty-one
years’ lease, the Corchester field, in which the station of
CORSTOPITUM stood, at the yearly rate of 6_l._ per acre. It contains
twelve acres.
Footnote 26:
The Notitia has _Lergorum_, but it will be afterwards shewn that this
is probably an error for _Lingonum_.
Footnote 27:
The Notitia has _Astorum_ in this and the subsequent instances, but
all the inscriptions hitherto found have _Asturum_.
Footnote 28:
Brit. Rom. 102.
Footnote 29:
Ibid. 473.
Footnote 30:
This slab is in the possession of his Grace the Duke of
Northumberland, and is preserved, along with several other interesting
reliques of the Wall, in that noble baronial residence, so worthy of
the chiefs of Percy, Alnwick Castle.
Footnote 31:
Now in the Dean and Chapter Library at Durham.
Footnote 32:
According both to Hyginus and Vegetius, the first cohort of a legion,
in the times of the lower empire, was called _milliaria_, from its
being stronger than any cohort of the legion, and from its generally
consisting of about a thousand men.
_Arch. Æl._ ii., 83.
Footnote 33:
A correspondent of the author writes 'Even in my own day it was the
custom of the superstitious, on the line of the Wall, especially
between Birdoswald and Cambeck Fort to pound the stones, bearing
inscriptions, into sand for their kitchens, or bury them in the
foundations of houses or walls, for the simple reason that they
considered them unlucky—calling them 'witch stones’. When one was
found, the _old wives_ fearing that the butter might not form in the
churn, took good care that it should never again make its appearance.
Thus down went many a splendid Roman altar, a sacrifice to ignorance
and superstition'!
Footnote 34:
The plough has now passed over the station of Watch Cross. The
enquiries which I have made on the spot, and in the neighbourhood,
are, on the whole, confirmatory of Hodgson’s view.
Footnote 35:
Mounsey’s Account of the occupation of Carlisle in 1745.
Footnote 36:
Ford’s Hand-book of Spain, 1st edition, p. 306.
Footnote 37:
On putting the inquiry pointedly to a person who had ploughed up some
portions of the Vallum in the neighbourhood of Wallend, Cumberland,
and who was also acquainted with the mode in which the Maiden-way (a
Roman road) was formed, I was told that there were no traces of
pavement in the Vallum.
Footnote 38:
We must not, however, pronounce a road to be impracticable, because
now it would be thought so. A Northumberland farmer, speaking to me
upon this subject, said he had seen roads which, in his neighbourhood,
were regularly traversed only a century ago, on which no one would
venture now-a-days; ‘it was like coming down a crag-side.’ He had
driven through mosses in which the horses were commonly enveloped, but
had no misgivings so long as he could see the heads of the animals.
Footnote 39:
Hodgson, however, distinctly proves, that the _cornage_, or
castle-guard rent of the North of England—originally a payment in lieu
of cattle, and called in English, _horngeld_ and _neatgeld_,
cattle-tax, or ox-lay—has nothing whatever to do with sounding the
war-alarm by _horns_.
Footnote 40:
It must, however, be borne in mind, that even the uneducated labourer,
in a highly civilized community, has unconsciously received a
considerable amount of mental training, which places him in a
situation much superior to that of the mere savage.
Footnote 41:
The remainder of this valuable communication is, in order to avoid
repetition, embodied in the subsequent account of the Masonry of the
Wall.
Footnote 42:
Hodgson II. ii. 298.
Footnote 43:
It would be described by a modern builder as a rough blocking course.
Footnote 44:
The cuts representing these markings are transferred from my note
book, without reference to scale.
Footnote 45:
Concrete contains less lime, and is mixed with a smaller proportion of
water than grout. It is chiefly used in large masses, to form an
artificial foundation for a building.
Footnote 46:
The almost entire absence of those little white lumps of lime, not
properly mixed with sand, which are found in the imperfectly prepared
mortar of modern times, shews that the lime must in some way have been
crushed by rollers or beaters.
Footnote 47:
Mr. Bell, of Irthington, tells me that in some places the foundation
flags of the north side point upwards, at an angle of about twenty
degrees, caused apparently by the settling of the ponderous mass. In
this circumstance, we have an interesting confirmation of the
supposition that the Wall was surmounted with a parapet on its north
side. The foundation would have settled equally if both sides had been
burdened alike.
Footnote 48:
Part II. v. iii. p. 294.
Footnote 49:
In some parts of the line, the joints of the Wall are at present
filled with earthy matter instead of mortar, and it is the opinion of
some authorities, and amongst them, the eminent architect and
intelligent antiquary, Mr. Dobson, of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, that in
these places, clay has been originally substituted for mortar. Very
loath to suppose that the original builders of the Wall would leave
any portion of it in so unsatisfactory a state, I have been in the
habit of accounting for the apparent absence of mortar in the
following way:—The upper part of the structure having been overthrown
by a ruthless enemy, and the lower parts covered with the fallen
rubbish, the whole heap would speedily become coated with vegetation.
Roman mortar, with all its tenacity, would not be able to resist the
powers of vitality; and the constant demands of the ferns and the
foxgloves would, in the course of time, abstract the whole of the
lime. The roots of the plants, by whose agency the work of abstraction
had proceeded, yielding in due time to the process of decay, would
themselves, in the form of vegetable earth, supply the place of the
lime which they had withdrawn.
Footnote 50:
The only source of information which I have upon the subject of this
wall, is a translation of an extract from a pamphlet by Professor
Buchner, of Regensburg, in the first volume of the ‘Archæologia
Æliana.’ The precise relation which the _Pfahl_ bears to the stone
Wall does not very clearly appear from this paper; to all appearance,
however, the analogy between the German and English barriers is very
close.
Footnote 51:
Hodg. North’d. II. iii. 276.
Footnote 52:
Ibid. 284.
Footnote 53:
Iter Boreale, 67.
-----
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration]
~The Roman Barrier of the
Lower Isthmus.~
PART III.
LOCAL DESCRIPTION OF THE WORKS.
Little did the Romans dream, when they fixed the eastern termination of
their Wall at SEGEDUNUM, of the world-wide celebrity which its
subsequent cognomen—Wallsend—would attain. Even Horsley, writing in
1731, and in what he lovingly terms 'my own county,'[54] did not foresee
the extensive mining operations which shortly after his day were to take
place in its immediate vicinity. In order to mark the site of the
station, he fixes upon Cousin’s House, which is at some distance from
the spot, whereas, the principal shaft of the celebrated mine is close
beside its western rampart.
SEGEDUNUM, Wallsend, is admirably selected as the site of a Roman
station, and as the eastern terminus of the Wall. Without being so
much[Sidenote: SEGEDUNUM.] elevated as to give it a painful exposure to
the blasts of the north and of the east, it commands a view, in every
direction, of the adjacent country. The ground, in front of it, slopes
rapidly down to the river’s brink, and has a full exposure to the
mid-day sun. The beauty of its situation is considerable now; what must
it have been when aged oaks crowned the contiguous heights, and the Tyne
rolled by in the brilliancy and exuberance of its youth!
[Sidenote: WALLSEND.]
Eastward of Wallsend, the river acquires a sufficient magnitude to make
it a barrier quite formidable enough to prevent the ready passage of a
foe, and to render the erection of a wall unnecessary. Frequently,
however, would it be needful for the watchful eye of the Roman prefect
at SEGEDUNUM to traverse the expanse which lay between him and the sea.
This he could easily do. The station stands upon a bend of the river,
formed by two of the longest ‘reaches’ which it makes in the whole of
its course. The Long-reach extends downwards as far as the high end of
South Shields, and the Bill-reach stretches nearly two miles up the
water. In both directions, therefore, any operations conducted on the
river would be easily discerned from the station.
[Sidenote: SEGEDUNUM.]
Although it was not thought requisite to extend the Wall further along
the northern bank of the Tyne than Wallsend, special precautions were
taken to secure the mouth of the river from hostile occupation. A camp
at Tynemouth, and another at North Shields, were garrisoned by troops
from the head quarters at SEGEDUNUM; these frowned over the northern
shore of the estuary. A subsidiary station at Tyne Lawe, near South
Shields, and another at Jarrow, guarded its southern bank, whilst one at
Wardley, opposite Wallsend, would effectually support, on that side of
the river, the operations of the garrison in the principal encampment.
All of these will be examined afterwards.
[Illustration: Altar to Jupiter-Coh. IV. Lingonum]
The evidence by which Wallsend is identified with the _Segedunum_ of the
Notitia is not so direct as could be desired. First in the list of
officers ‘along the line of the Wall,’ the Notitia places the Tribune of
the fourth cohort of the Lergi at SEGEDUNUM. Now, no inscription has
been found in Britain mentioning the Lergi, but inscriptions have been
found which mention the second and fourth cohorts of the Lingones; on
the other hand, the Lingones never occur in the Notitia, but the cohorts
of the Lergi which are there recorded, are the second and the fourth.
This being the case, and the difference in the form of the Latin words
_Lergorum_ and _Lingonum_ being very slight, the probability is, as Mr.
Thomas Hodgson, in an able paper in the Archæologia Æliana, conjectures,
that some early transcriber of the Notitia has written the one in
mistake for the other. Within the precincts of Tynemouth Castle, in the
year 1783, an altar was found, which formed part of the foundation of an
ancient church. It is now in the possession of the Society of
Antiquaries of London. The adjoining wood-cut accurately delineates it.
The inscription may be read as follows:
I[OVI] O[PTIMO] M[AXIMO]
AEL[IVS] RVFVS
PRAEF[ECTVS] COH[ORTIS]
IIII LINGO
NVM.
To Jupiter the best and greatest,
Ælius Rufus,
The Prefect of Cohort the
Fourth of the Lingo-
nes.
On the supposition, which is a natural one, that Tynemouth was a station
subsidiary to Wallsend, this altar gives satisfactory proof that the
first of the stations at the eastern extremity of the Wall is the
SEGEDUNUM of the Notitia. On some occasion, when the prefect who
commanded the estuary of the Tyne, was on a visit to this out-post, he
erected to Jupiter, whom he ignorantly worshipped, the altar which still
remains.
[Sidenote: ORIGIN OF THE NOTITIA NAMES.]
The etymology of the names of the stations is an interesting, but
intricate subject. The new occupants of a country usually adopt the
appellations bestowed by their predecessors upon its more prominent
features. Thus, though in England the ancient Briton, Roman, Saxon,
Norman, and modern English, have successively prevailed, many of our
most familiar rivers, as the Thames, the Isis, and the Avon, have borne,
as Whitaker shows, through each successive change, their present names.
The appellations of cities are much more variable, but some even of
these are indelible. Strange as a painted Briton of the first century
would feel himself in the streets of modern London, its _name_ would
fall on his ear as an accustomed sound.
The Romans were a minority in Britain; and, in their intercourse with
the natives, would be compelled to adopt the nomenclature of the people.
We may, therefore, expect to find that the names of the stations are
essentially British, though somewhat altered by the imperfect
pronunciation of the strangers, and by a ceaseless effort to recast the
words in the mould of their own tongue. The change most frequently
introduced consists in the addition of Latin terminations. The names
given by the aborigines of a country are usually descriptive of the
object to which they are attached: they are epithets changed into proper
names. Accordingly, we find that the names of the stations, so far as
they have been deciphered by the assistance of those modern
representatives of the ancient British tongue—the Gaelic and native
Irish—are descriptive of the locality.
[Sidenote: ETYMOLOGY OF SEGEDUNUM.]
SEGEDUNUM is an unfortunate example to begin with. There was a Segedunum
in Aquitania, the modern Rodez—a Segodunum in Northern Germany, the
modern Siegen. The camp at Wallsend may have received its name from some
resemblence to one of these. Still the question remains, What was the
common origin of the term? Wallis thinks it is derived from the Latin
_seges_, corn, and the Celtic _dunum_, a hill; but, excepting in extreme
cases, an etymology dependent upon two languages can scarcely be
admitted. A more consistent derivation is found in the Celtic _sech_,
(the root of the French _sec_) dry, and _dun_, a hill. The final
syllable is a Latin affix. The elevation of the spot, and its rapid
slope to the river, would render it comparatively free from
moisture.[55]
[Sidenote: VILLAGE OF WALLSEND.]
Whatever doubt may hang over the Roman name of this station, none
attaches to the modern—Wallsend
... Ab illo
Dicitur, æternumque tenet per sæcula nomen.
The number of places along the course of the Wall which have derived
their names from this great work, is very striking, and proves the
importance that has been attached to it. Without examining a map, and
simply drawing upon the resources of my own memory and note-book, the
following examples occur: In Northumberland, we have Wallsend, Walker,
Wall-knoll in Newcastle, Benwell, Wallbottle, Heddon-on-the-Wall,
Welton, Wall-houses, Wall, Walwick, Shields-on-the-Wall, Wall-mill,
Walltown, Thirlwall, and Wall-end; in Cumberland, we have Walton,
Wallbours, Old-Wall, High Wallhead, Middle Wallhead, Low Wallhead,
Wallby, and Wallfoot.
The present village of Wallsend is about half a mile distant from the
station, a little to the north of the turnpike road. It is, however, of
modern erection. Brand says that ‘an old woman, still living, remembers
when the site of the present Wallsend was an empty field.’ The
traditional account of its erection is, that a plague having desolated
the original town, which stood upon the site of the camp, and was built
out of its ruins, the terrified inhabitants forsook the spot, and sought
shelter in the new locality.
_PLATE IV._
[Illustration:
_SECTION, after Warburton, of the Mountains at Bradley,
shewing the relation, in the hill-district, between the Wall
and the Vallum._
_REID. LITHO. NEWCASTLE._
]
[Sidenote: WALLSEND.]
A person unaccustomed to examine the remains of Roman forts, will
probably be disappointed to find the ramparts of Wallsend so feebly
marked; but one who brings to the task a practised eye, will give a good
account of the land, and express his surprise that so much of the camp
is left. The station, it must be remembered, is situated on the edge of
a river the scene of an immense commerce, in the vicinity of a large
town, and in the centre of a great mining district.
[Sidenote: SEGEDUNUM.]
The station of SEGEDUNUM has occupied an area of three acres and a half.
The Wall, coming from the west, has struck the north cheek of its
western gateway, and there terminated. The walls of the station would be
a sufficient protection to the garrison against attack from the north or
other quarters, but to prevent the enemy getting within the barrier, by
passing between the station and the river, the eastern wall of the
station has been brought down to the river, and continued into it to
low-water mark.[56]
[Illustration:
Drawn & Lithographed by John Storey
WALLSEND, LOOKING EAST.
]
[Sidenote: WALLSEND.]
In tracing the outline of the station it will be well to begin at
Carville-hall, the 'Cousin’s-house,'[57] of Horsley. Between it and the
Gosforth ‘waggon-way,’ the north fosse of the Wall is very distinct, a
gravelled path, for some distance, occupies the site of the Wall.[58]
Behind the Methodist-chapel the ditch may still be traced, but after
that it disappears. The row of houses between the chapel and the station
is manifestly very close upon the line of the Wall. The old
engine-house, which Brand tells us was six yards north of the Wall,
still remains. The whole of the ramparts of the northern section of the
station are gone; the walls of the southern portion of it may, however,
be traced rising in the form of a grassy mound above the general level
of the soil. The continuation of the eastern wall of the station down
the bank to the river’s edge, may also be recognised, not only by the
gentle mound which it forms, but by the fragments of Roman mortar, Roman
tile, and coarse-grained sandstone, not proper to the district, which
may be picked up on it. This river-wall joins the Tyne at the spot where
a jetty has recently been formed. Numerous swellings in the ground to
the south, and to the east of the station, indicate the ruins of
suburban buildings. These seem to have been invariable concomitants of
stationary camps. Officers wishing to have more space than the fort
allowed, the families of the soldiers, the camp followers, and others,
who sought the protection of a fortified post, would occupy such
dwellings. The sunny exposure of the streets on the south of the camp,
would render them peculiarly acceptable to the Lingones who came from
that part of Gaul where the Meuse and Marne have their source.[59] The
fosse which protected the eastern rampart, is still distinctly visible,
and generally contains a little water. The accompanying lithographic
view is given chiefly with the intention of showing the extensive
command which the station had of the river below it; the south-east
angle of the rampart may be traced upon it, as well as the fosse beyond.
The altar, represented in the foreground, was found in the vicinity of
the station a few years ago, and is still preserved upon the spot, it is
without an inscription, but has a hole drilled through its centre, which
it had when found. An extensive natural valley protected the western
side of the camp, which some years ago was partially filled up, in order
to form the waggon-way. The house occupied by the late Mr. John Buddle,
the eminent colliery viewer, is just within the western wall of the
station, and that, formerly occupied by Mr. John Reay, is just within
the eastern rampart. The waggon-way leading from the Wallsend pit seems
to enter the station by its western portal, and to leave it by its
eastern, and thus exactly traverses the _via principalis_ of the camp.
The only trace of the northern division of the station that remains,
consists [Sidenote: SEGEDUNUM.]of the road which has apparently led from
SEGEDUNUM to the out-posts at Blake-chesters and Tyne-mouth. This
causeway extends from the station to the north of the Shields railway;
it is formed of a mass of rubble, about two feet deep, and is eleven
yards wide. It cannot be ploughed, and nothing that requires any depth
of earth will grow upon it.
Numerous proofs of Roman occupation have been discovered at various
times in the station and its vicinity. Brand says, ‘I found a fibula,
some Roman tegulæ, and coins, a ring, &c. Immense quantities of bones
and teeth of animals are continually turning up. Stones with
inscriptions were found, but the incurious masons built them up again in
the new works of the colliery.’ Dr. Lingard was told, that in digging a
cellar under the dining room of Mr. Buddle’s house, a deep well was
found. I have been informed by Mr. John Reay, that another was
discovered outside the station, at the spot shown on the plan of the
station, Plate IV. A structure, which was conceived to be a bath, was
struck upon about the same time, near the river’s brink; it was
immediately removed, but its site is marked on the plan. Many coins have
been found, but most of them in a very corroded state. A beautiful piece
of Samian ware was got in sinking the shaft of the colliery, which is
now in possession of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle-upon-Tyne;
it is figured in a subsequent Plate.
[Sidenote: WALLSEND TO NEWCASTLE.]
Leaving Wallsend, and proceeding westward, the Wall is chiefly to be
traced by the presence of its north fosse. This is very distinctly
marked nearly all the way to Byker. In front of Stote’s-houses, the
Beehouses of Horsley, it forms a pond, which is used for farm purposes.
Some traces of the foundation of the Wall may be seen, but they are
faint. Thirty years ago the Wall was standing, for a considerable
distance, three and four feet high, covered with brushwood of hazel,
oak, and alder. The tendency of the half-ruined Wall to give lodgement
to the roots of these plants, is very remarkable; wherever the Wall is
undisturbed they are found, and in regions where the hazel does not
occur elsewhere, as in the neighbourhood of Bowness, it is to be met
with abundantly upon the Wall.
A mound, a little more elevated than the neighbouring ground, near to
Stote’s-houses, points out the site of the first mile-castle west of
Wallsend. The tenant of the farm told me that he had got a great
quantity of stones from it. In Horsley’s time, there were ‘two distinct
tumuli remaining near the Bee-houses’; what I take to be the rudiments
of them may yet be traced; one of them is just behind the stack-yard of
the farm, the other, the least marked of the two, a little to the west
of it.
The road that is seen stretching in a straight line up the hill to Byker
indicates the direction of the Wall, and though the first, it is by no
means the most remarkable instance that we shall meet with, of the
unflinching and straightforward tendencies of this remarkable structure.
The Wall stood on the south side of the present road. The facing-stones
having already been removed, and it being desirable to have the rocky
remnant entirely cleared away, the ground was let to parties without
rent for a short term of years, on condition of their clearing it, and
bringing it into cultivation. It is on this account that the site of the
Wall and fosse, even yet, is portioned out in long narrow slips, which
are, for the most part, used as potato gardens.
From the top of Byker-hill, an interesting view is obtained of the Tyne
and the numerous hives of busy men which bestud its banks. This would be
an important post for the Roman soldier, who could easily see from it
the stations on either hand—SEGEDUNUM and PONS ÆLII—and all that was
going on between them.
Between Byker and Newcastle, all traces of the Wall are now nearly
destroyed. In 1725, it was, however, standing in a condition of imposing
grandeur, as appears from Stukeley’s ‘Prospect’ of it in the Iter
Boreale. He was induced to make this drawing because ‘the country being
entirely undermined’ by colliery excavations, it might ‘some time or
other sink, and so disorder the track of this stately work.’ He dreaded
an imaginary evil, and overlooked a real one.
The north fosse was, till recently, very distinct within the wall of
Heaton-park; it is now filled up; many of the stones in the park-wall,
are to all appearance, Roman. Before descending the hill, a portion of
it, boldly developed, may yet be seen at the end of a small row of
houses called Howard-street.
[Sidenote: COURSE THROUGH NEWCASTLE.]
At the head of the bank overlooking the Ouse-burn stood a mile-castle,
as was usual in such situations, to guard the pass. Two stones which, I
am persuaded, formed part of the entrance gateway of this mile-tower,
now stand upon the stairs leading to the grand entrance of the keep of
the Castle of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. They measure two feet by one, and are
of the form usually employed in the portals of mile castles. One of them
bears a rude, and almost unintelligible, inscription. These stones were
found built up in a structure on the west bank of the Ouseburn, were
thence taken to Busy Cottage, afterwards removed to Heaton, and finally
presented to the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
The Wall crossed the Ouse-burn very near the ancient bridge which is
about a hundred and fifty yards south of the railway viaduct. In
preparing the foundations of Mr. Beckinton’s steam-mill about the year
1800, the workmen came upon the Wall, and, with great good taste, built
into the opposite quay three of the largest stones they met with, in
order to mark its site; they may yet be seen at low water, and are
evidently mile-castle stones.
[Sidenote: COURSE THROUGH NEWCASTLE.]
It is not possible to trace the Wall with minute accuracy through
Newcastle, a town which has been the seat of a large and active
population ever since the days of Roman occupation. In endeavouring to
follow its route, I shall mainly depend upon the investigations of Mr.
George Bouchier Richardson, who has for several years past made the
antiquities of ‘the Metropolis of the North’ his especial study, and
whose paper upon this subject, recently read before the Society of
Antiquaries of this town, will doubtless speedily appear in the
Archæologia Æliana.
[Sidenote: NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE.]
Rising from the western bank of the Ouse-burn, it traversed the north
side of Stepney-bank, passed through the gardens at the Red Barns, along
the site of the present Melbourne-street, and, proceeding behind the
Keelmen’s Hospital, came to the Sallyport. This, which was one of the
gates of the town, is sometimes described as a Roman building, but is of
mediæval origin. Thence, the Wall went over the crest of the hill still
called the Wall-knoll, where the foundations of it were turned up about
the middle of the last century. It crossed Pandon-dean on the north side
of the locality called the Stock-bridge, and, in its western course,
ascended the steep hill, on the summit of which stands All Saints’
church. Brand tells us that the crypt of the old church had plainly been
built of stones plundered from the adjacent Wall. A well of Roman
masonry is said to have been discovered near the church when the
foundations of the new building were prepared. Crossing Pilgrim-street a
little above Silver-street, the course of the Wall is indicated by the
present narrow street called the Low bridge. Until a comparatively
recent period, the site of Dean-street formed the unenclosed bed of the
Lort-burn, and was spanned by an arch called the Low-bridge. At the
point where this mediæval viaduct stood, its Roman predecessor carried
the Wall, with its attendant military way, across the gully. The church
of St. Nicholas, according to Leland, whose statement is confirmed by
subsequent writers, ‘stondithe on the very Picts Waulle.’ The Wall,
leaving the church, crosses Collingwood-street in an oblique direction,
and passing by St. John’s church, the Vicarage-house, and the
Assembly-rooms, makes for the Town-wall somewhat to the north of the
site of the West-gate. There can be little doubt that in its exit from
the town, the Wall occupied the elevation on which Cumberland-row now
stands.
[Sidenote: PONS ÆLII.]
PONS ÆLII.—Having tracked the Wall in its passage through the modern
town, the site of the ancient station of PONS ÆLII next demands
attention.
Horsley is the only writer who has attempted to define its limits, and
he had but slender evidence to guide him. He takes, as his data, the
three following facts:—1. The course of the Wall westward, which he
conceives, and no doubt correctly, would form the northern boundary of
the station; 2. The direction of the Vallum, some portions of which
remained, in his day, just outside the West-gate; 3. 'A traditionary
account of the Wall having passed through St. George’s porch, near the
north-west corner of St. Nicholas’-church.' As this porch stands a
little to the south of the line of the great Wall, as laid down by him,
he conceives that this traditionary wall must have been the east wall of
the station, and draws it upon his plan accordingly.[60] The western
wall now only remained to be determined, and this point was easily
settled, by supposing the station to have been square. According to the
line assigned by him to the Vallum, six chains is the distance which
would intervene between it and the Wall; he therefore places the western
rampart of the station at the corresponding distance of six chains from
the eastern, and encloses altogether an area of little more than three
acres.
It may well be doubted whether the important station of PONS ÆLII would
be subjected to the ordinary rules of castrametation. I am strongly
disposed to think, that it would partake of the features of a commercial
as well as of a military capital, and that its walls would not only
embrace a wider range than ordinary camps, but would be allowed to adapt
themselves more freely to the nature of the ground.
The wants of the immense body of troops required to garrison the Wall,
and man its out-posts, would create a considerable amount of commerce.
The inhabitants of Italy, Gaul, and Spain, would be unwilling all at
once to forego the comforts and luxuries of their sunny climes, and to
be entirely cut off from intercourse with the land of their nativity.
The fragments of amphoræ, which are so abundantly met with on the line
of the Wall, shew that the soldiers sometimes gladdened their hearts
with the wine of their native hills; and the innumerable sherds of
Samian ware, which usually bestrew the camps of Roman occupation, prove
that a continual intercourse was kept up with the continent. To the sea,
as a means of communication between many of the stations of Roman
Britain, frequent recourse would be had.
The exports from this island to the continent were considerable. Camden
tells us, that every year not less than eight hundred vessels laden with
corn alone were sent out of it. Certain it is, that the imperial
government would expect an adequate return for the expenditure
occasioned by the troops in this country, and that the commodities of
the continent would not be transmitted to the occupants of the Wall from
motives of mere benevolence. Lead, which is now so abundant in the three
northern counties, would probably form one article of export, and corn
another. Those who have noticed the fertility of some portions of the
region watered by the Tyne, will be able to conceive how luxuriant were
the harvests which its alluvial soil produced when first turned up by
the plough. It is certain that coal has been wrought to some extent in
Roman times, and some of it may have been exported.
No place in the north of England was so well fitted as Newcastle to be
the emporium of the commerce of the North. Situated upon a noble river,
at about ten miles from its mouth, it combined the naval advantages of
the coast, with the security of an inland situation. The wealth arising
from the commerce of the port would increase its importance, and the
facility with which foreign news and foreign luxuries could be obtained,
would render it the frequent resort of those prefects and tribunes whose
usual posts were in bleaker and more inhospitable regions. The fact that
the river was at this part spanned by a bridge of many arches, is a
striking indication of the importance of the place even in the days of
the emperor Hadrian.
No account has come down to us of the state of Newcastle in the days of
Roman occupation, but if, after it had been deprived of the advantages
which the residence of the mural garrison conferred upon it, the
venerable Bede calls it 'an illustrious royal city'—'_vico regis
illustri_'—we must conclude that it was a place of considerable
importance. The natural advantages of the situation struck the eye of
Camden; ‘Now’, says he, ‘where the Wall and Tine almost meet together,
Newcastle sheweth itself gloriously the very eye of all the townes in
these parts.’
Under these circumstances, there seems to be no reason why the walls of
PONS ÆLII should form the usual military parallelogram any more than
Roman Rochester, or Pompeii, or Rome itself, much less that the station
should occupy an area of little more than three acres.
The contour of the ground on which the modern Newcastle stands, is
peculiar. It consists of three tongues of land, separated by natural
valleys permeated by rivulets. The westernmost of these presents the
boldest front to the river, and is that on which the Castle stands; the
Skinner-burn bounds it on the west, and the valley of the Lort-burn, the
present Dean-street, on the east. The contiguous tongue lies between the
Lort-burn and Pandon-dean; and that still further removed, has for its
eastern boundary the Ouse-burn. The same natural advantages which
recommended the heights of the most westerly of these strips of ground
to the Normans for the erection of their stronghold, would no doubt
previously induce the Romans to select it as their chief position. They
probably enclosed nearly the whole of it within their walls. Horsley,
indeed, places his camp in this division, but in the least advantageous
part of it, whether considered in a military or in a commercial point of
view. The Romans would surely not overlook the importance of the ravine
of Dean-street as a defence on the east, especially at a time when the
tide flowed up it as far as the Painter-heugh, and of the cliff that
descends from the Castle to the river on the south. The necessity of
defending the bridge, and commanding the Tyne would not be forgotten.
Taking all these things into account, we may fairly suppose the walls of
PONS ÆLII to have been thus defined:—The Wall, passing through the site
of St. Nicholas’-church, would, of course, be its northern boundary; a
line coming from the church, and adapting itself to the crest of the
hill that overhangs Dean-street, crossing the Head-of-the-Side and
stretching as far as the elevated angle on which the County-courts now
stand, will probably mark its eastern boundary; the southern rampart
would run from this angle along the edge of the cliff overhanging the
Close, as far as the site of the White-friar-tower, which stood at the
head of the present Hanover-street; the western wall may have run in the
line of the Town-wall as far as Neville-tower, and then have struck up
in a straight line to meet the great Wall. Westward of this boundary,
the ground slopes down to the Skinner-burn. If these lines are correctly
drawn, Roman Newcastle would contain upwards of sixteen acres.
Although the camp of PONS ÆLII occupied this tongue of land, there is no
reason to suppose that suburban buildings were not erected on the other
two, both of which are well protected by their natural situation. There
is good ground to believe that Pandon, which was formerly a separate
town from Newcastle, and is seated on the middle strip, was of Roman
origin. Villas and gardens probably extended as far as the Ouse-burn.
In order to render the preceding description intelligible to persons
unacquainted with the topography of Newcastle, a plan of the town (Plate
V.) and a lithographic view of PONS ÆLII are appended. In the plan of
the town, Horsley’s demarkation of the station, as well as the one here
proposed, is laid down. For the view of PONS ÆLII, the frontispiece, I
am indebted to the pencil of Mr. G. Bouchier Richardson; the contour of
the ground is very accurately delineated, and the probable outline of
the station marked; the details of the picture are of course filled up
according to the artist’s fancy—a fancy regulated by his antiquarian
knowledge.
_PLATE V._
[Illustration:
Plan of PONS ÆLII AND OF THE COURSE OF THE WALL THROUGH _NEWCASTLE ON
TYNE_.
And^w. Reid s.c.
]
[Sidenote: NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE.]
Roman antiquities, which, when they abound, are so serviceable in
defining the seat of Roman occupation, are unfortunately here rather
scanty and unimportant. This cannot be matter of surprise. In the middle
ages, Newcastle abounded in churches and monastic buildings. To the
erection of these and of the Castle, the Town-wall, and Gates, every
stone whether lettered, sculptured, or plain, that could easily be
obtained, would be appropriated.
[Sidenote: PONS ÆLII.]
The precincts of the Castle have afforded the most important discoveries
of this kind. The present County-courts occupy the site of a building
which used to be called the Half-moon-battery. This was probably the
position of the south-east angle of the station of PONS ÆLII, and some
of the lines of the octagonal face of the battery presented no doubt the
actual curve of the station. To a certain extent the Norman builders may
have converted to their own uses a portion of the labours of their
imperial predecessors; appearances seemed to shew that the Castle wall
between the Half-moon-battery and the Black-gate had rested upon a Roman
foundation. When the County-courts were built, some important
discoveries were made. Mr. Hodgson, who watched the progress of the
excavations, has thus described them:—
In digging for the foundations for the Northumberland County
Court-house, in 1810, a well was found finely cased with Roman
masonry. It still remains below the centre part of the present
court-house. It had originally been a spring, or sunk low down on the
river bank, and its circular wall, raised within another strong wall
in the form of a trapezium to the height of the area of the station,
and the space between them traversed with strong connecting beams of
oak both horizontally and perpendicularly, and then tightly packed up
with pure blue clay. Some beams of this timber were taken up and
formed into the judges’ seats, and chairs for the grand-jury room, now
in use. Two of the perpendicular beams had very large stags’ horns at
their lower end, apparently to assist in steadying them till clay
sufficient was put around them to keep them upright. On the original
slope of the bank next the outer wall, there was a thick layer of
ferns, grasses, brambles, and twigs of birch and oak, closely matted
together, and evidently showing that before these works were
constructed, man had not tenanted the spot.[61] Here also were exposed
large remains of the foundations of other very thick and strong walls,
one of which rose into the eastern wall of the Old Moot-hall, which
was of exactly the same breadth, bearing, and style of building, and
doubtless of the same date as the Roman foundations of which it was a
continuance.
[Sidenote: ANTIQUITIES OF PONS ÆLII.]
The whole site of the Court-house, for several feet above the original
surface of the earth, was strewn with a chaos of Roman ruins. I was
frequently on the spot while the excavations were carrying on, and saw
dug up large quantities of Roman pottery, two bronze coins of
Antoninus Pius, parts of the shaft of a Corinthian pillar, fluted, and
of the finest workmanship; besides many millstones, and two altars,
one bearing an illegible inscription, and the other quite plain. The
altars were found near the north-east corner of the Court-house, and
near them a small axe, and a concave stone, which bore marks of fire,
was split, and had thin flakes of lead in its fissures. The broad
foundation walls were firm and impenetrable as the hardest rock. On
Aug. 11, 1812, when the foundations of the north portico were sinking,
a Roman coin was found (of what Emperor I have no minute,) and the
original surface of the ground was covered with a thick stratum of
small wood, some parts of which were wattled together in the form of
crates or the corfs of collieries, but in a decayed state, and cut as
easily with the workmen’s spades, as the brushwood found in peat
mosses does. As there was much horse or mules’ dung near them, and
some mules’ shoes amongst it, I thought they had been fixed there as
crates or racks to eat fodder out of.
[Illustration]
Since that period, few important discoveries have been made. In cutting
the crest of the hill in front of the Castle for one of the piers of the
Railway viaduct, a small stone figure of Mercury, represented in the
adjoining wood-cut,[62] was found. It is preserved, among other
antiquities, in the Museum in the Castle.
Between the years 1840 and 1844, the White-friar-tower and the
contiguous portions of the Town-wall of Newcastle were removed. Two
Roman altars were discovered, which are now in the possession of the
Society of Antiquaries, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. One of them is destitute of
an inscription, and the other seems to bear the word SILVANO. Several
coins of the Roman and mediæval age were picked up in its immediate
vicinity. The Roman coins were of both the upper and the lower empire.
From the manner in which the pieces of the middle and ancient periods
were commingled, a thing of rare occurrence, it may be inferred that the
tower was formed out of Roman materials, and that the Roman coins were
re-imbedded without being noticed, whilst the workmen inadvertently
added Nuremberg tokens and other contemporary pieces to the numismatic
treasures of the spot.
But, perhaps, the structure which gave name to PONS ÆLII affords the
most interesting foot-prints of Roman occupation in Newcastle.
[Sidenote: THE BRIDGE OF ÆLIUS.]
Horsley received sufficient evidence to convince him, that a Roman road
had gone from the south bank of the Tyne to Chester-le-street, and
thence to the south of England. A bridge was necessary to conduct the
road across the river. In 1771, a flood having carried away several of
the arches of the bridge which then existed, and materially damaged the
rest of the structure, it was found necessary to erect a new one. In
removing the old piers the distinguishing characteristics of Roman
masonry were observed; and the workmen were led to believe that the
arches of the mediæval structure had been placed upon the foundations
which Hadrian laid. Several piles of fine black oak, which had supported
the foundation, were drawn out of the bed of the river, and found to be
in a state of excellent preservation.[63]
[Sidenote: COINS FOUND IN THE BRIDGE.]
The coins that were found imbedded in the piers give decided evidence of
the Roman origin of the structure. To some of these, in the possession
of George Rippon, esq., of Waterville, North Shields, I have had access;
they are here represented.
[Illustration]
_Obv._—HADRIANUS AUGUSTUS, CONSUL TERTIUM. PATER PATRIÆ. Bare head of
Hadrian.
_Rev._—GERMANIA. The province personified as a female standing. In her
right she holds a lance; her left hand rests upon a German-shaped
shield.
[Illustration]
_Obv._—IMPERATOR CÆSAR TRAJANUS HADRIANUS AUGUSTUS. Laureated head of
Hadrian.
_Rev._—PONTIFEX MAXIMUS TRIBUNITIA POTESTATE CONSUL TERTIUM. A female
figure, with helmet, standing, holding a lance in her left hand, and in
her right a patera, under which is an object that appears to be an
altar.
[Illustration]
_Obv._—Same as the former; but CONSUL SECUNDUM.
_Rev._—Legend same as the former, but in the exergue JUSTITIA. A female
seated; in her right hand a patera, in her left a spear.
[Illustration]
_Obv._—Same as the two former.
_Rev._—Same as in the former, but in the exergue. FEL PR (Felicitas
Populi Romani). A female seated; in her right hand a caduceus, in her
left a cornucopia.
[Illustration]
_Obv._—SEVERUS AUGUSTUS PARTHICUS MAXIMUS. Laureated head of the
emperor.
_Rev._—PROVIDENTIA AUGUSTORUM. The figure of a female standing, with a
globe at her feet.
The coins of Hadrian are remarkably bold and sharp, and cannot have been
long in circulation before being deposited in the bed where sixteen
centuries of repose awaited them; that of Severus is a good deal
corroded. Besides these, other coins have been found. Brand had one of
Trajan, and he engraves a copper coin of Hadrian; he also had in his
possession one of Antoninus Pius. Pennant describes, amongst others, a
coin of Faustina the Elder, and one of Lucius Verus. Hodgson saw coins
of Gordian and Magnentius, all of which had been obtained from the same
spot.
The coins posterior to the time of Hadrian were probably deposited
during the repairs and alterations which the bridge received after its
original construction in A.D. 120.
[Sidenote: CHARACTER OF THE BRIDGE.]
It is probable that the ancient bridge had no stone arches, but was
provided with a horizontal road-way of timber. Pennant[64] who derived
his information from the workmen, says, that ‘the old piers seem
originally to have been formed without any springs for arches. This was
a manner of building used by the Romans; witness the bridge built over
the Danube by Trajan, at Severin, whose piers, I believe, still exist.’
The foundations of the piers of three Roman bridges in the region of the
Wall, still remain—one across the Tyne, at CORSTOPITUM, one across the
North Tyne, at CILURNUM, and another across the Reed-water, at
HABITANCUM; an examination of these has induced me to believe that they,
at least, had no arches. The piers are of a size and strength sufficient
to withstand the thrust of the waters without the aid of an arch; and in
one at least of these cases, the requisite spring of the arch would have
raised the road to an inconvenient height. An experienced mason who
examined carefully the ruins of the bridge at HABITANCUM told me that he
observed that all the stones which encumbered the spot were square, none
of them having the shape of stones used in building arches. It is
certain that in the mediæval period the Newcastle bridge had a road-way
of timber; for Matthew of Paris tells us that, A.D. 1248, it, and the
greater part of the town were destroyed by fire.
[Sidenote: SUPPOSED MEDAL OF THE BRIDGE.]
Brand, misled by the early numismatists, conceived that the bridge
across the Tyne had been honoured by a commemorative medal. He says—
Two coins appear to have been struck upon the building of two bridges
by this emperor; one is doubtless to be referred to that of Rome; may
not the other have been intended to commemorate the work we are now
considering? One of the bridges marked on these coins has seven, the
other five arches. The Tiber being a very inconsiderable river, when
compared with the Tyne, we must therefore claim that with seven
arches—especially as we find a view of the Pons Ælius at Rome in
Piranesi’s collection, without the modern ornaments, where it is
represented as consisting of exactly five arches.[65]
Alas! for a theory so beautiful and so grateful to the feelings of
Newcastle antiquaries! Mr. Akerman, in his work on rare and inedited
Roman coins, has pronounced the relentless verdict—‘The medallion with
the _Pont Ælius_, quoted by the early numismatic writers, is a modern
fabrication.’
It is perhaps too much to suppose that all the arches of the mediæval
bridge rested upon Roman foundations, but it is more than probable that
the piers of the original structure would be at least as numerous as
those of its successor. The mediæval bridge had twelve arches.
[Sidenote: ORIGIN OF THE NAME PONS ÆLII.]
No altar or other inscribed stone has been found to confirm the opinion
that Newcastle was the ancient PONS ÆLII. Brand was ‘of opinion that the
inscriptions belonging to the station of PONS ÆLII are all built up in
the old keep of the Castle, and that a rich treasure of this kind will
some time or other be discovered, lurking in its almost impregnable
walls, by future antiquaries.’ May the antiquary never be born that
shall behold this treasure! Such evidence is, however, scarcely needed
to lead us to the ancient designation of the place. The fact that PONS
ÆLII occurs in the Notitia between SEGEDUNUM and CONDERCUM, and that
Newcastle lies between the modern representatives of these two stations,
Wallsend and Benwell, is strong presumption in favour of the theory, and
the fact that a Roman bridge here crossed the Tyne, renders it almost
indubitable. This structure took the name of the Bridge of Ælius, after
Hadrian,[66] who was of the Ælian family, and the bridge gave name to
the station. The Notitia informs us that PONS ÆLII was governed by the
tribune of the cohort of the Cornovii, ‘a people,’ says Hodgson, ‘whose
name is unnoticed by all the ancient geographers I have access to.’
[Sidenote: THE CASTLE OF NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE.]
Before leaving the station of PONS ÆLII, a reference to the mediæval
structure—the Norman keep—which gives the town its modern name, may be
allowed. It is the most perfect specimen of Norman castrametation in the
kingdom; and a careful examination of its structure will yield a more
correct view of the mode of warfare adopted at the time of its erection,
and of the mournful condition of society then existing, than the fullest
verbal description could give. Within a recent period its passages have
been cleared and its portals opened, so as to afford the antiquary an
opportunity of examining it thoroughly. The Corporation of Newcastle,
whose property it is, have, in this respect, set an example which might
with advantage be followed by the national government. To the student of
the Wall, however, the collection of Roman antiquities which the castle
contains, will be the object of greatest interest. In the number and
importance of its altars and inscribed stones, it excels every other
museum in Britain. As the Castle contains so many of the spoils of the
Wall, it is much to be wished that it could be made the depository of
all that have been discovered on the line. Numerous individual objects
of interest are scattered over the country, and he who would examine
them all must travel several hundred miles, and propitiate the favour of
many private gentlemen, as well as public bodies. Documents illustrative
of the history of a country may be regarded as the property of the
country, so far at least, as to be made easily accessible to all. PONS
ÆLII is the fitting place to deposit those antiquities of the Wall which
cannot be carefully preserved on the spot where the Romans originally
placed them.
[Sidenote: ROAD TO BENWELL.]
The reader will probably now be glad to disentangle himself from the
intricacies of PONS ÆLII, and to pursue with rapid steps the course of
the Wall westward.
Between Newcastle and Benwell-hill, the traces of the works are faint
but interesting. The turnpike road runs upon the bed of the prostrate
Wall, so that, except occasionally in a neighbouring building, not one
stone of it is to be seen; its constant companion, the north fosse, may,
however, be recognized in a kind of depression or slack, which runs
nearly all the way parallel with the road on the traveller’s right hand.
On his left, he will sometimes be able to discern with tolerable
certainty the course of the Vallum. A small, but well defined portion of
it, is met with immediately after leaving the town, behind a row of
houses, appropriately termed Adrianople. Though the stone wall has
perished, this humble earth-work has survived the accidents of seventeen
eventful centuries! Its days, however, are now numbered; a contiguous
quarry is making rapid encroachments upon it.
[Sidenote: CONDERCUM.]
CONDERCUM.—About two miles from Newcastle, and near the modern village
of Benwell, stood the third station of the line, CONDERCUM.
The present turnpike road runs through it, occupying, in all
probability, very nearly the site of its ancient _via principalis_. So
feeble, however, are the traces of it which remain, that the wayfarer
who does not scrutinize the spot very narrowly, will pass on his journey
without knowing that he is treading ground once jealously guarded by
imperial power—the scene, for centuries, of a crowded city’s joys and
fears.
The situation of the camp is good; without being much exposed, it
commands an extensive prospect in every direction. Northwards, looking
over the grounds of Fenham, the Simonside hills appear in the distance,
and still more remote, is the lofty range of Cheviot. To the south is
the vale of Ravensworth, which is exceeded by the vale of Clwyd only in
magnitude, not in beauty, and to the south-west, the lordly Tyne threads
its way through the richest of landscapes.
The sunny slope, south of the station, was favourable for the erection
of the suburban buildings of the occupants of the camp, the foundations
of several having been discovered.
In Horsley’s days, the ramparts were large and distinct; now, their
surface is chiefly marked by a general elevation, occasioned probably by
the accumulated ruins of the ancient fort. It contains in all a space of
nearly five acres. Gordon conceived that the Wall was continued right
through the station. This would have divided it into two distinct parts.
As Horsley and Brand prove, the Wall came up to its eastern and western
ramparts, but did not pass through it. The northern wall of the station
itself was a sufficient defence in that quarter. About a third of the
station was to the north of the line of the Wall, the remaining
two-thirds were within it. The Vallum, Horsley tells us, fell in with
the southern rampart.
The portion north of the turnpike road is at present under tillage. In
Brand’s days it was covered with a plantation. The man who first
ploughed it told me that in doing so, his horse, on one occasion, sank
up to its middle in traversing some chambers that had been insecurely
covered. The quantity of Roman pottery which is found in this portion of
the camp is remarkable. Fragments may be seen at every step. The
peculiar character of the Roman earthenware, especially of the
coral-coloured kind, denominated Samian, renders this an interesting
evidence of Roman occupation.
The larger portion of the station, that to the south of the road, is
enclosed within the walls of Benwell-park. The inequalities of its
grassy surface indicate the lines of its streets, and the position of
some of its principal buildings. Near its centre is a large mound, which
would probably reward examination. The southern rampart, with its fosse,
is very distinct.
[Sidenote: BENWELL.]
Two hypocausts have been discovered in connexion with this station; one
within its walls, close to the south side of the road, and between forty
and fifty yards from the eastern rampart, the other without them, and
about three hundred yards to the south-west. Of the latter building a
plan is given by Brand. It contained eight or nine apartments, five of
which had floors supported upon pillars. The floors consisted of ‘flags
covered with a composition of various hard ingredients, about eighteen
inches thick, such as small pieces of brick and blue and red pots, mixed
up with run lime.’ The pillars were all of stone, and were so arranged
as to allow hot air to circulate beneath the apartments. The idea
generally entertained of these arrangements is, that they were intended
for hot baths and sudatories. In pursuance of this opinion, Mr. Shafto,
who discovered this hypocaust, says: ‘Here were found many square bricks
with holes in the middle, which were probably joined together by way of
pipes, to conduct the water from the top of the hill, where there was
also the appearance of other baths, and where, probably, springs had
been, but since drained by the colliery.’ However much the Romans in
their own luxurious city may have been addicted to the indulgence of the
hot-bath and the sweating-room, it may well be doubted, whether, in this
cold climate, they would have any great desire for it, or if they had,
whether the dread realities of war would allow them to make, on an
enemy’s frontier, erections so extensive as this has been, for such a
purpose. Next to food, warmth would be their most urgent demand, and a
more effectual mode of maintaining a uniform temperature in their
dwellings could not be devised than that which the hypocaust supplied.
[Illustration]
Brand tells us that great conduits or sewers, composed of large wrought
stones, were discovered in the north part of the station at the depth of
about a yard and a half.
Several inscribed slabs and small altars have been found in the station.
The most important one of these, which is preserved in the parsonage at
Ryton, is here represented. By comparing it with the Notitia, we learn
the ancient name of the station, and the locality of its original
occupants.
MATRIBVS CAMPEST[RIBVS]
ET GENIO ALÆ PRI[MÆ] HISPANORVM
ASTVRVM [OB VIRTVTEM]
[APPELLATÆ] GORDIANÆ TITVS]
AGRIPPA PRÆ[FECTVS] TEMPLVM A S[OLO]
[RES]TITVIT.
To the Campestral Mothers,
and to the Genius of the first wing of Spanish
Astures, on account of their valour,
styled Gordiana, Titus
Agrippa, their prefect, this temple, from the ground,
rebuilt.
The Notitia records that the præfect ‘_alæ primæ Astorum_’ was stationed
at CONDERCUM. This slab, reads Ast_u_rum, not Ast_o_rum. At two other
stations the same people resided; at CILURNUM, the Notitia places the
præfect ‘_alæ secundæ Astorum_,’ and at Æsica, the tribune ‘_cohortis
primæ Astorum_.’ At both these forts, as well as in the case immediately
before us, inscriptions have been found which are written Ast_u_rum; the
probability, therefore, is, that a clerical error has crept into the
Notitia, and that it was the Astures, not the Asti (a people of
Liguria), who garrisoned these posts. The Astures were a people from the
eastern part of the modern Asturias, in Spain. 'Under the empire, the
term _ala_ was applied to regiments of horse, raised, it would seem,
with very few exceptions, in the provinces.'[67] This fractured slab,
therefore, furnishes us with the information that the camp at Benwell
was anciently named CONDERCUM, and that it was garrisoned by a Spanish
cavalry regiment. It supplies other facts. This regiment was styled,
probably on account of some illustrious achievement, Gordiana. The
emperor Gordian, from whom this title is derived, began his reign in the
year 238. We have thus a proof of the continued occupation of the camp
until a date subsequent to this period. The event recorded by the
inscription is to the same effect. A temple which had been erected,
probably at the first formation of the station, had through time or the
chances of war, become so entirely dilapidated, as to require
rebuilding, and Titus Agrippa accomplished the work. The Romans,
although they had at this time been long in the occupation of the
isthmus, had then no thoughts of relinquishing it. The woodland deities,
to whom the temple was dedicated, will require separate discussion
afterwards. [Illustration: ‘altar] To the same occasion will be referred
a remarkable altar inscribed to the three Lamiæ, which was discovered at
this station. Two altars[68] of less importance, which were found here,
may at once be disposed of. They are dedicated to one of the favourite
deities of Rome—Mars. The focus, or place for burning the offering, is
deep and well marked in each of them. They are small domestic altars,
before which the soldier would perform his private devotions. As such,
they give us a little insight into the heart and feelings of the
worshipper.
DEO M
ARTI V
ICTOR[I]
VINDI[CI]
V[OTVM]
To the god
Mars
The Conqueror _and_
Avenger
In performance of a vow.
Along with this altar, as Brand tells us, were found two stones
resembling pine-apples. This is by no means an unusual ornament of the
works along the line. The pine-apple ornament is frequently introduced
in the stained-glass works of the middle ages. [Illustration: Altar to
Mars] As the fruit to which it bears a resemblance could not be known in
Europe until after the discovery of America, the origin of the figure is
an interesting speculation. I am disposed to think it is of Mithraic
origin, and that the prototype of it was a mass of flame proceeding from
the torch usually represented in the statues of that deity. The other
altar, here given, is inscribed—
ARTI
IENV
ANIV[S]
V[OTVM]
To the god
Mars
Jenu-
anius _erected this_
In performance of a vow.
Besides these and some other inscribed stones, many coins have been
found here; amongst them, Brand mentions denarii of Trajan, Hadrian,
Faustina senior, and Domitian; brass coins of Valentinian, Gratianus,
Diocletian, Faustina, and Maxentius, with many others not legible.
Obscene figures are frequently found in Roman stations. They were worn
by females as a religious charm. Benwell has furnished one such example
of a very remarkable kind. Before leaving the station, the inquiring
traveller will do well to examine the stones of the park-wall. He will
soon detect many of Roman mould, whose faces have been scarred by the
blasts of many centuries. The larger ones have been derived from the
Wall—the smaller, from the curtain wall of the station, or the dwellings
erected within it.
[Sidenote: CONDERCUM.]
The pleasant village of Benwell lies a little to the south-west of the
station. ‘The old tower of Benwell-hall,’ says Bourne, 'was the place
where the prior of Tynemouth resided some part of the summer, and the
chapel, which Mr. Shaftoe opens and supplies for the good of the people
of his village, was the prior’s domestic chapel.' Who that visits the
spot will say that the prior who made the selection was not a man of
taste? Benwell, as Horsley remarks, is not improbably thought to have
its name from the northern word _ben_, (Saxon _binnan_) signifying
within, and _well_ for wall, as being seated within, or on the south
side of the Wall.[69] Whitaker derives the Roman name of the station,
CONDERCUM, from the Celtic _Cond ar gui_, the height upon the water.[70]
The river being near, the description is apposite.
Leaving CONDERCUM, we again pursue our journey westward. The road for
several miles running upon the base of the Wall, the facing stones may
not unfrequently be seen for some distance together, protruding through
the ‘metal.’ This used to be more the case formerly than at present, for
since the diversion of the traffic from the road to the rail, motives of
economy have induced the road surveyors to quarry, in some places, the
last remnants of this great work of antiquity, for materials with which
to repair the highway. The north fosse, as we pursue our journey,
becomes more distinct on the right of the road.
[Sidenote: THE WALL AT DENTON.]
Descending Benwell-hill, the village of East Denton is reached. Here we
meet for the first time with a fragment of the Wall. The accompanying
wood-cut exhibits its present state. William Hutton describes the
interesting relic with becoming reverence.
[Illustration: The Wall at East Denton]
At Denton Dean, situated at the bottom of Benwell-hill, the great road
veers a few yards to the right, that is into Severus’ ditch, and gives
us for the first time a sight of that most venerable piece of
antiquity, THE WALL, which is six yards south of the road, and twenty
short of the brook I am going to pass. The fragment is thirty-six feet
long, has three courses of facing stones on one side, and four on the
other, and is exactly nine feet thick. An apple tree grows on the top.
It has lost a course of facing-stones since Hutton saw it, and the apple
tree is but the shadow of what it was.
The turnpike road, which usually runs upon the site of the Wall,
uniformly swerves to the right when passing a village. The truth is,
nearly every house and hamlet in the district has sprung out of the
Wall. In many instances a mile-castle, slightly added to, has formed a
mediæval dwelling of some strength. The nucleus thus provided, became,
in the course of time, clustered round with contiguous habitations, so
that when, after the last season of strife with which the borders were
visited, the road came to be constructed, motives of economy required
that these spots of increased value should be avoided.
Beyond the burn, the ground again rises, and the Wall, stretching
onwards in a line with the road, forms a distinct, but turf-covered
mound. At the distance of a field to the south of it, the Vallum is seen
in greater distinctness than before. Both of the aggers and the
intervening fosse may be clearly made out. Some young ash-trees grow in
the ditch.
[Sidenote: DENTON HALL.]
Advancing a little further, we have Denton-hall, formerly the seat of
the literary Mrs. Montague, on the right; attracted by her influence,
many of the great spirits of the age were occasionally found to be
assembled within its walls. Very nearly opposite the hall, a larger mass
of ruin than usual betokens the site of a mile-castle.
Ascending the hill from West Denton, the fosse of the Murus is very
distinctly seen. The road is elevated two or three feet above the
natural level of the ground, the Wall, probably some courses high,
forming its nucleus.
On the left hand, the lines of the Vallum are feebly indicated, but by
extending our glance some distance backwards and forwards, we can, with
tolerable certainty, distinguish the artificial mounds from the natural
heavings of the surface.
[Sidenote: CHAPEL-HOUSE.]
Passing the fourth mile-stone, we arrive at Chapel-houses. This name is
of sufficiently frequent occurrence along the line to suggest a
momentary inquiry into its origin. In the early ages of Christianity, a
mile-castle may have occasionally been the resort of the worshippers of
the true God; or in the ‘troublesome times’ of border warfare, when the
church not unfrequently shared in the general devastation, it may have
been set apart as a place for the confirmation of matrimonial vows, and
for the performance of religious rites.
From the crown of this hill we have one of the finest views which
Northumberland can afford. The Tyne, in all its glittering beauty,
stretches far before us. Its southern bank is crowned by the pretty
village of Ryton, its left is variegated with the once beautiful, but
now furnace-fuming, Wylam. An amphitheatre of hills shuts in the distant
scene.[71]
Horsley describes some ruined ramparts, called the Castle-steads near
Chapel-houses, to the south of both Vallum and Wall. They were probably
temporary encampments and have now disappeared.
[Sidenote: WALBOTTLE-DEAN.]
Before crossing Walbottle[72]-dean, the Vallum, which is very distinct,
and the Wall (_i. e._ the road) approach each other, apparently for
mutual support. There are no traces of a bridge across the ravine.
As we ascend the next hill, and pass Throckley,[73] we have, for the
most part, the fosse on the right hand, and the mounds of the Vallum on
the left, very boldly developed. By the time the traveller has advanced
thus far, he will have learnt the necessity of bearing in mind that he
is in a mining district. If he overlook this circumstance, he will be in
danger of mistaking the track of some old ‘waggon way’ for the terraced
lines of Roman cultivation, or an old ‘pit-heap’ for an indubitable
British barrow.
[Illustration:
Cha^s Richardson, Delt. John Storey. Lith.
THE WORKS AT HEDDON-ON-THE WALL
]
After passing Throckley, just where a gate on the left hand enters the
field from the road, a mound covered, in winter at least, with greener
herbage than the contiguous ground indicates the site of a mile-castle.
A little further on, a range of houses of peculiar appearance, called
the Frenchman’s-row, attracts the eye. It was the residence, after the
first French revolution, of a number of refugees. The dial which
ornaments the Row is of their fabrication. The building is now used as a
poor-house.
[Sidenote: HEDDON-ON-THE-WALL.]
On the top of the little eminence, at which we arrive before reaching
Heddon-on-the-Wall, the north fosse is deeper and bolder than it has
hitherto appeared; it must be nearly in its original perfection. The
works of the Vallum, about fifty yards to the south, are also finely
developed. The ditch, in both cases, is cut through the free-stone rock.
Here, also, if the traveller will forsake the turnpike, for the road, as
usual, diverges to the right in order to avoid the village, he may see a
fragment of the Wall much longer and somewhat higher than the one at
Denton. Its north face is destroyed, but about five courses of the
southern face are perfect. The accompanying lithograph shews the present
state of the Barrier here. The Wall is in the foreground, while in the
distance (looking eastward) the section of the north fosse, and of the
works of the Vallum, is distinctly seen.
About a mile north of the village is a striking prominence called
Heddon-law. Horsley remarks—‘Not far from Heddon-on-the-Wall have been
some remarkable tumuli.’
The ditch of the Vallum cuts right through the village, its lowest dip
forming the village pond; it is rather remarkable that in such a
situation, it should not long ago have been obliterated.
Descending the hill on which Heddon-on-the-Wall stands, the lines of the
Barrier keep close together, and not without reason. The crag on the
south, now the scene of extensive quarrying operations, completely
commands them. Surely a post must have been maintained on this eminence
in the days of Roman occupation, though it had only been for the sake of
a look-out.
Passing the eighth mile-stone, where the Vallum is in good condition, we
approach the fourth great station of the Barrier. A road, crossing the
turnpike at right angles, is close to its east rampart.
[Sidenote: VINDOBALA.]
VINDOBALA.—The station now called Rutchester, stands on flat ground, but
commands a considerable prospect. The Notitia places here the tribune of
the first cohort of the Frixagi, a people [Sidenote: RUTCHESTER.] whose
country does not seem to be mentioned by any ancient geographer. The
inside dimensions of this station, from north to south, are 178 yards,
and from east to west, 135; it consequently contains nearly five acres.
The Wall started each way from the north side of its east and west
gates; so that a a greater portion of the station lay on the north than
on the south side of it, as is shewn in the plan of it, Plate II. At
present, the turnpike road runs between these portions; that on the
north has been all ploughed, and three of its sides sloped into the
ditch; its general outlines may, however, be distinguished; the southern
part is irregular in its surface, with heaps of ruins, still covered
with sward.[74] In Horsley’s time, the northern part was sufficiently
perfect to enable him to discern six turrets in it, 'one at each corner,
one at each side of the gate, and one between each corner, and those
adjoining to the gate.'[75] The Vallum seems to have joined the station
in a line with its southern rampart. The ditch on the western side is
still tolerably distinct. The suburbs have been to the south of the
station, but their site has recently been disturbed by the opening of an
extensive quarry which has supplied large quantities of the stone used
in carrying the railway over the Tyne, and through Newcastle.
On the brow of the hill, just west of the station, there is still to be
seen, hewn out of the solid rock, what Wallis calls a coffin. It has
more the appearance of a cistern. It is twelve feet long, four broad,
and two deep, and has a hole close to the bottom at one end. When
discovered, it had a partition of masonry across it, three feet from one
end, and contained many decayed bones, teeth and vertebræ, and an iron
implement resembling a three-footed candlestick. In the immediate
vicinity of this spot, three fine Roman altars were discovered in 1844;
they are now in the possession of Mr. James, of Otterburn, and are
described in the Archæologia Æliana, iv. 5.
[Sidenote: VINDOBALA.]
The etymology of the name of this station seems to be tolerably plain.
‘VINDOBALA,’ says Whitaker, ‘signifies merely the fort upon the heights.
_Bala_ remains, to the present period, the Welsh and Irish appellation
of a town.’ I have received a similar account of the word from those
acquainted with the Gaelic language. The station, however, though
possessing the advantage of a gentle elevation above the contiguous
ground, does not stand upon a lofty eminence.
No inscriptions have been found here mentioning the first cohort of the
Frixagi, which, according to the Notitia, was quartered in VINDOBALA.
This is of little consequence; the names of the contiguous stations both
east and west having been ascertained, the order of the stations in the
Notitia is sufficient evidence as to the identity of this with the
ancient VINDOBALA.
The farm-house at Rutchester partly consists of an ancient building,
possessing great strength of masonry. A gothic carving on the interior
wall of its principal apartment shews that it is not of Roman
construction. It was probably a mediæval stronghold, made out of the
ruins of the station. It contains a well, now boarded over, which may be
of Roman date.
Most of the stones of the farm buildings and adjacent fences are Roman,
and one or two fragments of Roman inscriptions built up in the stables,
besides some small altars preserved on the premises, give interest to
the place.
[Sidenote: MURAL HOSPITALITY.]
Mr. Hutton is usually very particular in giving a detail of the kind of
entertainment he met with at the various points of his journey. The
recital of his reception at Rutchester kindles into poetry:
I saw old Sir at dinner sit,
Who ne'er said, "Stranger, take a bit,"
Yet might, although a poet said it,
Have saved his beef, and raised his credit.
His own appearance, he tells us, was a little peculiar, and
archæological pursuits not being in vogue in that day, the farmer
probably had grave doubts as to the propriety of tempting the
enthusiastic old man to prolong his stay.
It has frequently been my lot to receive the kindly attentions of the
inhabitants of the mural region. Often have my eyes, bedimmed with
fatigue, been ‘enlightened’ by partaking of the barley cake of the
cottager, (excellent food for a thirsty climb) as well as the costlier
viands of the farm tenant, or proprietor. Never shall I forget visiting,
on one occasion, a frail tenement near Chesterholm. Its only inmate, an
old woman, in the spirit of regal hospitality, asked me to join with her
in partaking of her only luxury—her pipe. I recently observed with
regret, that the cottage was tenantless.
[Sidenote: NORTHUMBRIAN YEOMEN.]
The inhabitants of that part of the district which is remote from towns,
do not affect the dress, or the speech, or the manners of polished
citizens. They like to know a person before they welcome him, and make
their approaches cautiously. But if slow in grasping the hand, they do
it heartily and sincerely. There is scarcely a latch in the wilder
regions of the country, that I would not freely lift in the assurance of
a smiling welcome. Often as I have groaned under the toils to which my
present undertaking has exposed me, I have reason to rejoice, that the
Barrier of the Lower Isthmus has been the means of making me acquainted
with many of the true-hearted and intelligent yeomen, both of my own
county, and of Cumberland, whom I should not otherwise have known.
Although their dialect may sound strangely to a southern ear, yet it is
English in its native purity and strength; a great authority, Mr.
Thorpe, having said, 'I believe the genuine Anglian dialect to be that
which is usually denominated the Northumbrian.'[76]
Proceeding, now, after this long digression, on our journey, we pass, on
the left hand side of the road, an inn generally called the Iron-sign.
Some of the buildings are entirely composed of Roman stones. In the
erection nearest the road are three centurial stones. One has on it COH
VIII, another has the word LVPI, probably to announce the fact, that the
portion of the Wall in which it was originally inserted had been built
by the troop under the command of the centurion Lupus; the third is
illegible.
[Sidenote: HARLOW-HILL.]
Passing the ninth milestone, we stand upon the top of an eminence from
which there is a good view of Harlow-hill, and of the adjacent country.
The Wall here slightly changes its course for the purpose of ascending
the summit before it. The Vallum keeps company with the Wall for a short
distance, but eventually swerves to the south with the design of passing
along the base of the hill; it rejoins the Wall on the other side. This
is an arrangement which we should not have encountered had the Vallum
been intended for an independent barrier against a northern foe. The
north fosse is here very distinct, forming a deep groove on the left of
the road all the way to Harlow-hill.
Just before entering the village of Harlow-hill, some portions of the
heart of the Wall may be seen, and a careful scrutiny will enable us to
ascertain its course through the village, a part of its foundation, of
the full width (nine feet), yet remaining. As usual, in passing through
the village, the turnpike road leaves the Wall for a short distance.
There was a mile-castle at Harlow-hill, which, Horsley says, had a high
situation, and a large prospect; all traces of it are now gone. A field,
about half a mile north of Harlow-hill, bears the ominous name of
Grave-riggs; the traditionary account of its origin being, that after a
bloody battle in ‘the troublesome times,’ it became the resting-place of
slaughtered multitudes.
The village and ancient stronghold of Welton (a corruption no doubt of
Wall-town) is about half a mile to the south of the road. The fortlet is
entirely built of Roman stones. The adjoining mansion, at present
occupied by the farm tenant, bears the date of 1616. Its large hall,
with ample hearth and spacious bow-windows, is redolent of ancient
hospitality. In the memory of the villagers, the freaks of a benevolent
ghost, named Silky, which frequented the old tower, and the feats of
strength performed by William of Welton, still survive the weekly
intrusion of the newspaper.
[Sidenote: WALL-HOUSES.]