At Wall-houses, on the south side of the road, traces of a mile-castle

are obscurely visible; between this point and the fourteenth mile-stone

all the lines of the Barrier are developed in a degree that is quite

inspiriting. The north fosse is, for a considerable distance, planted

with trees, which will for some time save it from the envious plough.

[Illustration:

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

THE WORKS NEAR CARR HILL.

]

[Sidenote: THE VALLUM AT DOWN-HILL.]

Immediately after passing the farm house of Carr-hill, an appearance of

great interest presents itself. The works of the Vallum are coming

boldly forward in company with the Wall, when suddenly, and at a decided

angle, they change their course, evidently to avoid mounting a small

barrow-like elevation, called Down-hill.[77] The Wall pursues its course

straightforward. The view, exhibited on the opposite page, taken from

the edge of the hill, looking eastward, shews this arrangement. The

road, with the ditch on its north side, is the representative of the

Wall. The Vallum and Wall again converge as they approach HUNNUM. These

appearances strongly corroborate the opinion that all the lines of the

Barrier are but parts of one great engineering scheme. If the Vallum had

been constructed as an independent defence against a northern foe, and

nearly a century before the Wall, we cannot conceive that an elevation,

which so entirely commands the Vallum, would have been left open to the

enemy; especially as it would have been just as easy to take the Vallum

along the north flank of the hill as along the south. Horsley, who

advocates the opinion that the north agger is Agricola’s Military Way,

that the southern aggers were the work of Hadrian, and that the Wall was

not erected till the time of Severus, is rather at a loss to account for

these appearances. He says:—

Before we come to Halton-chesters, somewhat appears that is pretty

remarkable. Hadrian’s Vallum running full upon a little hill, turns at

once round about the skirt of it, leaving the hill on the north, and

thereby, one would think, rendering the Vallum itself a weak defence

at that part. The north agger goes close to the south side of this

hill; so that they were also obliged to carry the Vallum round the

hill in order to preserve the parallelism. If the north agger was the

Old Military Way, and prior to the Vallum, there was nothing improper

in carrying it on the south skirts of the hill; and then when the

Vallum came afterwards to be built, (for a defence, or place of

retreat) they were under a kind of necessity to form it after this

manner.

Since so able a man as Horsley can devise no better defence of his

theory, it may well be abandoned altogether. It cannot be conceived

that, under a rule so vigorous as Hadrian’s, the builders of the Barrier

would be allowed to give the enemy a material advantage, in order to

save themselves the trouble of reconstructing the Military Way for a

short space.

Down-hill bears marks of having been quarried at some distant period for

its limestone. A little to the south of the Vallum are some circular

lines, which an experienced observer tells me, are the remains of

‘sow-kilns.’ It would, perhaps, be rash to claim for them a primeval

date, though in their appearance there is nothing inconsistent with the

supposition.

[Sidenote: HALTON RED-HOUSE.]

Halton Red-house is next passed on the right hand. It is entirely built

of stones taken from the neighbouring station; they have, however, been

fresh dressed. In the farm-yard is a rectangular stone trough, which was

found in the station, and which its owner describes as a ‘smiddy trow,’

and shews upon the edge the place which had been worn away by the

attrition of the blacksmith’s irons. It might, indeed, serve very well

for such a purpose, but troughs of this kind are of too frequent

occurrence in the buildings along the line to allow us to suppose that

this was their usual application. They are generally very rudely carved

both outside and in, and not unfrequently are formed of an irregular

unsquared block of stone. I think that they were used for domestic and

culinary purposes. There is a fragment of one lying in the hypocaust at

Chesters, the edge of which is worn down by the sharpening of knives

upon it.

We now approach the fifth station of the line,

[Sidenote: Hunnum.]

HUNNUM.—This ancient abode of Rome’s warriors, with its walls, streets,

temples, markets, and aqueducts, is nearly one unbroken sweep of

luxuriant vegetation. The traveller may readily pass by it, as Hutton

did, without discerning symptoms of Roman occupation. A small,

half-ruined hut stands within its area, a fitting emblem of the

surrounding desolation. It is almost needless to name a city, which has

no existence, but for convenience sake,[Sidenote: HALTON-CHESTERS.]

Horsley conferred upon it the style and title of Halton-chesters. The

castle of Halton is close by.

The form of the station is peculiar, as is shewn in the plan of it,

Plate II. The Wall joins the station at about one-third the distance

between its northern and southern extremity. The portion of the station

which is to the north of the Wall is not so broad as the part to the

south of it. The only reason which has been assigned for this is, that,

as Horsley observes, 'there is a descent or hollow ground joining to the

west side of this part, so that the work could not be carried on any

farther that way without much trouble and expense; though, it must be

owned, the Romans don't usually seem to have valued either the one or

the other'. It is remarkable that in adapting the station to the ground,

they have not given to the wall, at the north east corner, a slanting

direction, as would have been most convenient, but have, as usual,

adhered to the rectangular form.

The turnpike road, keeping the line of the Wall, crosses the station

from the site of the eastern to that of the western gateway. The section

north of the road was brought under cultivation about twenty years ago,

when immense quantities of stones were removed. It is now called the

‘Brunt-ha’penny field’ in consequence of the number of corroded copper

coins which were found in it. The portion south of the road has a gentle

slope and a fair exposure to the sun. It has not recently been ploughed,

and consequently exhibits, with considerable distinctness, the lines of

the outer entrenchments and ditches, as well as the contour of the

ruined buildings and streets of the interior. The suburbs have covered a

fine tract of pasture-ground to the south. The valley on the west side

of the station would materially strengthen the position in this quarter.

The excavations made in the northern section, a few years ago, revealed

several points of interest. The careful manner in which the stones, even

of the foundation, were squared and chiselled, struck beholders with

surprise. The thickness, of one part at least, of the west wall of the

station I have been assured, by a person who superintended the work, was

nine feet.[78] In the angle of the north-west portion of the station,

just outside the Wall, was a large heap, containing numerous fragments

of Roman pottery, the bones of animals, the horns of deer, and other

refuse matter—it must, in short, have been the dung-hill of the camp.

Even now, although the plough has passed repeatedly over it, its

position is shewn by the darkness of the soil. On the same occasion,

there was laid open an aqueduct of about three quarters of a mile in

length, which seems to have conducted water from a spring or burn in the

high ground north of the place where Stagshawbank fair is held. My

informant, who traced it for between two and three hundred yards, says,

that it was formed of stone, and was covered with flags.[79] In crossing

the valley to the west of the fort, it must have been supported on

pillars, or a mound. The most remarkable circumstance to be noticed

respecting this water-course is, that it was on the north, or the

enemy’s side of the Wall. It is scarcely probable that the Romans would

depend for that portion of their daily supply, which was required for

drinking and culinary purposes, on so precarious a source; but it is not

unlikely that the water so introduced was meant to fill the fosse to the

north of the station, and thus to give the additional security of a wet

ditch to a portion of the camp, which, though much exposed, possessed no

natural strength of situation.[80] Crossing the station diagonally from

below the eastern gateway to the north-west angle, a sewer or drain was

found, of considerable dimensions. My informant crept along it for about

one hundred yards. The bottom of it was filled with hardened mud,

imbedded in which, were found a lamp and many bone pins, such as those

with which the Romans fastened their woollen garments.

The most interesting discovery made on this occasion, however, was a

suite of apartments, which have been usually supposed to be ‘the Baths.’

The building was one hundred and thirty-two feet in length, and

contained not fewer than eleven rooms. The first of these was

forty-three feet long, and twenty wide, and was the place, it has been

conjectured, ‘where the bathers waited, and employed themselves in

walking and talking, till their turn came to bathe.’ The others beyond

are supposed to have been set apart for the purposes of undressing,

taking the cold, the tepid, and the hot-bath, sweating, anointing, and

robing. If the Roman prefects allowed the most important buildings of

their frontier camps to be devoted to the enjoyment of the bath in all

its elaborate details, they were more indulgent than some modern

generals would be. That one or two of the smaller rooms have been

devoted to ablution is not unlikely, this range of buildings having

contained two carefully constructed cisterns which may have been used as

baths. Several of the rooms had hanging floors, with flues beneath;

pipes of burnt clay, fixed to the walls by T-headed holdfasts,

communicated with the flues below, and conveyed the hot air up the sides

of the apartments. But no provision for heating large quantities of

water was discovered, such as we might have expected to find, if the

whole building had been used for bathing.

The whole of this interesting structure was removed as the process of

exhumation proceeded. Our only consolation is, that a minute and able

description of it has been left us by Mr. Hodgson.

[Illustration: The Works near Carr-hill]

Several inscribed and sculptured stones have been discovered here.

Camden, in 1600, found a monumental slab, erected to the memory of a

soldier of the Ala Sabiniana; the regiment which the Notitia represents

as being quartered at HUNNUM. A stone, bearing the inscription, LEG. II.

AVG. F., _Legio secunda Augusta fecit_, is at Alnwick castle, and

belongs, I think, to this station. Wallis says 'as some labourers were

turning up the foundations here, for the sake of the stones to mend the

road, they met with a centurial stone with the above inscription, within

a civic garland, the crest of the imperial eagle at each end, and that

it was taken into the custody of Sir Edward Blackett. The one here

shewn, though not a centurial stone, must be the one in question.[81] It

is one of the most elegantly carved stones that have been found upon the

line, and closely resembles the style of those erected by the same

legion in the Barrier of the Upper Isthmus. The ornament in the upper

margin, and at the sides, has probably formed the type of one that

prevailed in the Transition Norman and Early English styles.

Several busts of emperors and empresses, preserved about the house and

grounds of Matfen, shew the attention which the ancient inhabitants of

HUNNUM have paid to the decoration of the camp.

[Illustration: Slab—Fulgur Divom]

A little to the west of the station, not far from the gateway, was

recently found the slab which is here figured. Although the inscription

is not deeply cut, it is very legible, and doubtless means—The lightning

of the gods. When any spot was struck with lightning, it was immediately

deemed sacred, and venerated as such by the Romans, being surrounded by

a breastwork of masonry, similar to that put round the mouth of a well.

Conscious guilt makes cowards of the most dauntless warriors! Perhaps

some member of the Sabinian ala, hastening for shelter, and beseeching

meanwhile the protection of Jupiter Tonans, was here arrested on life’s

journey, and summoned to his great account.

Among the minor antiquities found at this station was a particularly

massive finger ring of pure gold, set with an artificial stone, on which

a full-length figure was engraved. It was stolen from lady Blackett, to

whom it belonged, together with the rest of her jewellery.

An intelligent observer informs me, that an ancient road of Roman

construction went direct north from HUNNUM. It, no doubt, soon joined

the eastern branch of the Watling-street which Horsley lays down, part

of whose course is represented in the map accompanying this volume.

[Sidenote: HALTON-CHESTERS.]

Halton-castle is to the south of the station. It is entirely composed of

stones taken from the Roman Wall. In the farm-buildings attached to it,

are some Roman mouldings, and a weathered figure of primeval aspect.

No probable etymological account of the word HUNNUM has yet been

offered. If the word Halton can be supposed to have any affinity with

HUNNUM, besides the initial breathing, this is one of the few instances

in which there is any resemblance between the ancient and modern name of

the stations.

Leaving HUNNUM, we soon reach Stagshawbank-gate, where the ancient

Watling-street crosses the road at right-angles. This Roman Way was

probably first constructed by Agricola, as a means of keeping up a

communication with the garrisons in South Britain, while he was forcing

his way into Scotland. A fort formerly stood here to guard the passage

through the Wall; no trace of it now remains.

[Sidenote: VALLUM NEAR ST. OSWALD’S.]

The earth-works between this point and the crown of the hill descending

to the North Tyne are remarkably perfect. The description which Hutton

gives of them happily holds good at the present moment—

I now travel over a large common, still upon the Wall, with its trench

nearly complete. But what was my surprise when I beheld, thirty yards

on my left, the united works of Agricola and Hadrian, almost perfect!

I climbed over a stone wall to examine the wonder; measured the whole

in every direction; surveyed them with surprise, with delight; was

fascinated, and unable to proceed; forgot I was upon a wild common, a

stranger, and the evening approaching. I had the grandest works under

my eye of the greatest men of the age in which they lived, and of the

most eminent nation then existing; all of which had suffered but

little during the long course of sixteen hundred years. Even hunger

and fatigue were lost in the grandeur before me. If a man writes a

book upon a turnpike road, he cannot be expected to move quick; but,

lost in astonishment, I was not able to move at all.

The first time I visited the spot, this passage, through which there

runs so fine a vein of youthful enthusiasm, was fresh in my

recollection. The shades of evening were beginning to gather round me,

and the blackness of the furze which covered the ground, gave additional

solemnity to the scene. I looked for the venerable old man, as if

expecting still to find him fixed in his enthusiastic trance; but he was

not there. After all, he had moved on; and a few years more removed him

from this scene, to sleep in the church-yard under a humbler and less

durable mound than his favourite general and emperor had here raised!

The section given in page 52, exhibits the state of the works at this

place. The north fosse is very boldly developed between the sixteenth

and eighteenth milestone: the whole of its contents lie strewed on its

outer margin. Near the eighteenth milestone, on the left of the road, is

a mound, which I take to be the remains of a mile-castle. In one part

near here, the Wall, as seen in the road, measures ten feet wide, but it

speedily becomes narrower.

[Sidenote: ST. OSWALD’S CHAPEL.]

Where the ground begins to dip strongly to the North Tyne, St. Oswald’s

chapel stands. On the north side of the road, is a field called

Mould’s-close, in which a number of bones and implements of war have

from time to time been turned up, and which is supposed to be the site

of a battle. The tradition runs, that from the fight which was won here,

England dates her advancing greatness, and that, from the fatal results

of a conflict to be lost on the same ground, she will date her decline.

[Sidenote: BATTLE OF HEAVEN-FIELD.]Hodgson says, ‘Was this the site of

part of the battle of Heaven-field, which Bede says was fought just

north of the Roman Wall, and in memory of which the chapel of St. Oswald

was built?’ That it was, the narrative of the venerable historian will

probably shew—

The place is shewn to this day, and held in much veneration, where

Oswald (A.D. 635), being about to engage (with the ferocious British

king Cadwalla), erected the sign of the holy cross, and on his knees

prayed to God that he would assist his worshippers in their great

distress. It is further reported, that the cross being made in haste,

and the hole dug in which it was to be fixed, the king himself, full

of faith, laid hold of it, and held it with both his hands, till it

was set fast by throwing in the earth; and this done, raising his

voice, he cried to his army, ‘Let us all kneel, and jointly beseech

the true and living God Almighty, in his mercy, to defend us from the

haughty and fierce enemy; for He knows that we have undertaken a just

war for the safety of our nation.’ All did as he had commanded, and

accordingly advancing towards the enemy with the first dawn of day,

they obtained the victory, as their faith deserved. In that place of

prayer very many miraculous cures are known to have been performed, as

a token and memorial of the king’s faith; for even to this day, many

are wont to cut off small chips of the wood of the holy cross, which

being put into water, men or cattle drinking of, or sprinkled with

that water, are immediately restored to health. The place in the

English tongue is called Hefenfeld, or the Heavenly Field.... The same

place is near the Wall with which the Romans formerly enclosed the

island from sea to sea, to restrain the fury of the barbarous nations,

as has been said before. Hither, also, the brothers of the church of

Hagulstad (Hexham), which is not far from thence (it is in the valley

directly below), repair yearly on the day before that on which king

Oswald was afterwards slain, to watch there for the health of his

soul, and having sung many psalms, to offer for him in the morning the

sacrifice of the holy oblation. And since that good custom has spread,

they have lately built and consecrated a church there, which has

attached additional sanctity and honour to that place.[82]

[Illustration:

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

THE WALL AT BRUNTON.

]

A little to the south of the road, at St. Oswald’s-hill-head, is

Fallowfield-fell, where the Written-rock, of which an engraving is

given, page 102, may yet be seen. The face of the rock occupied by the

inscription is four feet long; the letters are distinct.[83] Continuing

to descend the hill, we come to Plane-tree-field, where on the left of

the road, a conspicuous piece of the Wall remains. It is about

thirty-six yards long, and has, in some places, five courses of

facing-stones entire; the grout of the interior which rises still

higher, gives root to some fine old thorns. This sight may be rendered

more interesting by the antiquary’s carrying his eye forward, and

tracing the Wall in its onward course; in its modern representative, the

turnpike road, it is seen, (having crossed the North Tyne, and passed

the station of CILURNUM,) bounding up the opposite hill in its usual

unflinching manner, and making for the wastes and mountains which it is

speedily to traverse.

[Sidenote: THE WALL AT BRUNTON.]

In the grounds of Brunton, a little below this, a small piece of the

Wall is to be seen in a state of very great perfection. It is seven feet

high, and presents nine courses of facing-stones entire. The mortar of

the five lower courses is good; the face of the south side is gone. The

ditch also is here well developed. The opposite lithograph gives an

accurate representation of what Hutton calls ‘this grand exhibition.’

The altar which, at present, stands as it is placed in the drawing,

formerly discharged the office of a gate-post at the entry of the yard

of St. Oswald’s chapel.

[Sidenote: BRIDGE OVER THE NORTH TYNE.]

For some reason, which it is hard to divine, the turnpike road now

recedes from the Wall, and crosses the river at Chollerford, nearly

half-a-mile above the spot where the Roman bridge spanned it.

_PLATE VI._

[Illustration:

REMAINS OF ROMAN BRIDGE

OVER THE

NORTH TYNE.

_Reid Lith._

]

_PLATE VII._

[Illustration: Miscellaneous Antiquities, Chesters, Cilurnum]

The remains of this bridge may yet be seen when the water is low, and

the surface smooth. There seem to have been three piers of considerable

size and solidity, set diagonally to the stream. The stones composing

them are large, regularly squared, and fastened with metallic

cramps.[84] Luis-holes, indicating the mode in which they have been

lowered into their bed, appear in several of them. The firmness with

which these foundation courses still retain the position assigned to

them by the soldiers of Hadrian is very remarkable; the rolling floods

of sixteen hundred winters seem to have spent their rage upon them

almost in vain. As the eastern side of the river is frequently

overflowed, the Vallum is here obliterated, but probably both works

approached the bridge in close companionship. On the western side,

appearances still bear out Horsley’s statement, that the 'Wall falls

upon the middle of the fort, and Hadrian’s Vallum, as usual, falls in

with the south side of it.'

A plan of CILURNUM, and adjoining works, as figured by Warburton, is

given in Plate II. Probably, few who examine it attentively will

question the justness of the conclusion to which he has arrived, that

the Wall, Vallum, stations, castles, and turrets, ‘by their mutual

relation to one another, must have been one entire, united defence, or

fortification.’

We are now arrived at the station called in the locality, Chesters, but

by Horsley named, for the sake of distinction, Walwick-chesters. An

attentive examination of it will well reward the antiquary.

[Sidenote: CILURNUM.]

CILURNUM.—This station has, as usual, the form of a parallelogram, the

corners being slightly rounded off. It contains an area of fully six

acres. In the latter part of the last century, when the mansion and

estate of Chesters came into the possession of the family of Clayton,

this area was covered with the ruins of buildings which had apparently

stood in strait, narrow streets, and although the surface of the station

has since been levelled and made smooth, in order to fit it for its use

as part of the park, yet its ramparts and fosse, the Wall and Vallum as

they approach and leave it, and the road leading to the river, may all

be distinctly discerned; even the ruined dwellings of the interior area,

as if dissatisfied with their lowly condition, struggle to rear

themselves into notice. A portion of the Wall, near the north-west

angle, has been freed from the encumbering soil; it is five feet thick,

and exhibits four courses of masonry in excellent preservation.

Hutchinson was struck with the linear character which the ruined streets

of this fort had in his time, and was reminded, by their appearance, of

the arrangements of the Polybian camp. This will be observed in a

greater or less degree in all the stations, and there cannot be a doubt

but that the dwellings were arranged in rows parallel to the four sides

of the stations, and hence, intersecting each other at right angles. It

was necessary that the Roman camp, whether of a temporary or permanent

character, should be nearly uniform in its plan. If the troops rested

but for a night, each man knew the part he had to fill in preparing the

fortification, and could set about it at once; in the event of a sudden

attack in the darkness of the night, each knew his position, though he

may never have rested upon the spot before.

Suburban buildings have occupied the space between the station and the

river, and ruins more extensive than usual are spread over the ground to

the south. There is no appearance of any habitations having been erected

to the north of the Wall. Whenever the surface of the contiguous ground

is broken, fragments of Samian ware and other marks of Roman occupation

appear.

[Sidenote: CHESTERS.]

Two remains of great interest are found within the station. One of these

is an underground vault near the middle. Its masonry is rough, and

somewhat peculiar; the sides incline slightly inwards, but the roof,

instead of being uniformly vaulted, is formed of three ribs arched in

the usual manner, and the intervals between them are in technical

language—‘stepped over,’ that is, the stones of each course are made to

project inwards a little, until, at length, one laid on the top

completes the junction. The woodcut, which is here introduced, together

with the following extract from Hodgson’s description of it, will give a

tolerably correct idea of this curious structure.

[Illustration: Vault at Cilurnum]

This vault, when it was first found, was supposed to have been the

Ærarium of the station. Between the joinings of the floor, which were

of thin free-stone flags, were found several counterfeit denarii, both

of copper and iron plated with silver. The approach to it was by four

steps downwards, the lowest of which was a large centurial stone,

which had borne an inscription, but nearly all of it had been

purposely erased. On the outside of the threshold was found, in a

sadly decayed state, its original door of wood, strongly sheathed with

plates of iron, and the whole firmly rivetted together with large

square nails. Within the door, which had opened inwards, the end wall

was two feet thick, plastered and painted. Its internal area is ten

feet by nine, and its height to the crown of the arch six feet four

inches.[85]

[Illustration: Ground-plan, Hypocaust, CILURNUM.]

[Illustration: Hypocausts at Cilurnum]

Some buildings situated near to the spot where the eastern gateway must

be, and which have recently been freed from the earth and rubbish that

have long enveloped them, are objects of still greater interest. Their

general appearance, as seen from a slight elevation, is shewn in the

adjoining wood-cut, while, for a more minute knowledge of their size and

arrangements, reference may be made to the plan on the opposite page.

Eight apartments have already been exposed, and a little more research

would doubtless display others.

[Sidenote: THE HYPOCAUSTS.]

Descending a few steps (at L in the Plan), a street three feet wide at

one extremity, and four at the other, is entered. Another, leading from

it at right-angles, and which is paved with flag-stones, conducts to the

grand entrance (D) of what appears to be the principal section of the

building. The steps are very much worn down by the tread of feet, and

even some of the stones, which have evidently been put in the place of

others that have been too much abraded to be serviceable, exhibit

partial wear. This saloon must have been a place of general

concourse—can it have been the hall of justice, or the place where the

commander of the station transacted the business of the district under

his charge? The floor (E) is probably supported on pillars, and has been

warmed by flues beneath; but this cannot be ascertained without injuring

it. The upper covering is of flags, the fractured state of which induces

the belief, that the walls of the surrounding building have been

forcibly thrown down upon them. The northern enemies of Rome, knowing

the importance of these stations, would not be slow in involving them in

entire ruin, when permitted, by the withdrawal of the troops, to do so

without molestation. Passages diverge from this saloon, to the right and

left, into other apartments. In the room on the left was found, in good

preservation, a cistern or bath (C), lined with red cement. A breach had

been made in the street wall of this chamber (at B), and in the rubbish

which [Illustration: River-god] encumbered the gap, was found the statue

of a river-god, of which a correct sketch is here given. It is probably

intended to represent the genius of the neighbouring river—the North

Tyne. Although executed in coarse sand-stone, it is not without

considerable gracefulness of attitude and proportion. It is preserved in

the mansion at Chesters. Of the present state of the apartments beyond,

the wood-cut in the previous page, and the lithograph here introduced,

will give an accurate conception. The floors have been supported upon

pillars, some of them being of stone, others of square flat bricks. The

stone pillars are, for the most part, fragments of columns and balusters

which have been used in a prior structure.[86] The student of mediæval

architecture will probably recognise in some of them types of the Saxon

style. The dilapidated state of the floor of this apartment allows of an

easy examination of its mode of construction. Flags, about two inches

thick, rest upon the pillars; a layer of compost, five inches thick, and

formed of lime, sand, gravel, and burned clay or pounded tile, succeeds,

and above that, another covering of thin flag-stones.[87] This apartment

has been provided with a semicircular recess at its eastern extremity

(G), and, at the angle next the street (A), has been supported by a

buttress. A similar alcoved recess existed on the western side of one of

the principal rooms of the ‘baths’ at HUNNUM, and the same arrangement

may yet be observed in the corresponding building at Lanchester. All of

these buildings have been strengthened with buttresses, but it is only

in these and analogous cases, that the use of the buttress is admitted

among the erections of the Barrier; it never occurs in the great Wall or

the curtain-walls of the stations. In the circular recess[Sidenote: THE

HYPOCAUSTS.] of this apartment is an aperture (G), which probably has

served to regulate the current of air circulating in the hypocausts. The

furnace which warmed the suite of apartments was situated near the

south-east extremity of the building (at F); the pillars near the fire

having been much acted upon by the heat, the whole of this part of the

floor was reduced, on exposure to the frosts of winter, to the confused

heap represented in the drawing. The soot in the flues was found as

fresh as if it had been produced by fires lighted the day before.[88]

The walls of this apartment were coated with plaster, and coloured dark

red; exposure to the weather soon stripped them of this covering. An

arched passage curiously turned with Roman tile took the heated air from

the furnace through the party-wall (at X) into the chamber to the west

of it. The rooms to the westward of the intersecting street (HD), seem

to form an independent building, and have less of the aspect of a place

of public concourse than the other portions. They may have been the

private residence of the commander of the station. They, too, are heated

by hypocausts.

[Illustration:

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

HYPOCAUST AT CHESTERS, (CILURNUM)

Printed by W. Monkhouse, York

]

[Sidenote: CILURNUM.]

In urging the conviction, that the hanging floors of these Roman

buildings were meant to produce a comfortable warmth, rather than to

generate steam, by having water sprinkled upon them, attention may be

drawn to the thickness of their substance. At present, the floor of the

principal apartment is nine inches thick, and when its upper surface was

overlaid, as it no doubt was, with a tasteful concrete or mosaic

pavement, it would be an inch or two more. It would require a very

powerful furnace to raise this mass of matter to a considerable

temperature. On the other hand, if the production of a genial and

uniform warmth were the object in view, no contrivance could be more

suitable. The heated air from a small furnace permeating the underground

flues and the walls of a suite of apartments, and not passing off until,

in its lengthened passage, it had given out the larger part of the

warmth it had derived, would, in the lapse of some hours, give to the

whole building a comfortable temperature, which it would not readily

lose. Any inattention to the furnace, either by causing it to burn too

fiercely or too feebly, would not be felt. The thickness of the floors

would prevent the air from being scorched, and producing that

disagreeable sensation which is experienced in rooms that are heated by

the stoves in common use. It is not improbable that we may return to

this method of warming our churches and public halls, even if we do not

adopt it in our private buildings.[89]

[Sidenote: METHOD OF WARMING BUILDINGS.]

The door-ways of some of these apartments have been provided with double

doors, probably for more effectually maintaining the warmth of the room.

The masonry of those portions of the walls which are standing, is in an

excellent state of preservation. In the angle near the buttress (A), the

action of the trowel in giving the finishing touch to the pointing may

be perceived. The walls rest upon two strong basement courses, the angle

of the uppermost being bevelled off with a neat moulding.

Some of the quoins of the door-ways consist of very large stones; one is

six feet long, and is probably a ton in weight. This proves that it was

not from lack of mechanical means that the interior buildings and walls

of the stations were composed of small stones. More than one of the

thresholds have a groove very roughly cut in them, apparently to allow

of the egress of water. This has probably been done after the departure

of the Romans and the general demolition of the buildings, by some

houseless wanderers, who, having ‘camped’ in the ruin, were incommoded

by the lodgement of rain on the floor.

The hydraulic properties of the concrete used in the floors of Roman

hypocausts, has, I believe, escaped the notice of previous writers, and

is the only other point which need longer detain us in this interesting

building. My attention was drawn to this subject by my brother, Mr.

George Barclay Bruce, Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers, in

the following communication:—

In many places on the line of the Wall, the mortar has had mixed with

it broken tiles or burned clay, to assist it in resisting the moisture

of the atmosphere.

The concrete at Chesters placed between the slabs of the bath-room,

has a very large proportion of this burned clay, and would thus be

better suited to resist the action of heat below and water above than

purer lime.

A portion of this concrete was taken, by way of experiment, and burned

in a crucible, as though it had been a piece of limestone; it was then

ground fine, and mixed with a proper quantity of water; after being

allowed to dry for three or four hours, it was immersed in water,

where it set in the same manner as common mortar does in the open air,

clearly proving its hydraulic properties. The same experiment was

tried with the ordinary mortar of the Wall, but without the same

result, there not being a sufficiently large quantity of burned clay

to enable it to stand so severe a test. In the case of the concrete,

it did not set so readily as what is called Roman cement, but

sufficiently so to prove that it is a strong hydraulic mortar, made by

the mixture of burned clay with common lime.

[Sidenote: THE CEMETERY.]

Bidding farewell to these interesting structures, we may now bend our

steps a short way down the river, on a visit to the cypress-grove—the

burial ground of the station. This, which in Horsley’s days formed a

separate field called the Ox-close, is now included in the park of the

domain. Never was spot more appropriately chosen. The river here

descends with more than usual rapidity over its stony bed, and bending

at the same time to the left, exhibits to the eye the lengthened vista

of its well-wooded banks. No earthly music could better soothe the

chafed affections of the hopeless heathen mourner than the murmur of the

stream which is ceaselessly heard in this secluded nook. From this spot

have been procured several sepulchral slabs which will presently afford

us instruction; meantime, one is given on the next page whose lesson is

of a negative character. The blank memorial shews how vain are the

efforts which even affection makes to render buoyant on the wave of time

the memory of those departed. Our very monuments need memorials. But,

passing this, the character of the carving betokens a poor state of the

arts, and fixes its date in the lowest times of the empire: in this we

have a proof of the long-continued occupation of the station. The fate

of the stone has been singular. When Horsley saw it, the inscription was

legible; but having since been used as the door-stone of the cow-house

at Walwick Grange, the letters had, previous to its removal to

Alnwick-castle (its present resting place), been entirely obliterated.

[Illustration: Funereal Slab, Cilurnum]

Between the station and the cemetery is a well enclosed with Roman

masonry; it is now in a great measure filled up.

[Illustration: Funereal Slab of Horse Soldier, Cilurnum]

[Sidenote: ITS NAME ASCERTAINED.]

The station of CILURNUM, which is the sixth on the line of the Wall, was

garrisoned by the second wing of the Astures, (a regiment of Spanish

cavalry) commanded by a prefect. This fact has gradually developed

itself to the antiquary. Camden thought it probable. Horsley concurred

in the opinion, and, in the absence of better evidence, sagaciously

referred to the tombstone of which a drawing is here presented, in proof

of its having been occupied by a horse regiment. ‘That some horse,’ says

he, 'kept garrison here in the lower empire, seems to be probable from

the inscription and sculpture yet remaining at Walwick-grange.'[90] ‘The

letters D. M.,’ he remarks in another place, ‘prove this to be a

sepulchral monument, and the figure shews that the deceased belonged to

the horse, and therefore probably was one of the _Ala secunda Astorum_,

which in the lower empire kept garrison at CILURNUM, as the Notitia

informs us.’

[Illustration: Slab–Ala II. Asturum]

More decisive evidence has since been procured. The slab figured on page

61, is part of it. A still more satisfactory document of stone was

discovered at Chesters several years ago, where it is still preserved:

the wood-cut accurately portrays it.

IMP[ERATORI] CAES[ARI] _MARCO_ AVREL[IO]

AUG[VSTO] . . . . . . . . . . . . _PONTIFICI MAXIMO_

TRIB[VNITIA] P[OTESTATE] CO[N]S[VLI] _IV_ P[ATRI] P[ATRIÆ] DIV[I]

_ANTONINI FILIO_

DIVI SEVER[I] NEP[OTI]

CAESAR[I] IMPER[ATORI] . . . . . . . . . . . _DUPLARES_

ALÆ II ASTVRV[M] _TEMPLUM_ VETVSTAT[E] _CONLAPSUM RESTITU_-

ERVNT PER MARIUM VALER[IANUM] _LEGATUM AUGUSTALEM PROPRÆTOREM_

INSTANTE SEPTIMIO NILO PRÆ[FECTO]

DEDICATVM III KAL[ENDAS] NOVEM[BRIS] GRATO ET SELE[VCO]

_CONSULIBUS_.[91]

To the emperor Marcus Aurelius

Augustus . . . . . . . . . . . Pontifex Maximus,

With tribunitian power, fourth time Consul, Father of his Country, of

divine Antoninus the son,

Of the deified Severus the grandson,

To Cæsar our emperor . . . . . . . . the duplares[92]

Of the second wing of Astures, this temple, through age dilapidated, re-

stored by command of Marius Valerianus, Imperial Legate and Proprætor,

Under the superintendence of Septimius Nilus, Prefect.

Dedicated Oct. 30th, in the consulate of Gratus and Seleucus.

Hutton, who has done such good service to the Wall, under-rated the

value of inscriptions. ‘When the antiquary,’ says he, 'has laboured

through a parcel of miserable letters, what is he the wiser?'—Let this

fractured and defaced stone answer the question.[93] 1. This dedication

was made by soldiers of the second wing of the Astures;—we thus learn

the name of the people who garrisoned the fort, and by a reference to

the Notitia, ascertain with certainty that this was[Sidenote: CILURNUM.]

CILURNUM. 2. We acquire the fact, that a temple, which through age had

become dilapidated, was restored;—learning thereby, not only the

attention which the Romans paid to what they conceived to be religious

duties, but their long occupation of this spot. It has been already

observed, that some of the pillars of the hypocaust have been portions

of a prior building;—the ruin and inscription thus corroborate each

other. 3. The date of the dedication is given; the third of the calends

of November falls upon the thirtieth of October, and the year in which

Gratus and Seleucus were consuls corresponds to A.D. 221;—the data on

which antiquaries found their conclusions, are not always so vague as

some imagine. 4. Even the erasures are instructive. By a reference to

the date, we find that Heliogabalus was reigning at the time of the

dedication of the temple; we find that what remain of the names and

titles on the stone apply to him; he, consequently, is the emperor

referred to. The year following he was slain by his own soldiers, his

body dragged through the streets and cast into the Tiber. The soldiers

in Britain seem to have sympathized with their companions at Rome and to

have erased the name of the fallen emperor from the dedicatory slab.

Human nature is the same in every age. How often have we, in modern

times, seen a name cast out with loathing which yesterday received the

incense of a world’s flattery!

The above inscription gives us the station of the _Ala secunda Asturum_,

in the reign of Heliogabalus, A.D. 221. The Notitia Imperii gives us its

station in the reign of Theodosius the younger, ‘_ultra tempus Arcadii

et Honorii_,’ A.D. 430, and we find at both periods the same force in

the same station, which corresponds with the understood practice of the

Roman army with regard to the permanency of the quarters of its

auxiliary forces. With reference to the difference between the spelling

of the inscription and the Notitia, ‘Asturum’ and ‘Astorum,’ it may be

observed that as the Notitia Imperii was preserved for a thousand years

in manuscript before the art of printing came to its rescue, it is more

likely that the error should be in the book, than on the stone.

The ancient name of the station having been ascertained, the etymology

of it may be inquired into. Whitaker says it means a creek. An authority

acquainted with the Gaelic language suggests the following derivation;

_caol_, narrow, probably pronounced by the Romans _kil_, and _doir_,

water (in composition _dhoir_, the dh not sounded); so that _caol-oir_

is narrow stream; the _um_ is a usual Latin affix. Of course, this

branch of the Tyne is narrow in comparison with the united floods. The

word may have had an Italian origin; the Latin _celer_, swift, has some

resemblance to it, and the river, when swollen by floods, very speedily

discharges its superfluous water. Whatever be the origin of the word,

the names of the neighbouring places, Chollerton and Chollerford, have

had a similar derivation.

[Sidenote: ROMAN SCULPTURES.]

[Illustration: Statue of Cybele, Cilurnum]

The miscellaneous antiquities which have been found here, and are still

preserved upon the spot, are of a very interesting character. Chief

among them is a broken statue, which is here represented.

The fragment, consisting of a fine-grained sandstone, is six feet two

inches long. Statues of so large a size are of very rare occurrence in

Roman camps in Britain. It is generally supposed to have been meant for

Cybele, the mother of the gods. The gracefulness of the design, and the

excellence of the execution, show us that the state of the arts in Roman

Britain was not so low as is sometimes supposed. The arrangement of the

drapery, and the ornament placed upon its margins, are suggestive of the

mode in which these details were managed in the statues of the early

ecclesiastical architects. The ancient builders professedly followed the

Roman modes.

[Illustration: Group of Carved Stones, Cilurnum]

The fine Corinthian capital, which is here shewn, enables us to judge of

the beauty of some of the buildings which adorned the ancient CILURNUM.

In the drawing, it rests upon one of the foundation stones of the

bridge; on the right-hand side of the group are two centurial stones,

inscribed—

C[ENTVRIA] VAL[ERII]

MAXI[MI]

[CENTVRIA] RVFI SABI

NI

The century (or company) of Valerius

Maximus

The century of Rufus Sabi-

nus.

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

_PLATE VIII_

[Illustration: Miscellaneous Antiquities, Cilurnum]

_PLATE IX_

[Illustration: Samian Ware]

[Sidenote: MISCELLANEOUS ANTIQUITIES.]

Preserved in the collection here, is a tile of the usual Roman

fabrication, on which are impressed the foot-marks of a dog, seemingly

of the terrier species. The animal must have run over it while the clay

was in a soft state. Plate VIII. fig. 4.

In making the excavations at the hypocausts, many coins of silver and

brass were found. They extend from the reign of Hadrian to that of

Gratian; those of Constantine and his immediate successors prevail. A

massive silver signet ring, representing, on a cornelian stone, a cock

pecking at an an ear of corn, was found in one of the rooms. As is

uniformly the case, numerous fragments of the different kinds of pottery

used by the Romans were turned up; some of the fragments of vessels of

Samian ware are figured on Plate IX. A key, fig. 4. an iron implement

with springs on each side of it, fig. 1. and a spear head fig. 3. drawn

on Plate X., were found here. Some soles of sandals, similar in

character to those which will afterwards be described, several glass

beads of curious fabrication, and broken pieces of glass vessels, were

picked up. A piece of _cut_ glass procured here is shewn in Plate VII.

fig. 10. One of the most curious relics obtained from this treasury of

Roman effects was the tooth of a bear; it is of a large size, and is

pierced with two holes to enable its possessor to suspend it by a

string, and wear it as a trophy or a charm on his person. It is figured

of the full size in Plate VII. Bears, as well as wolves, prowled in the

forests of ancient Britain, and no doubt the formidable animal which

yielded this tusk, cost its captor a severe struggle.

Not the least interesting of the circumstances of a place of very early

occupation, are the traditions of the ‘ancients’ respecting it.

Notwithstanding their rudeness, some latent truth may generally be

educed from them; and they always manifest the modes of thought that

prevailed in former times. Sixty years ago the traditions of the Wall

might easily have been gathered, but now the old men have nearly

forgotten the tales with which their ‘fore-elders’ used to entertain

them on a winter’s evening. The products of the press have nearly

superseded this unlettered lore. A few fragments relative to CILURNUM

have, however, been supplied to me. A belief used to prevail, that there

existed a subterranean stable under the camp capable of containing five

hundred horse. It was, moreover, currently related, that beneath the

river a tunnel was formed, which led to the opposite side. There is a

pool in the vicinity of the station, on its western side, called the

Ingle-pool, and which, until partially filled up a few years ago, was

very deep; the peasantry believed, that it derived its supplies by an

underground canal from the North Tyne, at Nunwick-mill, between three

and four miles up the river.

_PLATE X._

[Illustration:

J. STOREY DEL. ET LITH. PRINTED BY AND^W. REID.

Roman Spears, etc.

]

In these traditions we may perhaps recognise the facts, that a regiment

of horse garrisoned the station; that the Romans carefully maintained

the means of intercourse with both sides of the river; and that, if in

this instance they did not, which is by no means certain, in others they

undoubtedly did bring water from great distances, either for the purpose

of sustenance, or to strengthen their position.

We must now take leave of CILURNUM. Whatever may be the views of the

reader, the visitor will do so with regret. As Hodgson well remarks,

‘The Astures, in exchanging the sunny valleys of Spain for the banks of

the tawny Tyne, might find the climate in their new situation worse, but

a lovelier spot than CILURNUM all the Asturias could not give them.’

During many days spent in the prosecution of my inquiries here—the

beauty of the landscape, the instructive nature of the ruins, and the

pleasant intercourse which I was privileged to enjoy with the hospitable

family at the hall, combined to make a deep impression upon my mind.

[Sidenote: CHESTERS.]

Again we bend our steps westward. Behind the garden wall at Chesters

stands a fragment of the Wall. The north fosse is filled with water.

Ascending the hill which leads to Walwick, the earth works are seen on

the left hand. When near the top of it, our out-door antiquary, while he

pauses for breath, will do well to look back, and contemplate the scene

he is leaving. The lines of the Barrier are seen boldly descending the

well-wooded and fertile banks on the east side of the river. Warden-hill

is to the south, and will attract attention by its elevation. Its summit

is seen still to bear marks of having been occupied by the aborigines of

Britain. Whilst the works of the Barrier were going on, they may have

maintained their position for a while, and, from behind their

entrenchments, scowled upon the intruders who were soon to drive them to

the remoter region of the Cheviots. After watering both sides[Sidenote:

WARDEN-FELL.] of the tongue of land of which Warden-fell consists, the

North and South Tyne meet, and their waters roll on in a united stream

to the Emporium of the North. We can follow it with the eye for some

distance, as it goes sparkling in the sunshine, spreading fertility and

beauty on either hand.

... O ye dales

Of Tyne and ye most ancient woodlands; where

Oft as the giant flood obliquely strides,

And his banks open, and his lawns extend,

Stops short the pleased traveller to view,

Presiding o’er the scene, some rustic tower,

Founded by Norman or by Saxon hands.

Nestled in the fairest part of the valley is the abbey church of Hexham;

closely inspected, it is found to be a chaste specimen of the most

simple and beautiful of our ecclesiastical styles—the early English,

and, when viewed from a distance, as in this case, its venerable towers

lend a quiet charm to the landscape.

How different the scene which the Romans beheld! In their day, and for

long afterwards, the painful cultivator of the soil knew not who should

reap the harvest; those only, therefore, who had power to protect

themselves would engage in the occupation. Now, the husbandman dreams

not of a foreign foe, or of troops of lawless marauders; steadily he

evokes the riches of the soil, and something like an Eden smiles!

A strip of the Wall, though in a disordered state, and covered with

brushwood, is in a field beyond Walwick; its fosse is finely developed.

[Sidenote: TOWER-TAY.]

Ascending the next hill, called Tower Tay, the earth-works are still

very conspicuous. About half way up are the ruins of a tower, erected

about a century ago, as an object in the landscape. It stands on the

Wall, and has been entirely formed out of its stones. At the summit, the

ditches of both Wall and Vallum are cut through the native rock, of

which the hill consists, and are in excellent order. The Wall stands

very near the edge of a scar, sufficiently elevated to have formed of

itself a defence; it is remarkable that the Romans should have thought

it necessary to draw a ditch on the north side of it at all.

Looking forward from the top of this hill, we see, for a considerable

distance, all the lines of the Barrier proceeding on their course;

descending one hill and ascending the opposite, called the

Limestone-bank, they keep perfectly parallel. It would have delighted

Horsley’s heart to notice that the present road runs upon the north

agger of the Vallum, maintaining, as he did, that this was the Military

Way of Agricola.

At a short distance, further in advance, the ruins of a mile-castle are

seen on the right. The whole of the facing-stones are gone, as is

usually the case, and the place where it stood is chiefly marked by the

vacuity occasioned by their removal. This castellum measures, inside,

fifty-four feet from east to west, and sixty-one from north to south; it

has been protected by a fosse. A long range of the Wall is next seen in

the Black-carts farm, in an encouraging state of preservation; it is

between five and six feet high, and shews, in some places, seven courses

of facing-stones.

[Sidenote: TEPPER-MOOR.]

On the summit of the next hill, many objects of great interest await us.

The view from it is most extensive. To the north, a vast sweep of

country meets the eye; a beautiful undulated valley occupies the

foreground, behind it the hills rise boldly, and the lofty Cheviots

bound the scene. Chipchase castle occupies a commanding position. The

modern mansion of Nunwick, embowered in wood, selects the lower ground.

Towards the west, the lofty crags traversed by the Wall come into view.

In the corner of a field adjoining the road, are the remains of another

mile-castle; it measures fifty-seven feet by fifty-four. Horsley says,

it was detached about a yard from the Wall, the reason of which was not

very obvious. A portion of the Roman Military Way may here be seen as it

curves towards the gateway of the castellum, and again recedes from it.

A good section of it is obtained at the margin of the places where its

stones have been removed to form the stone dikes of the field.

[Illustration:

H. Burdon Richardson, Del. John Storey, Lith.

THE WORKS, TEPPER MOOR.

]

The fosse of the Wall and Vallum at this point deserve attentive

examination. In passing over the crown of the hill, they have been

excavated with enormous labour out of the basalt of which the summit

consists. The workmen, as if exhausted with the task of raising the

splintered fragments, have left them lying on the sides of the moats. A

mass on the outside of the north ditch, though now split by the action

of the frost into three pieces, has evidently formed one block, and

cannot weigh less than thirteen tons. It is not easy to conceive how

they managed to quarry so tough a rock without the aid of gunpowder, or

contrived to lift, with the machinery at their command, such huge

blocks. No luis-holes appear in them.

The lithograph presents a view of the giant works of the Vallum and

fosse at this point. It is quite evident that here, at least, the north

agger did not form the Military Way. There are several breaks and

irregularities in both the mounds; the works have probably been left by

the Romans in a rough, unfinished state.

Between this spot and the craggy summit on which Sewingshields

farm-house is perched, the ground is flat, and destitute of any decided

descent to the north. On this account, and for mutual defence, the lines

of the Barrier keep close together, so close, sometimes, as scarcely to

leave room for the passage of the Military Way between them.

[Sidenote: PROCOLITIA.]

PROCOLITIA is the seventh stationary camp on the line of the Wall. It

was garrisoned by the first Batavian cohort, which, with two others from

the same country, and the two Tungrian cohorts, was with Agricola in his

great battle with Galgacus in the Grampian Hills. That the ruined camp

at Carrawburgh was the adopted home of this cohort, is proved by the

altar engraved on page 62, and by [Illustration: Slab—Coh. I. Batavorum]

the fractured slab now introduced,[94] and which was found here in the

year 1838. On this mutilated stone, the words COH I BATAVORVM are quite

distinct, and are of themselves sufficient, not only to fix the site of

the ancient PROCOLITIA, but to corroborate the testimony of Tacitus, on

the presence of Batavians in Britain during the period of Roman

occupation. The line following may probably be read INST[ANT]E BVRRIO,

and bears the name of the prefect under whose superintendence the

building was erected, to which the slab referred. In the last line, the

word CO[RNELIANO may be perceived. In 237, when Maximinus was emperor,

Titius Perpetuus and Rusticus Cornelianus were consuls. That this is the

date of the inscription is rendered likely from a fragment of this

emperor’s name appearing in the beginning of it.

Whitaker gives, as the meaning of the word PROCOLITIA, the ‘fortress in

the woodlands.’ In the Gaelic tongue, _coille_ signifies a wood.

There is little in this station to detain us. The course of its ramparts

and moats can be easily traced, and the rich green sward of its area is

seen to cover numerous irregular heaps of ruins; every building,

however, is prostrate; scarcely one stone is left upon another. The Wall

forms the northern boundary of the station; its eastern and western

gateways are, as usual, opposite to each other, but strike the side

walls between the upper end and the middle. The position of the southern

gateway cannot be detected; in the present state of the ruins, there is

no appearance of one. The southern corners are rounded off, but the side

walls of the station, in joining the Murus on the north, seem to

preserve their rectilinear course. Outside the western wall are the

ruins of the suburbs. A natural valley, consisting at present of boggy

ground, gives strength to the fortification on this side. Horsley saw a

well in the slack, cased with Roman masonry; it is now removed.

No modern habitation is on the ground or in its immediate vicinity to

relieve the general desolation—

... here, as in the wild,

The day is silent, dreary as the night;

None stirring save the herdsman and his herd,

... or they that would explore,

Discuss and learnedly.

[Sidenote: CARRAWBURGH.]

Passing onwards, we soon reach the farm-house of Carraw, formerly a

rural retreat of the priors of Hexham. On the crown of the next

elevation, the works are brought into close proximity, apparently for

the purpose of avoiding an extensive bog on the north, and of

maintaining possession of the point of the hill on the south. The

earth-works are very boldly developed, but are in a ragged state. The

contents of the north fosse are piled up high on its outer margin. The

fosse of the Vallum is cut through free-stone rock; its southern agger

is very elevated, and would present a bold and angry front to any

intruder from the south.

[Sidenote: THE GREAT MURAL RIDGE.]

We must now, to adopt the language of Hutton, ‘quit the beautiful scenes

of cultivation, and enter upon the rude of nature, and the wreck of

antiquity.’ Four great mountain waves are before us, and seem to chase

each other to the north, on which side their crests rise almost

perpendicularly. To the highest of these, the second from the south, the

Wall directs its course. It is a ridge of basalt, which crosses the

island obliquely, from Cumberland to Holy Island. The Vallum here parts

company with the Wall, and takes the ‘tail’ of the hill on the ‘crag’ of

which the other runs. The accompanying drawing shews the nature of the

country before us.

[Illustration:

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

APPROACH TO SEWINGSHIELDS.

Printed by W. Monkhouse, York

]

Before approaching Sewingshields[95] farm-house, which is on the line of

Wall, an experienced eye will detect the Roman Military Way. It runs at

first nearly parallel with the Wall, at about thirty-six paces from it,

but, in its subsequent course, recedes from the Barrier, or approaches

it, according to the position of the mile-castles, and the nature of the

ground. With but few interruptions, it may be traced by the appearance

of its herbage, by its slightly elevated, rounded form, and by the

occasional protrusion of the stones composing it, all the way from

Sewingshields to Thirlwall.

The north fosse, which we have had in view from the very commencement of

our journey, accompanies the Wall for a short distance up the hill, as

is seen in the lithograph, but when the ground becomes precipitous, it

forsakes it until the high grounds are passed, only to appear when the

Wall sinks into a gap or chasm between the crags.

[Sidenote: THE WALL ON THE CRAGS.]

A difficulty will here present itself to nearly every mind; why was the

Wall drawn along the cliffs at all? Horsley cut the knot instead of

untying it. ‘As such steep rocks,’ says he, ‘are a sufficient fence of

themselves, I am inclined to think the Wall has not in those parts had

either strength or thickness, equal to what it has had in other parts.’

Present appearances give us no reason to suppose that the Wall on the

crags was in any respect inferior to what it was in the low grounds. A

different method of accounting for the circumstance has been forced upon

my attention. It was my fortune to traverse the heights near

Sewingshields late in December last year, when the wind blew a violent

gale from the north, and the thermometer, even in the valley, was ten

degrees below the freezing point. In order to maintain the ordinary

temperature of the body, very active exertion was necessary, and to make

any progress on my way, I was constrained to get under the lee of the

hill. The conclusion was irresistible; if the Romans were to keep watch

and ward here during the winter, a Wall was necessary, even though only

for the sake of sheltering them from the blast. The habits of the enemy

demanded continual vigilance; for, as Tacitus tells us, before the time

of Agricola they usually repaired the losses they had sustained in

summer by the success of their winter expeditions. The loftier the

mountain peak, the more necessary, in this view of it, was the friendly

shelter of the Wall to the shivering soldiers of southern Europe.

[Sidenote: SEWINGSHIELDS.]

The Wall in the neighbourhood of Sewingshields is not in good condition;

its site is marked by the rubble which encumbers it, but the

facing-stones are gone, having contributed to the erection of every

building in the vicinity, from the time of Honorius to the present day.

A considerable tract of it was removed lately. Thorough draining, the

life of agriculture, is death to the Wall.

The aspect of the country in the immediate vicinity of the heights of

Sewingshields is dreary enough, but the elevation enables the eye to

revel in the fertility and beauty of the distant landscape. Hexham is

distinctly discernible from the farm-house. On the flats to the north of

the crags, there formerly stood the border fortress, Sewingshields

castle.[96] It was at one time the property of the late Ralph Spearman,

esq., the Monkbarns of THE ANTIQUARY.

[Sidenote: MURAL TRADITIONS.]

A situation so remote from the crowded haunts of men is favourable to

the preservation of legendary lore. It occurred to me that here, if

anywhere, I might ascertain the kind of ideas which the rude forefathers

of the mural region entertained respecting the Wall and its builders.

Although on the Antonine Wall all tradition of the Romans has been lost,

this has certainly not been the case here; the recollection of them is

still distinctly preserved, and some stories of them are told, which,

though in several respects resembling written history, are not derived

from this source. For the following scraps of traditional information, I

am chiefly indebted to the master of Grindon school, in the immediate

neighbourhood of Sewingshields, who says he has often heard them

repeated. Though he denominates them ‘absurd,’ the learned in mediæval

legends will probably think them worth preserving.

The Romans are said to have been remarkably lazy, so much so, that in

the hot weather of summer, having almost nothing to do, they lay

basking in the sun, on the south side of the Wall, almost in a state

of torpor. The Scots were in the habit of watching their opportunity,

and, throwing hooks, with lines attached to them, over the Wall,

caught the poor Romans by their clothes or flesh, and by this means,

dragging them to the other side, made them prisoners.

An old man in this neighbourhood told me, that he had often heard

people say, that the Romans had remarkably broad feet, with still

broader shoes, and that, when it rained, they lay on their backs, and

holding up their feet in a perpendicular direction, protected, by this

means, their persons from the weather.—This legend, under various

modifications, seems to have been widely diffused in the middle ages.

Sir John Maundevile, describing ‘Ethiope,’ says—‘In that contree, ben

folk that han but o foot; and thei gon so fast, that it is marvaylle;

and the foot is so large, that it schadewethe all the body azen the

sonne, whan they wole lye and reste hem.’ Precisely similar to this is

Pliny’s account—'Item hominum genus, qui Monoscelli vocarentur,

singulis cruribus, miræ pernicitatis ad saltum: eosdemque Sciopodas

vocari, quod in majori æstu, humi jacentes resupini, umbra se pedum

protegant.'[97]

It is the tradition of the country that all the stones of the Wall

were handed from one man to another by a set of labourers stationed in

a line from the quarry to the place where they were required. Many

will tell you, 'I have heard my mother say, that the Wall was built in

a single night, and that no one was observed to be engaged upon it,

save an old woman with an apron full of stones.'—This, however, is a

tradition of almost universal application.

The people say that the Wall was hollow, or, as they express it, had a

flue running the whole length of it, through which the sentinels

communicated intelligence by a speaking trumpet.

Some of the people of this neighbourhood tell me that the Britons,

tired, at length, of Roman oppression, rose in a body, and drove the

garrison, with considerable slaughter, from all their stations. The

Romans, when making their way to the sea to look for ships to carry

them home, were met by a seer, who told them that if they returned

home they would all be drowned; and if they went back to their old

stations they would all be slain. This prophecy disconcerted them

greatly, and they were at their wits’ end; however, after long

consultation, they resolved to escape both calamities by marching

direct to Wales. This they did, and there the pure, unadulterated

Roman breed is to be found to this day.—Can this story refer to the

passage of the second legion, at an early period, to Caerleon?

[Sidenote: LEGENDS OF KING ARTHUR.]

We next pass on to some tales, which, though not connected with the

Wall, belong, as Hodgson remarks, to times nearer the Roman than these

degenerate days. They chiefly relate to king Arthur. Sir William Betham

observes that this monarch’s name is more celebrated in Scotland than in

Wales, which was the chief resort of the conquered Britons, and is

disposed to think, that this favourite hero of romance was not a

Romanized Briton, but an invading Pictish king. This idea would account

for the frequent reference to his name in the region of the Wall.

Immemorial tradition has asserted, that king Arthur, his queen

Guenever, his court of lords and ladies, and his hounds, were

enchanted in some cave of the crags, or in a hall below the castle of

Sewingshields, and were to continue entranced there till some one

should first blow a bugle horn that lay on a table near the entrance

of the hall, and then with ‘the sword of the stone’ cut a garter also

placed there beside it. But none had ever heard where the entrance to

this enchanted hall was, till the farmer at Sewingshields, about fifty

years since, was sitting upon the ruins of the castle, and his clew

fell, and ran downwards through a rush of briars and nettles, as he

supposed, into a deep subterranean passage. Firm in the faith that the

entrance into king Arthur’s hall was now discovered, he cleared the

briary portal of its weeds and rubbish, and entering a vaulted

passage, followed, in his darkling way, the thread of his clew. The

floor was infested with toads and lizards; and the dark wings of bats,

disturbed by his unhallowed intrusion, flitted fearfully around him.

At length, his sinking courage was strengthened by a dim, distant

light, which, as he advanced, grew gradually brighter, till, all at

once, he entered a vast and vaulted hall, in the centre of which, a

fire without fuel, from a broad crevice in the floor, blazed with a

high and lambent flame, that shewed all the carved walls and fretted

roof, and the monarch and his queen, reposing around in a theatre of

thrones and costly couches. On the floor, beyond the fire, lay the

faithful and deep-toned pack of thirty couple of hounds; and on a

table before it, the spell-dissolving horn, sword, and garter. The

shepherd reverently, but firmly, grasped the sword, and as he drew it

leisurely from its rusty scabbard, the eyes of the monarch, and of his

courtiers began to open, and they rose till they sat upright. He cut

the garter; and as the sword was being slowly sheathed, the spell

assumed its ancient power, and they all gradually sunk to rest; but

not before the monarch had lifted up his eyes and hands, and

exclaimed:

O woe betide that evil day

On which this witless wight was born,

Who drew the sword—the garter cut,

But never blew the bugle-horn.

Terror brought on loss of memory, and the shepherd was unable to give

any correct account of his adventure, or to find again the entrance to

the enchanted hall.[98]

To the north of Sewingshields, two strata of sandstone crop out to the

day; the highest points of each ledge are called the King and

Queen’s-crag, from the following legend. King Arthur, seated on the

farthest rock, was talking with his queen, who, meanwhile, was engaged

in arranging her ‘back hair.’ Some expression of the queen’s having

offended his majesty, he seized a rock which lay near him, and, with

an exertion of strength for which the Picts were proverbial, threw it

at her, a distance of about a quarter of a mile! The queen, with great

dexterity, caught it upon her comb, and thus warded off the blow; the

stone fell between them, where it lies to this day, with the marks of

the comb upon it, to attest the truth of the story. It probably weighs

about twenty tons!

A few miles to the north of Sewingshields stands an upright stone,

which bears the name of Cumming’s cross. Cumming, a northern

chieftain, having paid, one day, a visit to king Arthur at his castle

near Sewingshields, was kindly received by the king, and was, as a

token of lasting friendship, presented by him with a gold cup. The

king’s sons coming in, shortly after Cumming had left the castle, and

being informed of what their father had done, immediately set out in

pursuit of him. They overtook him, and slew him at this place, which

has borne the name of Cumming’s cross ever since.

King Arthur’s chair used to be pointed out in this vicinity. It was a

column of basalt, fifty feet high, slightly detached from the rest of

the cliff. The top of it had something of the appearance of a seat. It

was thrown down, several years ago, by a party of idle young men, who

were at great pains to effect their foolish purpose.

[Sidenote: SEWINGSHIELDS CRAGS.]

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

Soon after leaving Sewingshields, a narrow chasm in the rocks, slightly

aided by art, called the Catgate, admits of an awkward descent to the

plain below. Here, says Hutton, the Scots bored under the Wall, so as to

admit the body of a man. Whether the Romans or the Scots made this

passage, it is certain that the garrison on the Wall would sometimes

visit the country to the north, for the purposes of plunder and of

slaughter, and would require the means of egress.

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

[Sidenote: BUSY GAP.]

The next point of interest is Busy-gap, a broad, basin-like recess in

the mountain ridge, about a mile from Sewingshields. The Wall here,

being more than usually exposed, is not only strengthened with the fosse

common in the low grounds, but has the additional protection of a

rampart, of triangular form, to the north of this. The wood-cut will

give some idea of the arrangement. A common stone dike occupies at

present the place of the Wall, the foundations of which, and, for the

most part, a portion of the grout of the interior, remain. At a little

elevation, on the western side of the valley, is a gate called the

King’s-wicket (Arthur’s again, probably), through which a drove-road

passes. The gate is well situated for defence, and may have been a Roman

passage.

[Illustration: Busy Gap]

Busy-gap was in the middle ages a place of much notoriety; it was the

pass frequented by the moss-troopers and reavers of the debateable

country.

[Sidenote: STATE OF THE BORDERS.]

The incessant war which was waged between England and Scotland before

the union of the two kingdoms, rendered property exceedingly insecure,

and nurtured a race of men who had no expectation of holding their own,

unless they could repel force by force. It was the policy of the

governments of both countries, to maintain on the Borders a body of men

inured to feats of arms, whom, on any emergency, they might call to

their assistance. Habits long indulged are not easily laid aside. When

the policy of Elizabeth, and the accession of James to the throne of

England, allayed the national strife, the stern warriors of the Border

degenerated into sheep-stealers; and, instead of dying in the fray, or

yielding their necks _honourably_ to the headsman’s stroke, burdened by

the score the gallows-tree at Newcastle or Carlisle. The vales of North

Tyne and the Rede, which anciently abounded with warriors, became

infested with thieves. It is impossible to imagine the desolation and

misery occasioned by such a state of society. Landed property was of

little value. Precious life was idly sacrificed. Bernard Gilpin, the

‘apostle of the north,’ was esteemed a brave man because he annually

ventured as far as Rothbury to preach the gospel of peace to the lawless

people of the vale of Coquet. Camden and sir Robert Cotton, though

ardently desirous of examining the Wall, durst not venture in their

progress eastward beyond Carvoran. ‘From thence,’ Camden says, ‘the Wall

goeth forward more aslope by Iverton, Forsten, and Chester-in-the-Wall,

near to Busy-gap, a place infamous for thieving and robbing, where stood

some castles (chesters they called them), as I have heard, but I could

not with safety take the full survey of it, for the rank robbers

thereabouts.’ In such ill-repute were the people of these parts, even in

their own county, that we find the Newcastle Merchants’ company in 1564,

enacting that ‘no free brother shall take non apprentice to serve in the

fellyshipe of non such as is or shall be borne or brought up in Tyndale,

Lyddisdale, or any such lycke places, on pain of 20_ll_,’ because, says

the order, ‘the parties there brought up are known, either by education

or nature, not to be of honest conversation; they commit frequent thefts

and other felonys, proceeding from such lewde and wicked progenitors.’

The offence of calling a fellow-free-man ‘a Bussey-gap rogue,’ was

sufficiently serious to attract the attention of a guild; a case of this

kind being recorded in the books of the Bakers and Brewers’ company of

Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1645.

The traces of this disordered state of society remained until the early

part of the reign of George III., when the sheriff of Northumberland was

first enabled to execute process in the north-western parts of the

county. ‘Within my own recollection,’ says Mr. Hedley, ‘almost every old

house in the dales of Rede and Tyne was what is called a _Peel_ house,

built for securing its inhabitants and their cattle in the moss-trooping

times.’ Very many of these yet exist. Far different is the state of the

district now. The men of the mural region, and of the vales of North

Tyne, and Rede-water, are as upright as any in England. With the

exception of a few aged individuals, an uneducated person is not to be

found. Although, in addition to the ordinary courts of law, they have

access to courts-leet and courts-baron, (those admirable institutions by

which our Saxon forefathers gave to the poorest villager the ready means

of procuring redress of wrong,) nowhere has the law less occasion

forcibly to assert its claims. Property is secure, and land brings its

full price in the market. On some of the extensive farms of the Cheviot

range, not fewer than ten thousand sheep are kept; they are counted but

twice a year, and seldom is one amissing. The value of land in

Northumberland (exclusive of towns and mines) is seven times greater

than it was at the commencement of the eighteenth century, and two

hundred times what it was in the middle of the sixteenth. The antiquary,

who will not fail to rejoice in the prosperity of the country through

which he is travelling, as well as in the safety of his own person, may

therefore go on his way cheerfully and in confidence.

The second mile-castle from Sewingshields, opposite the farm-house

called the Kennel, is remarkable as having been built upon an absolute

declivity. Hodgson observes that it had an interior wall on every side

of it, at the distance of about twenty feet from the exterior wall.

[Sidenote: THE BLACK DIKE.]

Shortly after leaving Busy-gap, two narrow, but rather steep gaps are

passed in quick succession, which do not seem to have obtained names.

Through the first of these the BLACK DIKE has probably run. This is an

earth-work of unknown antiquity, which is supposed to have stretched, in

a nearly straight line, from the borders of Scotland near Peel-fell,

through Northumberland and Durham, to the south of Yorkshire. The

scantiness of the soil on the crags of the Wall, accounts for its not

being discernible there, and the ground immediately to the north and

south of it is boggy. In a plantation on the hill side, opposite to

where we now are, looking south, the dike exists in excellent

preservation. The _seuch_, or slack of it, may be seen even from the

Wall, on the western edge of the plantation, which is called the

‘Black-dike planting.’ From the information of those who knew it half a

century ago, I shall set down its probable course in this vicinity.

Coming in a south-east direction, it passes the east end of

Broomlee-lough; having cleared the Wall and Vallum, it goes by the west

of Beggar-bog, the east of Low Morwood, through the Muckle-moss, and so

to the Black-dike plantation. Passing afterwards a field called the

Black-hall, it is last seen on the north bank of the Tyne near the

Water-house. It re-appears on the south bank at Morley, and passing

Tedcastle and Dean-row, is supposed to go by Allenheads into the county

of Durham. In the best piece of it which I have seen, the ditch is ten

feet across the top, and about five feet deep, reckoning from the top of

the mound on its east side. Within the memory of my informants, it was

much deeper. The sheep were often covered up in it in a snow-storm, as

they naturally went there for shelter. The earth taken out of the ditch

is uniformly thrown to the east side, where it forms an embankment. No

stones, or such only as were derived from the cutting, have been used in

its formation. The only conjecture hazarded respecting its origin is,

that it formed the line of demarcation between the kingdoms of

Northumbria and Cumbria; and certainly the course pursued by the

Black-dike is very nearly similar to the boundary assigned to these

regions in the most authentic maps of Saxon England. The antiquity of

the cutting may be inferred from the circumstances, that for some

distance it forms the division between the adjacent parishes of

Haltwhistle and Warden, and that it passes through bogs which probably

owe their origin to the devastations committed in the north of England

by William the Norman.[99] The Black-dike is laid down in the map of

Northumberland which was prepared to accompany Horsley’s Britannia, and

in Kitchin’s Map of Northumberland, under the name of the ‘Scots’-dike.’

South of the turnpike road, and behind a small house, called Beggar-bog,

is a low freestone crag, which exhibits some quarry-like excavations,

filled with the chippings of stone. It has probably furnished material

for the Wall, the stone being of the same character.

The stream which we next cross is the Knag-burn; it forms the eastern

boundary of Housesteads. Passing it, we scale the ramparts of this

far-famed station.

[Sidenote: THE ANCIENT BORCOVICUS.]

BORCOVICUS.—‘This’ says Gordon, ‘is unquestionably the most remarkable

and magnificent station in the whole island;’ and ‘it is hardly credible

what a number of august remains of the Roman grandeur is to be seen here

to this day, seeing in every place where one casts his eye there is some

curious Roman antiquity to be seen: either the marks of streets and

temples in ruins, or inscriptions, broken pillars, statues, and other

pieces of sculpture all scattered along the ground.’ Stukely, in the

vehemence of his admiration, denominates it ‘the Tadmor of Britain.’ Let

not the visitor, however, approach it with expectations too greatly

excited. There is very much to admire, but not a great deal to strike

the eye at first sight. The altars and sculptured figures which lay in

profusion on the ground when Gordon and Stukely were there, have been

removed,[100] but the ruins of the place remain as complete and vast as

ever. The city is, in a great measure, covered with its own debris, but

the excavations which have recently been made, shew us that when they

are continued throughout the entire station, the ancient BORCOVICUS will

be the Pompeii of Britain.

[Sidenote: HOUSESTEADS.]

The station of Housesteads contains an area of nearly five acres. 'Half

of it hangs on a slope, with a southern aspect: the other, or northern

half, is flat, floored with basalt, covers the summit of a lofty ridge,

and commands a prospect on the east, south, and west, far away beyond

the valley of the Tyne, over blue air-tinted grounds and lofty

mountains; and to the north of the Wall, over the vast waste of the

forest of Lowes, where indeed, a proud, stupendous solitude frowns o’er

the heath.'

The Wall forms its northern boundary, and the Vallum, it is probable,

came to the support of its southern rampart.[101] It is naturally

defended on all sides, except the west. In order duly to protect this

side, the gateway seems to have been walled up at an early period, and a

triple line of ramparts drawn along it.

Although the position of Housesteads clearly indicates that this fort

was erected for the accommodation of a mural garrison, it would seem to

have been built independently of the Wall. The first anxiety of the

soldiers engaged in that great work would be to erect a secure

habitation for themselves. The west wall of the station, instead of

coming up to the great Wall in a straight line, makes the curve which is

usual in those corners of a camp that are independent of the Wall; as is

shewn in the wood-cut at the top of the next page.

[Illustration: Junction of West Wall of Housesteads with the Wall]

[Illustration: Ground Plan of Gateway, Housesteads]

[Sidenote: BORCOVICUS.]

All the gateways, except the north, have been explored, and present very

interesting subjects of study to the antiquary. The western[Sidenote:

WEST GATEWAY OF BORCOVICUS.] is in the best condition, and is specially

worthy of attention. Its arrangements will readily be understood by an

inspection of the ground plan which is here introduced, together with

the views of it as seen from the outside and inside of the station, on

the next page. This gateway, as well as the others which have been

explored, is, in every sense of the word, double. Two walls must be

passed before the camp can be entered; each is provided with two

portals, and each portal has been closed with two-leaved gates. The

southern entrance of the outside wall has alone, as yet, been entirely

cleared of the masonry that closed it. The jambs and pillars are formed

of massive stones of rustic masonry. The doors, if we may judge from the

fragments of corroded iron which have been lately picked up, were of

wood, strengthened with iron plates and studs; they moved, as is

apparent from the pivot-holes, upon pivots of iron. In the centre of

each portal stands a strong upright stone, against which the gates have

shut. Some of the large projecting stones of the exterior wall are worn

as if by the sharpening of knives upon them; this has probably been done

by the occupants of the suburban buildings after the closing of the

gateway. The guard-chambers on each side are in a state of choice

preservation, one of the walls standing fourteen courses high. Were a

roof put on them, the antiquary might here stand guard, as the Tungrians

did of old, and, for a while, forget that the world is sixteen centuries

older than it was when these chambers were reared. At least two of the

chambers in this part of the camp have been warmed by U shaped flues

running round three of their sides beneath the floor.[102] These

chambers, when recently excavated, were found to be filled with rubbish

so highly charged with animal matter as painfully to affect the

sensibilities of the labourers. The teeth and bones of oxen, horns

resembling those of the red-deer, but larger, and boars’ tusks were very

abundant; there was the usual quantity of all the kinds of pottery used

by the Romans. It is not improbable that this rubbish may have been

derived from some dunghill outside the walls, and thrown here when the

gateway was walled up; it is, however, a remarkable fact, that the soil

of the interior area of the stations on the Wall is, for the most part,

thickly mingled with bones. Is it possible that the Romans have thrown

on the floors of their apartments, and suffered to remain amongst the

straw or rushes which may have covered them, the refuse of their food?

[Illustration: Outside View of the West Portal of BORCOVICUS.]

[Illustration: Inside View of the West Portal of BORCOVICUS.]

The view of Housesteads in the accompanying lithograph, is taken from

beside the eastern gateway, and gives a general idea of the scene of

desolation which it presents.[103] The only habitation near is a

shepherd’s cottage to the south of the station. A peculiarity in the

upper division of the eastern gateway requires attention; the lower

division, as seen in the lithograph, has been walled up at an early

period. A rut, nearly nine inches deep, appears in the threshold, on

each side of the central stone against which the gates closed. Grooves,

similar in character, are seen in the gateways of the camps at

Birdoswald and Maryport. Were it not for the central stone, which

presents an impediment to the passage of chariots, no one would doubt

that these hollows have been occasioned by the action of their wheels.

The following extract, explanatory of the condition of the city of

Pompeii, will probably throw light upon this and other things belonging

to the camp.

[Illustration:

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

HOUSESTEADS (BORCOVICUS) FROM THE EAST.

Printed by W Monkhouse, York

]

[Sidenote: RUTS IN THE GATEWAY.]

The Domitian way which led to it was narrow, the carriage-way seldom

exceeding ten feet in width. The streets of the city itself are paved

with large irregular pieces of lava, joined neatly together, in which

the chariot wheels have worn ruts, still discernible; in some places

they are an inch and a half deep, and in narrow streets follow one

track.... In most places, the streets are so narrow, that they may be

crossed at one stride; where they are wider, a raised stepping-stone

has been placed in the centre of the crossing. This, though in the

middle of the carriage-way, did not much inconvenience those who drove

about in the _biga_, or two-horsed chariot, because the width of these

streets being only sufficient to admit the carriage, the wheels passed

freely in the spaces left between the curb on either side, and the

stone in the centre.[104]

The stone in the centre of the doorway would not be a greater impediment

than the stepping stones in the streets of Pompeii.

The remains of the gateways of BORCOVICUS shew that in plan and

construction they must have resembled the Roman Gateway which, under the

name of the ‘Porta nera,’ is preserved entire at Treves, AUGUSTA

TREVIRORUM, once the seat of government of the Western Empire.

In examining this and other Roman camps, the spectator will, perhaps, be

struck with the narrowness of the streets, and the very small capacity

of the the dwellings. It is well to recollect that in their encampments

the Romans studiously avoided occupying a larger space than was

absolutely necessary. Gibbon observes that a modern army would present

to the enemy a front three times as extended as a Roman one of the same

force. In the field, ten men were apportioned to a tent, ten feet

square;[105] a similar proportion would without doubt be followed in the

stationary camp.

[Sidenote: BORCOVICUS.]

It is not easy to ascertain the precise character of the dwellings of

the soldiers; the more perfect of the ruins in this and other forts,

induce the belief that they were dark, bare, and cheerless. The roofs

were probably formed of free-stone slate. Several thin slabs of this

kind, with nail-holes in them, as well as some of the nails themselves,

have been found in this and other stations.[106] On Plate XIII, figs. 1,

7, are drawn some door or window heads, found here; these most likely

belonged to buildings of a superior class. The entrance into a chamber

at HABITANCUM, recently excavated, was found to be only fourteen inches

wide; it was rudely ‘stepped over’ at the top. Fragments of a sort of

window glass are frequently found in some of the stations; this would

probably be a rare luxury.[107]

[Sidenote: THE CHAMBERS OF THE STATION.]

At Housesteads, two or three of the ruined chambers will, above the

rest, attract the attention of the visitor. Near the centre of the

northern division is one which is seventy feet long and eight broad; it

must have been a place of public concourse. In the front of it is a kiln

which has probably been used for drying corn; near the southern gateway

is another which was nearly destroyed in the endeavour made to extricate

a cow which had fallen into it, and, in struggling to relieve herself,

had thrust her head and neck into the flue. The Romans seem to have

kiln-dried their corn at the close of the harvest; it would not have

been safe to stack it in the open fields. They would the more readily do

this, as it is still by no means unusual, in the central and southern

parts of Europe, to thrash the corn at the close of harvest on the field

where it grew.

Three hypocausts have been found here, two within the station, and

another to the east of it, on the Knag-burn; the flues of the latter

were full of soot; very slight traces of any of them now remain.

In this and most other stations, writes Hodgson, ‘there are found

considerable quantities of limestone, having partly the character of

stalagmite, and partly that of such cellular stone as forms about the

mouths of petrifying wells. Some of it is in amorphous lumps; but the

greatest part of it has been either sawn into rectangular pieces, or

formed in a fluid state in moulds.’ They are probably artificial; at

HABITANCUM, where this calcareous substance is abundant, it seems to

have acquired its porosity by being mixed with straw. The use to which

it has been applied is by no means obvious. Hodgson thought that it had

been inserted in the side walls of the hypocausts, to allow heat to

arise from below without smoke. This is doubtful. At HABITANCUM, the

blocks, I am told, have been used as ordinary stones. In the

construction of the Pharos at Dover, (where building stone is scarce)

the calcareous composition has been largely used. Why it should have

been employed at HABITANCUM, and other places, where free-stone is

abundant, does not appear.

[Sidenote: BORCOVICUS]

The suburbs of BORCOVICUS have been very extensive, the ruins of them

distinctly appearing on the east, south, and west sides of the station.

A little to the south of it, and stretching westward, the ground has

been thrown up in long terraced lines, a mode of cultivation much

practised in Italy and in the east. Similar terraces, more feebly

developed, appear at Bradley; I have seen them very distinctly marked on

the banks of the Rede-water, Old Carlisle and other places.

A well, cased with Roman masonry, is in front of the shepherd’s house,

south of the station; a spring, yielding excellent water, is at the

bottom of the same field; the Knag-burn washes the station on its

eastern side, and there is ‘a fine well under the high basaltic cliff’

on which the northern wall of the station stands, ‘which is still well

walled round,’ and has occasionally been used as a bath. None has been

discovered within the station itself.

_PLATE XI_

[Illustration: Broken Columns, Borcovicus]

_PLATE XII_

[Illustration: Sculpted Figures, Borcovicus]

_PLATE XIII_

[Illustration: Sculpted Figures, etc.]

[Sidenote: ARCHITECTURAL REMAINS.]

In the valley below is a small sandstone ridge, called Chapel-hill, from

the idea that a temple stood upon it. Two fine altars have been found

here.[108] The ruins that contained the Mithraic antiquities, to which

reference will be made afterwards, stood a little to the west of this

hill. All traces of the small, dark temple, where the horrid mysteries

of the god were performed, are now nearly obliterated.

The fragments of columns which are engraved in Plate XI, enable us to

imagine the original grandeur of the place.[109] With some of the

certainty with which a comparative anatomist decides upon the character

and habits of an animal, from an inspection of a fragment of its osseous

system, an architect determines the size and style of a building from an

examination of some of its parts. Thus, the circular column, of which

one of the stones (Plate XI.) that now lies in the valley below the

station, has formed a part, was probably not less than twenty feet high;

how imposing must the entire temple have been!

Plates XII and XIII exhibit several of the carved figures which formerly

lay in confusion among the ruins of the station. They are interesting,

as exhibiting the state of the arts in Britain at that time, the mode of

dress adopted by the Romans, and the [Illustration: Figure of Victory]

high degree of attention which they paid to the decoration of their

stations. Roman art in Britain has surely been rated too low.

The figure introduced on this page was found here. It represents one of

old Rome’s most favourite deities,—Victory, careering, with outstretched

wings, over the globe. How strong must the passion for conquest have

been in the breast of a people, who, though nurtured in a southern

climate, braved for more than three centuries, the fogs, and storms, and

desolation of this wild region! Wherever the winged goddess led, they

followed, and, most pertinaciously too, maintained their ground. But,

there is a tide in the affairs of men.

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

Urbs oritur (quis tunc hoc ulli credere posset?)

Victorem terris impositura pedem.

Cuncta regas: et sis magno sub Cæsare semper

Sæpe etiam plures nominis hujus habe.

Et quoties steteris domito sublimis in orbe,

Omnia sint humeris inferiora tuis.

How different the strains which, in a distant age, and in another clime,

were to flow from the lyre of a brother bard, and how appropriate to the

present condition of the deserted BORCOVICUS!—

Where is Rome?

She lives but in the tale of other times;

Her proud pavilions are the hermit’s home,

And her long colonnades, her public walks

Now faintly echo to the pilgrim’s feet,

Who comes to muse in solitude, and trace,

Through the rank moss revealed, her honoured dust.

That Housesteads is the BORCOVICUS of the empire, [Illustration:

Sepulchral Slab to a young Physician] appears plain from the numerous

inscriptions that allude to the first cohort of the Tungrians, which,

according to the Notitia, was quartered there. One of these inscriptions

is shewn on page 63; another, a sepulchral stone, is here presented. The

figure on the top of the slab I take to be a rabbit, and suspect that it

had some reference to the worship of the obscene god, Priapus. The

inscription is usually read in the following manner, though, perhaps,

_ordinario_ might with equal propriety be read _ordinato_:—

D[IIS] M[ANIBVS]

ANICIO

INGENVO

MEDICO

ORDI[NARIO] COH[ORTIS]

PRIMÆ TVNGR[ORVM]

VIX[IT] AN[NIS] XXV

_Sacred_ to the gods of the shades below.

To Anicius

Ingenuus,

physician

in ordinary, of cohort

the first of the Tungrians.

He lived twenty-five years.

From an inscription found at Castlecary, it appears that this cohort of

Tungrians built one thousand paces of the Antonine Wall in Scotland.

They were from about Tongres, on the banks of the Mæse, in Belgic Gaul.

Their rank, as a milliary cohort, conferred on them the dangerous honour

of advancing in the van of the army to battle, and their acknowledged

valour probably procured for them the appointment to this exposed and

dangerous post.

[Sidenote: THE NAME ASCERTAINED.]

The etymology of _Borcovicus_ is easy. A high hill to the south of the

station is called Borcum or Barcomb, a neighbouring stream is designated

Bardon-burn, and a village near its confluence with the Tyne,

Bardon-mill. _Bar_, in Celtic, means a height, and probably forms the

root of all these names; the termination, _vicus_, is a Latin word,

signifying a village.

The stone used in the inside of the walls of the station, and for other

ordinary purposes, has been quarried out of the cliffs in the sandstone

ridge, along which the present military road passes. 'The altars,

columns, and quoins, and much of the ashlar work, have been taken from a

stratum of freestone on the north side of the Wall, and similar to that

in which the recesses, called the King and Queen’s Caves, on the south

side of Broomlee-lough, are formed.'[110]

[Sidenote: THE VALLUM COMMANDED BY THE CRAGS.]

Again taking the Wall as our guide, we will pursue our course westward.

For the greater part of the way along the high ground, the Wall is in a

sufficiently good state of preservation to make it a varied and

interesting study; it not unfrequently exhibits five, six, and even

seven courses of facing-stones. The Northumbrian lakes also lend a charm

to the scene. Though appearing in native simplicity and rude grandeur,

they will not on that account be less appreciated by men of taste. The

Vallum is generally very boldly developed, and runs for several miles in

the valley below, completely commanded by the hill on which the Wall

stands, as is shewn in the section, Plate IV. This fact is surely fatal

to the theory of its having been erected to withstand the brunt of a

northern foe. It would have been impolitic to allow the enemy to occupy

these heights even as a post of observation. It is true, that the Vallum

is occasionally commanded by the rising ground on the south: opposite

Sewingshields it is so, and opposite Hot-bank, a little to the west of

where we now are, it is overlooked on both sides. This difficulty is not

a very formidable one. The engineer of the Barrier has drawn the Vallum

chiefly in straight lines from one point to another, and has not thought

it necessary to guard with excessive jealousy every little rising ground

to the south; he never, however, departs from his course to go round the

north of a hill, as he does to go round the south of that one near

Halton-chesters. The cases, moreover, in which the Vallum is exposed to

observation from the south, are very few. Horsley’s own testimony upon

this point is decided. He writes—

It must be owned, that the southern prospect of Hadrian’s work, and

the defence on that side, is generally better than on the north;

whereas the northern prospect and defence have been principally, or

only taken care of in the Wall of Severus.[111]

[Sidenote: RAPISHAW-GAP.]

After passing a mile-castle we come to a depression in the ridge of

basalt, that places us opposite the west end of Broomlee-lough; the crag

on the west side of this slack is called Cuddy’s-crag. A little farther

on, we reach a more extensive pass, called Rapishaw-gap; a road passes

through it under the same circumstances as that through Busy-gap, a

little above the bottom of the valley. The traveller may here with

advantage go to the north of the Wall, in order to examine the

geological character of the cliffs he has passed; they are seen ‘to rise

in rude and pillared majesty.’

Regaining the high grounds, the Wall for a short space is found to

possess less than its usual interest; the ground on the east side of the

Bradley estate was formerly common, and the object of our study was

every man’s prey. Other objects of inquiry, however, abundantly relieve

the attention. Langley castle, on the south bank of the Tyne, is in

sight, and during our western journey will long continue to be so. It is

a square building strengthened by rectangular towers at the corners.

Formerly a seat of the Percys, it became afterwards the property of the

Radcliffes. It passed, on the rebellion of 1715, along with the other

possessions of the earl of Derwentwater, into the hands of the

commissioners of Greenwich Hospital, who at present retain it. Destroyed

by fire at an early period, it has never been repaired; its masonry is

notwithstanding in excellent preservation. On a clear day the singularly

strong tongue of land on which are the ruins of Staward-le-peel, may

also be discerned to the south. But, more to our present purpose, the

high, brown hill of Borcum, from which the Romans obtained much of the

stone used in the construction of this part of the Wall, is in the

foreground. [Sidenote: ANCIENT QUARRY] An interesting discovery was made

here in 1837, to which subsequent reference will be made. On opening an

ancient quarry on the top of it, near the ‘longstone,’ a workman found a

small copper vessel, containing a large number of Roman coins; four of

these were of the time of Hadrian, and all the rest, of previous reigns.

Those of Trajan and Hadrian were as fresh as if new from the die. The

conclusion is natural, that the quarry had been last wrought in the time

of Hadrian, the Wall itself being possibly of the same date. An

extensive earthen camp is on the summit of the hill, probably raised by

the soldiers who were engaged in quarrying the rock.

Greenlee-lough is to the north; on its western margin is a modern

structure, Bonny-rig, the property of sir Edward Blackett.

Proceeding westward, the Wall again rises into notice. ‘Much of it

remains of very various thicknesses, the whole of the perpendicular

outsets and insets being on the south side.’

[Sidenote: HADRIAN SLAB.]

On the tail of the crag on which we now are, the farm-house of Bradley

stands. Built up in the doorway of its old kitchen, was a stone, now at

Matfen, bearing the fragment of an inscription. Another fractured slab,

formerly in the possession of the ‘judicious’ Warburton, and now at

Durham, when joined to it, gives an inscription precisely similar to one

immediately to be noticed, with the exception of a letter or two in the

line of the fracture. The fragments, doubtless, as Hodgson conjectures,

formed one stone, deposited in the foundation of some castellum in this

neighbourhood, as a memorial of its erection by Hadrian. The wood-cut

annexed has been prepared from drawings carefully made of the two

portions in their separate localities.

[Illustration: Slab to Hadrian, Bradley]

[Sidenote: BRADLEY HALL.]

Once, at least, since the days of Hadrian, this central region of the

Wall has been honoured with the presence of royalty. Hodgson says,—

On the authority of documents in Rymer, Prynne, and the Calender of

Patent Rolls, I find Edward the First testing records in the presence

of several great officers of state, at Lanchester, on Aug. 10; at

Corbridge, Aug. 14; at Newburgh, Aug. 28, 30, 31, and Sep. 4; at

Bradley ‘in Marchia Scotiæ,’ Sep. 6 and 7; at Haltwhistle on the 11th,

and at Thirlwall on the 20th of the same month; and at Lanercost on

Oct. 4, A.D. 1306, at which last house he continued all winter. The

Bradley here mentioned is probably Bradley-hall, on the right bank of

Craglough-burn, and a little south both of Vallum and Wall, not the

farm-house of Bradley, which is between the two barriers.—_Northd._

II. iii. 288.

The exigencies of war have again and again drawn to this secluded spot

the mightiest potentates of earth; as yet this imperial ground has not

been trodden by the feet of Majesty, attracted by the sweet allurements

of peace.

On the margin of the military road, opposite to us, is the only Inn in

the district, which is known by no other name than that of _Twice

Brewed_. Before the construction of the Railway it was much resorted to

by the carriers who conducted the traffic between the eastern and

western portions of the island. As many as fifty horses and about twenty

men would be put up here for the night. Now, it is nearly forsaken.

Hutton took up his abode here on a carrier’s night. The difficulty he

had in procuring an exclusive bed was compensated by the amusement of

observing the carriers at their meal—he soon perceived that they had ‘no

barricade in the throat; and became convinced that eating was the chief

end of man!’

[Sidenote: MILKING-GAP.]

The next break in the basaltic ridge, is the Milking-gap. As we approach

it, Crag-lough is seen laving the base of the perpendicular cliff along

which the Wall runs. In order to take the high ground, westward of the

gap, the Wall here turns at a considerable angle. In this valley, the

north fosse again comes to the help of the structure. In front of the

farm-house, called Hot-bank, are distinct traces of a mile-castle. In

taking up its foundations, the slab, of which the annexed drawing is a

faithful copy, was found, which would seem to be a tablet precisely

similar to that which is formed by the junction of the two fragments

referred to above.

[Illustration: Slab to Hadrian, Milking-gap]

IMP[ERATORIS] CAES[ARIS] TRAIAN[I].

HADRIANI AVG[VSTI]

LEG[IO] SECVNDA AVG[VSTA]

AVLO PLATORIO NEPOTE LEG[ATO] PR[O]PR[ÆTORE.]

Of the Emperor Cæsar Trajanus

Hadrianus Augustus,

The second legion, styled the August,

Aulus Platorius Nepos, being legate and proprætor.

Of all the inscriptions discovered in Britain, Hodgson pronounces this

to be of the greatest historical importance, inasmuch as it leads to the

true reading of several fragments of similar inscriptions

throwing[Sidenote: MILKING-GAP INSCRIPTION.] light upon the authorship

of the Wall. One of these was known to Horsley, and seems to have

puzzled that great antiquary. It and other fragments which have since

been found in different mile-castles, tend to produce the conviction,

that the mile-castles, (which are on the line of the Wall, ascribed to

Severus,) were built by Hadrian. The simplicity of the inscription will

strike the classical reader, who will not fail also to observe the

peculiarity of the name of the emperor being in the genitive case.

Although the station of _Vindolana_ lies considerably to the south of

the lines of the Barrier, it is ranked by the Notitia among the stations

_per lineam valli_, and as such, must be examined by us in our mural

peregrination. Leaving Milking-gap with this view, and crossing the low

grounds to the south of the Wall, the Vallum is observed, contrary to

its usual tendency, making two rapid curves, something in the form of

the letter S, to avoid, apparently, the swellings of the contiguous

marsh. At High-shields, a cottage on the little ridge south of the

turnpike-road, the station comes into view. It stands upon a partially

detached eminence, surrounded, though not so closely as to be commanded,

by hills of superior elevation. On all sides, except the western, it is

naturally defended, whilst the summits of the surrounding heights afford

it a degree of shelter which would be peculiarly grateful to the natives

of southern Europe. The Chineley-burn flows past it, and the situation

is altogether one of peculiar beauty. In modern times, the place has

been variously designated Little Chesters, the Bowers, and Chesterholm.

[Sidenote: VINDOLANA.]

VINDOLANA.—As this station is detached from the Wall, and lies upon the

line of the ancient road which ran from CILURNUM to MAGNA, it is not

improbable that it was one of Agricola’s forts. The road which connected

it with the Wall may yet be distinctly traced between High Shields and

the farm-house of Chesterholm.

The walls, ditches, and gateways of the station are all discernible. The

northern gateway would be the one chiefly used by the garrison, as it

opens directly upon the Great Military Way. An examination of the

western gateway, some years ago, led to the belief that it had been

walled up at an early period; this is the most exposed side of the camp.

A portion of the wall of the station near the north-east corner, when

cleared by its late owner, Mr. Hedley, stood twelve courses high. In

this case, as in many others, the researches of the antiquary have only

facilitated the operations of the destroyer; much of it has since been

removed. The size of the stones, which is considerable in the foundation

course, gradually diminishes upwards.

[Sidenote: CHESTERHOLM.]

At least two buildings provided with hypocausts, have been discovered

here. One of these stood about fifty yards beyond the western rampart,

and when discovered, contained a square apartment, vaulted above. Some

of the vaulting-stones are still preserved at Chesterholm; they are

grooved near the lower extremity, apparently to allow of the joints

being strengthened by the insertion between them of keys of slate or

wood. The remains of this building were more complete when Hodgson wrote

the following paragraph than at present:—

The pillars of the hypocaust are still very black with fire and soot;

and people say that the Bowers, from the Roman age till within the

last century, was the elysium of a colony of fairies; and this ruined

bath, the kitchen to one of their palaces, of which the soot among the

stones was undeniable evidence; and confident belief affirmed, that

long passages led from this laboratory of savoury messes to

subterranean halls that ever echoed to the festivities and music of

the Queen of the Bowers, and her aërial court.

[Illustration: Altar to Fortune, Chesterholm]

The other hypocaust was partially explored by Warburton in 1717, but

more fully by the rev. Ant. Hedley in 1831. It stood within the area of

the camp not far from the eastern gateway. In its ruins, Warburton found

the fine altar to Fortune, here engraved. It is now preserved in the

Library of the Dean and Chapter at Durham, the ‘judicious’ antiquary not

having been able to obtain his price for it of my lord Oxford.[112] Here

also Mr. Hedley discovered the three noble altars [Illustration:

Hypocaust Pillar] which are still preserved at Chesterholm. The pillars

which supported the floor of the hypocausts were of different shapes and

diameters; some of them were portions of square columns, as in the

annexed example, some circular, like the balusters of stairs, as may be

seen by the specimens of them in the garden at Chesterholm. The Romans

themselves, Hodgson remarks, seem to have treated the fallen works of

their predecessors here with very little ceremony, when they cut down

the handsome columns of halls and temples into pillars for sooty

hypocausts.

About a furlong west of the camp is a copious spring, from which the

water was taken by a channel formed of large stones into the station.

The water still, in some measure, follows its ancient track, as the

appearance of the herbage shews, and pours itself, by a covered passage,

into the Chineley-burn on the opposite side.

[Illustration:

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

MILE STONE AT CHESTERHOLM.

]

In the vicinity of the camp is an object of peculiar interest. On the

line of the ancient Roman road which skirts its northern rampart, stands

a mile-stone at the spot where the soldiers of Agricola or Hadrian

placed it. The opposite lithograph shews it in the foreground; the camp

is in the distance. It is upwards of six feet high, and is nearly two

feet in diameter. There are traces of an inscription on its western

face, but scarcely a letter can now be deciphered.[Sidenote: ROMAN

MILE-STONE.] Another mile-stone formerly stood to the west of this, but

it was removed and split up by its tasteless owner, into two gate-posts.

Horsley says that it bore the inscription—

BONO REIPVBLICÆ NATO.

To one born for the good of the republic—

an inscription which, supposing it to be perfect, though this is a

little doubtful, is happily contrived to be complimentary to each

successive emperor. The Romans, with wise policy, paid great attention

to their roads; the stones which they erected at every mile were

generally inscribed with the name of the consul or emperor under whose

auspices they were made. Horsley mentions another mile-stone, which was

to the east of the present one.

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

In the house and grounds of the late Mr. Hedley, are preserved some very

valuable antiquarian remains. A very fine altar to Jupiter is reserved

for subsequent description. Another, whose focus is reddened by the

action of fire, is here introduced on account of the evidence which it

affords, in corroboration of the conjecture of Horsley, that Little

Chesters was the VINDOLANA of the Romans, where, according to the

Notitia, the fourth cohort of the Gauls was stationed.

[Illustration: Altar to Genius of the Pretorium]

GENIO PRÆTORI[I] SACRVM PI TVANIVS SE CVNDVS PRÆ FECTVS COH[ORTIS] IV

GALLOR[VM]

To the genius of the Prætorium sacred; Pi- tuanius Se- cundus præ- fect

of the fourth cohort of the Gauls, _erects this_.

Several other inscriptions by the fourth cohort of the Gauls have been

found here since the time of Horsley.

The altar to Fortune, given in a previous page, shews us that at least a

detachment of the sixth legion had, at some period, its abode here.

[Sidenote: THE TWENTIETH LEGION.] A stone, [Illustration: alt=Symbol,

Leg. XX.] preserved at the place, and of which an engraving is here

given, bears testimony to the presence of the twentieth legion also,

which was surnamed V[ALENS] V[ICTRIX], ‘the valiant and victorious’, and

of which the symbol was a boar. This legion was first sent over to

Britain by Claudius, and remained in it until the island was abandoned

by the Romans. Horsley conceives that this legion was concerned in the

erection of the Vallum, though, he adds, we have no inscriptions to

prove it. He suspects that it was no-way concerned in building the Wall,

because, among all the centurial inscriptions which had come under his

notice, not one mentioned this legion, or any cohort belonging to it.

The discovery, since the publication of the Britannia Romana, of this

and other memorials to be noticed as we proceed, renders [Illustration:

alt=Part of Slab to Hadrian] it probable that the twentieth legion was

engaged upon both the Wall and the Vallum; and as, according to Horsley,

‘it is evident that this legion was at Chester in the year 154,’ where

it long continued, the probability is strengthened, that the Wall, as

well as the Vallum, was built before that period. A fragment of an

inscription, represented above, bears direct reference to Hadrian. The

Milking-gap slab, to which it has a very close resemblance, enables us

to supply the parts that are wanting. The only difference seems to be,

that the emperor’s name is in the dative case instead of the genitive as

in the other example.

_IMP CA_ES TRAIA_N_

_HAD_RIANO _AVG P P_

_LE_G II _AVG_

_A PLATORIO NEPOTE LEG PR PR._

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

exception of the quoins, [Illustration: alt=Coping-stone, Roman

‘broaching’] entirely formed of stones procured from the station. In

addition to the altars which stand in front of the house, several

objects of considerable interest are built up in the covered passage

which leads from the kitchen to the burn; among them is a range of Roman

coping-stones, of the form shewn in the cut. The ‘broaching’ of the

stones has been alluded to previously.

Near the stables attached to the house, is a Roman altar converted into

a swine-trough; the figure on its side seems to have been intended for

an eagle, the emblem of the imperial Jove. A foretaste this of the day

when every idol shall be cast to the moles and to the bats. May it

speedily arrive!

[Illustration:

John Storey, Del. et Lith.

THE CRAGS, WEST OF CRAG LOUGH.

]

[Sidenote: VINDOLANA]

The probable meaning of the word VINDOLANA, is ‘the hill of arms;’

_vin_, with slight variations of pronunciation, signifying, in all the

Celtic dialects, a height; and _lann_, in the Gaelic, weapons. The name

well accords with those common in Ossian’s poems.

Rejoining the Wall at Milking-gap, and continuing our course westward,

we soon arrive at a conspicuous gap, on the Steel-rig grounds. The Wall

on the eastern declivity of this pass may be studied to great advantage.

The courses are laid parallel to the horizon; the mortar of each course

of the interior seems to have been smoothed over before the

superincumbent mass was added. In order to give the in-door antiquary an

idea of its condition, a drawing of it is here introduced.

[Sidenote: PEEL-CRAG.]

Mounting another hill, and again descending into the valley, we find

another gap, in which the remains of a mile-castle will be noticed, from

which it has received the name of the Castle-nick. A little farther

removed is Peel-crag, one of the most precipitous faces which the Wall

has had to traverse. The military way ingeniously avoids the sudden

descent by winding round the southern projections of the rock. After

passing a cottage, called the Peel, a modern road is encountered which

leads to Keilder, and so into Scotland; in its progress northwards,

however, it soon degenerates into a mere track. As this pass is more

than usually open, the fosse again appears surmounted by a mound on its

northern margin; the earth-works are strongly marked, but the Wall is

gone.

The lithographic view represents the northern aspect of the crags, as

they appear here.

On the western side of this, sheltered by a few trees, is the farm-house

of Steel-rig. Attaining the next elevation—Winshields-crag—we are on

ground reputed to be the highest between the two seas; a turf cairn has

been erected on it for the purposes of the ordnance survey. From this

lofty summit, the vessels navigating the Solway may easily be descried.

[Sidenote: BLOODY-GAP.]

Proceeding in the same direction, we reach another gap of wide

dimensions, but very steep on both declivities. Here the Wall has been

provided with a ditch, strengthened, as usual in dangerous situations,

with a rampart on its outer margin. If the local vocabulary does not

furnish this pass with a name (and I have not been able to find that it

does), Bloody-gap, from the following circumstance, well befits it.

Nearly direct north from it, is a rising ridge of ground, called

Scotch-coulthard. When the moss-troopers, who abounded in these parts,

succeeded in safely reaching it, their pursuers commonly considered

farther chase useless. Between the Wall and this point of safety,

therefore, the race and the conflict were necessarily of the most

desperate character; that many deadly conflicts have taken place, is

evidenced by the numerous skeletons which are turned up in draining the

ground.

A lonely cottage, upon an exposed part of the ridge, is called

Shield-on-the-Wall.

Near the modern military way, two large stones, called ‘the mare and

foal,’ are standing. In Armstrong’s map of Northumberland, three are

marked; they are probably remains of a Druidical circle.

[Illustration:

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

THE WALL AT STEEL-RIG.

Printed by W. Monkhouse, York

]

[Sidenote: ANCIENT TRADITIONS.]

Shortly afterwards we come to a gap of very bold proportions. Popular

faith asserts it to have been the abode of evil spirits, and it is known

by the ominous name of Bogle-hole. The sides of the gap are steep; on

the western declivity the courses of the Wall are for the most part

conformable to the ground, but they are stayed up by occasional steps

parallel to the horizon. In the valley, to the south, the Vallum is seen

bending up towards the Wall, apparently to assist in defending the pass;

it would not have done so, had it been an independent fortification. The

vicinity of Bogle-hole seems a fitting place for introducing the

following passage from Procopius, a writer of the fifth century. We can

readily conceive that at a period when the inroads of the Caledonians

were still fresh in the memory of the inhabitants, the country north of

the Wall would be regarded with superstitious dread. Doubtless, many who

passed the boundary, found, to their cost, that in this region lay the

pathway to the world of spirits:—

Moreover, in this isle of Brittia, men of ancient time built a long

wall, cutting off a great portion of it: for the soil, and the man,

and all other things, are not alike on both sides; for on the eastern

(southern) side of the Wall, there is a wholesomeness of air in

conformity with the seasons, moderately warm in summer, and cool in

winter. Many men inhabit here, living much as other men. The trees,

with their appropriate fruits, flourish in season, and their corn

lands are as productive as others; and the district appears

sufficiently fertilized by streams. But on the western (northern) side

all is different, insomuch indeed, that it would be impossible for a

man to live there, even half an hour. Vipers and serpents innumerable,

with all other kinds of wild beasts, infest that place; and, what is

most strange, the natives affirm, that if any one, passing the Wall,

should proceed to the other side, he would die immediately, unable to

endure the unwholesomeness of the atmosphere. Death also, attacking

such beasts as go thither, forthwith destroys them.... They say that

the souls of men departed are always conducted to this place; but in

what manner I will explain immediately, having frequently heard it

from men of that region relating it most seriously, although I would

rather ascribe their asseverations to a certain dreamy faculty which

possesses them.—_Giles’s Ancient Britons_, I. 404.

[Sidenote: CAW-GAP.]

The next defile is Caw-gap; some ruined cottages, formed of Wall-stones,

stand in it. The extreme jealousy with which the Romans defended an

exposed situation is well shewn here. The fosse, which guards the pass

through the low ground, is discontinued on the western side as soon as

the Wall attains a sufficient elevation, but upon the the ground

drooping, though only for the space of a few yards, it re-appears for

that short distance.

A road runs through this pass to the north, which soon becomes a mere

track. It passes a solitary house, called Burn Deviot, nearly due north

from the gap, which was long the resort of smugglers and sheep-stealers.

The memory of its last tenants, Nell Nichol and her two daughters, who

were a pest to the country, is still fresh in the district. Though many

years have elapsed since any one occupied the dwelling, lights are said

often to be seen at the windows at night, visible tokens of the presence

of the spirits of the murdered children of Nell’s daughters.

[Sidenote: CAWFIELDS CRAGS.]

The crags along which we soon find ourselves to be proceeding, possess a

perpendicular elevation of nearly five hundred feet above the plains

below. Passing another small gap, called the Thorny Doors, we come to a

tract of Wall in an excellent state of preservation. The lower courses

have lately been freed from the rubbish which for centuries has covered

them, and the fallen stones replaced in their proper order. The whole

face of the Wall has a remarkably fresh appearance, and nowhere can the

tooling of the stones be examined with more advantage. Amongst the

fallen stones, one was lately found which furnishes us with additional

evidence, that the twentieth legion was engaged in the erection of this

part of the Wall. It [Illustration: alt=Mural Stone, Leg. XX. V.V.] is

preserved amongst the antiquities at Chesters, and is represented in the

adjoining cut. This sculpture cannot have been derived from the Vallum,

in the construction of which, in the time of Hadrian, the twentieth

legion is acknowledged to have been employed; for the Vallum is here

distant more than three hundred yards from the Wall. The reader will of

course perceive the bearing which this fact has upon the question of the

contemporaneous origin of the two structures, and the construction of

the Wall, as well as the Vallum, by Hadrian.

While the antiquary is eagerly scrutinizing indentations in stones which

were chiselled sixteen centuries ago, his eye will occasionally rest

upon the memorials of an antiquity so indefinite as to throw into the

shade even his primeval records. Lepidodendra, and other fossils of the

mill-stone-grit and coal series, are of occasional occurrence. Who shall

tell when these giant plants flourished, how they were enveloped in

their sandy bed, and how hardened into the flinty stone made use of by

the Roman soldiers? Imagination reels at the questions suggested.

[Sidenote: PILGRIMS'-GAP.]