About five furlongs North of the Navigation Bridge, in Great Charles
street, which is the boundary of the present buildings, runs the
Ikenield-street; one of those famous pretorian roads which mark the
Romans with conquest, and the Britons with slavery.
By that time a century had elapsed, from the first landing of Caesar in
Britain the victorious Romans had carried their arms through the
southern part of the isle. They therefore endeavoured to secure the
conquered provinces by opening four roads, which should each rise in the
shore, communicate with, and cross each other, form different angles,
extend over the island several ways, and terminate in the opposite sea.
These are the Watling-street, which rises near Dover, and running
North-west through London, Atherstone, and Shropshire, in the
neighbourhood of Chester, ends in the Irish sea.
The Foss begins in Devonshlre, extends South-east through
Leicestershire, continuing its course through Lincolnshire, to the verge
of the German ocean.
These two roads, crossing each other at right angles, form a figure
resembling the letter X, whose centre is the High Cross, which divides
the counties of Warwick and Leicester.
The Ermine-street extends along the southern part of the island; near
the British channel; and the Ikenield-street, which I cannot so soon
quit, rises near Southampton, extends nearly North, through Winchester,
Wallingford, and over the Isis, at New-bridge; thence to Burford,
crossing the Foss at Stow in the Woulds, over Bitford-bridge, in the
County of Warwick, to Alcester; by Studley, Ipsley, Beely,
Wetherick-hill, Stutley-street; crosses the road from Birmingham to
Bromsgrove, at Selley oak, leaving Harborne a mile to the left, also the
Hales Owen road a mile West of Birmingham: Thence by the Observatory in
Lady-wood-lane, where it enters the parish of Birmingham, crossing the
Dudley road at the Sand-pits; along Worstone-lane; through the little
pool, and Hockley-brook, where it quits the parish: Thence over
Handsworth-heath, entering a little lane on the right of
Bristle-lands-end, and over the river Tame, at Offord-mill,
(Oldford-mill) directly to Sutton Coldfield. It passes the Ridgeway a
few yards East of King's-standing, a little artificial mount, on which
Charles the First is said to have stood when he harangued the troops he
brought out of Shropshire, at the opening of the civil wars, in 1642.
From thence the road proceeds through Sutton park, and the remainder of
the Coldfield; over Radley-moor; from thence to Wall, a Roman station,
where it meets the Watling-street: Leaving Lichfield a mile to the left,
it leads through Street-hay; over Fradley-heath; thence through Alderwas
hays, crossing the river Trent, at Wichnor-bridge, to Branson-turnpike:
over Burton-moor, leaving the town half a mile to the right: thence to
Monk's-bridge, upon the river Dove; along Egington-heath, Little-over,
the Rue-dyches, Stepping-lane, Nun-green, and Darley-slade, to the river
Derwent, one mile above Derby; upon the eastern banks of which stands
Little Chester, built by the Romans.
If the traveller is tired with this tedious journey, and dull
description, which admits of no variety, we will stop for a moment, and
refresh in this Roman city.
In drawing the flewks of his oar along the bed of the river, as he boats
over it, he may feel the foundations of a Roman bridge, nearly level
with its bottom. Joining the water are the vestiges of a castle, now an
orchard. Roman coins are frequently discovered--In 1765, I was presented
with one of Vespasian's, found the year before in scowering a ditch; but
I am sorry to observe, it has suffered more during the fifteen years in
my possession, than during the fifteen hundred it lay in the earth.
The inhabitants being in want of materials to form a turnpike road,
attempted to pull up this renowned military way, for the sake of those
materials, but found them too strongly cemented to admit of an easy
separation, and therefore desisted when they had taken up a few loads.
I saw the section of this road cut up from the bottom: the Romans seem
to have formed it with infinite labour and expence. They took out the
soil for about twenty yards wide, and one deep, perhaps, till they came
to a firm bottom; and filled up the whole with stones of all sizes,
brought from Duffield, four miles up the river; cemented with
coarse mortar.
The road here is only discoverable by its barren track, along the
cultivated meadows. It then proceeds over Morley-moor, through
Scarsdale, by Chesterfield, Balsover, through Yorkshire, Northumberland,
and terminates upon the banks of the Tine, near Tinmouth.
There are many roads in England formed by the Romans: they were of two
kinds, the military, which crossed the island; and the smaller, which
extended from one town to another. The four I have mentioned come under
the first class: they rather avoided, than led through a town, that they
might not be injured by traffic.
Two of these four, the Watling-street, and the Ikenield-street, are
thought, by their names, to be British, and with some reason; neither of
the words are derived from the Latin: but whatever were their origin,
they are certainly of Roman construction.
These great roads were begun as soon as the island was subdued, to
employ the military, and awe the natives, and were divided into stages,
at the end of each was a fort, or station, to accommodate the guard, for
the reception of stores, the conveniency of marching parties, and to
prevent the soldiers from mixing with the Britons.
The stations upon the Ikenield-street, in our neighbourhood, are Little
Chester (Derventione) a square fort, nearly half an acre; joining the
road to the south, and the Derwent to the west.
The next is Burton upon Trent (Ad Trivonam) thirteen miles south. Here I
find no remains of a station.
Then Wall (Etocetum) near Lichfield, which I have examined with great
labour, or rather with great pleasure: Here the two famous consular
roads cross each other. We should expect a fort in the angle, commanding
both, which is not the case. The Watling-street is lost for about half a
mile, leading over a morass, only the line is faintly preserved, by a
blind path over the inclosures: the Ikenield-street crosses it in this
morass, not the least traces of which remain. But, by a strict
attention, I could point out their junction to a few yards.
Six furlongs west of this junction, and one hundred yards north of the
Watling-street, in a close, now about three acres, are the remains of
the Roman fortress. This building, of strength and terror, is reduced to
one piece of thick wall, visibly of Roman workmanship, from whence the
place derives its modern name.
Can you, says I to a senior peasant, for I love to appeal to old age,
tell the origin of that building?
"No; but we suppose it has been a church. The ruins were much larger in
my memory; but they were lately destroyed, to bring the land into that
improved state of cultivation in which you see it."--And so you reduced
a fortress in four years, which the Britons never could in four hundred.
For a trifling profit, you eraze the work of the ancients, and prevent
the wonder of the moderns.--Are you apprised of any old walls under
the surface?
"Yes; the close is full of them: I have broke three ploughs in one day;
no tool will stand against them. It has been more expensive to bring the
land into its present condition, than the freehold is worth." Why, you
seem more willing to destroy than your tools; and more able than time.
The works which were the admiration of ages, you bury under ground. What
the traveller comes many miles to see, you assiduously hide.
What could be the meaning that the Romans erected their station on the
declivity of this hill, when the summit, two hundred yards distant, is
much more eligible; are there no foundations upon it? "None."
The commandry is preferable: the Watling-street runs by it, and it is
nearer the Ikenield-street. Pray, are you acquainted with another Roman
road which crosses it? "No."
Do you know any close about the village, where a narrow bed of gravel,
which runs a considerable length, has impeded the plough?
"Yes; there is a place, half a mile distant, where, when a child, I
drove the plough; we penetrated a land of gravel, and my companion's
grandfather told us, it had been an old road."--That is the place I
want, lead me to it. Being already master of both ends of the road, like
a broken line, with the center worn out, the gravel bed enabled me to
recover it.
The next station upon the Ikenield-street is Birmingham (Bremenium) I
have examined this country with care; but find no vestiges of a station:
nor shall we wonder; dissolation is the preserver of antiquity, nothing
of which reigns here; the most likely place is Wor-ston (Wall-stone)
which a younger brother of Birmingham might afterwards convert into the
fashionable moat of the times, and erect a castle. The next station is
Alcester (Alauna) all which are nearly at equal distances.
In forming these grand roads, a strait direction seems to have been
their leading maxim. Though curiosity has lead me to travel many hundred
miles upon their roads, with the eye of an enquirer, I cannot recollect
one instance, where they ever broke the line to avoid a hill, a swamp, a
rock, or a river.
They were well acquainted with the propriety of an old English adage,
_Once well done is twice done_; an idea new cloathed by Lord
Chesterfield, _If a a thing be worth doing at all, it is worth
doing well_.
For their roads were so durably constructed, that, had they been
appropriated only to the use intended, they might have withstood the
efforts of time, and bid fair for eternity.--Why is this useful art so
lost among the moderns?
When time and intercourse had so far united the Romans and the Britons,
that they approached nearly to one people, the Romans formed, or rather
_improved_, many of the smaller roads; placed stones of intelligence
upon them; hence, London Stone, Stony Stratford (the stone at the
Street-ford) Atherstone, stone (hither, near, or first stone from
Witherly-bridge, a Roman camp) and fixed their stations in the places to
which these roads tended.
The great roads, as observed before, were chiefly appropriated for
military purposes, and instituted in the beginning of their government;
but the smaller were of later date, and designed for common use. As
these came more in practice, there was less occasion for the military;
which, not leading to their towns, were, in process of time, nearly
laid aside.
Antonine, and his numerous train of commentators, have not bestowed that
attention on the roads they deserve: a curious acquaintance with the
roads of a country, brings us acquainted with the manners of the people:
in one, like a mirror, is exactly represented the other. Their state,
like a master key, unlocks many apartments.
The authors I have seen are _all in the wrong_; and as my researches are
confined, it is a mortification, I am not able to set them right. They
have confounded the two classes together, which were very distinct in
chronology, the manner of making, and their use. If an author treats of
one old road, he supposes himself bound to treat of all in the kingdom,
a task no man can execute: by undertaking much, we do nothing well; the
journey of an antiquarian mould never be rapid. If fortune offers a
small discovery, let him think, and compare. Neither will they ever be
set right, but continue to build a mouldering fabric, with untempered
mortar, till a number of intelligent residents, by local enquiries can
produce solid materials for a lasting monument.
The Romans properly termed their ways streets, a name retained by many
of them to this day; one of the smaller roads, issuing from London,
penetrates through Stratford upon Avon (Street-ford) Monks-path-street,
and Shirley-street, to Birmingham, which proves it of great antiquity,
and the Ikenield-street running by it, proves it of greater. We may from
hence safely conclude, Birmingham was a place of note in the time of
Caesar, because she merited legislative regard in forming their roads;
which will send us far back among the Britons, to find her first
existence.
Though we are certain the Ikenield-street passes about a mile in length
through this parish, as described above; yet, as there are no Roman
traces to be seen, I must take the curious traveller to that vast waste,
called Sutton-Coldfield, about four miles distant, where he will, in the
same road, find the footsteps of those great mailers of the world,
marked in lasting characters.
He will plainly see its straight line pass over the Ridgeway, through
Sutton Park, leaving the West hedge about 200 yards to the left; through
the remainder of the Coldfield, till lost in cultivation.
This track is more than three miles in length, and is no where else
visible in these parts. I must apprize him that its highest beauty is
only discovered by an horizontal sun in the winter months.
I first saw it in 1762, relieved by the transverse rays, in a clear
evening in November; I had a perfect view upon the Ridgeway, near
King's-standing of this delightful scene: Had I been attacked by the
chill blasts of winter, upon this bleak mountain, the sensation would
have been lost in the transport. The eye, at one view, takes in more
than two miles. Struck with astonishment, I thought it the grandest
sight I had ever beheld; and was amazed, so noble a monument of
antiquity should be so little regarded.
The poets have long contended for the line of beauty--they may find it
here. I was fixed as by enchantment till the sun dropt, my prospect with
it, and I left the place with regret.
If the industrious traveller chooses to wade up to the middle in gorse,
as I did, he may find a roughish journey along this famous
military way.
Perhaps this is the only road in which money is of no use to the
traveller; for upon this barren wild he can neither spend it, nor
give it away.
He will perceive the Coldfield to be one vast bed of gravel, covered
with a moderate depth of soil of eight or ten inches: During this
journey of three miles, he will observe all the way, on each side, a
number of pits, perhaps more than a thousand, out of which the Romans
procured the gravel to form the road; none of them many yards from it.
This great number of pits, tends to prove two points--That the country
was full of timber, which they not choosing to fall, procured the gravel
in the interstices; for the road is composed of nothing else--And, that
a great number of people were employed in its formation: They would
also, with the trees properly disposed, which the Romans must inevitably
cut to procure a passage, form a barrier to the road.
This noble production was designed by a master, is every where straight,
and executed with labour and judgement.
Here he perceives the date of his own conquest, and of his civilization.
Thus the Romans humbled a ferocious people.
If he chooses to measure it he will find it exactly sixty feet wide,
divided into three lands, resembling those in a ploughed field. The
centre land thirty-six feet, and raised from one to three, according to
the nature of the ground. The side lands, twelve each, and rising seldom
more than one foot.
This centre land no doubt was appropriated for the march of the troops,
and the small one, on each side, for the out-guards, who preserved their
ranks, for fear of a surprize from the vigilant and angry Britons.
The Romans held these roads in great esteem, and were severe in their
laws for their preservation.
This famous road is visible all the way, but in some parts greatly hurt,
and in others, compleat as in the first day the Romans made it. Perhaps
the inquisitive traveller may find here, the only monument in the whole
island left us by the Romans, that _time_ hath not injured.
The philosophical traveller may make some curious observations in the
line of agriculture, yet in its infancy.
The only growth upon this wild, is gorse and ling: The vegetation upon
the road and the adjacent lands, seem equal: The pits are all covered
with a tolerable turf.
As this road has been made about 1720 years, and, as at the time of
making, both that and the pits must have been surfaces of neat gravel;
he will be led to examine, what degree of soil they have acquired in
that long course of years, and by what means?
He well knows, that the surface of the earth is very far from being a
fixed body: That there is a continual motion in every part, stone
excepted: That the operations of the sun, the air, the frost, the dews,
the winds, and the rain, produce a constant agitation, which changes the
particles and the pores, tends to promote vegetation, and to increase
the soil to a certain depth.
This progress is too minute for the human eye, but the effects are
visible. The powers above mentioned operate nearly as yeast in a lump of
dough, that enlivens the whole. Nature seems to wish that the foot would
leave the path, that she may cover it with grass. He will find this
vegetative power so strong, that it even attends the small detached
parts of the soil where-ever they go, provided they are within reach of
air and moisture: He will not only observe it in the small pots,
appropriated for garden use, but on the tops of houses, remote from any
road, where the wind has carried any small dust. He will also observe it
in cracks of the rocks; but in an amazing degree in the thick walls of
ruined castles, where, by a long course of time, the decayed materials
are converted into a kind of soil, and so well covered with grass, that
if one of our old castle builders could return to his possessions, he
might mow his house as well as his field, and procure a tolerable crop
from both.
In those pits, upon an eminence, the soil will be found deep enough for
any mode of husbandry. In those of the vallies, which take in the small
drain of the adjacent parts, it is much deeper. That upon the road,
which rather gives than receives any addition from drain, the average
depth is about four inches.
The soil is not only increased by the causes above, but also by the
constant decays of the growth upon it. The present vegetable generation
falling to decay, adds to the soil, and also, assists the next
generation, which in a short time follows the same course.
The author of the History of Sutton says, "The poor inhabitants are
supplied with fuel from a magazine of peat, near the Roman road,
composed of thousands of fir trees cut down by the Romans, to enable
them to pass over a morass. The bodies of the trees are sometimes dug up
found, with the marks of the axe upon them."
Are we then to suppose, by this curious historical anecdote, that the
inhabitants of Sutton have run away with this celebrated piece of
antiquity? That the cart, instead of rolling _over_ the military way,
has rolled _under_ it, and that they have boiled the pot with the
Roman road?
Upon inquiry, they seemed more inclined to credit the fact, than able to
prove it; but I can find no such morass, neither is the road any where
broken up. Perhaps it would be as difficult to find the trees, as the
axe that cut them: Besides, the fir is not a native of Britain, but of
Russia; and I believe our forefathers, the Britons, were not complete
masters of the art of transplanting. The park of Sutton was probably a
bed of oaks, the natural weed of the country, long before Moses figured
in history.
Whilst the political traveller is contemplating this extraordinary
production of antiquity, of art, and of labour, his thoughts will
naturally recur to the authors of it.
He will find them proficients in science, in ambition, in taste: They
added dominion to conquest, 'till their original territory became too
narrow a basis to support the vast fabric acquired by the success of
their arms: The monstrous bulk fell to destruction by its own
weight.--Man was not made for universality; if he grasps at little, he
may retain it; if at much, he may lose all.
The confusion, natural on such occasions, produced anarchy: At that
moment, the military stept into the government, and the people
became slaves.
Upon the ruins of this brave race, the Bishop of Rome founded an
ecclesiastical jurisdiction. His power increasing with his votaries, he
found means to link all christendom to the triple crown, and acquired an
unaccountable ascendency over the human mind: The princes of Europe were
harnessed, like so many coach horses. The pontiff directed the bridle.
He sometimes used the whip, and sometimes the curse. The thunder of his
throne rattled through the world with astonishing effect, 'till that
most useful discovery, the art of printing, in the fifteenth century,
dissolved the charm, and set the oppressed cattle at liberty; who began
to kick their driver. Henry the Eighth of England, was the first unruly
animal in the papal team, and the sagacious Cranmer assisted in breaking
the shackles.
We have, in our day, seen an order of priesthood in the church of Rome,
annihilated by the consent of the European princes, which the Pope
beheld in silence.
"There is an ultimate point of exaltation, and reduction, beyond which
human affairs cannot proceed." Rome, seems to have experienced both, for
she is at this day one of the most contemptible states in the scale
of empire.
This will of course lead the traveller's thoughts towards Britain, where
he will find her sons by nature inclined to a love of arms, of liberty,
and of commerce. These are the strong outlines of national character,
the interior parts of which are finished with the softer touches of
humanity, of science, and of luxury. He will also find, that there is a
natural boundary to every country, beyond which it is dangerous to add
dominion. That the boundary of Britain is the sea: That her external
strength is her navy, which protects her frontiers, and her commerce:
That her internal is unanimity: That when her strength is united within
herself, she is invincible, and the balance of Europe will be fixed in
her hand, which she ought never to let go.
But if she accumulates territory, though she may profit at first, she
weakens her power by dividing it; for the more she fends abroad, the
less will remain at home; and, instead of giving law to the tyrant, she
may be obliged to receive law from him.
That, by a multiplicity of additions, her little isles will be lost in
the great map of dominion.
That, if she attempts to draw that vast and growing empire, America, she
may herself be drawn to destruction; for, by every law of attraction,
the greater draws the less--The mouse was never meant to direct the ox.
That the military and the ecclesiastical powers are necessary in their
places, that is, subordinate to the civil.
But my companion will remember that Birmingham is our historical mark,
therefore we must retreat to that happy abode of the smiling arts. If he
has no taste for antiquity, I have detained him too long upon this
hungry, though delightful spot. If he has, he will leave the enchanted
ground with reluctance; will often turn his head to repeat the view,
'till the prospect is totally lost.