several respects; because good land for a considerable way quite
round it, as far as the valley reaches: the river, which may well be
called _spumosus_, incompasses it like a horse-shoe: it is deeper,
broader, and smoother, here than any where else: it is indeed a place
incomparably well chosen for a small city: the ground is sufficiently
high, even in floods; but floods render it an island, for it is low
ground before the entrance, but not marshy. Across the entrance there
are plain marks of a ditch north of the house; and Mr. Guy told me
there was a wall all along, an apparent rampire on the inside of it;
that his father dug up vast quantities of stone there: he showed me a
place in the city, where a hypocaust was found, all arched with Roman
brick, and paved with square bricks; that they covered it up again
without demolishing it. I saw a brass Antoninus, found here; and a
stone, somewhat like the capital of a small pillar, hexangular. Beyond
the low ground which lies before the entrance of the city, is a Roman
_tumulus_. Upon a slope of high ground, and in a pasture behind it,
is another very large hill, partly natural, and partly artificial,
by cutting away the roots of it, and rendering it more steep, as
it appeared to me: there is an ash-tree planted on it: when it was
ploughed, they discovered stones with mortar on them. I conjecture
there was a building upon it; probably an outguard, or lodge, for the
soldiers that stood upon the watch: for here was placed the _numerus
vigilum_ in the _Notitia_; and this place takes in a larger view than
the city, as being higher. The city contains about 14 acres of ground,
or more: it consists of two closes, one of twelve acres, another of
four; but the fortified part took not in intirely the twelve acres:
the ditch goes along the partition-fence visibly enough; the remainder
was suburbs to the castle, which was 500 foot one way, 600 another.
The inscription I spoke of at the end of the barn has not yet been
described. Thus Mr. Gale read it.
_Publius Ælius Publii filius Sergio Basso Decurioni legionis vicesimæ
valeriæ Victricis vixit annos et privatus libertis et herm miles
emeritus legionis sextæ victricis fecerunt. Si quis sepulchro alium
mortuum intulerit mulctam ferat fisco Dominorum nostrorum, &c._
A great woollen manufactory at Kendal, especially of such stuffs as
are proper for hangings. Winander meer, near here, is ten miles long,
remarkable for a fish called _char_, which they pot, and send all over
the kingdom. This country is exceedingly obnoxious to rain, and some of
the hill-tops on one side or other are perpetually covered with clouds:
I imagine the vast solidity of the stone that composed them attracts
the clouds big with water at some considerable distance, and then the
winds break and dash them into rain. This is another furtherance of
hills being supplied with fountains.
The city of _Concangios_ is placed on the highest plot of the
Chersonese: the four acres westward are more meadow-like, but far
from low. A great ridge of hills runs north and south-eastward of
this place, called Hag-fell, of a fine downy nature, and good riding
on the southern point of it. About a mile and half off the city was
the _castrum exploratorum_, or watch-tower: it is a mere tip of very
high ground, like a narrow tongue, and very steep, especially side
ways: it is called Castle-steed: it is sixty foot broad, 120 long: the
sides being thus steep needed no ditch; but on the south end are two
ditches, on the north three: I suppose it was walled about: it is of
the common cliff of the country; and in one place the ditch has been
cut through the rock. At the bottom of this hill is a large spring,
which immediately falls into a cavity of the earth again, and so I
suppose rises lower in another place. From hence is a fine prospect
to the mouths of the rivers Can and Lune, and all over this coast.
The Westmorland hills raise themselves into a new and more romantic
appearance than before, and the place well answered the purpose of an
espial.
About a mile north of Kendal is a cave in the rock near a wood, called
Hells-fell Nab, or the Fairy-hole: they talk of organs, pillars,
flitches of bacon, and the like matters here, as at Poole’s Hole in
Derbyshire.
SHAP.
On the south side of the town of Shap, six miles south
of Penrith, we saw the beginning of a great Celtic avenue, on a green
common. This is just beyond the horrid and rocky fells, where a good
country begins. This avenue is seventy foot broad, composed of very
large stones, set at equal intervals: it seems to be closed at this
end, which is on an eminence, and near a long flattish barrow, with
stone works upon it: hence it proceeds northward to the town, which
intercepts the continuation of it, and was the occasion of its ruin;
for many of the stones are put under the foundations of houses and
walls, being pushed by machines they call a _betty_, or blown up
with gunpowder. Though its journey be northward, yet it makes a very
large curve, or arc of a circle, as those at Abury, and passes over
a brook too. A spring likewise arises in it, near the Greyhound inn.
By the brook is a little round _sacellum_, composed of twelve stones,
but lesser ones, set by one great stone belonging to the side of the
avenue: the interval of the stones is thirty-five foot, half the
breadth of the avenue: the stones, no doubt, did all stand upright,
because three or four still do; but they were not much higher then,
than now as fallen, because of their figure, which is thick and short:
they are very large, and prodigiously hard, being nothing else but a
_congeries_ of crystals of very large sizes, of a flakey nature. Houses
and fields lie across the track of this avenue, and some of the houses
lie in the inclosure: it ascends the hill, crosses the common road to
Penrith, and so goes into the corn-fields on the other side of the
way westward, where some stones are left standing; one particularly
remarkable, called Guggleby stone. The people say these were set up
by enchantment: and the better sort of folks, as absurdly affirm,
they are made by art. I doubt not but they are gathered somewhere off
the surface, among the fells, and that here was a great temple of the
old Britons, such as that at Abury, which it resembles very much, as
far as I can judge at present; for the rainy weather, which in this
country is almost perpetual, hindered me from making at this time a
thorough disquisition into it. The ground it runs over consists of
gentle risings and fallings, but in general declines toward the west:
it is here, and for a great way further north, east and west, a very
fine downy turf, and pleasant hills; or at least they seemed so after
the rugged and barren views and roads we had just passed: but the
country under this turf is a lime-stone, quite different from the
stones of the avenue. In our journey hither the country is far worse
than the peaks of Derbyshire, and nothing to entertain the eye but the
numerous and rare cataracts; whole rivers, and the whole continuance
of them, being nothing else; the water every where running among the
rocks with great violence and rapidity: even the springs burst out of
the ground, and rise into the air with a surprising push: therefore
the Britons erected this laborious work very conveniently, beyond that
uncultivated frontier, and in a country where they might range about
in their chariots at pleasure. I guess, by the crebrity and number of
the stones remaining, there must have been two hundred on a side: near
them in several places are remains of circles to be seen, of stones set
on end; but there are no quantity of barrows about the place, which I
wonder at. Though these stones are not of such a flat form as those at
Abury, nor so big as some there; yet they are very large, and as heavy
as any of those in the avenues there. The site of the place is pretty
much bounded eastward by the hill that way adjacent; but there is a
large prospect west ward, and the country descends that way to a great
distance. At a place called in the maps Stone-heaps, we saw a cairn or
barrow made of stones: all the tops of the fells, I am told, abound
with these crystallised stones.
[Illustration: 90·2ᵈ.
_The Devils arrows near Burrowbridg. 14 Sepᵗʳ. 1725._
_Stukeley Desig._ _Hulett Sculp._]
[Illustration: 89·2ᵈ. GER CHAW
_This about 3 yards long, 2 broad, having 2 supporters_
_ds about 40 yᵈˢ. in circumference._
_about 3 bow shoots from the upper_
_The Mount of_ New Grange _in the county of_ East Meath _not far
from_ Drogheda. _There are 4 other Mounts near this, 3 lesser & the
4ᵗʰ. as big as this._
_The Circle is also in the same field._]
[Illustration: 88·2ᵈ.
_near Roeschild in the way to Fredrickburgh._
_Prope vicum Hobish veteris Marchiæ._
_A Monument in Seland near the Highway to the Village of Birke._
_Stukeley delin._]
[Illustration: 87·2ᵈ.
_Near Na Hottre a Village in the County of Mayow_
_On a hill above the upper end of Loch Kreigness in Argileshire_
_At Klochlynach in Dynfarri near Benbwysken_
_Stukeley delin._ _Harris sculp._]
[Illustration: 86·2ᵈ. Celtic Monuments in Germany
_In Drent_
_near Helmstad_
_near Bulke in Halsatia_
Doctissimo Viro Joħi Keysler Amico plurimum æstimando Tabulam Jure
& Lubentissime _d. d. Wᵐ: Stukeley_
_Stukeley delin._ _Tom’s Sculp._]
[Illustration: 85·2ᵈ. _The 6 Barrows near Stevenage 10 July 1724._
_Stukeley del._ _I. Vᵈᵉʳ. Gucht Sculp._]
[Illustration: 84·2ᵈ. +Celtic+ Temples.
_These Circles are within a stones cast of each other, about half a
mile off King in a field on the right side of the road, as you go
to Ballinrope in the County of Mayow._
_The 9 maids in the Parish of Sᵗ. Colomb._]
PENRITH.
At the conflux of the rivers Louther and Eimont there is a remarkable
curiosity, that illustrates the method of the religious solemnities
of the old Britons, as much as any I have seen. Upon the edge of the
Louther, where the bridge now passes it, is a delicate little plain,
of an oblong form, bounded on the other side by a natural declivity:
this is used to this day for a country rendezvous, either for sports
or military exercises, shooting with bows, &c. On this plain stands
the antiquity commonly called King Arthur’s Round Table, and supposed
to be used for tilts and tournaments: it is a circle inclosed with a
ditch, and that with a _vallum_. At first sight we may see that it was
intended for sports, but not on horseback, because much too little:
the _vallum_ on the outside lies sloping inward with a very gradual
declivity, on purpose for spectators to stand around it; and it would
hold at least 10,000 people. The outside of the _vallum_ is pretty
steep: it was high originally, as may be seen now in some parts; but
it is worn down, as being by the side of the common road; and the
inhabitants carry it away to mend the highways withal. There are two
entrances into the _area_, north and south, or nearly so: one end is
inclosed into a neighbouring pasture: the _area_ had a circle within,
somewhat higher in elevation than the other. The outer verge of the
_vallum_ is a circle of 300 foot: the composition of it is intirely
coggles and gravel, dug out of the ditch. Upon part of the plain are
marks of the tents of the Scots army, that accompanied King Charles II.
in his way to Worcester: they encamped here for some time, and drew a
small line across part of the southern circle: this was done within
memory.
Just 400 foot from the verge of the south entrance is another circle,
300 foot in diameter, made contrarywise to the former: the _vallum_
is small, and the ditch whence it was taken is outermost. Thus these
two circles and the interval make 1000 foot in length; and there is
just room enough without them, next the river and next the bank, for
a _circus_ or foot-race, according to the old manner of the Grecian,
which were always celebrated by the sides of rivers.
_Centum ego quadrijugos agitabo ad flumina currus_, &c. Virg. and
probably British chariots had here their courses. On the southern end
it is manifest they contrived it just to leave room enough for the
turn; and it required good skill to drive a chariot so as not to fall
there, or into the river. It must be understood, that the bridge at
present, and another of wood formerly a little below it, have impaired
the banks by the more southern circle. This is the most delightful
place that can be imagined for recreation: the rapid river Louther
runs all along the side of it; the Eimot joins it a little way off, in
view: beyond is a charming view of a vast wood, and of Brougham castle;
beyond that, the ancient Roman city, and the Roman road going along
under the high hill whereon is the beacon. But these are things later
in time than our antiquity.
Though upon first sight of the place I knew its purport, yet I was more
fully convinced thereof when I went to see Mayborough, as called, which
is a little higher up the hill, on an eminence higher than any near it,
and full west from this place, or _circus_: it is a vast concavity, of
the same diameter as the circles just mentioned, viz. 300 foot: it is
made with an artificial _vallum_ of loose stones, without any ditch,
carried with great labour from some other place, and here orderly piled
up, so as to make a rampart as high and as broad as that at Abury: in
some places the turf, with which it was covered originally, is peeled
off: it slopes inward with a gentle descent on account of spectators;
outwardly it is as steep as the nature of the materials would suffer,
and now covered over with great timber-trees: the entrance is wide, and
opens full east, and to the _circus_. Within this fine plain, which is
now ploughed up, have been two circles of huge stones; four remaining
of the inner circle till a year or two ago, that they were blown
to pieces with gunpowder: they were of a hard black kind of stone,
like that of the altar at Stonehenge: one now stands, ten foot high,
seventeen in circumference, of a good shapely kind; another lies along:
this inner circle was fifty foot in diameter. One stone, at least, of
the outer circle remains, by the edge of the corn; and some more lie at
the entrance within side, others without, and fragments all about. Just
by the entrance, along the road runs a spring, full eastward.
This I suppose to be a great British temple, where the country met
on solemn days to sacrifice. After the religious duties were over,
they went down to the _circus_ to celebrate their games: and I could
not but admire the fine genius of these people in chusing places for
their sports; for upon the verge of the acclivity, along the _circus_,
an infinite number of people might stand to see the whole without
the least inconvenience, besides those in the plain between the two
circles; and these two circles admirably well executed the intent of
the _meta_’s, but much better than those in the Roman _circus_’s. In
ploughing at Mayborough they dug up a brass Celt. On the other side of
the Eimot, upon a high ground overlooking all, is a very fine round
_tumulus_, of a large size, and set about with a circle of stones: this
in all probability was the funeral monument of the king that founded
the temple and _circus_. Somebody has lately been digging away part of
the barrow, and carried off some of the stones, and demolished others.
There is another Celtic monument in the fields beyond the Louther,
and south-east of Countess pillar, upon a fine dry spot of ground
near the moors: this is in sight of the temple. It consists of many
burial-places, marked out with stones set at equal distances. One
points eastward, and is what I take to be an arch-druid’s; being above
100 foot long, not a raised _tumulus_, but a pyramidal form designed
by two sides of stones like an avenue. A little way above the head of
this is another longish burial, and on a sort of barrow: it points
differently from the former. Farther on is the arc of a circle,
consisting of four large stones equidistant, opening south: I believe
this to be part of another: one of the stones is of the same nature
as those at Shap. Further on is one side of another long burial, like
the first. There are many more such-like hereabouts, but ruinous; for
the stones are carried away for building the adjacent moor-houses and
walls. In the pasture on the eastern bank of the Louther, in the way to
Clifton, are several cairns, or carracks, as the Scotch call them, made
of dry stones heaped together; also many other monuments of stones,
three, four, five, set upright together. They are generally by the
country people said to be done by Michael Scot, a noted conjuror in
their opinion, who was a monk of Holm abbey in Cumberland: they have
a notion too that one Turquin, a giant, lived at Brougham castle; and
there is a tower there, called Pagan tower; and Sir Lancelot de Lake
lived at Mayborough, and slew him. Near Clifton is a famous spring,
where the people go annually on May-day to drink, by a custom beyond
all remembrance: they hold it an earnest of good luck the ensuing year,
to be there and drink of the water before sun-rise. This, no doubt, has
been continued from the British times, and is a remain of the great
quarterly festival of the vernal equinox. So at Sidbury, on Palm Sunday.
Old Penrith is _Petrianis_, on the river Peterel: it signifies the
warth over the river Petria; so that _Penrith_, its successor, is but a
corruption of _Petterith_.
GALAVA.
The Roman city lies on the east side of the Louther, just by Brougham
castle, whose walls, and those of the park, are for part built of
the stones from the old city, being manifestly of a Roman cut. The
trace of the place is very easily discovered, where the ditch went
between the Roman road and the river. I saw many fragments of altars
and inscriptions at the hall nearer the bridge, all exposed, in the
court-yard, to weather, and injuries of every sort. In the wall by the
Roman road beyond Brougham castle, and near the countess of Pembroke’s
pillar, is a pretty busto, part of a funeral monument; the _bulla_ of
the mantle most conspicuous, though much injured. Farther on, in the
same dry wall, nearer the corner, is another _basso relievo_, but so
defaced, that I could not make any thing of it. The Roman road coming
from Carlisle, very apparent as they tell me, passes above or north of
the town of Penrith, under the beacon-hill; then passes the river just
under the castle; then went by the south side of the city, where its
pavement is now firm and good; then where Countess pillar now stands:
here it is visible as far as the horizon in a very strait lane, going
full east to Appleby. Vast quantities of Roman stone, taken up in the
city, have been burnt into lime. Coins, Mosaic floors, and every sort
of antiquity, are daily found: they cannot strike a stroke into the
ground but inscriptions, pillars, and some sort or other of ancient
remains, appear. The site of the city is an elevated piece of ground
by the river side; a woody country about it: a vast hill, or fell, of
an immense height, goes all along the partition of this county from
Durham, in sight here; and by the side of it, three remarkable lesser
hills, or pikes, as they call them deservedly; being extremely sharp
and conical, and very regularly so.
On the corner of Clifton house is an inscription with carving on it:
it is an admirable fine stone, or rather two joined together in the
middle; placed at the very top of a gable end: two winged Victories,
with garlands and palm-branches in their hands, stand on their sides.
I saw at Lowther, the seat of lord Lonsdale, an ugly brass figure with
wings, and somewhat like a laurel-garland about his head, found in the
Picts wall near Drumburg castle.
The square plot of the city is very perfect, on the south side of
Brougham castle: it had a broad ditch round it. The castle stands on
the north end of it, and was built of its wall; the track of which is
visible upon the edge of the _vallum_. The high ground by Countess
pillar, where most of the inscriptions were found, seems to have been
the site of the city, and this the castle or fort; the Roman road lying
between. A good way farther on the road toward Kirkby, there is a
hawthorn-tree with a buck’s horns fastened upon it: this stands by one
of great note and antiquity, now decayed, where was a brass plate of
“Hercules kill’d Hart of Greece,
And Hart of Greece kill’d Hercules.”
They say the bark of the tree had covered the bottom of the horns for a
great many inches.
In the church-yard of Penrith is a monument of a giant, Sir Owen
Cæsarius, a knight, I suppose, of their king Arthur; two pyramidal
stones with rude carvings and letters on them, seemingly Runic. This
church is new built, and fitted up very handsomely. Selden speaks of an
image at Lowther. There is a castle at Penrith in the upper part of the
town. Over-against Brougham is Isanparles, an odd rock.
The Madan-way goes over Cross-fell very perfect: an inscription on
the side of a house built upon it: it goes to Barwic on the Wall.
Cross-fell is the highest ground hereabouts; they can see the Irish sea
from thence. A fine meadow by the river side over-against the Roman
_castrum_. The stones of the city are of a different sort from those of
the country.
Mr. Gale says there is such a work as the round table near his house in
Yorkshire, with many barrows near it. Mayborough is finely incircled
by the river Eimot, which is very deep. Dr. Hugh Todd, minister of
Penrith, has a great collection of antiquities.
Many Roman inscriptions have been found lately at Netherhall, by the
sea side near Workington, which are placed on the stable-wall at lord
Lonsdale’s there. The fine inscription at the end of Clifton house has
been there for 300 years, exposed to the rain and weather; so that the
inscription is worn away; only it seems that _imper. legat. aug. in
Africa_, is just visible. Another inscription is on the inside of the
barn there. Some Roman carvings on the quarry whence the pillars of
Penrith church were taken. I saw a Roman vessel of copper found near
Clifton: it is deep, with a handle to it like a skillet, on which is
stamped the maker’s name, TALIOF: within this is placed a cullender,
and within that another: the use of it, I guess, was to carry lighted
charcoal in, at the sacrifices. The spring below Clifton is a pretty
grotto, much talked of, where, as I said, the anniversary meeting is on
May-day. The great barrow incompassed with stones, by the Eimot side,
is called Haransley hill.
LONG MEG.
Mr. Patten and I went to view that famous monument of antiquity called
Long Meg and her Daughters, in the parish of Addingham, between Little
Salkeld and Glasenby. It stands upon a barren elevated plain of high
ground, under the vast hill called Cross-fell, to the east. This plain
declines to the east gently, or rather north-east, for that I find to
be the principal line observed by the founders. It is a great Celtic
temple, being a circle of 300 foot diameter, consisting of 100 stones:
they are of unequal bulk; some are of very large dimensions: many are
standing, but more fallen, and several carried away; but lately they
have destroyed some by blasting, as they call it, i. e. blowing them in
pieces with gunpowder; others they have sawed for mill-stones: but the
major part remaining, gives one a just idea of the whole; and it is a
most noble work. The stones are not all of the same kind; some made of
square crystallisations, of the same sort as those at Shap; and I saw
many of that sort of stone scattered about the country; others of the
blue, hard, flaky sort, like those of the temple at Mayborough. The
intervals are not exactly equal, but judiciously adapted to the bulks
of the stones, to preserve as much as possible a regular appearance.
This large ring, thus declining north-east, is now parted through by
a ditch; so that the larger half lies in an inclosure, the other in
a common; and the road lies by the side of it, that goes from Little
Salkeld to Glasenby. South-west from it, seventy foot, stands a very
great and high stone, called Long Meg, of a reddish girt, seeming to
have been taken from the side of some quarry of the country: I think
it leans a little north-east: it is about fifteen foot high. In the
middle of the circle are two roundish plots of ground, of a different
colour from the rest apparently, and more stony and barren; which
probably were the immediate places of burning the sacrifices, or the
like. Not far hence toward Glasenby is a very fine spring; whence,
no doubt, they had the element of water, used at their religious
solemnities: and higher up the field is a large spring, intrenched
about with a _vallum_ and foss, of a pretty great circumference, but
no depth. Full south-west from this work, in the next inclosure and
higher ground, is another circle of lesser stones, in number twenty:
the circle is fifty foot diameter; and at some distance above it is
another stone placed, regarding it, as Meg does the larger circle. In
that part of the greater circle next the single stone called Meg, are
two stones standing beyond the circle a little, and another fallen;
which I believe were a sort of _sacellum_, perhaps for the _pontifex_
to officiate in: and westward is another stone or two, perhaps of a
like work; but the ruinous condition of the work would not admit of any
certainty about it.
KESWICK.