to us by passing so long through the mountainous stoney tracts of
Lancashire, Westmorland, and Cumberland. About this country we observe
many mud-wall houses, thatched with flat sods or hassocks shaved off
the moors; which I suppose the old British custom continued. Here too
they use the little carts, as about Kendal.
We saw, in Mr. Gilpin’s hands, a silver Otho, found here; reverse,
SECVRITAS R. P. also a middle brass of C. Marius; reverse, VICTORIA
CIMBRICA: together with many more, which his father collected. In the
cathedral are many remains of the tombs of bishops, I suppose, between
the pillars of the choir; every one of which was a little chapel, but
now pulled in pieces. A large brass of bishop Bell is left in the
choir. The bottom of the steeple, and the west end of what remains of
the structure, is of William Rufus’s time: the choir is later.
The road to Bramton is manifestly Roman, by reason of its straightness;
and in two places, as I walked up the first hill, I saw the original,
made of a bed of stone: it goes precisely south-east; and looking
towards Carlisle, I saw it passed through the citadel, and along a
narrow street; so through the cathedral to the castle-gate; all in a
strait line. To the castle-gate the road over the river Eden came: that
from the wall on the west came to the same point; into which falls that
from _castrum exploratorum_.
_The_ VALLVM.
The military virtue of the Romans outlived the spirit of their
learning, or excelled it, seeing there is no author that deservedly
celebrates this stupendous work of theirs in Britain: they just mention
it: no coins struck upon it. I am not afraid to set it in competition
with the wall of China, which necessarily occurs to our thoughts upon
this occasion: _that_ we readily acknowledge to be a structure of
greater bulk and length, which we esteem the least part of the wonder
in ours: the Romans intended no more, by their walls around their forts
and castles than to prevent a sudden surprise: their strength lay in
a living arm and head: in the open field they never refused fighting,
without much regard to opposite numbers; the additional security of a
little wall was all they asked, against emergencies.
Therefore the beauty and the contrivance of this wall consisted mostly
in the admirable disposition of the garrisons upon it, at such proper
stations, distance, strength and method, that even in times of profound
peace, as well as war, a few hands were sufficient to defend it against
a most bold and daring people, redundant in numbers, strong and hardy
in body, fierce in manners, as were the old North Britons, who refused
subjection and a polite life.
The Romans, tired out with the untractable disposition of these people,
whose country they judged not worth while wholly to conquer, resolved
to quit their strengths northward, and content themselves with the
desirable part of Britain, and, by one of the greatest works they ever
did, seclude the Caledonians, and immortalise their own name by an
inexhaustible fund of monuments, for posterity to admire. These people,
who had the true spirit of military discipline, did not lie idle under
arms, but were ever at work, even whilst they lay _pro castris_; making
and repairing public roads; setting up milliary pillars; building and
repairing castles, cities, temples, and palaces; erecting altars,
inscriptions; striking medals, and the like works, which we here find
in such surprising quantities.
If we consider the great numbers of their works now to be seen, more
that have been lost and destroyed, or put into new buildings of our
own, most that are still left for future times to rake out of their
vestiges, we may entertain a true notion of their genius, which subdued
the fiercest and most populous nations in the world. Worthily may we
propose them for examples of virtue and public spirit. This is no
little use and advantage of disquisitions of this sort.
Alliances, treaties, and negotiations, are of small value to a nation
always in arms, and ready to meet an injurious enemy; who strengthen,
fortify, and enrich themselves at home, protect the people, and make
the expences of government sit easy upon them; encourage industry,
frugality, temperance, virtue; a few plain easy laws; administer
justice with expedition, and without expence; but especially encourage
a due sense of religion and morality: and how much easier and more
effectually that is to be done now, than possibly could be done by
the Romans, will appear notorious, when we consider, that under the
Christian dispensation we make a much stronger impression on the
hearts and minds of people, than before: the full certainty, which
all reasonable consciences must now have, of a future retribution and
account to be made before an omniscient judge, lays an infinitely
greater restraint on our actions, than possibly can be had from the
terror of rods and axes.
The Roman wall is called by the people _Pights wall_, with a guttural
pronunciation, which we of the south cannot imitate; and which the
Romans called _Picti_; but not from any fancied painting of their
bodies, though it gave a handle to it.
At Stanwick, which hence has its name, just over-against Carlisle
beyond the river, I saw the ditch very plain: the blacksmith there,
told me he had taken up many of the stones of the foundation of the
wall: it passes the river over-against Carlisle castle. At Stanwick
was an arched gate through the wall: Mr. Goodman showed us a cornelian
_intaglia_ found there, of Jupiter sitting. I followed the wall
to Taraby, where, a little beyond, it makes an angle, going more
south-east; so to Draw-dikes, which was a fort, about 100 foot square:
it is on the edge of the meadows, and moist in situation. Here I found
an inscription upon the house-wall.
In building the wall, I observed evidently, the intent of the
projectors was to conduct it, all along, upon the northern edge of the
high ground, as near as might be. All about Carlisle, this most noble
monument of Roman power and policy is pulled up; first, perhaps, by
William Rufus, when he built the castle; then for the cathedral: and
I suppose all the church walls of the city, and houses of it, and the
villages near it, are of the pillage: hence most of the churches along
the wall are set upon it, for the convenience of having stone near at
hand, ready cut. The farmers and inhabitants are daily taking away the
small remains.
The track of the ditch on the north side of the wall is visible enough
all the way, though sometimes corn grows in it. The line where the wall
stood, is generally a foot-path. The valley between the end of the wall
at Stanwick, and the castle of Carlisle, is not above 300 yards broad,
and is guarded too by the stream of the river Cauda. Westward, on the
south side of the river Eden, it went toward Drumburgh, and ended at
Boulness. Why the Romans carried it so far, on the south side the bay,
was because of its being a flat shore, where an enemy might land in
boats. It goes up the hill at Newton, from Carlisle; and so marches
in a strait line up the next hill, to Beaumont, one of the old forts.
All this way it is turned into a street: the ridge of the wall is the
foundation of it, as a pavement; the ditch pretty much filled up by
rubbish. Mr. Goodman says, he remembers two forts near Carlisle, now
demolished, and ploughed over; one on the north side the river; the
other on the south. I cannot suppose the stone work of the _wall_ went
across the meadow; rather a wood work with towers, which made up the
communication between the two ends of the _wall_, over the river.
The fort on the north side of the river was on the high plat of ground,
between the road up to Stanwick, and the _wall_. At the place where the
ditch ends over the river, has been some little fortification work; and
thereabouts is a pretty little spring, faced with stone, and having a
stone bason. Hitherto the _wall_ was carried; because directly opposite
to the union of the Cauda and Eden rivers, running close under the
bank; and directly opposite to the western steep of Carlisle castle,
which was the Roman _castrum_, but somewhat larger than this castle of
William Rufus: perhaps it took in most of the present city. In a tower
of the walls of Carlisle castle, on the outside, between it and the
Irish gate, I saw a Roman carving of a boar, which was the cognisance
of the legion here in garrison, and that built it.
We visited Scaleby castle, Mr. Gilpin’s seat, about half a mile from
the _wall_, and built of its stones. This was a strong place with
a circular mote, well beset with wood, which is not very common
hereabouts. In the garden we copied many Roman altars: they showed us
two Roman shoes, found in the bog hereabouts. The church too of this
place was built out of the _wall_. Mr. Gilpin says, in taking up the
foundation of the _wall_ at a boggy place, they found a frame of oak
timber underneath, very firm.
From hence, over a most dismal boggy moor, an uncultivated desert, we
travelled to Netherby. We passed by a Roman fort upon the river Leven,
where antiquities have been found. They tell us, that, for sixty miles
further up northward, there is scarce a house or tree to be seen, all
the way. This was the march, or bound, between the two kingdoms. The
land might be drained and cultivated, and how much a greater argument
of national prudence would it be to have it done, by those we transport
to America!
The foundations of the Roman _castrum_ at Netherby appear round the
house, or present castle: it stood on an eminence near the river. Many
antiquities are here dug up every day. The foundations of houses, and
the streets, are visible. They pretend, most of the space between
the _vallum_ and ditch is vaulted. A little lower down has been some
monumental edifice, or burial-place, where they find many urns and
sepulchral antiquities.
In the garden here, are some altars; and a carving of a female head,
in a lion’s skin; I suppose, _Omphale_; and an admirable carving of a
Genius sacrificing. We saw a gold _Nero_ found here: a cornelian with
a woman’s head, flowing hair. This valley by the river side is very
good land, with some shadow of Nature’s beautiful face left; but every
where else about us, is the most melancholy dreary view I ever beheld,
and as the back-door of creation; here and there a castellate house by
the river, whither at night the cattle are all driven for security from
the borderers: as for the houses of the cottagers, they are mean beyond
imagination; made of mud, and thatched with turf, without windows, only
one story; the people almost naked.
We returned through Longton, a market-town, whose streets are wholly
composed of such kind of structure: the piles of turf for firing are
generally as large and as handsome as the houses.
_Quanta Calydonios attollet gloria campos
Cum tibi longævus referet trucis incola terræ
Hic suetus dare jura parens: hoc cespite turmas
Affari: nitidas speculas, castellaque longe
Aspicis? Ille dedit, cinxitque hæc mœnia fossa
Belligeris hic dona deis, hæc tela dicavit
Cernis adhuc titulos: hunc ipse vacantibus armis
Induit: hunc regi rapuit thoraca Britanno._
+Statius+ V. Sylvar.
After this excursion northward, we set out from Carlisle eastward,
withinside of the Roman _vallum_. Warwick, thought a Roman station,
upon the river Eden, pleasantly seated in a little woody valley. We
left the Roman road going strait from the citadel of Carlisle to
_Petrianis_. To the right a little is Corby castle, where are many
monuments of antiquity preserved; as likewise at Caercaroc near it.
Upon the river Gelt, a little before we came to Bramton, we went up
the river to see a Roman inscription, cut upon the natural rock; a
most odd and melancholy place: the river runs through a canal of rock
all the way. Upon the great ridge of fells coming hither from Cross
fell by Penrith, are many circles of stones, and circular banks of
earth, the temples of the Druids of the patriarchal mode. There are
likewise square works set round with stones, which were their places of
judicature.
Beyond Bramton, just over the town, is a keep ditched about, called
the Mount, on the top of a hill. Hence to Thirlwal castle we rode
upon the foundation of the _wall_, the river Irthing accompanying us.
We visited Knaworth castle. Near here is a great house of the Howard
family, built of stone, and castellated: among many family pictures,
the great earl of Arundel’s, the reviver of learned curiosity among
us; a library once well stored with books and manuscripts: here is the
famous Glassonbury-abbey book, or rather screen, for it is big enough;
an account of the saints buried in that place. In the garden are many
altars and inscriptions: I copied all those tolerably fair: with much
regret I saw these noble monuments quite neglected and exposed; some
cut in half to make gate-posts. A fine park here, and much old timber.
The country hereabouts good land and pleasant. Above the house upon a
hill, a circular work double trenched; the outer ditch broadest.
About Thirlwall we rode along the side of the _wall_: here was a gate
through the wall, for the great Roman road called Madan-way. The name
Thirlwal retains a memory of the gate here; _foramen_: we use it now
to drill, and nostrill. All the fences of the inclosures, the houses,
church, and Thirlwal castle, built out of the ravage of the _wall_. At
the castle was a head of Roman carved work, which they have put into
the blind wall of a little ale-house.
VOREDA. +Caer Voran.+
A little upon the south side of the _wall_ was a great Roman city and
castle. We traversed the stately ruins: it stood on a piece of high
ground, about 400 foot square; had a wall and ditch; vestiges of houses
and buildings all over, within and without. We observed the Madan-way
coming over the fells from the south, where it passes by a work, or
labyrinth, called Julian’s bower. We saw too the Roman road passing
eastward along the _wall_. The country hereabouts is a wild moory bog;
and the _wall_ itself climbs all along a crag, and is set upon the
southern edge of it; the steepness of the cliff northward performing
the part of a foss. Near Haltwistle is Baliol castle, corruptly
Belister castle, said to be founded by a king of Scotland.
I suppose this wall, built by Severus, is generally set upon the same
track as Hadrian’s wall or _vallum_ of earth was; for, no doubt, they
then chose the most proper ground: but there is a _vallum_ and ditch
all the way accompanying the wall, and on the south side of it; and
likewise studiously chusing the southern declivity of rising ground. I
observe too the _vallum_ is always to the north. It is surprising, that
people should fancy this to be Hadrian’s _vallum_: it might possibly be
Hadrian’s work, but must be called the line of contravallation; for, in
my judgement, the true intent both of Hadrian’s _vallum_ and Severus’s
_wall_ was, in effect, to make a camp extending across the kingdom;
consequently was fortified both ways, north and south: at present the
wall was the north side of it; that called Hadrian’s work, the south
side of it: hence we may well suppose all the ground of this long
camp, comprehended between the wall and the southern rampire, was the
property of the soldiery that guarded the wall.
I remarked, that where the wall passes over a little rivulet, the
foundation of it is laid with broad, flat stones, square, having
intervals between, sufficiently large for the passage of the water.
At Haltwistle I got an altar of, DEO SOLI INVICTO. We took the wall
again at Chester on the Wall, about two miles east from _Caer voran_,
Wall town, lying between the Roman way paved with broad stones, which
led us over the low boggy ground up to the castle. It is a square of
400 foot close to the wall, which makes one side of it; 350 foot less
than those on the east and west. Great marks of buildings all over it,
and even side-walls of houses left. At the south entrance were two
round towers within side, and the cheeks of the gates. Last year one of
the iron hinges taken away. All around this castle were houses built.
An altar lies in the fields a little way off, but quite obliterated.
The Picts wall continues still on the southern verge of the cliff.
Eastward hence we saw, here and there, the vestiges of the square
towers, built on the inside of the Wall, and close to it: that called
Hadrian’s ditch runs still on the southern verge of the hill, with a
large _vallum_ on the north.
We came again upon the Roman road, which goes on the inside of the
wall, but not near it, chusing the best ground and shortest cut all the
way through this boggy waste country. Upon it is the compass of an
inn, or little station for lodging of travellers or soldiers. This road
continues very strait and bold to Little Chester, the next station, on
a brook, and somewhat better land. A mile before we came to it, on a
hill stands a great stone, and a little one, called the Mare and Foal.
A little west of that, over-against Chester, is a barrow which Mr.
Warburton dug through, and found bits of urns, ashes, and other like
marks of its being British. A little farther westward is a large group
of British barrows.
Before we come to Little Chester is a most noble column, or milestone,
set upon the road: it is of a large bulk and height, with an
inscription, but only not quite defaced. Mr. Gale thought he could read
TVNG. upon it: it is the finest stone of this sort I have seen, and
would have informed us who made the road.
LITTLE CHESTER.
[Sidenote: TAB. LXXV.]
We saw the _castrum_ here, of a square figure, hanging on a precipice
over a little river on the south side of the Roman road, and at
some distance from the Wall: it had been walled about, as others:
great _vestigia_ of buildings, altars, carved stones and antiquities
innumerable, have been found here, but now dispersed and gone. We saw
the mouths of vaults with great stones lying over them. The fences of
the pastures are made of the stones of the castle-wall. The man who
lives here showed us a few fragments of Roman work; a pine-apple, which
had been a pinacle on the top of a circular _tholus_; a piece of an
inscription within a civic garland, finely cut; a brick, with LEG. VI.
V. He has found many coins; but his children threw them away.
In a corner of a field below, by the side of the brook, and as the
military way turns, up the hill, is another such milliary stone, but no
inscription legible.
The moory country hereabouts has coal under it. Upon the tops of the
hills are several cairns, or sepulchral heaps of stones, made by the
old Britons.
A little eastward of Great Chester, where the ditch ends, at the bottom
of a cliff, we saw the foundation of the Wall, which the country people
are digging up for building: we measured the true breadth of it, just
seven Roman feet.
HOUSESTEEDS.
[Sidenote: TAB. LXXVI.]
The next station we visited, about two miles from the former, and by
the Wall, is deservedly called Housesteeds, from the _vestigia_ of the
houses therein, which are as easy to be seen and distinguished as if
ruined but yesterday. Approaching the farmer’s house there, I saw a
mill or two, i. e. the recipient stones of the hand-mills which the
Roman soldiers used to grind their corn with; likewise some tops of
altars: over the door of the house, a large carved stone, but defaced.
Going a little further, in a corner of a dry wall is a large stone that
has been curiously cut, but now broken and much injured: three figures
in it, in high relievo; two with sacrificing cups in their hands: I
believe it has belonged to some temple, and means the _Genii_ of three
cities: it is in my learned friend Mr. Horsley’s 20th table, but poorly
represented: they seem to stand before steps. Near it, in the wall, is
the bottom part of a very large altar, or pedestal of a pillar,
a yard square: near that a long carved stone, somewhat like the shaft
of our later crosses.
[Illustration: 75·2ᵈ.
_Prospect of Chester on the Wall & the Picts Wall. Septʳ. 1. 1725._
_Stukeley delin._]
[Illustration: 76·2ᵈ.
_A Cumulus of Roman Antiquitys at Housteads._
_Stukeley delin._]
[Illustration: 74·2ᵈ.
_INSCRIPTIONVM Syllogen hanc ꝓpe Vallũ Picticũ in Scotia a Gente
Victrice positarũ Comiti_ Penbrochiæ _Mentis Magnitudine Virtutũ
Ejusdẽ Æmulo & Antiquitatis Fautori egregio_ D.L.M. _Wilhˢ.
Stukeley qui fec. aq. for. 1720._]
Above the house, upon the Picts wall is an altar; the legend gone.
As for fragments of pillars, or rollers, as they call them, they
lie scattered all over the place. A large part of a Doric capital
lies by the door, consisting of two _thori_, or swelled mouldings in
architectonic language.
But when we were led lower down into the meadow, we were surprised with
the august scene of Romano-British antiquities, in the most neglected
condition: a dozen most beautiful and large altars; as many fine _basso
relievo_’s, nearly as big as the life, all tumbled in a wet meadow by
a wall side, or one on the top of another, to make up the wall of the
close: the _basso relievo_’s, some with their heads down the hill;
particularly an admirable image of Victory, both arms knocked off: one
large soldier, a sepulchral stone, with his short sword hanging at his
right side, the man told us, was condemned to make a pig-trough on;
but some gentlemen, full timely, with a small sum, for the present
reprieved him: many soldiers with heads broke off; mutilated by the
middle: three ladies sitting close together, with globes in their
hands; their heads all gone.
Mr. Gale and I laboured hard at the inscriptions, and made out what
we could of them under all disadvantages. Along the same wall, as we
walked on further, we found more altars and carved stones of various
sorts: but at length the farmer carried us up to a knoll in the middle
of the meadow called Chapel-steed, where undoubtedly was the Roman
temple: there we saw three or four most beautiful altars; and a little
further, under another wall, a pretty sepulchral carving of an old
soldier’s upper part in a niche.
With great regret we left the place, deserving to be accounted the
Tadmor of Britain. The inscriptions being mostly of the captains of the
first cohort of the Tungrians, shows they were chiefly stationed here;
and then they had piety enough generally to erect such an altar, when
they took possession of their post.
We passed through Newborough. Just before the church, on the middle of
the street, stands an altar; but the legend vanished. I am informed,
that where the Roman wall passes the north Tyne, it is by a wonderful
bridge of great art, made with very large stones linked together with
iron cramps, fastened with molten lead.
We do not wonder at the great quantity of antiquities here to be seen,
when all the workmen of the Romans were generally got into Britain: as
is evident from the Panegyrist to Maximian, _sub finem_.
_Devotissima civitas Heduorum ex hac Britannicæ facultate victoriæ
plurimos quibus illæ provinciæ redundabant, accepit artifices, et
nunc extructione veterum domorum, et refectione operum publicorum et
templorum instauratione resurgit._
Two remarks are naturally inferred from this testimony. 1. How fond the
Romans were of this island; whence the cities, castles, roads, temples,
altars, sculptures, and in general the whole face of the country
here, vastly exceeded that of the continent. 2. When I returned home
from this journey, and compared my drawings of the antiquities here
exhibited, taken from the things themselves, with those that have been
published before or since, by Mr. Alexander Gordon, or Mr. Horsley; it
grieved me that, for want of a tolerable skill in design, they have
given us such poor and wretched pictures of these elegant antiquities;
so that the reader may not wonder when he views them both together:
and indeed it gives foreigners a mean idea of the Roman works in our
island; but very injuriously. I have therefore caused a good many of
these to be engraven, to show the just difference.
At Chesters an admirably carved stone was dug up lately, very large:
the tenant of the farm caused it to be planed and turned into a
grave-stone for himself; and it is now laid over him at the parish
church.
HEXAM.