SEWINGSHIELDS TO HOUSESTEADS
The path from the stile takes us, behind the house of Sewingshields,
along the very line of the Wall, until we emerge from the trees by
another stile, and find ourselves, as it were, on the very Roof of
the World, with steep crags to the right, and long-drawn-out slopes
to the left, and magnificent views all round.
To the north lie what are called "The Wastes," with only scattered
farms and sheep-moors; a desolate-looking country, I grant you, in
dull weather, but a very fairyland as seen from the Wall on an ideal
"Wall-day," when its vast expanse is flecked with blue cloud-shadows,
reflecting the blue of the sky overhead, and when the little hills
seem to "rejoice on every side."
I think I love this view to the north, bare as it is, even more than
the one to the south, over the fertile Tyne valley.
An ideal Wall-day is a day of mingled cloud and sunshine, with a bit
of a breeze, and yet not enough to make it "windy;" a day when heavy
cumulus {111} clouds marshal themselves along the horizon, and then
spread, and scatter, and form again, always threatening to do
something great, but always thinking better of it; a day when it is
perhaps raining heavily over Barcombe, or over Tindale Fell, and
rainbows are chasing each other across the rolling fells to the
south; but when "the top of the world," where we follow the Wall, is
peaceful and calm in the sunshine, sweet with the smell of the wild
thyme as we tread it under our feet, and musical with the notes of
the curlews.
I have known many such days. On such a day one is inclined to feel
that the lot of a Roman sentry on the Wall was to be envied, until
one remembers the other side of the picture--the drenching rain, the
bitter wind, the snowdrifts, to say nothing of the constant sense of
the need for vigilance, and the actual encounters with an
unscrupulous enemy.
Here at Sewingshields we are farther from shops and civilization than
at any other point on the Wall. It is 5 miles to Haydon Bridge, the
nearest post-office.
The name "Shield" or "Shields" occurs so often along the line of the
Wall that it is interesting to see how Camden uses the word in 1599.
He says:
"Here every way round about in the Wasts, as they tearme them, as
also in Gillesland, you may see as it were the ancient Nomades, a
martiall {112} kind of men, who from the moneth of Aprill into
August, lye out scattering and summering (as they tearme it) with
their cattell, in little cottages here and there, which they call
Sheales and Shealings."
Sewingshields is said to mean "wellings by the seugh (or ditch);" but
Camden calls it "Seaven-shale," so it may have merely meant "Seven
cottages."
All the 10 miles from Sewingshields to Carvoran the Wall runs along
the tops of "basaltic columns," huge pillars of volcanic rock
crystallized in hexagonal formation, and making a great natural
barrier. The course of the Wall is mainly in a westerly direction,
but it also has a general tendency towards the south. Carvoran is
just 3 miles farther south than Sewingshields.
[Illustration: THE BASALT CLIFFS ABOVE CRAG LOUGH, ALONG THE TOP OF
WHICH THE WALL RUNS. HOT BANK CRAGS ARE SEEN IN THE DISTANCE]
A steep pass leads down to the plain shortly after we cross the stile
from the Sewingshields plantation. This is called Cat Gate. When I
was staying in this neighbourhood the farmer told me it was the only
point where the Sewingshields Crags could be ascended or descended.
I did not dispute it, but I smiled to myself, for during my
wanderings I had many times gone up and down the Crags at other
points. I used to love to sit half-way down the Crags and watch the
rabbits, who got so used to me that I believe they only thought of me
as a queer kind of a rock. When I was sketching I used to see
hundreds of rabbits sitting about, one on every {113} projecting rock
below me. The Crags swarm with them. One evening an old father
rabbit showed his unconcern at my presence by sitting up a few feet
off, scratching his front abstractedly with his fore-paws while he
looked at me, as much as to say, "I know what you are." Just then I
gave an unfortunate sneeze, and it seemed to set all the crags in
motion. The _thump, thump_, of the parental hind-legs, warning their
subterranean families of danger, sounded on every side. It is a
great proof of family affection that these older rabbits will stop in
the danger-zone and _thump_, as they do, thus losing precious time
that might be occupied in flight. The first time I saw this process,
I thought my friend the rabbit had been seized with a sudden nervous
affection, but I soon found it was only obeying a universal instinct;
and even hutched rabbits, after generations of domesticity, and with
their families safe by their sides, will carry on the tradition, and
_thump_ on the floor of their hutches, to give warning of danger.
Once at the top of Cat Gate I found a pocket-book, almost hidden in
the heather. I picked it up, and could see it contained a sheaf of
Treasury notes. An hour or so later I saw a young man coming slowly
along at the foot of the Crags, looking distractedly from side to
side. I stood up, and shouted, "Catch!" and you should have seen the
way his expression changed as the pocket-book {114} went hurtling
through the air! In these almost pathless regions it is a serious
matter to lose anything of value.
But to return to our rabbits. The rabbits are turned into a source
of revenue by the farmers. They increase so rapidly that their
numbers have to be kept in check. Sometimes a farmer will sell the
"rabbiting" on his farm for the season, for £50 or so, just as the
"shooting" is let. Then the rabbit-catcher makes what he can out of
it. At other times the farmer will pay the rabbit-catcher so much
for every couple caught, and then sell them at a profit. I have
known fifty-seven couple to be caught by one man in a day on
Sewingshields Crags. You need to look well to your walking when the
rabbit-catcher is abroad, for of course he makes his loops of wire as
invisible as possible, and you would certainly be brought to the
ground if you put your foot in one of them. I was very glad that I
never came across a rabbit in a trap, though I used to see hundreds
of traps. A shepherd told me that once he saw a pathetic sight: a
rabbit in a trap, still feeding her young ones. Missing her, they
had crept up out of the burrow, and had traced her to the trap. He
set her free at once, for she was not hurt.
This has been a long delay on our walk, but it is so hot that to sit
and watch the rabbits will have done us all good.
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There used to be a castle, known as Sewingshields Castle, in the
fields to the north, built there, it is supposed, to defend this pass
of Cat Gate. The field where it stood is still known as "The Castle."
Continuing along the crags, I soon came to the site of another
mile-castle. All along here the Wall is in a very ruinous condition,
but one can follow closely the mound which once was Wall.
Before leaving the Sewingshields region, we see ahead an important
gap called Busy Gap.
Here the Wall bends nearly southward, in order to avoid Broomlee
Lough (which laps the feet of Sewingshields Crags) and to make for
the next line of crags.
Nothing but the foundations remain of the actual Wall, but stones are
piled up roughly on them to make a field-boundary.
It is the interval between the end of Sewingshields Crags and the
beginning of the Housesteads series which is known as "Busy Gap," for
it was a very weak place on the Wall, and the enemy knew it. Besides
digging the usual Wall-ditch across the gap, the Romans made an
earthern rampart, triangular in form, as an additional protection.
Camden says of this Gap in 1599:
"I could not with safetie take the full Survey of it for the
ranke-robbers thereabout."
One evening when I was returning home from {116} this spot, quite
suddenly the mist came down, and blotted everything out. I could not
even see the ground at my feet, and anyhow there is no path to
follow. So the only thing I could do was to strike upwards until I
came to the mound of the Wall on the top of the crags, and then to
keep along its south side. After a while the mist lifted as suddenly
as it had come down, and I found myself within a stone's-throw of the
little plantation at Sewingshields.
It is no joke to be caught by a mist on these fells in the evening;
they come down without any warning, and sometimes last for days.
Just beyond the grass-grown site of another mile-castle the platform
of the fort of BORCOVICIUM comes into view, with the farm-house of
Housesteads. All this time the Vallum can be seen to the left,
traversing the low land between us and Wade's Road.
Following the Wall up and down the steep sides of two unchristened
gaps, I came to a little wood, which can only be entered and left by
climbing the stone wall which surrounds it. A few steps beyond the
wood, and there was the "amphitheatre" of Borcovicium lying before
me, where Dr. Bruce thought that gladiatorial contests were carried
on for the entertainment of the soldiers of the fort. There was also
a splendid stretch of Wall, 8 feet wide and 6 feet high, with a flat
grass-grown surface, {117} running along right up to the wall of the
fort! This was indeed worth seeing!
I went down into the "amphitheatre," a mere grassy hollow, where Dr.
Bruce says nettles are usually growing. I found, not
stinging-nettles--not the smallest trace of one--but bright patches
of purple "heartsease," surely a far better omen for poor suffering
humanity!
It must have been a cynic who first started the idea that
stinging-nettles were a sign of human presence. I would like to
think that pansies give a truer sign; that good "thoughts," instead
of evil ones, are more truly representative of man. In the way in
which heartsease has (apparently) displaced stinging-nettles here, on
the site of many a bloody contest, let us see a symbol and a prophecy
of the displacement of human hatred and rivalry by the spirit of
fellowship and love.
But wait! I am forgetting. The "bloody contests" are a myth.
Professor Bosanquet trenched the hollow in 1898 and proved it to be
an ancient quarry. And so it is marked on the new Ordnance Survey!
Now for the first time it was possible to walk along the top of the
Wall, feeling that it was the very structure built by the Romans, and
not a mere mound. Soon the course of the Wall was interrupted by a
gateway, supposed, by Dr. Bruce, to have been made as an approach to
the {118} "amphitheatre," but the probable explanation of its
existence is given on page 122.
Just here the Wall crosses the Knag Burn, and it is interesting to
note how it crosses, because it was no doubt the method employed by
the Romans to carry the Wall over every narrow stream. First, the
bed of the stream has been paved with stone; then low walls, four or
five courses high, have been built along the edges of the stream for
a distance of about 10 feet. Lastly, large slabs of stone have been
thrown across from wall to wall, to bridge the stream to a width of
10 feet, and on this foundation the Wall has been built. It leaves
an opening for the stream about 34 inches high, 30 inches wide, and
10 feet long, not a very pleasant passage for one man to squeeze
through, even when the stream was dry, and hopeless for a raiding
band!
At this point a notice is posted: "Admission 6d.; parties over 20,
3d. each." It reminded me of the old lady who claimed to be so much
over twenty that she ought to be admitted for a penny!
The Wall joins the north wall of the fort at its rounded north-east
angle.
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