Chapter IX: Cilurnum

It was the late Mr. John Clayton of Chesters who laid the foundation of the new knowledge of the Wall which excavation has brought to light. As other people collect antiquities to put in a glass case, so he collected the Roman Wall. Whenever a piece of ground along its line was in the market, he was first in the field to buy it; and to his zeal and knowledge it is due that so much has been preserved and excavated. It was his life-work. Therefore it is no mere figure of speech to say that a visit to the Roman Wall is a visit to his shrine; and since Chesters was his home for so many years, the Museum there, and the very fort of Cilurnum itself are especially commemorative of him and his work.

All the forts along the line follow a general plan, though each has its distinctive features. In plan they are parallelograms, with rounded corners, enclosed by a stone wall at least 5 feet thick, with a circumscribing ditch, and with gateways north, south, east and west.

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These gateways have double portals, which were arched over, and were closed by two-leaved wooden doors, swinging on pivots shod with iron. The doors shut against a stone set up in the centre, or else against a stone threshold. The pivot-holes can very {86} often be seen, and sometimes the iron sheath is still in the pivot-hole, although the wooden door has perished.

In the case of this fort of Cilurnum, as also at Amboglanna, there were six gateways altogether, two smaller ones to the south of the main eastern and western gateways; these had only one portal instead of two.

A guard-chamber was always set on either side of each main gateway; there was a turret just within each rounded corner of the fort, and intermediate turrets were set along the walls.

The appearance of these turrets may be surmised from the fortification-turrets shown on Trajan's column.

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Chambers above gateways are also shown on Trajan's column, which suggest to the mind's eye a possible reconstruction of the single gateways of the Wall-forts.

It is generally accepted that the twin flanking-towers of the double fort-gateways, and also the Wall turrets, were carried up from one and a half times to twice the height of the wall (whether fort-wall or Great Wall). The rampart-walk is reckoned to have run at a height of from 13 to 15 feet from the ground, so that it would pass over a gate quite horizontally, and without steps. It would be continued right through the towers and turrets, passing through doorways in their side walls, and across the floor of their upper storey.

Mr. John Ward (in _Romano-British Buildings and Earthworks_, p. 70) calls attention also to a gate {88} figured on a mosaic in the Avignon Museum, as suggesting the possible character of the double gates on the Wall-line.

Frequently the great Wall aligns itself with the northern wall of the forts, as at Borcovicium, Æsica and Amboglanna; but sometimes, as here at Cilurnum, it strikes the fort about one-third way along the eastern and western walls, leaving one-third, including a gateway, to project northwards into the enemy's country. This looks as if the garrison could not have lived in a constant state of warfare.

Streets run between the north and south gateways and the east and west, in every case. Where they cross are the central buildings, which were called the "Forum" by Mr. Clayton. But that is a civil term. Probably the more correct term is "Principia," to indicate the H.Q. building of a military unit.

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This always includes an open courtyard, surrounded by a covered colonnade, the bases of whose piers are still to be seen here at Chesters, as also the gutter-stones to carry off the drippings from the roof.

Roofing-tiles are found, made of a grey shaly sandstone, which would readily cut into thin slabs. They are almost square, and were hung angularly, from one corner, on nails driven into wooden beams, as the rust in the holes still shows. This kind of roofing slab is used up to the present day, but it is hung on a wooden peg. At one period they used to be hung on sheep-bones thrust in under the beams.

The Romans also used red pantiles, specimens of which are found here.

The entrance to the Principia always faced the main gate of the fort (the north gate at Cilurnum, the east gate at Borcovicium). At the far end was a series of five small office-rooms, of which the middle one was the most important. It was the _sacellum_ or Chapel of the Standards, the centre of the religious life and of the _esprit de corps_ of the cohort or _ala_ which occupied the fort. It was a constant feature of all Roman forts. The standards themselves, which were deposited there, were objects of worship. They bore a medallion or effigy of the reigning Emperor, and thus these Chapels were the official centres of {90} "Emperor-worship," a cult actively propagated by the government for political motives. The fact that Christians refused to join in this cult, and thereby committed a political offence, was the initial cause of their persecution.

Here, in the _sacellum_, the deferred pay of the soldiers was deposited until it became due to them on their discharge. Here also were kept the army pay-sheets, an actual example of which has been found in the sands of Egypt.

At Cilurnum a strong room has been constructed, evidently in a later and more disturbed period. It is entered by steps leading down from the _sacellum_, and lies under the office-room next to the _sacellum_ on the east, blocking that room in such a way as to prove it could be no part of the original plan. Early in the nineteenth century the heavy oak door of the strong room, studded with nails, was still in place, but it perished when exposed to the air. A slab of stone has been thrown (probably by invaders) across the flight of steps, so that in descending them one has to stoop very low.

The arched roof of the strong room is formed by a series of large stones "stepping over" each other; and its back wall is also "stepped over," so as to make it incline towards the roof.

On my last visit I saw a blackbird's nest neatly tucked in between the stones of this roof. It contained three young ones, with their mouths {91} perpetually open--creatures of one idea, for the time. There had been five eggs, but tourists had taken two away, as mementoes of Cilurnum.

The colonnade of the Principia at Cilurnum consisted of neat piers made of specially small stones, instead of the circular columns that are found elsewhere. The paving is beautiful; but there are indications that it covers an earlier floor. The chamfered bases of the piers go below the level of the present paving-stones, which may some day be removed, and the original floor-level reached and dated. It would be interesting to see in what state of preservation that floor would be found.

In this outer court there is a round well, still half full of water; the stones are all the original Roman work except the top row. There are "set-backs" at intervals down the sides of the well, to form footholds when it was necessary to descend it. Its workmanship is beautiful.

Another necessary and constant feature in the inner arrangement of a Roman fort was the pair of granaries, often set close together, side by side. These granaries were the strongest of the inner buildings. Their walls were thick and heavily buttressed, and their floors supported either on dwarf walls, or on pillars, to provide for the circulation of air underneath them and so prevent damp.

The remains of the granaries at Cilurnum have {92} unfortunately been removed; they stood to the south-west of the Principia.

A very important find in a guard-chamber at Cilurnum was what is known as the "Chesters Diploma," a bronze tablet, conferring the privileges of Roman citizenship on certain soldiers who had earned it by faithful service. It is now in the British Museum. Dr. Bruce gives a full description of it in his _Handbook to the Roman Wall_.

The barracks are another essential feature of a Roman fort.

At Cilurnum these were situated to the north of the Principia, and important remains are to be seen in the north-eastern section of the fort area.

There was probably accommodation for six companies of one hundred men, ten men in a room. The Asturians who formed the garrison came from a mountainous district in the north of Spain, where it is quite as cold as the valley of the North Tyne. The hardy mountain ponies they brought with them were known as _Asturco_ by the Romans. The stables have not been identified. The barrack-rooms had a covered way or verandah running in front, with a series of columns, some of whose bases remain. A massive stone gutter runs down the middle of the street between the barracks. They probably had little pent-house roofs. When the rooms were excavated they were full of pottery, bones, oyster-shells, and rubbish of all kinds, giving {93} a very bad impression of the standard of refinement and comfort of the last occupiers.

To the east of the Principia is what is most probably the residence of the commandant, with private baths, as well as dwelling-rooms, elaborately heated by means of hypocausts. The building was finely designed and finished. A beautiful moulding runs round the base, and also round the buttress.

The site of the furnace is close to a large yew-tree; it is semi-circular, and the fuel for it was wood. The hot gases and smoke were drawn under the floors of the rooms, which were supported on hypocaustal pillars of burnt clay tiles mortared together, or of stones such as are used in the walls. Brick tiles were used nearest the furnace, because the heat would have cracked the stone. Fragments of circular columns are also used, but these are diverted from their original purpose. The floors of the rooms were of double slabs of stones, cemented together, so as to prevent the smoke from coming up through the floors.

The tiles were roughened with a tool usually, to give a grip to the mortar. Accidental marks, made on them when wet, are often seen: the footprints of dogs, dents from the nails of a sandal, thumb-marks, showing the lines of the skin, and the mark of a man's bare foot, showing the great toe.

The baths had been cemented all over with pink cement, probably made with brick-dust. The rooms {94} were plastered inside, and the plaster decorated with deep red, terre-verte and yellow ochre. Evidently they had been replastered sometimes over the paint, and coloured again on the top, just as we put on successive wall-papers.

The level of the floors had been raised nearly 3 feet since the building was first made.

Over its ruined walls there grows the pretty little purple "Erinus Alpinus," which is said by some to have made a mysterious appearance only since the excavations were begun. Did it spring from seed which had long lain dormant, having been originally brought from Spain by one of the Asturians who garrisoned this fort?

It is an attractive legend, and I would like to believe it true; but the hard cold fact is that somebody remembers its having been deliberately planted on the ruins after the excavations were made!

A very interesting point which must not be missed is the way in which the stone thresholds of the gateways have been worn by the chariot-wheels passing over them. It must have been a dreadful jolt for the occupants to cross these high thresholds when they were new, but Roman soldiers were of course above minding little things like that! The ruts are just over 4 feet 6½ inches apart, exactly the distance of the wheel-marks we see in the streets of Pompeii.

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The Vallum runs into the circumscribing ditch at Cilurnum; that is to say, the two ditches coalesce at the south of the fort.

What has been called the Roman "Villa" at Cilurnum is now definitely recognized as the bath-house provided for the comfort of the troops, or perhaps for the officers only. It is the best-preserved building on the Wall-line, one of its chambers still standing twenty-three courses of stones, or 9½ feet high.

The great storehouse at Corstopitum, which might claim to rival it, is 2½ miles south of the Wall.

There is a great bath-house built for the local garrison at Ravenglass which is even more striking, as its walls are standing almost their whole height. It was excavated in 1881.

The position of the buildings at Cilurnum, outside the fort walls, at the foot of a slope and close to the river, where the soil has been washed down and has covered them up, accounts for their excellent preservation.

The baths are entered now (by a flight of wooden steps) just at the point where the original entrance doorway stood. An outer lobby led into what appears to have been the unrobing and anointing room, a very large flagged chamber, with seven round-arched stone niches on the west wall. There has been much speculation about their use, and {96} nothing certain is known, but it is suggested that they may have been cupboards for the bathers to hang their clothes in.

From this apartment one passes into a lobby, giving access to the hot rooms, to the right, and to the cold rooms, with a fountain, to the left. Straight forward is the final "rest-and-amusements" room, which has flues in the form of a cross.

Turning out of this is another chamber, also with cross-flues, and with a semi-circular apse, out of which opens a splayed window, 4 feet wide. Roman window-glass, of a bluish-green, was found on the ground outside this window. The glass is not very transparent, having probably been poured out on a flat surface when made. It is very rare to find examples of Roman windows, because buildings are hardly ever preserved up to the window-level. These walls are twenty-three courses of stones high, or about 9½ feet.

There are two hot rooms, one leading out of the other, and both heated by hypocausts. The jambs of the doorway between them are single stones, each 6 feet high. The walls of one chamber stand 7½ feet high.

The furnace lies beyond these two rooms and is immediately behind the wall with the seven niches.

There are remains of the concrete vaultings of the rooms, and in several instances there are double thresholds, where the floor levels have been raised. {97} We see also drainage arrangements for carrying the water down to the river.

Altogether this is a most interesting building, and it is a pity that no inscriptions have been found here which would fix definitely its date and its purpose.

As seen across the North Tyne it is very inconspicuous, because the grassy river-bank hides it. The soil having in the course of ages washed down and buried the building, now that it has been excavated it stands in a hollow. However, the seven arches of the unrobing-room are very plainly seen. The yew-tree, behind the cows in the picture, marks the situation of the furnace for the heating arrangements of the Commandant's house.

The western abutment of the Roman bridge can sometimes be seen in the water under the trees to the right.

I was sitting painting here one day when the river was very dry; the stones showed me much more of themselves than I wanted to see. I said to myself: "I do wish the river would fill up a little." Almost immediately after, I looked up, and it had filled up a little, just about enough to suit my purpose. I hardly had time to be thankful before it had risen a good deal more than enough, and in a very short time there was not a stone to be seen. This was indeed too much of a good thing! I realized that the river had "come down," as they {98} call it. It was now rushing madly along, getting very brown and frothy, and boughs of trees were beginning to be borne along on its current. When I went home to lunch, I met a dead sheep being carried along, and at the _George_ they told me that Barrasford Ferry was impassable. Haughton Castle had telephoned to say so, and to ask to have its friends coming by rail stopped at Humshaugh Station.

No wonder ardent fishers are warned to be careful when fishing in these northern streams.

Another day, when I was painting here and the stream was fairly low, I was entertained by the antics of a merry party of girls. They kept crossing and recrossing the river by means of very inadequate stepping-stones, and at last two of them tumbled in. They made no trouble of it, but took off their pink cotton frocks and hung them up in a tree to dry, put on their waterproofs, and went off to view the fort. Meantime the cows came down to the river to drink, and, curious as cows always are, they began licking the dresses until at last they licked them off the tree. I on my side of the stream was powerless to help. Finally they went off, leaving the dresses in a huddled heap of pink, and wetter than ever, I should think. I was only thankful that they had not shared the fate of a blue woollen motor-scarf on the banks of the Dee, which was hung over the back of a car by its owner while {99} she went fishing. She returned to see the last six inches disappearing down the throat of a cow! She was left frivolously wondering whether, in its new sphere of influence, it would turn the milk blue.

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One more word about Cilurnum. In the church at Chollerton, about 1½ miles up the North Tyne from Chollerford, the columns of the south side of the nave bear evidence of Roman origin, and no one who is following the Wall should miss seeing them. They are round columns, each consisting of a single stone, and are of the same diameter and general character as portions of shafts found at Cilurnum. It is more than likely that they were stolen from the ruined fort to occupy their present position, and that to this they owe their perfect preservation.

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