Chapter X: Walwick to Sewingshields

After striking off from the western gateway of Cilurnum, the Wall appears once again in the grounds of Chesters, several courses high, and is then just traceable through the plantation to the west of the house till we come out on to the road leading to Walwick. Here the Vallum is clearly visible in a field on the left. The foundations of the Wall could long be seen in the road on the rise of the hill towards Walwick, but I doubt if they can often be seen now. "A good surface for cars" is made so that it does not easily wash off, even in thunder-showers!

I did not see them myself; but I have since been told that, though the north face is very seldom seen, the south facing-stones can be made out just at the south edge of the road, unless too much covered by the wayside grass. With this hint, my readers may be more successful than I was in finding them. Hutton says of Walwick: "The village is delightful, and the prospect most charming," and this is as true to-day as it was when he wrote it. From the {101} top of the hill, Hexham, with its towers, the valleys of the Tyne, and a fine wooded country with hills beyond are spread out before you. Presently the Wall-ditch appears in good condition on the right of the road. Nearly opposite the road on the left leading to Fourstones is a cottage, built entirely of stones from the Wall. It presents a very solid rectangular eastern face, from which four battlements project, and it is known as "Tower Taye." A bit of wall running behind it looked in the distance like _the_ Wall, so I went to examine it. As I drew near the house, which lies in a field a little way back from the road, I noticed that the gate into the yard was merely the head of an old iron bedstead, originally painted green. One castor remained--on the loose leg; the other leg was tied, at top and bottom, to the wooden gate-post, and its foot sunk deep into the soil. It made a decidedly original gate! A huge sow, with a litter of young ones, had flung herself down in front of this gate, as though to act as a watch-dog. A large tin basin, full of dirty soap-suds, stood in the middle of the path to the front door, which was a heavy oaken one, thickly studded with nails. Altogether the place struck me as being a very well-defended Tower!

The wall behind was not _the_ Wall, so I came away. As I emerged on to the road, a young man was passing in a light cart. He pulled up and asked if I was going far. I said I was following the Roman {102} Wall. "Well, I could have given you a lift. It's not much of a trap; I only bought it yesterday at a fair, and one of the wheels is a bit shaky, but I don't think it will come off." I should not have minded the rickety cart, but "lifts" were not in my line just now; so I thanked him, saying I was pledged to walk, and he drove on. Shortly afterwards two caravan-carts passed. One was covered at the back with red-brown tarpaulin, from under which a fat brown baby could be seen, lying asleep.

As I reached the top of the hill, I saw a boy leaning against the stone fence, so I asked him if he could tell me whether I was near the piece of Wall on Black Carts Farm. He said: "D'ye see that bit dene in the field yonder? That's the Wall." And he pointed on ahead, to a field on the right. The "bit dene" was a hollow, filled with trees and undergrowth, running parallel to the road through a field of young corn. At the very top of the hill on which I stood there is a young plantation, and just beyond it a stile on the right leads by a little path to the site of a mile-castle. From this point I found that, for the first time, I could walk continuously along the line of the Wall as it ran through the grass. The "bit dene" still lay ahead.

It was a perfect "Wall-day," and both Wall and Vallum were traceable to perfection in front of me, one on either side of the road, right up to the top of the steep Limestone Bank. At my feet {103} were purple orchis growing in the young bracken, and the whole countryside was clothed in what Chaucer calls "the gladde brighte grene" of spring.

Following the line of the Wall, I soon came to the "bit dene" on Black Carts Farm, where there is a very fine piece of Wall standing, and also a considerable portion of a Wall turret. The facing-stones of the Wall are in position on both sides for a considerable distance, and to a height of 7 feet. In the turret were found coins of Constantine the Great, showing that it was not disused, as some of the recently examined turrets were, when the Wall was reconstructed by Severus, about A.D. 207-10.

The wild flowers in the "bit dene" were very lovely and varied: bluebells, cowslips, campion, wild garlic, cranesbill, herb bennet, sweet woodruff, the great stitchwort, and purple orchis were all growing in profusion.

Still following the Wall, I crossed a lane known as "Hen Gap," and began to climb the hill called Limestone Bank, where another fine piece of Wall is standing, overhung with gorse, now in full blossom.

The Vallum-ditch is very remarkable in this region; and hazel, hawthorn and mountain-ash trees grow on its steep sides.

Looking back from Limestone Bank, you can see the Wall and the Vallum very clearly, running {104} one on either side of Wade's Road. The mile-castle mentioned on page 102 lies close to the road on the left, just where it disappears over the hill.

I was first brought to this spot with my painting-things by friends in their car, and just as we reached it I saw on ahead, walking along the line of the Wall, a hatless, stockingless, shoeless figure, with a haversack on its back.

"Look!" I cried; "there's a real 'Pilgrim of the Wall.' Take me on another half-mile, and I'll walk back and meet her."

They did so, but the Pilgrim disappeared behind a stone fence before we passed her.

When I met her she was not at all the strong-minded female I had expected to see, but a gentle-looking young thing, a school teacher from Newcastle, and it was sheer timidity that had made her hide behind a wall when she saw us coming.

However, she was delighted to have some one to talk to when she saw I was not shocked at her bare feet! She told me she was walking from Hexham to Crosby-on-Eden, and hoped to sleep at Gilsland that night. As for the Wall, she knew very little about it, but she hoped to learn more on the way.

At the top of Limestone Bank I found a pictureesque encampment by the side of the road. Four horses were tethered, cropping the grass, while {105} two mothers and a swarm of children out of the caravan carts were busily employed in lighting a fire in the shelter of a little copse. Two men were collecting fuel, and in one of them I recognized the young man of the light cart.

The women greeted me cheerily. They were making for Appleby Fair, and reckoned on doing about 20 miles a day.

A mile-castle is easily distinguished on the right of the road, just opposite where the plantation ends. A piece of its wall has been uncovered. The military way is specially worthy of notice here, coming up to the south gateway of the mile-castle, for it is the first time we have come across it, with its curved surface and stone kerbs. We shall very frequently meet with it, where the Wall runs over the heights.

From this summit can be noticed for the first time the curious formation of the hills in these parts, sloping up gradually from the south, and ending precipitously on the north, for all the world like a breaking wave; following each other also just like a succession of waves. The Romans made good use of this formation, planting the Wall and their forts on the very highest ridges, wherever it was possible.

The Wall-ditch and the Vallum-ditch demand all our attention just over the crest of Limestone Bank. They have been cut through the solid basalt rock, {106} and huge boulders lie about still, just as they lay when the Roman workmen left them.

Peewits and curlews now began to be very plentiful on this open moorland, the former flying round and round me, with their plaintive cry, fearful lest I should track their nests. I noticed how difficult it is to see their crests when they are flying; they lay them back so close to their heads. I suppose they would otherwise retard their flight.

Speaking of crests, reminds me of an old lady who takes in visitors along the line of the Wall, and who has been heard to say that she much prefers to have "crested people" to stay with her!

The west wind was getting stronger and colder as I walked on. Great pillars of cloud stood up against the deep blue sky to the north-west; while on the south-west, over Tindale Fell, it was raining hard.

The next farm-house is Carrawburgh, and near here lay the Roman fort of PROCOLITIA. A mile-castle is seen on the left just before we come to the fort.

There is very little indeed of Procolitia to be seen on the surface. The famous well of the water-goddess, Coventina, is merely a patch of rushes railed round, and too wet even to be examined. It is just possible to make out the walls and gateways of the fort under the grass. The great Wall joined on to the north wall of the fort. The Vallum curves round to the south to avoid it.

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The first cohort of the Batavians was stationed at Procolitia; and the Tungrians were stationed at the next fort, Borcovicium. This is significant, because Tacitus mentions that Batavians and Tungrians fought side by side in Agricola's army when he won the battle of Mons Graupius. So it seems that they first came to Britain under Vespasian.

After we have passed the farm-house of Carraw, built by the monks of Hexham for a summer residence, Sewingshields comes into full view, nestling in trees, exactly over the top of the next hill in the road. The land has now become still more bleak and barren; there are no longer fresh green pastures, but brownish sheep-moors, dotted with tufts of rushes and coarse grass. Presently I saw something dark sticking up in the long grass by the side of the road. I was meeting the wind, so I got quite close before it moved. It was the two dark ears of a hare which sped like lightning, when it saw me, under a five-barred gate on the right, and so across the moor, till it vanished, as a speck, over the horizon.

And now at last the Wall leaves Wade's Road, so I climbed over the stone fence which bounds the road to walk on its grassy mound. It diverges more and more from the road, and makes straight for where the crags begin at Sewingshields.

It soon brought me to a very interesting {108} mile-castle which has been excavated. The northern gateway is the first good specimen of a mile-castle gateway that we have come to. It is fenced round to protect it from animals. I clambered over the stone dyke and down into the Wall-ditch, to gaze up at the massive masonry, which looks much more imposing seen from the north. Nine courses of stones are in place on the western side of this gateway.

There were now two stone dykes between me and Wade's Road. The Wall-ditch continued to be very deep and striking. Flags and water-reeds covered its bottom, and great boulders lay strewn about.

At a fir-plantation the Vallum crosses Wade's Road, and from this point onwards it runs along in the low land while the Wall clings to the heights.

On this May day the brown moorland to the north of the Wall was thickly sprinkled with cotton-grass, its downy white heads giving a silvery sheen to an otherwise dull expanse. "Moss-troopers," the children call them, a white army invading from the north! Or, as a farmer's wife put it to me: "They bits o' flooff would mak' ye think we'd had a shower o' snaw."

And so I came to Sewingshields, where the most fascinating part of the walk begins.

Hitherto I had had to keep almost entirely to {109} Wade's Road. Now, good-bye to the high road, and hurrah for the heights!

Not till we come to Birdoswald, full 13 miles ahead, is it necessary to follow a road again; and even then, after 3 or 4 miles of road, the path lies mainly through fields as far as Burgh-by-sands.

The house at Sewingshields is now used as a shooting-box by Mr. Charles Straker of High Warden, near Hexham. It is built entirely of Roman stones, so it is not surprising that there is very little Wall left in its neighbourhood. The centurial stone, which Dr. Bruce mentions, has been taken out, and is preserved inside the house, where it was shown to me.

The fir-plantation which now shelters the house from the north winds is only of comparatively recent planting. It must have been bleak indeed up there without this protection. The plantation is entered by a stile, just on the site of the Wall, and this is really where the crags begin.

Let us sit a moment on this stile and look back the way we have come.

The ditch of the Vallum and its triple mounds are very clearly marked on the right of Wade's Road, and the Wall-ditch is very plainly visible on the left. The low rays of the sun cast shadows which emphasize the form, and all round the eye can follow wave upon wave of undulating ground, right into the dim blue distance.

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