Chapter XI: 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.

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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