Chapter XII: Part III: Local Description of the Works (3)

Some of the quoins of the door-ways consist of very large stones; one is six feet long, and is probably a ton in weight. This proves that it was not from lack of mechanical means that the interior buildings and walls of the stations were composed of small stones. More than one of the thresholds have a groove very roughly cut in them, apparently to allow of the egress of water. This has probably been done after the departure of the Romans and the general demolition of the buildings, by some houseless wanderers, who, having ‘camped’ in the ruin, were incommoded by the lodgement of rain on the floor.

The hydraulic properties of the concrete used in the floors of Roman hypocausts, has, I believe, escaped the notice of previous writers, and is the only other point which need longer detain us in this interesting building. My attention was drawn to this subject by my brother, Mr. George Barclay Bruce, Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers, in the following communication:—

In many places on the line of the Wall, the mortar has had mixed with
it broken tiles or burned clay, to assist it in resisting the moisture
of the atmosphere.

The concrete at Chesters placed between the slabs of the bath-room,
has a very large proportion of this burned clay, and would thus be
better suited to resist the action of heat below and water above than
purer lime.

A portion of this concrete was taken, by way of experiment, and burned
in a crucible, as though it had been a piece of limestone; it was then
ground fine, and mixed with a proper quantity of water; after being
allowed to dry for three or four hours, it was immersed in water,
where it set in the same manner as common mortar does in the open air,
clearly proving its hydraulic properties. The same experiment was
tried with the ordinary mortar of the Wall, but without the same
result, there not being a sufficiently large quantity of burned clay
to enable it to stand so severe a test. In the case of the concrete,
it did not set so readily as what is called Roman cement, but
sufficiently so to prove that it is a strong hydraulic mortar, made by
the mixture of burned clay with common lime.

[Sidenote: THE CEMETERY.]

Bidding farewell to these interesting structures, we may now bend our steps a short way down the river, on a visit to the cypress-grove—the burial ground of the station. This, which in Horsley’s days formed a separate field called the Ox-close, is now included in the park of the domain. Never was spot more appropriately chosen. The river here descends with more than usual rapidity over its stony bed, and bending at the same time to the left, exhibits to the eye the lengthened vista of its well-wooded banks. No earthly music could better soothe the chafed affections of the hopeless heathen mourner than the murmur of the stream which is ceaselessly heard in this secluded nook. From this spot have been procured several sepulchral slabs which will presently afford us instruction; meantime, one is given on the next page whose lesson is of a negative character. The blank memorial shews how vain are the efforts which even affection makes to render buoyant on the wave of time the memory of those departed. Our very monuments need memorials. But, passing this, the character of the carving betokens a poor state of the arts, and fixes its date in the lowest times of the empire: in this we have a proof of the long-continued occupation of the station. The fate of the stone has been singular. When Horsley saw it, the inscription was legible; but having since been used as the door-stone of the cow-house at Walwick Grange, the letters had, previous to its removal to Alnwick-castle (its present resting place), been entirely obliterated.

Between the station and the cemetery is a well enclosed with Roman masonry; it is now in a great measure filled up.

[Sidenote: ITS NAME ASCERTAINED.]

The station of CILURNUM, which is the sixth on the line of the Wall, was garrisoned by the second wing of the Astures, (a regiment of Spanish cavalry) commanded by a prefect. This fact has gradually developed itself to the antiquary. Camden thought it probable. Horsley concurred in the opinion, and, in the absence of better evidence, sagaciously referred to the tombstone of which a drawing is here presented, in proof of its having been occupied by a horse regiment. ‘That some horse,’ says he, 'kept garrison here in the lower empire, seems to be probable from the inscription and sculpture yet remaining at Walwick-grange.'[90] ‘The letters D. M.,’ he remarks in another place, ‘prove this to be a sepulchral monument, and the figure shews that the deceased belonged to the horse, and therefore probably was one of the _Ala secunda Astorum_, which in the lower empire kept garrison at CILURNUM, as the Notitia informs us.’

More decisive evidence has since been procured. The slab figured on page 61, is part of it. A still more satisfactory document of stone was discovered at Chesters several years ago, where it is still preserved: the wood-cut accurately portrays it.

IMP[ERATORI] CAES[ARI] _MARCO_ AVREL[IO] AUG[VSTO] . . . . . . . . . . . . _PONTIFICI MAXIMO_ TRIB[VNITIA] P[OTESTATE] CO[N]S[VLI] _IV_ P[ATRI] P[ATRIÆ] DIV[I] _ANTONINI FILIO_ DIVI SEVER[I] NEP[OTI] CAESAR[I] IMPER[ATORI] . . . . . . . . . . . _DUPLARES_ ALÆ II ASTVRV[M] _TEMPLUM_ VETVSTAT[E] _CONLAPSUM RESTITU_- ERVNT PER MARIUM VALER[IANUM] _LEGATUM AUGUSTALEM PROPRÆTOREM_ INSTANTE SEPTIMIO NILO PRÆ[FECTO] DEDICATVM III KAL[ENDAS] NOVEM[BRIS] GRATO ET SELE[VCO] _CONSULIBUS_.[91]

To the emperor Marcus Aurelius Augustus . . . . . . . . . . . Pontifex Maximus, With tribunitian power, fourth time Consul, Father of his Country, of divine Antoninus the son, Of the deified Severus the grandson, To Cæsar our emperor . . . . . . . . the duplares[92] Of the second wing of Astures, this temple, through age dilapidated, re- stored by command of Marius Valerianus, Imperial Legate and Proprætor, Under the superintendence of Septimius Nilus, Prefect. Dedicated Oct. 30th, in the consulate of Gratus and Seleucus.

Hutton, who has done such good service to the Wall, under-rated the value of inscriptions. ‘When the antiquary,’ says he, 'has laboured through a parcel of miserable letters, what is he the wiser?'—Let this fractured and defaced stone answer the question.[93] 1. This dedication was made by soldiers of the second wing of the Astures;—we thus learn the name of the people who garrisoned the fort, and by a reference to the Notitia, ascertain with certainty that this was[Sidenote: CILURNUM.] CILURNUM. 2. We acquire the fact, that a temple, which through age had become dilapidated, was restored;—learning thereby, not only the attention which the Romans paid to what they conceived to be religious duties, but their long occupation of this spot. It has been already observed, that some of the pillars of the hypocaust have been portions of a prior building;—the ruin and inscription thus corroborate each other. 3. The date of the dedication is given; the third of the calends of November falls upon the thirtieth of October, and the year in which Gratus and Seleucus were consuls corresponds to A.D. 221;—the data on which antiquaries found their conclusions, are not always so vague as some imagine. 4. Even the erasures are instructive. By a reference to the date, we find that Heliogabalus was reigning at the time of the dedication of the temple; we find that what remain of the names and titles on the stone apply to him; he, consequently, is the emperor referred to. The year following he was slain by his own soldiers, his body dragged through the streets and cast into the Tiber. The soldiers in Britain seem to have sympathized with their companions at Rome and to have erased the name of the fallen emperor from the dedicatory slab. Human nature is the same in every age. How often have we, in modern times, seen a name cast out with loathing which yesterday received the incense of a world’s flattery!

The above inscription gives us the station of the _Ala secunda Asturum_, in the reign of Heliogabalus, A.D. 221. The Notitia Imperii gives us its station in the reign of Theodosius the younger, ‘_ultra tempus Arcadii et Honorii_,’ A.D. 430, and we find at both periods the same force in the same station, which corresponds with the understood practice of the Roman army with regard to the permanency of the quarters of its auxiliary forces. With reference to the difference between the spelling of the inscription and the Notitia, ‘Asturum’ and ‘Astorum,’ it may be observed that as the Notitia Imperii was preserved for a thousand years in manuscript before the art of printing came to its rescue, it is more likely that the error should be in the book, than on the stone.

The ancient name of the station having been ascertained, the etymology of it may be inquired into. Whitaker says it means a creek. An authority acquainted with the Gaelic language suggests the following derivation; _caol_, narrow, probably pronounced by the Romans _kil_, and _doir_, water (in composition _dhoir_, the dh not sounded); so that _caol-oir_ is narrow stream; the _um_ is a usual Latin affix. Of course, this branch of the Tyne is narrow in comparison with the united floods. The word may have had an Italian origin; the Latin _celer_, swift, has some resemblance to it, and the river, when swollen by floods, very speedily discharges its superfluous water. Whatever be the origin of the word, the names of the neighbouring places, Chollerton and Chollerford, have had a similar derivation.

[Sidenote: ROMAN SCULPTURES.]

The miscellaneous antiquities which have been found here, and are still preserved upon the spot, are of a very interesting character. Chief among them is a broken statue, which is here represented.

The fragment, consisting of a fine-grained sandstone, is six feet two inches long. Statues of so large a size are of very rare occurrence in Roman camps in Britain. It is generally supposed to have been meant for Cybele, the mother of the gods. The gracefulness of the design, and the excellence of the execution, show us that the state of the arts in Roman Britain was not so low as is sometimes supposed. The arrangement of the drapery, and the ornament placed upon its margins, are suggestive of the mode in which these details were managed in the statues of the early ecclesiastical architects. The ancient builders professedly followed the Roman modes.

The fine Corinthian capital, which is here shewn, enables us to judge of the beauty of some of the buildings which adorned the ancient CILURNUM. In the drawing, it rests upon one of the foundation stones of the bridge; on the right-hand side of the group are two centurial stones, inscribed—

C[ENTVRIA] VAL[ERII]
MAXI[MI]
[CENTVRIA] RVFI SABI
NI

The century (or company) of Valerius
Maximus
The century of Rufus Sabi-
nus.

On the top of these is a pipe of red earthenware.

_PLATE VIII_

_PLATE IX_

[Sidenote: MISCELLANEOUS ANTIQUITIES.]

Preserved in the collection here, is a tile of the usual Roman fabrication, on which are impressed the foot-marks of a dog, seemingly of the terrier species. The animal must have run over it while the clay was in a soft state. Plate VIII. fig. 4.

In making the excavations at the hypocausts, many coins of silver and brass were found. They extend from the reign of Hadrian to that of Gratian; those of Constantine and his immediate successors prevail. A massive silver signet ring, representing, on a cornelian stone, a cock pecking at an an ear of corn, was found in one of the rooms. As is uniformly the case, numerous fragments of the different kinds of pottery used by the Romans were turned up; some of the fragments of vessels of Samian ware are figured on Plate IX. A key, fig. 4. an iron implement with springs on each side of it, fig. 1. and a spear head fig. 3. drawn on Plate X., were found here. Some soles of sandals, similar in character to those which will afterwards be described, several glass beads of curious fabrication, and broken pieces of glass vessels, were picked up. A piece of _cut_ glass procured here is shewn in Plate VII. fig. 10. One of the most curious relics obtained from this treasury of Roman effects was the tooth of a bear; it is of a large size, and is pierced with two holes to enable its possessor to suspend it by a string, and wear it as a trophy or a charm on his person. It is figured of the full size in Plate VII. Bears, as well as wolves, prowled in the forests of ancient Britain, and no doubt the formidable animal which yielded this tusk, cost its captor a severe struggle.

Not the least interesting of the circumstances of a place of very early occupation, are the traditions of the ‘ancients’ respecting it. Notwithstanding their rudeness, some latent truth may generally be educed from them; and they always manifest the modes of thought that prevailed in former times. Sixty years ago the traditions of the Wall might easily have been gathered, but now the old men have nearly forgotten the tales with which their ‘fore-elders’ used to entertain them on a winter’s evening. The products of the press have nearly superseded this unlettered lore. A few fragments relative to CILURNUM have, however, been supplied to me. A belief used to prevail, that there existed a subterranean stable under the camp capable of containing five hundred horse. It was, moreover, currently related, that beneath the river a tunnel was formed, which led to the opposite side. There is a pool in the vicinity of the station, on its western side, called the Ingle-pool, and which, until partially filled up a few years ago, was very deep; the peasantry believed, that it derived its supplies by an underground canal from the North Tyne, at Nunwick-mill, between three and four miles up the river.

_PLATE X._

J. STOREY DEL. ET LITH. PRINTED BY AND^W. REID.
Roman Spears, etc.
]

In these traditions we may perhaps recognise the facts, that a regiment of horse garrisoned the station; that the Romans carefully maintained the means of intercourse with both sides of the river; and that, if in this instance they did not, which is by no means certain, in others they undoubtedly did bring water from great distances, either for the purpose of sustenance, or to strengthen their position.

We must now take leave of CILURNUM. Whatever may be the views of the reader, the visitor will do so with regret. As Hodgson well remarks, ‘The Astures, in exchanging the sunny valleys of Spain for the banks of the tawny Tyne, might find the climate in their new situation worse, but a lovelier spot than CILURNUM all the Asturias could not give them.’ During many days spent in the prosecution of my inquiries here—the beauty of the landscape, the instructive nature of the ruins, and the pleasant intercourse which I was privileged to enjoy with the hospitable family at the hall, combined to make a deep impression upon my mind.

[Sidenote: CHESTERS.]

Again we bend our steps westward. Behind the garden wall at Chesters stands a fragment of the Wall. The north fosse is filled with water. Ascending the hill which leads to Walwick, the earth works are seen on the left hand. When near the top of it, our out-door antiquary, while he pauses for breath, will do well to look back, and contemplate the scene he is leaving. The lines of the Barrier are seen boldly descending the well-wooded and fertile banks on the east side of the river. Warden-hill is to the south, and will attract attention by its elevation. Its summit is seen still to bear marks of having been occupied by the aborigines of Britain. Whilst the works of the Barrier were going on, they may have maintained their position for a while, and, from behind their entrenchments, scowled upon the intruders who were soon to drive them to the remoter region of the Cheviots. After watering both sides[Sidenote: WARDEN-FELL.] of the tongue of land of which Warden-fell consists, the North and South Tyne meet, and their waters roll on in a united stream to the Emporium of the North. We can follow it with the eye for some distance, as it goes sparkling in the sunshine, spreading fertility and beauty on either hand.

... O ye dales
Of Tyne and ye most ancient woodlands; where
Oft as the giant flood obliquely strides,
And his banks open, and his lawns extend,
Stops short the pleased traveller to view,
Presiding o’er the scene, some rustic tower,
Founded by Norman or by Saxon hands.

Nestled in the fairest part of the valley is the abbey church of Hexham; closely inspected, it is found to be a chaste specimen of the most simple and beautiful of our ecclesiastical styles—the early English, and, when viewed from a distance, as in this case, its venerable towers lend a quiet charm to the landscape.

How different the scene which the Romans beheld! In their day, and for long afterwards, the painful cultivator of the soil knew not who should reap the harvest; those only, therefore, who had power to protect themselves would engage in the occupation. Now, the husbandman dreams not of a foreign foe, or of troops of lawless marauders; steadily he evokes the riches of the soil, and something like an Eden smiles!

A strip of the Wall, though in a disordered state, and covered with brushwood, is in a field beyond Walwick; its fosse is finely developed.

[Sidenote: TOWER-TAY.]

Ascending the next hill, called Tower Tay, the earth-works are still very conspicuous. About half way up are the ruins of a tower, erected about a century ago, as an object in the landscape. It stands on the Wall, and has been entirely formed out of its stones. At the summit, the ditches of both Wall and Vallum are cut through the native rock, of which the hill consists, and are in excellent order. The Wall stands very near the edge of a scar, sufficiently elevated to have formed of itself a defence; it is remarkable that the Romans should have thought it necessary to draw a ditch on the north side of it at all.

Looking forward from the top of this hill, we see, for a considerable distance, all the lines of the Barrier proceeding on their course; descending one hill and ascending the opposite, called the Limestone-bank, they keep perfectly parallel. It would have delighted Horsley’s heart to notice that the present road runs upon the north agger of the Vallum, maintaining, as he did, that this was the Military Way of Agricola.

At a short distance, further in advance, the ruins of a mile-castle are seen on the right. The whole of the facing-stones are gone, as is usually the case, and the place where it stood is chiefly marked by the vacuity occasioned by their removal. This castellum measures, inside, fifty-four feet from east to west, and sixty-one from north to south; it has been protected by a fosse. A long range of the Wall is next seen in the Black-carts farm, in an encouraging state of preservation; it is between five and six feet high, and shews, in some places, seven courses of facing-stones.

[Sidenote: TEPPER-MOOR.]

On the summit of the next hill, many objects of great interest await us. The view from it is most extensive. To the north, a vast sweep of country meets the eye; a beautiful undulated valley occupies the foreground, behind it the hills rise boldly, and the lofty Cheviots bound the scene. Chipchase castle occupies a commanding position. The modern mansion of Nunwick, embowered in wood, selects the lower ground. Towards the west, the lofty crags traversed by the Wall come into view.

In the corner of a field adjoining the road, are the remains of another mile-castle; it measures fifty-seven feet by fifty-four. Horsley says, it was detached about a yard from the Wall, the reason of which was not very obvious. A portion of the Roman Military Way may here be seen as it curves towards the gateway of the castellum, and again recedes from it. A good section of it is obtained at the margin of the places where its stones have been removed to form the stone dikes of the field.

H. Burdon Richardson, Del. John Storey, Lith.
THE WORKS, TEPPER MOOR.
]

The fosse of the Wall and Vallum at this point deserve attentive examination. In passing over the crown of the hill, they have been excavated with enormous labour out of the basalt of which the summit consists. The workmen, as if exhausted with the task of raising the splintered fragments, have left them lying on the sides of the moats. A mass on the outside of the north ditch, though now split by the action of the frost into three pieces, has evidently formed one block, and cannot weigh less than thirteen tons. It is not easy to conceive how they managed to quarry so tough a rock without the aid of gunpowder, or contrived to lift, with the machinery at their command, such huge blocks. No luis-holes appear in them.

The lithograph presents a view of the giant works of the Vallum and fosse at this point. It is quite evident that here, at least, the north agger did not form the Military Way. There are several breaks and irregularities in both the mounds; the works have probably been left by the Romans in a rough, unfinished state.

Between this spot and the craggy summit on which Sewingshields farm-house is perched, the ground is flat, and destitute of any decided descent to the north. On this account, and for mutual defence, the lines of the Barrier keep close together, so close, sometimes, as scarcely to leave room for the passage of the Military Way between them.

[Sidenote: PROCOLITIA.]

PROCOLITIA is the seventh stationary camp on the line of the Wall. It was garrisoned by the first Batavian cohort, which, with two others from the same country, and the two Tungrian cohorts, was with Agricola in his great battle with Galgacus in the Grampian Hills. That the ruined camp at Carrawburgh was the adopted home of this cohort, is proved by the altar engraved on page 62, and by the fractured slab now introduced,[94] and which was found here in the year 1838. On this mutilated stone, the words COH I BATAVORVM are quite distinct, and are of themselves sufficient, not only to fix the site of the ancient PROCOLITIA, but to corroborate the testimony of Tacitus, on the presence of Batavians in Britain during the period of Roman occupation. The line following may probably be read INST[ANT]E BVRRIO, and bears the name of the prefect under whose superintendence the building was erected, to which the slab referred. In the last line, the word CO[RNELIANO may be perceived. In 237, when Maximinus was emperor, Titius Perpetuus and Rusticus Cornelianus were consuls. That this is the date of the inscription is rendered likely from a fragment of this emperor’s name appearing in the beginning of it.

Whitaker gives, as the meaning of the word PROCOLITIA, the ‘fortress in the woodlands.’ In the Gaelic tongue, _coille_ signifies a wood.

There is little in this station to detain us. The course of its ramparts and moats can be easily traced, and the rich green sward of its area is seen to cover numerous irregular heaps of ruins; every building, however, is prostrate; scarcely one stone is left upon another. The Wall forms the northern boundary of the station; its eastern and western gateways are, as usual, opposite to each other, but strike the side walls between the upper end and the middle. The position of the southern gateway cannot be detected; in the present state of the ruins, there is no appearance of one. The southern corners are rounded off, but the side walls of the station, in joining the Murus on the north, seem to preserve their rectilinear course. Outside the western wall are the ruins of the suburbs. A natural valley, consisting at present of boggy ground, gives strength to the fortification on this side. Horsley saw a well in the slack, cased with Roman masonry; it is now removed.

No modern habitation is on the ground or in its immediate vicinity to relieve the general desolation—

... here, as in the wild,
The day is silent, dreary as the night;
None stirring save the herdsman and his herd,
... or they that would explore,
Discuss and learnedly.

[Sidenote: CARRAWBURGH.]

Passing onwards, we soon reach the farm-house of Carraw, formerly a rural retreat of the priors of Hexham. On the crown of the next elevation, the works are brought into close proximity, apparently for the purpose of avoiding an extensive bog on the north, and of maintaining possession of the point of the hill on the south. The earth-works are very boldly developed, but are in a ragged state. The contents of the north fosse are piled up high on its outer margin. The fosse of the Vallum is cut through free-stone rock; its southern agger is very elevated, and would present a bold and angry front to any intruder from the south.

[Sidenote: THE GREAT MURAL RIDGE.]

We must now, to adopt the language of Hutton, ‘quit the beautiful scenes of cultivation, and enter upon the rude of nature, and the wreck of antiquity.’ Four great mountain waves are before us, and seem to chase each other to the north, on which side their crests rise almost perpendicularly. To the highest of these, the second from the south, the Wall directs its course. It is a ridge of basalt, which crosses the island obliquely, from Cumberland to Holy Island. The Vallum here parts company with the Wall, and takes the ‘tail’ of the hill on the ‘crag’ of which the other runs. The accompanying drawing shews the nature of the country before us.

H. Burdon Richardson, Delt. John Storey, Lith.
APPROACH TO SEWINGSHIELDS.
Printed by W. Monkhouse, York
]

Before approaching Sewingshields[95] farm-house, which is on the line of Wall, an experienced eye will detect the Roman Military Way. It runs at first nearly parallel with the Wall, at about thirty-six paces from it, but, in its subsequent course, recedes from the Barrier, or approaches it, according to the position of the mile-castles, and the nature of the ground. With but few interruptions, it may be traced by the appearance of its herbage, by its slightly elevated, rounded form, and by the occasional protrusion of the stones composing it, all the way from Sewingshields to Thirlwall.

The north fosse, which we have had in view from the very commencement of our journey, accompanies the Wall for a short distance up the hill, as is seen in the lithograph, but when the ground becomes precipitous, it forsakes it until the high grounds are passed, only to appear when the Wall sinks into a gap or chasm between the crags.

[Sidenote: THE WALL ON THE CRAGS.]

A difficulty will here present itself to nearly every mind; why was the Wall drawn along the cliffs at all? Horsley cut the knot instead of untying it. ‘As such steep rocks,’ says he, ‘are a sufficient fence of themselves, I am inclined to think the Wall has not in those parts had either strength or thickness, equal to what it has had in other parts.’ Present appearances give us no reason to suppose that the Wall on the crags was in any respect inferior to what it was in the low grounds. A different method of accounting for the circumstance has been forced upon my attention. It was my fortune to traverse the heights near Sewingshields late in December last year, when the wind blew a violent gale from the north, and the thermometer, even in the valley, was ten degrees below the freezing point. In order to maintain the ordinary temperature of the body, very active exertion was necessary, and to make any progress on my way, I was constrained to get under the lee of the hill. The conclusion was irresistible; if the Romans were to keep watch and ward here during the winter, a Wall was necessary, even though only for the sake of sheltering them from the blast. The habits of the enemy demanded continual vigilance; for, as Tacitus tells us, before the time of Agricola they usually repaired the losses they had sustained in summer by the success of their winter expeditions. The loftier the mountain peak, the more necessary, in this view of it, was the friendly shelter of the Wall to the shivering soldiers of southern Europe.

[Sidenote: SEWINGSHIELDS.]

The Wall in the neighbourhood of Sewingshields is not in good condition; its site is marked by the rubble which encumbers it, but the facing-stones are gone, having contributed to the erection of every building in the vicinity, from the time of Honorius to the present day. A considerable tract of it was removed lately. Thorough draining, the life of agriculture, is death to the Wall.

The aspect of the country in the immediate vicinity of the heights of Sewingshields is dreary enough, but the elevation enables the eye to revel in the fertility and beauty of the distant landscape. Hexham is distinctly discernible from the farm-house. On the flats to the north of the crags, there formerly stood the border fortress, Sewingshields castle.[96] It was at one time the property of the late Ralph Spearman, esq., the Monkbarns of THE ANTIQUARY.

[Sidenote: MURAL TRADITIONS.]

A situation so remote from the crowded haunts of men is favourable to the preservation of legendary lore. It occurred to me that here, if anywhere, I might ascertain the kind of ideas which the rude forefathers of the mural region entertained respecting the Wall and its builders. Although on the Antonine Wall all tradition of the Romans has been lost, this has certainly not been the case here; the recollection of them is still distinctly preserved, and some stories of them are told, which, though in several respects resembling written history, are not derived from this source. For the following scraps of traditional information, I am chiefly indebted to the master of Grindon school, in the immediate neighbourhood of Sewingshields, who says he has often heard them repeated. Though he denominates them ‘absurd,’ the learned in mediæval legends will probably think them worth preserving.

The Romans are said to have been remarkably lazy, so much so, that in
the hot weather of summer, having almost nothing to do, they lay
basking in the sun, on the south side of the Wall, almost in a state
of torpor. The Scots were in the habit of watching their opportunity,
and, throwing hooks, with lines attached to them, over the Wall,
caught the poor Romans by their clothes or flesh, and by this means,
dragging them to the other side, made them prisoners.

An old man in this neighbourhood told me, that he had often heard
people say, that the Romans had remarkably broad feet, with still
broader shoes, and that, when it rained, they lay on their backs, and
holding up their feet in a perpendicular direction, protected, by this
means, their persons from the weather.—This legend, under various
modifications, seems to have been widely diffused in the middle ages.
Sir John Maundevile, describing ‘Ethiope,’ says—‘In that contree, ben
folk that han but o foot; and thei gon so fast, that it is marvaylle;
and the foot is so large, that it schadewethe all the body azen the
sonne, whan they wole lye and reste hem.’ Precisely similar to this is
Pliny’s account—'Item hominum genus, qui Monoscelli vocarentur,
singulis cruribus, miræ pernicitatis ad saltum: eosdemque Sciopodas
vocari, quod in majori æstu, humi jacentes resupini, umbra se pedum
protegant.'[97]

It is the tradition of the country that all the stones of the Wall
were handed from one man to another by a set of labourers stationed in
a line from the quarry to the place where they were required. Many
will tell you, 'I have heard my mother say, that the Wall was built in
a single night, and that no one was observed to be engaged upon it,
save an old woman with an apron full of stones.'—This, however, is a
tradition of almost universal application.

The people say that the Wall was hollow, or, as they express it, had a
flue running the whole length of it, through which the sentinels
communicated intelligence by a speaking trumpet.

Some of the people of this neighbourhood tell me that the Britons,
tired, at length, of Roman oppression, rose in a body, and drove the
garrison, with considerable slaughter, from all their stations. The
Romans, when making their way to the sea to look for ships to carry
them home, were met by a seer, who told them that if they returned
home they would all be drowned; and if they went back to their old
stations they would all be slain. This prophecy disconcerted them
greatly, and they were at their wits’ end; however, after long
consultation, they resolved to escape both calamities by marching
direct to Wales. This they did, and there the pure, unadulterated
Roman breed is to be found to this day.—Can this story refer to the
passage of the second legion, at an early period, to Caerleon?

[Sidenote: LEGENDS OF KING ARTHUR.]

We next pass on to some tales, which, though not connected with the Wall, belong, as Hodgson remarks, to times nearer the Roman than these degenerate days. They chiefly relate to king Arthur. Sir William Betham observes that this monarch’s name is more celebrated in Scotland than in Wales, which was the chief resort of the conquered Britons, and is disposed to think, that this favourite hero of romance was not a Romanized Briton, but an invading Pictish king. This idea would account for the frequent reference to his name in the region of the Wall.

Immemorial tradition has asserted, that king Arthur, his queen
Guenever, his court of lords and ladies, and his hounds, were
enchanted in some cave of the crags, or in a hall below the castle of
Sewingshields, and were to continue entranced there till some one
should first blow a bugle horn that lay on a table near the entrance
of the hall, and then with ‘the sword of the stone’ cut a garter also
placed there beside it. But none had ever heard where the entrance to
this enchanted hall was, till the farmer at Sewingshields, about fifty
years since, was sitting upon the ruins of the castle, and his clew
fell, and ran downwards through a rush of briars and nettles, as he
supposed, into a deep subterranean passage. Firm in the faith that the
entrance into king Arthur’s hall was now discovered, he cleared the
briary portal of its weeds and rubbish, and entering a vaulted
passage, followed, in his darkling way, the thread of his clew. The
floor was infested with toads and lizards; and the dark wings of bats,
disturbed by his unhallowed intrusion, flitted fearfully around him.
At length, his sinking courage was strengthened by a dim, distant
light, which, as he advanced, grew gradually brighter, till, all at
once, he entered a vast and vaulted hall, in the centre of which, a
fire without fuel, from a broad crevice in the floor, blazed with a
high and lambent flame, that shewed all the carved walls and fretted
roof, and the monarch and his queen, reposing around in a theatre of
thrones and costly couches. On the floor, beyond the fire, lay the
faithful and deep-toned pack of thirty couple of hounds; and on a
table before it, the spell-dissolving horn, sword, and garter. The
shepherd reverently, but firmly, grasped the sword, and as he drew it
leisurely from its rusty scabbard, the eyes of the monarch, and of his
courtiers began to open, and they rose till they sat upright. He cut
the garter; and as the sword was being slowly sheathed, the spell
assumed its ancient power, and they all gradually sunk to rest; but
not before the monarch had lifted up his eyes and hands, and
exclaimed:

O woe betide that evil day
On which this witless wight was born,
Who drew the sword—the garter cut,
But never blew the bugle-horn.

Terror brought on loss of memory, and the shepherd was unable to give
any correct account of his adventure, or to find again the entrance to
the enchanted hall.[98]

To the north of Sewingshields, two strata of sandstone crop out to the
day; the highest points of each ledge are called the King and
Queen’s-crag, from the following legend. King Arthur, seated on the
farthest rock, was talking with his queen, who, meanwhile, was engaged
in arranging her ‘back hair.’ Some expression of the queen’s having
offended his majesty, he seized a rock which lay near him, and, with
an exertion of strength for which the Picts were proverbial, threw it
at her, a distance of about a quarter of a mile! The queen, with great
dexterity, caught it upon her comb, and thus warded off the blow; the
stone fell between them, where it lies to this day, with the marks of
the comb upon it, to attest the truth of the story. It probably weighs
about twenty tons!

A few miles to the north of Sewingshields stands an upright stone,
which bears the name of Cumming’s cross. Cumming, a northern
chieftain, having paid, one day, a visit to king Arthur at his castle
near Sewingshields, was kindly received by the king, and was, as a
token of lasting friendship, presented by him with a gold cup. The
king’s sons coming in, shortly after Cumming had left the castle, and
being informed of what their father had done, immediately set out in
pursuit of him. They overtook him, and slew him at this place, which
has borne the name of Cumming’s cross ever since.

King Arthur’s chair used to be pointed out in this vicinity. It was a
column of basalt, fifty feet high, slightly detached from the rest of
the cliff. The top of it had something of the appearance of a seat. It
was thrown down, several years ago, by a party of idle young men, who
were at great pains to effect their foolish purpose.

[Sidenote: SEWINGSHIELDS CRAGS.]

We now return to our more immediate object, the examination of the Wall.

Soon after leaving Sewingshields, a narrow chasm in the rocks, slightly aided by art, called the Catgate, admits of an awkward descent to the plain below. Here, says Hutton, the Scots bored under the Wall, so as to admit the body of a man. Whether the Romans or the Scots made this passage, it is certain that the garrison on the Wall would sometimes visit the country to the north, for the purposes of plunder and of slaughter, and would require the means of egress.

The mile-castles may now all be recognised in due succession.

[Sidenote: BUSY GAP.]

The next point of interest is Busy-gap, a broad, basin-like recess in the mountain ridge, about a mile from Sewingshields. The Wall here, being more than usually exposed, is not only strengthened with the fosse common in the low grounds, but has the additional protection of a rampart, of triangular form, to the north of this. The wood-cut will give some idea of the arrangement. A common stone dike occupies at present the place of the Wall, the foundations of which, and, for the most part, a portion of the grout of the interior, remain. At a little elevation, on the western side of the valley, is a gate called the King’s-wicket (Arthur’s again, probably), through which a drove-road passes. The gate is well situated for defence, and may have been a Roman passage.

Busy-gap was in the middle ages a place of much notoriety; it was the pass frequented by the moss-troopers and reavers of the debateable country.

[Sidenote: STATE OF THE BORDERS.]

The incessant war which was waged between England and Scotland before the union of the two kingdoms, rendered property exceedingly insecure, and nurtured a race of men who had no expectation of holding their own, unless they could repel force by force. It was the policy of the governments of both countries, to maintain on the Borders a body of men inured to feats of arms, whom, on any emergency, they might call to their assistance. Habits long indulged are not easily laid aside. When the policy of Elizabeth, and the accession of James to the throne of England, allayed the national strife, the stern warriors of the Border degenerated into sheep-stealers; and, instead of dying in the fray, or yielding their necks _honourably_ to the headsman’s stroke, burdened by the score the gallows-tree at Newcastle or Carlisle. The vales of North Tyne and the Rede, which anciently abounded with warriors, became infested with thieves. It is impossible to imagine the desolation and misery occasioned by such a state of society. Landed property was of little value. Precious life was idly sacrificed. Bernard Gilpin, the ‘apostle of the north,’ was esteemed a brave man because he annually ventured as far as Rothbury to preach the gospel of peace to the lawless people of the vale of Coquet. Camden and sir Robert Cotton, though ardently desirous of examining the Wall, durst not venture in their progress eastward beyond Carvoran. ‘From thence,’ Camden says, ‘the Wall goeth forward more aslope by Iverton, Forsten, and Chester-in-the-Wall, near to Busy-gap, a place infamous for thieving and robbing, where stood some castles (chesters they called them), as I have heard, but I could not with safety take the full survey of it, for the rank robbers thereabouts.’ In such ill-repute were the people of these parts, even in their own county, that we find the Newcastle Merchants’ company in 1564, enacting that ‘no free brother shall take non apprentice to serve in the fellyshipe of non such as is or shall be borne or brought up in Tyndale, Lyddisdale, or any such lycke places, on pain of 20_ll_,’ because, says the order, ‘the parties there brought up are known, either by education or nature, not to be of honest conversation; they commit frequent thefts and other felonys, proceeding from such lewde and wicked progenitors.’ The offence of calling a fellow-free-man ‘a Bussey-gap rogue,’ was sufficiently serious to attract the attention of a guild; a case of this kind being recorded in the books of the Bakers and Brewers’ company of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1645.

The traces of this disordered state of society remained until the early part of the reign of George III., when the sheriff of Northumberland was first enabled to execute process in the north-western parts of the county. ‘Within my own recollection,’ says Mr. Hedley, ‘almost every old house in the dales of Rede and Tyne was what is called a _Peel_ house, built for securing its inhabitants and their cattle in the moss-trooping times.’ Very many of these yet exist. Far different is the state of the district now. The men of the mural region, and of the vales of North Tyne, and Rede-water, are as upright as any in England. With the exception of a few aged individuals, an uneducated person is not to be found. Although, in addition to the ordinary courts of law, they have access to courts-leet and courts-baron, (those admirable institutions by which our Saxon forefathers gave to the poorest villager the ready means of procuring redress of wrong,) nowhere has the law less occasion forcibly to assert its claims. Property is secure, and land brings its full price in the market. On some of the extensive farms of the Cheviot range, not fewer than ten thousand sheep are kept; they are counted but twice a year, and seldom is one amissing. The value of land in Northumberland (exclusive of towns and mines) is seven times greater than it was at the commencement of the eighteenth century, and two hundred times what it was in the middle of the sixteenth. The antiquary, who will not fail to rejoice in the prosperity of the country through which he is travelling, as well as in the safety of his own person, may therefore go on his way cheerfully and in confidence.

The second mile-castle from Sewingshields, opposite the farm-house called the Kennel, is remarkable as having been built upon an absolute declivity. Hodgson observes that it had an interior wall on every side of it, at the distance of about twenty feet from the exterior wall.

[Sidenote: THE BLACK DIKE.]

Shortly after leaving Busy-gap, two narrow, but rather steep gaps are passed in quick succession, which do not seem to have obtained names. Through the first of these the BLACK DIKE has probably run. This is an earth-work of unknown antiquity, which is supposed to have stretched, in a nearly straight line, from the borders of Scotland near Peel-fell, through Northumberland and Durham, to the south of Yorkshire. The scantiness of the soil on the crags of the Wall, accounts for its not being discernible there, and the ground immediately to the north and south of it is boggy. In a plantation on the hill side, opposite to where we now are, looking south, the dike exists in excellent preservation. The _seuch_, or slack of it, may be seen even from the Wall, on the western edge of the plantation, which is called the ‘Black-dike planting.’ From the information of those who knew it half a century ago, I shall set down its probable course in this vicinity. Coming in a south-east direction, it passes the east end of Broomlee-lough; having cleared the Wall and Vallum, it goes by the west of Beggar-bog, the east of Low Morwood, through the Muckle-moss, and so to the Black-dike plantation. Passing afterwards a field called the Black-hall, it is last seen on the north bank of the Tyne near the Water-house. It re-appears on the south bank at Morley, and passing Tedcastle and Dean-row, is supposed to go by Allenheads into the county of Durham. In the best piece of it which I have seen, the ditch is ten feet across the top, and about five feet deep, reckoning from the top of the mound on its east side. Within the memory of my informants, it was much deeper. The sheep were often covered up in it in a snow-storm, as they naturally went there for shelter. The earth taken out of the ditch is uniformly thrown to the east side, where it forms an embankment. No stones, or such only as were derived from the cutting, have been used in its formation. The only conjecture hazarded respecting its origin is, that it formed the line of demarcation between the kingdoms of Northumbria and Cumbria; and certainly the course pursued by the Black-dike is very nearly similar to the boundary assigned to these regions in the most authentic maps of Saxon England. The antiquity of the cutting may be inferred from the circumstances, that for some distance it forms the division between the adjacent parishes of Haltwhistle and Warden, and that it passes through bogs which probably owe their origin to the devastations committed in the north of England by William the Norman.[99] The Black-dike is laid down in the map of Northumberland which was prepared to accompany Horsley’s Britannia, and in Kitchin’s Map of Northumberland, under the name of the ‘Scots’-dike.’

South of the turnpike road, and behind a small house, called Beggar-bog, is a low freestone crag, which exhibits some quarry-like excavations, filled with the chippings of stone. It has probably furnished material for the Wall, the stone being of the same character.

The stream which we next cross is the Knag-burn; it forms the eastern boundary of Housesteads. Passing it, we scale the ramparts of this far-famed station.

[Sidenote: THE ANCIENT BORCOVICUS.]

BORCOVICUS.—‘This’ says Gordon, ‘is unquestionably the most remarkable and magnificent station in the whole island;’ and ‘it is hardly credible what a number of august remains of the Roman grandeur is to be seen here to this day, seeing in every place where one casts his eye there is some curious Roman antiquity to be seen: either the marks of streets and temples in ruins, or inscriptions, broken pillars, statues, and other pieces of sculpture all scattered along the ground.’ Stukely, in the vehemence of his admiration, denominates it ‘the Tadmor of Britain.’ Let not the visitor, however, approach it with expectations too greatly excited. There is very much to admire, but not a great deal to strike the eye at first sight. The altars and sculptured figures which lay in profusion on the ground when Gordon and Stukely were there, have been removed,[100] but the ruins of the place remain as complete and vast as ever. The city is, in a great measure, covered with its own debris, but the excavations which have recently been made, shew us that when they are continued throughout the entire station, the ancient BORCOVICUS will be the Pompeii of Britain.

[Sidenote: HOUSESTEADS.]

The station of Housesteads contains an area of nearly five acres. 'Half of it hangs on a slope, with a southern aspect: the other, or northern half, is flat, floored with basalt, covers the summit of a lofty ridge, and commands a prospect on the east, south, and west, far away beyond the valley of the Tyne, over blue air-tinted grounds and lofty mountains; and to the north of the Wall, over the vast waste of the forest of Lowes, where indeed, a proud, stupendous solitude frowns o’er the heath.'

The Wall forms its northern boundary, and the Vallum, it is probable, came to the support of its southern rampart.[101] It is naturally defended on all sides, except the west. In order duly to protect this side, the gateway seems to have been walled up at an early period, and a triple line of ramparts drawn along it.

Although the position of Housesteads clearly indicates that this fort was erected for the accommodation of a mural garrison, it would seem to have been built independently of the Wall. The first anxiety of the soldiers engaged in that great work would be to erect a secure habitation for themselves. The west wall of the station, instead of coming up to the great Wall in a straight line, makes the curve which is usual in those corners of a camp that are independent of the Wall; as is shewn in the wood-cut at the top of the next page.

[Sidenote: BORCOVICUS.]