Chapter XIV: Part III: Local Description of the Works (5)

The station of ÆSICA, according to the Notitia, was about the year 430, garrisoned by the _cohors prima Astorum_.[115] Horsley (writing in 1731) observes, that no inscriptions had been found here mentioning the first cohort of the Asti, or any other cohort. In 1761, however, an inscription was dug up in this station, which is now deposited in the museum at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, recording that in the reign of Alexander Severus (200 years before the date of the Notitia) the ‘cohors secunda Asturum’ rebuilt a granary here which had fallen into decay from age—‘horreum vetustate conlabsum.’ It is to be observed that the spelling of ‘Asturum’ is similar to that of the inscription at CILURNUM, and we do not find that the _second_ cohort, either of the Asti or Astures, is mentioned elsewhere as part of the Roman auxiliary forces in Britain.

Near the eastern gateway of the station there has been lately dug up a large mural tablet, shewn in the wood-cut, and bearing the following inscription:

IMP. CÆS. TRAI[A]N. HADRIA
NO AVG. P[ATRI] P[ATRIÆ].

To the emperor Cæsar Trajanus Hadria-
nus Augustus, the father of his country.
]

It is not probable that this slab has been derived from the Vallum, which is upwards of a quarter of a mile from the station.[116] Why the upper part of the tablet was left blank does not appear; enough, however, has been inserted to support the theory, that Hadrian built the Wall. Although several of the stations were probably built before the Wall, and were quite independent of it, this can scarcely have been one of them; its position seems to indicate that it was called into existence in order to accommodate the mural garrison.

_SURVEYED BY I. T. W. BELL 1860_ _A. Reid’s Lithog. 117
Pilgrim St. Newcastle._
Plan of
AN ANCIENT WATER COURSE EXTENDING FROM
SAUGHY BIG WASH POOL TO ÆSICA GREAT-CHESTERS.
]

[Sidenote: ETYMOLOGY OF ÆSICA.]

Celtic authorities all agree in tracing the name ÆSICA to a word signifying _water_. The propriety of such an appellation does not at first sight appear. The camp is far from either the eastern or western sea; no lake is visible from its ramparts; the only water which is near is the Haltwhistle-burn, a somewhat tiny stream. The low ground to the south has a fenny aspect, but the station itself stands high and dry, though upon a part of the mural ridge less elevated than usual. It is not improbable that it may have derived its name from an aqueduct which leads the water from the Greenlee-lough to the camp. As this water-course has hitherto escaped the notice of writers upon the Wall, and is a work of considerable interest, a somewhat detailed description of it may be allowable.

THE WATER-COURSE AT ÆSICA.

The camp, though not greatly elevated, stands higher than the ground,
either north or south of it. The country to the north, though
generally flat, is studded with numerous hills of moderate elevation.
On the sides of some of these, about two-thirds up, may be noticed a
line that reminds the spectator of the parallel roads in Glenroy and
other places. On examination, it is found to be an artificial cutting,
made with evident reference to the maintenance of the water level. The
sections given in Plate XVI., shew its size and form. In some places
the water stands in it yet; in others a mass of peat fills it; and
very frequently, where the channel has been obliterated, its course is
shewn by a line of rushes, which grow on the damp ground. Wherever the
water-course can be distinctly discerned, it has been laid down in the
accompanying plan by a green line; where the traces of it are lost,
the line of the water level has been pursued, and is indicated by dots
of the same colour.

[Sidenote: THE WATER-COURSE.]

The whole length of the water-course is six miles; the distance in a
straight line is little more than two miles and a quarter. It takes
its commencement at the Saughy-rig-washpool, which is formed by the
occasional damming up of the Caw-burn, at about a mile from its exit
from the Greenlee-lough. In the immediate vicinity of the burn, the
side of the water-course next the rivulet which would be endangered by
the overflowing of the natural stream, is made up with flat stones put
in endwise, some of which still remain as shewn in the section at B,
in the plan. In its course to the station, in order at once to
preserve the level, and avoid the necessity of using forced
embankments or stone aqueducts, it is taken along the sides of the
moderately elevated hills which rise from the plain. So ingeniously is
this done, that once only has it been necessary to cross a valley by
an artificial mound of earth. This has been at a spot between the
third and fourth mile of the water-course, and which is still known in
the district by the name of Benks-bridge, though probably few of the
inhabitants are aware of the evident origin of the term. Some
ingenuity has been employed in fixing the site of this mound. It is
placed in that part of the valley where there is a slight descent on
each side of it; the drainage of the surface is thus provided for
without the use of a culvert; the surface water on the west, naturally
making for the Halt-whistle-burn, that on the east for the river
Tipalt. The mound which has taken the water-course across the valley
at Benks-bridge has entirely disappeared, having probably been
absorbed, in the course of ages, by the mossy ground on which it
stood. The whole fall of the water-course, reckoning from the
Wash-pool to the bottom of the arched chamber in the centre of the
station is thirty feet. This is distributed over its entire length in
the way shewn in the following table:—

ft. in. m. f. c. ft. in.

Commencing at A 0 0 At 2 6 0½ 11 10 fall

m. f. c. 2 7 5 E 14 4 ”

0 0 6 B 2 10 fall. 3 0 0 21 6 ”

0 1 5 3 10 ” 3 0 3 23 7 ”

0 2 4 3 7 ” 3 0 6 23 5 ”

0 3 4½ 3 7 ” 3 1 3 29 10 ”

0 4 9 3 6 ” 3 3 5 25 3 ”

0 6 0 3 7 ” 3 5 0 North end, 25 4 ”
Benks-bridge.

0 7 8½ 4 0 ” 3 5 0 South end, 29 7 ”
Do.

1 0 6½ 4 1½ ” 4 1 5 29 9 ”

1 1 3½ 3 7 ” 4 5 8 29 11 ”

1 3 2½ 3 6 ” 5 3 5½ 28 6 ”

1 4 0 C 3 10 ” 5 4 4 28 11 ”

2 0 5 5 9 ” 5 5 5 29 0 ”

2 1 6½ 11 4 ” 6 0 0 Present 30 4 ”
bottom of
arched
chamber in
centre of
station.

2 2 9½ D 11 2 ”

The nature of the ground threw considerable difficulties in the way of
the engineer, which accounts for the exceedingly tortuous nature of
the track pursued. It is indeed remarkable that without the aid of
accurate levelling instruments, any one could be so fully assured that
the requisite fall existed as to venture upon the task of its
formation. The workmen in the execution of the design probably drew
the water along with them as they proceeded. In one place, (G) they
seem to have made too free with the fall, and after proceeding for
some distance, (upwards of a furlong) have retraced their steps, and
constructed the cutting at a higher level. In crossing the valleys,
there is sometimes an unusual loss of fall. This is particularly the
case at the third mile (E) where there is a difference in the level of
the course, on the opposite side of the slack, of nearly ten feet.
This valley is permeated by a streamlet, and to take the water across
it at the level previously preserved, a stone aqueduct would have been
necessary. Appearances seem to indicate that an easier plan was
adopted. A dam being formed across the hanging side of the valley, the
water of the course was allowed to deliver itself freely into it, and
eventually rising after the manner of a mill-head to the level of the
course on the western side, pursued its way as before. That this plan
was the result of a change in the design of the architect seems
evident, for on the eastern side of the valley a second cutting (E)
has been made at a lower level than the other, apparently with the
view of leading the water more gradually to the lower point.

Unfortunately all traces of the water-course are lost for some
distance before approaching the station, so that it cannot be
ascertained where it entered it, if it did so at all.

That some important object was gained by the formation of so long a
cutting is undoubted, but what that object was is a perplexing
question. It can scarcely be supposed that the garrison at ÆSICA were
dependent for their daily supply of so important an article as water
upon an open cutting outside the Barrier. The feeblest of their foes
could, in an instant, cut off the provision. No doubt the country, for
some distance north of the Wall, was held in subjection by the Roman
forces, but when the Wall was built, and the station planned, such was
not the case. The station itself is not destitute of water. A well,
sunk some years ago, to the depth of twenty-four feet, yields to the
tenants of the farm-house an unfailing supply. I am disposed to think
that the water brought by the cutting was to give to the north rampart
of the station the advantage of a wet ditch. By throwing an embankment
across the depression on the north of the station, as it begins to
slope down to the bed of the Haltwhistle-burn, a considerable body of
water would lodge here. The station of ÆSICA was an important one. In
a particularly wild district, at an unusual distance from the great
lines of Roman communication, and close beside the great opening in
the mural ridge, by which the waters of the Forest of Lowes effect a
passage to the low grounds, it would be peculiarly exposed to the
attacks of the enemy. Although somewhat elevated above the ground
north of the Wall, it is not so much so as to be impregnable on that
quarter. A body of water collected here to keep the enemy at a still
greater distance might not be beneath the attention of the garrison.
Any temporary interference with the aqueduct would in this case be
productive of no inconvenience. The existence of a water-course on the
enemy’s side of the Wall at HUNNUM, which may have served a similar
purpose, has already been noticed. At BREMENIUM, High Rochester, some
guttered stones, covered with flags, were recently found lying in a
direction which led to the supposition, that they brought water from
some springs outside the station to the eastern moat.

In the Archæologia Æliana[117] is a plan and description of an ancient
aqueduct, which brought water from some distant rivulets to the
station at Lanchester. It consists of two branches, the longer of
which is nearly four miles in extent. Earthen embankments, to preserve
the level, are occasionally used in both of them, and, as they run
over sandy ground, the bottom of them has been puddled. The two lines,
after uniting, deliver their water into a reservoir outside the
station, near to its south-west corner. That the water of this
aqueduct cannot have been used for domestic purposes appears from what
Hodgson, the author of the paper, adds—‘Several wells have, from time
to time, been discovered here by labourers, on the outside of the
walls, and there is a plentiful spring at a short distance from where
the bath stood.’

Whatever may have been the object served, the water-course at ÆSICA is
a striking memorial of the skill, forethought, and industry of the
Roman garrisons. At the present day, in a highly civilized country,
and after the enjoyment of a long period of internal peace, we are but
beginning to see the necessity of bringing water from a distance into
our large towns. An individual garrison, exposed to all the hazards of
war, scrupled not, even fourteen or sixteen centuries ago, for some
purpose which they thought important, to cut a water-course six miles
long!

It is not a little remarkable too, that after the lapse of so long a
period, the cutting should be distinctly visible through so large a
portion of its track.

The view which is here taken of the object of the water-course is not
given because it is absolutely satisfactory, but because it presents
the fewest difficulties. We might have expected that if a miniature
lake had been formed on the north of the station, some remains of the
embankment necessary to confine its waters would appear; none are,
however, to be observed. The soil, on being turned up, has not the
black and sludgy aspect, which might be anticipated, but is of a
yellow hue; the bottom of a pond at Wall-mill, which was drained
within living memory, has, however, a precisely similar appearance.

To the south of Great Chesters is Wall-mill, near to which the burying ground of the station seems to have been. Brand observed here several remarkable barrows, and was shewn some of the graves which had been opened. ‘They consisted,’ he tells us, ‘of side stones set down into the earth, and covered at top with other larger stones.’ He took them to be very early Christian sepulchres; this is more than doubtful. The progress of agricultural improvement has obliterated all traces of the cemetery; to one, however, of its sepulchral monuments reference will afterwards be made.

The Romans systematically avoided intra-mural interments. The following is one of the laws of the Twelve Tables:

HOMINEM MORTUUM IN URBE NE SEPELITO NEVE URITO.

It is remarkable that at so early a period of the history of the republic, attention should have been turned to this subject, and that in a digest of legislation so brief as that referred to, this should form one of the enactments.

[Sidenote: COCK-MOUNT-HILL.]

Shortly after leaving ÆSICA, the crags again appear, and the Wall ascends the heights. At Cock-mount-hill, about a quarter of a mile forward, the Murus is four or five feet high. On the Ollalee ground, it is six and seven feet high, and shews on the north, nine courses of facing-stones; at another place, ten courses appear, and the height is six feet four inches.[118] The earth-works are seen in the valley below, covered with the whin, called by botanists, _Genista Anglica_. The continuous sandstone ridge is deeply scarred with ancient quarries.[119] Here the view is most extensive, Skiddaw, Crossfell, and other celebrated summits, shewing themselves conspicuously on the south, and Burnswark, a peculiar flat-topped eminence, and several more distant hills, on the north. A truncated pyramid of stones and earth, used by the ordnance surveyors,[120] has been left upon the elevated ridge, called Mucklebank-crag.

[Sidenote: WALLTOWN-CRAGS.]

The next defile that we reach is a very wide one, and is denominated Walltown crags. Walltown consists of a single house, which, though now occupied by the tenant of the farm, bears marks of having formerly been a place of strength, and the residence of persons of consideration. Ridley the Martyr refers with much affection in his valedictory letter to his brother who resided here:—

Farewell, my dearly beloved brother John Ridley of the Waltoune, and
you my gentle and loving sister, Elizabeth, whom, besides the natural
league of amity, your tender love, which you were said ever to bear
towards me above the rest of your brethren, doth bind me to love. My
mind was to have acknowledged this your loving affection, and to have
requited it with deeds, and not with words alone. Your daughter
Elizabeth I bid farewell, whom I love for the meek and gentle spirit
that God hath given her, which is a precious thing in the sight of
God.

In the crevices of the whin rock, near the house, chives grow abundantly. The general opinion of the country is, that they are the produce of plants cultivated by the Romans, who were much addicted to the use of this and kindred vegetables. This belief is but a modification of the more extended statements of our earliest writers on the Wall. Sampson Erdeswicke in 1574, says—

The Skotts lyches, or surgeons, do yerely repayr to the sayd Roman
Wall next to thes, (Caer Vurron) to gether sundry herbs for surgery,
for that it is thought that the Romaynes there by had planted most
nedefull herbes for sundry purposes, but howsoever it was, these
herbes are fownd very wholesome.

Camden gives an account precisely similar.

On the eastern declivity of the gap, and near the line of the Wall, is a well, which, in the district, is generally called king Arthur’s Well. Brand, however, gives a different account of it:—

At Walltown, I saw the well wherein Paulinus is said to have baptized
king Ecfrid. It has evidently been enclosed, which indicates something
remarkable in so open and wild a country. Some wrought stones lay near
it. The water is very cool and fine.

The western ascent is steep. Hutton tells us he was sometimes obliged to crawl on all fours. On the summit are evident traces of a mile-castle.

[Sidenote: NINE-NICKS OF THIRLWALL.]

We now enter upon a most interesting part of the line. The mural ridge, divided by frequent breaks into as many isolated crags, is denominated the Nine Nicks of Thirlwall. The view from the edge of the cliff is extensive; stunted trees unite with the craggy character of the rock in giving variety to the foreground. The Wall adheres, with tolerable pertinacity, to the edge of the crags, and hence pursues a course that is by no means direct. The accompanying wood-cut, which exhibits the view looking eastwards, shews the zig-zag path which it adopts. Nearly all our historians agree in stating that the most perfect specimens of the Wall now remaining, are on Walltown crags. Certain it is that all who have examined the other parts of the Wall with care, will visit this with peculiar pleasure; but such are the varied features which each section of the Barrier presents, and the consequent interest which each excites, that it is difficult to determine which part, on the whole, is most worthy of attention.

[Sidenote: WALLTOWN-CRAGS.]

For a considerable distance along the crags, the Wall is in excellent preservation, presenting, on the north side, in several places, ten courses of facing-stones, and in one, twelve. In the highest part it is eight feet nine inches high, and nine feet thick. The military way may in many places be seen, avoiding very dexterously the more abrupt declivities of its rocky path.

At length the cliffs, which extend in a nearly unbroken series from Sewingshields to Carvoran, sink into a plain, and the fertility and the beauty of a well-cultivated country re-appear.

However pleasing the change, the traveller will not fail occasionally to look back upon the road he has trod, and view with secret satisfaction those bold and airy heights which so well symbolize the austere and undaunted spirit of that great people whose works he is contemplating; and when in after years, and it may be in some region far distant, the image of them rises in his imagination, he will be ready to exclaim—

I feel the gales that from ye blow
A momentary bliss bestow.

[Sidenote: CARVORAN.]

MAGNA, the modern Carvoran, lies to the south both of the Vallum and Wall. The nature of the ground in its neighbourhood seems to have dictated this arrangement. The Wall occupies the edge of a strip of elevated ground, the benefit of which, as a position of strength against an enemy, it was desirable not to lose. Had the station been placed as usual on the line of the Wall, the Vallum, in skirting its southern rampart, would have been brought into a swamp that occupies the valley between the high ground on which the Wall stands, and the somewhat commanding site of the station. Both the lines of the Barrier have therefore been allowed to pursue their parallel course nearly together, and the station has been placed about two hundred and fifty yards within the Wall, on a platform which is sufficiently defended on the south by the declivity that slopes from it to the modern village of Greenhead.

It is not impossible, however, that MAGNA may have been one of Agricola’s forts, the valley, through which the river Tipalt flows, requiring the adoption of this method of resisting the aggressions of the Caledonians.

The station has enclosed an area of four acres and a half. Having, a few years ago, been brought under tillage, it is with difficulty that even its outline can now be traced; some fragments of the north rampart, however, remain, and the north fosse is distinct.[121]

[Sidenote: MAGNA.]

In the front of the farm-house which was erected in the year—long to be remembered in these parts—1745, is built up a Roman altar, apparently without an inscription. In the garden, and behind the dwelling, are several other interesting memorials of Roman occupation. Amongst them are broken capitals and fragments of columns, moulded coping-stones, gutter-stones, and troughs, of various shapes and rude construction. Several bases of columns lie scattered about, the prevailing form of which is square, as shewn in Plate XIII., fig. 5; one of them is, however, of circular shape, and is ornamented with a cable-pattern moulding, resembling the Housesteads pedestal, given in Plate XI.[122] There are also preserved here a small altar, in perfect preservation, inscribed, D[E]O BE[L]ATVCADRO, some imperfect altars, several centurial stones, a broken effigy of the bird of Jove, a pair of bronze shears (figured of the full size on Plate XIV., fig. 1), evidently, from their proportions, meant to be handled by fair fingers, fragments of Samian ware and amphoræ, a few beads, and some implements of iron. Amongst the articles disinterred from the stations on the line, there are generally to be found numerous small flat circular implements, of which examples are engraved (of the full size) on Plate XI. They vary from half-an-inch to two inches in diameter, and have a circular hole in the centre. For the most part they are composed of sherds of Samian ware, occasionally, of jet, and of amber; at Carvoran are some of rude shape, made of imperfectly burnt clay and shale. Various conjectures have been hazarded respecting their use; the most probable is, that they were employed as tallies, the small beads representing units, the large, tens. In the inn at Glenwhelt are preserved a magnificent pair of stag’s horns, nearly perfect, which were found in the well of the station; each antler is a yard long. In the possession of the Society of Antiquaries, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, are several valuable inscribed stones derived from this station, which have been presented by Colonel Coulson of Blenkinsop Hall.

_PLATE XIV._

Lamp, Fibula, Shears, and Compasses
]

MAGNA, during the days of Roman occupation, must have been a place of considerable importance. Not only did the road which leads directly from CILURNUM, come up to it, but the Maiden-way, from Whitley Castle and the south, ran through it, as is supposed, to Bewcastle and the other stations north of the Wall, as shewn on the Map, Plate I.

Rejoining the lines of the Barrier, we find them about to descend into the valley watered by the Tipalt, _insaniens flumen_, as Camden calls it. The moat of the Wall is peculiarly well developed, that of the Vallum, though less so, is still distinct; they are exactly parallel to each other. Before the traveller forsakes his present elevation, it will be well for him to mark the westward course of the objects of his study, lest he lose their track in the swampy ground fronting Thirlwall Castle. A valley of considerable extent stretches before him; on the north brow of it, at the distance of about three miles, Gilsland Spa is situated; the works of the Barrier stand upon its southern edge. The trough of the north fosse may easily be discerned where it is intersected by the railway.

It has been suggested that one of the objects contemplated by the Romans in the construction of a double line of fortification, was the enclosure of a space of ground which might be cultivated by the garrison, and where their cattle might graze in security. If this had been the case, the Wall would have been drawn along the northern margin of the wide and fruitful valley of Gilsland, and the Vallum along its southern edge.

[Sidenote: THIRLWALL CASTLE.]

Thirlwall Castle is, as Hutchinson calls it, ‘a dark, melancholy fortress’ of the middle age.[123] It was for many centuries previous to its purchase by the ancestors of the earl of Carlisle, the residence of an ancient Northumbrian family of the name of Thirlwall. Amongst the witnesses examined on the occasion of the famous suit between the families of Scrope and Grosvenor, for the right to bear the shield ‘azure, a bend or,’ which was opened at Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1385, before king Richard II. in person, was John Thirlwall, an esquire of Northumberland. The witness related what he had heard on the subject of the dispute, from his father, who ‘died at the age of 145, and was when he died the oldest esquire in all the North, and had been in arms in his time sixty-nine years.’ Such is the language of the record of these proceedings, preserved in the Tower of London.

This locality may also bring to the reader’s remembrance the lines in Marmion—

The whiles a Northern harper rude
Chaunted a rhyme of deadly feud,
‘_How the fierce Thirlwalls, and Ridleys all,
Stout Willimondswick,
And Hardriding Dick,
And Hughie of Hawdon, and Will o’ the Wall,
Have set on Sir Albany Featherstonhaugh,
And taken his life at the Deadman’s-shaw_.’—

It is not generally known that this ‘ancient ditty,’ which sir Walter Scott gives at length in a note as a genuine antique, is a modern fabrication, the production of his correspondent Surtees, the historian of Durham. The ballad, however, breathes the very spirit of the fierce borderers, or it would not have deceived so accomplished an antiquary as Scott.

The walls of the castle are nine feet thick, and are faced, both inside and outside, with stones taken from the Roman Wall. It is a singular thing to see a building, formed out of a prior structure, itself in ruins, and becoming a prey to yet more modern depredators. The stones remain meanwhile, whether in the primeval structure, or in those of mediæval and recent date, as good as ever. Brand observes—

There is built up near the inn at Glenwhelt, a most barbarous,
gigantic head of stone, which is most certainly not Roman. It came
from Thirlwall Castle, and has no doubt belonged to some of those
hideous figures made use of anciently in such castles to frighten the
distant enemy.

Brand’s original still graces the vicinity of the inn, and its effigy, this page. Its ugliness is no proof that it is not Roman; but, after all, whose beauty would not be tarnished by exposure such as it has endured?

[Sidenote: CENTRAL REGION OF THE BARRIER.]

That portion of the line which lies between the Tipalt and the Irthing is probably weaker than any other between Wallsend and Bowness. Not only is the ground flat, but it is destitute of the aid which copious rivers give it, both at its eastern and western extremities. Throughout the whole of this district, both barriers keep close together. Except in the neighbourhood of Rose-hill, no portion of the stone Wall remains in all this tract.

The country between the Tipalt and the Solway is characterized by a number of diluvial hills, not unfrequently resembling barrows. To the south of Brampton, they are so numerous and so nearly uniform in size and shape as to suggest to the playful imagination the idea of their being gigantic mole-hills. The occurrence of these in the line of the Barrier must have caused some trouble to the engineer of the Wall. The difficulty, however, was overcome. The first hill of this description that we meet with, occurs immediately westward of the point where the Newcastle and Carlisle railroad crosses the mural line. The Wall unhesitatingly ascends it on the one side, and descends it on the other, though it would scarcely have described a larger arc had it gone round its base.

[Sidenote: VALLUM AT WALLEND.]

About half-a-mile onward is a small village, called Wallend. The earth-works are, for a short distance, in an admirable state of preservation; nowhere else is the Vallum seen to greater advantage.

A peculiarity in the relative position of the Wall and Vallum will here force itself upon the attention. The Wall, which, for the larger portion of its course, stands considerably above the Vallum, now takes a lower level, and for nearly the whole space between this point and the Irthing, is completely commanded by the earthen ramparts. The following diagram will give a general idea of the country, and of the mutual relation between the two structures. Had the Wall (A) and Vallum (B) been independent undertakings, this arrangement would not have been adopted. The earth-works ascribed to Hadrian having been found inefficient, would have been relentlessly cut in upon by the officers of Severus, who would doubtless have planted the Wall in those positions which were naturally the strongest, irrespective of any prior work. As it is, to give the Vallum the advantage of an eminence in resisting a southern foe, the Wall relinquishes a portion of the acclivity which it might with advantage have taken.

[Sidenote: CHAPEL HOUSE.]

Chapel-house and Fowl-town, two contiguous farm-houses, are next met with in our course. Chapel-house is probably the site of a mile-castle, it having been constructed out of the materials of a prior building, which boasted walls of great thickness. An inscribed stone, of which the woodcut is a copy, is to be seen lying in an out-house, from the walls of which it has recently been taken. The letters on one end have been worn away. The inscription may be read—

NERVÆ N[EPOTI]
TRA[IANO] HADRIA[NO]
AVG[VSTO]
LEG. XX. VV.

To the grandson of Nerva,
Trajanus Hadrianus
Augustus,
The twentieth legion, valiant and victorious.

This is another testimony which recent research has brought to light, of the part which Hadrian and the twentieth legion bore in the construction, both of the Wall and the Vallum.

At the village of Gap, the Vallum, which is very distinct, stands considerably above the Wall. The place is said to take its name from the Wall having been broken through here at an early period.

Rose-hill is a hill no longer. The top of the diluvial mount was thrown into the surrounding hollow, in order to afford a site for the railway station, that has assumed the name of the summit which it displaced.

[Sidenote: MUMP’S HALL.]

In the immediate neighbourhood of Rose-hill is Mump’s-hall, formerly the residence of the Meg Merrilies of sir Walter Scott:—

'Mump’s-hall,' says Hodgson, 'according to tradition, was once a
public-house, kept by a notorious person of the name of Meg Teasdale,
who drugged to death such of her guests as had money. In Guy Mannering
she glares in the horrid character of Meg Merrilies. But certainly all
this tradition is deeply coloured with unpardonable slander against
the ancient and respectable family of the Teasdales of Mump’s-hall.'

Sir Walter Scott was in early life an occasional resident at Gilsland.
The broad, flat stone is pointed out, a little above the Shaws Hotel,
on which tradition asserts he was standing when he declared to the
subsequent lady Scott the emotions which agitated his bosom. He had
therefore the opportunity of becoming acquainted with the district and
its traditions.

The small thatched cottage, opposite to the road leading from the
railway station, is usually pointed out as the residence of Meg, but
it is not the one which was occupied by her. She lived in the larger
building beyond, round which the road bends at a right angle. The
front of the house is modernized, but the back of it still retains the
character of a border fortress. My information upon this and other
subjects respecting her, has been derived from an individual residing
in the district, whose mother knew Meg well, and visited her upon her
death-bed. Although the heroine of Mump’s-hall was cast in a mould
somewhat suited to the state of the district at that time, she was not
the fiend-like woman that she is generally represented. One murder,
however, the tradition of the country lays to her charge. A pedlar
having called upon Meg’s brother, who kept a school at Long Byers
(mid-way between Rose-hill and Greenhead), accidentally presented to
him a box filled with guineas instead of his snuff-box. The traveller
was requested to convey a note to Mump’s-hall, which he did, but was
not seen alive afterwards. Suspicion arising, the house was searched,
and the body found concealed among hay in the barn; but the parties
who made the discovery durst not reveal it, for fear of injury to
themselves and families. About six weeks afterwards the body was found
lying upon the moors. My informant added to his narrative—‘probably
the laws were not so active in those days as at present, for these
things could not escape now.’

When Meg was upon her death-bed, the curiosity of the neighbourhood
was excited, and many of her cronies visited her, in hopes of hearing
her disburthen her conscience respecting the death of the pedlar. They
were, however, disappointed; for whenever she attempted to speak upon
the subject, some one of the family, who always took care to be
present, placed a hand upon her mouth.

Upper Denton church is hard by. It is evidently a very ancient
building, and possibly exhibits some Saxon work. It is one of the
smallest churches in England, and is as damp and mouldy as felons’
dungeons used to be. Meg and several of the members of her family lie
in the church-yard. Four tombstones, ranged in a row, mark their
resting places.

[Sidenote: POLTROSS-BURN.]

The works of the Barrier are crossed by the railway a little to the west of Rose-hill station. The Wall here exhibits three or four courses of facing-stones. A little beyond this point, the lines, still clearly defined, cross the stream called Poltross-burn, which divides the counties of Northumberland and Cumberland. The gorge in which the stream flows is deep and well-wooded. There are no remains of a bridge in the valley, but traces of a mile-castle, by which the defile has been guarded, are distinct upon its western bank. Before reaching the Irthing, at a farm-house called Willowford, the site of another castellum may be discerned. From this point to the water’s edge, the Wall and Vallum have probably gone in close companionship; but this is a matter which cannot now be ascertained. The western bank of the river is lofty and precipitous. Consisting, as it does, chiefly of diluvial soil and gravel, on which the water of the stream below is continually acting, it is not surprising that all traces of the Wall, if it ever ascended the height, have long since disappeared. On the very brink of the precipice above, the remains of the Wall and fosse re-appear. The faithful followers of the Wall, who have closely pursued its track from the eastern sea, will not be willing to desert their companion, even for a brief space, at this point. The cliff, however, will test their constancy. Hutton had his troubles; he says, somewhat magniloquently—

[Sidenote: PASSAGE OF THE IRTHING.]

I had this river to cross, and this mountain to ascend, but I did not
know how to perform either. I effected a passage over the river by the
assistance of stones as large as myself, sometimes in and sometimes
out; but, with difficulty, reached the summit of the precipice by a
zig-zag line, through the brambles, with a few scratches.

The latest historian of the Wall attempted to ascend the bank in a right line; he has given us the result of his experience, as a warning to others.

None of the party completely succeeded in ascending the precipitous
bank by the course of the Wall. The attempt is very dangerous, and, as
success accomplishes nothing, should never be tried by those whose
life and existence are in any way useful.

On the top of the cliff is a mile-castle. To the north, two conical summits appear, which strongly resemble barrows. We now approach Birdoswald, the twelfth station on the line.

[Sidenote: AMBOGLANNA.]

AMBOGLANNA, the Birdoswald of the present day, is an interesting station. Numerous inscriptions have been found within its walls, mentioning the first cohort of the Dacians, surnamed the Ælian, which, according to the Notitia, was quartered at AMBOGLANNA. One of them, in the possession of Robert Bell, esq., of the Nook, Irthington, is here figured.

I[OVI] O[PTIMO] M[AXIMO]
ET N[VMINIBVS] AVG[VSTI]
COH[ORS] PRIMA AEL[IA]
DAC[ORVM] CVI PR[ÆEST]
GALLICVS
TR[I]B[VNVS]

To Jupiter, the best and greatest,
And the deities of Augustus,
The first cohort (the Ælian)
Of the Dacians, commanded by
Gallicus,
The Tribune.

The name AMBOGLANNA seems to signify, the circling glen. The former part of the word, meaning _about_, is met with in most of the western languages; as the Welsh _am_, the Irish and Gaelic _umain_, the Saxon _ymb_ or _embe_, the Greek αμφι, and the Latin (in compound words) _amb_. _Glanna_ is obviously synonymous with the modern _glen_, a term of very frequent use in the land of the Gäel.

Here the name has been most appropriately bestowed. The camp stands upon the precipitous edge of a tongue of land, which, on every side except the west, is severed from the adjoining ground by deep scars. Hodgson describes the spot with great accuracy—

The Irthing, in front of the station, makes two grand and sweeping
turns, under red scars, which have rich flat grounds before them,
deeply fringed along the margin of the river with a border of alder,
heckberry (_Prunus Padus_, or bird-cherry,) and other upland trees.
When the banks are not steep, they are deeply wooded: and diluvial
hills, rounded into vast and beautiful varieties of form, present to
the eye rich sylvan and cultivated scenes, while their component
parts, as the river passes their sides, expose to the geologist
rounded specimens of the different kinds of rocks to be found in the
plains of Cumberland, and the high mountains that lie on each side of
the Firth of the Solway.

[Sidenote: BIRDOSWALD.]

The modern name presents greater difficulties than the ancient one. Had king Oswald been a denizen of these parts, which he was not, we might have supposed that Birdoswald was a _burgh_ of his. The name is one of old standing, but the etymology of it can only be a subject of conjecture.[124]

The station contains an area of between five and six acres. The walls are in an unusually good state of preservation; the southern rampart shewing eight courses of facing-stones. Camden’s statement is still true to the letter;—‘it has been surrounded with a stately wall of free-stone, about five feet thick, as may be fairly measured at this day.’ The moat which surrounded the wall may also be satisfactorily traced.

Although the Wall adapts itself to the north rampart of the fort, the station is entirely independent of the Wall (see the wood-cut _p._ 84), and must have been built before it. Probably the first step taken in the construction of the Barrier, in every case, was the erection of the stationary camps.

The Vallum cannot now be traced in the immediate vicinity of the station; but Gordon tells us, that it came close up to the southern rampart.

The southern gateway may be discerned, though it is encumbered with rubbish; the eastern and western have recently been divested of much of the matter that has for ages obscured them. The wood-cut, representing the western portal, as seen from the inside, exhibits the pivot-holes of the gates, and the ruts worn by the chariots or wagons of the Romans. The ruts are nearly four feet two inches apart, the precise gauge of the chariot marks in the east gateway at Housesteads. The more perfect of the pivot-holes exhibits a sort of spiral grooving, which seems to have been formed with a view of rendering the gate self-closing. The aperture in the sill of the doorway, near the lower jamb, has been made designedly, as a similar vacuity occurs in the eastern portal; perhaps the object of it has been to allow of the passage of the surface water from the station.

The whole area of the camp is marked with the lines of streets and the ruins of buildings. The present farm-house occupies, according to Horsley, the site of the pretorium. On the east side of the southern gateway are the remains of a kiln for drying corn; the stones are reddened by fire. Near the eastern gateway a building, furnished with a hypocaust, has been partially excavated. From its ruins a sculptured figure, draped, and in a sitting posture, has recently been taken. The head and other highly relieved parts were found to have been broken off: it remains on the ground.

A large altar with an inscription, which is in a great measure illegible, lies within the walls of the camp. A stone broken in two pieces, and which is preserved on the spot, bears testimony to the presence of the sixth legion here; it may be read, LEGIO SEXTA VICTRIX FIDELIS—The Sixth legion the Victorious and Faithful.

[Sidenote: AMBOGLANNA.]

The boldness of the lettering, and the depth and clearness of the cutting, give reason to suppose that the inscription is of early date. Besides these, several centurial stones, mill-stones, and coping-stones, as well as portions of tile, and fragments of pottery, are preserved in the farm-house, and yield to the visitor indubitable proofs of Roman occupation. In draining the field to the west of the station, many small altars, without inscriptions, have been found, which were remorselessly broken, and used with other materials for filling the drains. Strange, that altars before which Romans of ‘fierce countenance’ have bowed, should be put to such a use!

Imperious Cæsar, dead, and turned to clay,
Might stop a hole to keep the wind away:
O, that the earth which kept the world in awe,
Should patch a wall to expel the winter’s flaw!

On the east of the station are extensive and well-defined marks of suburban buildings.

The accompanying lithograph is taken from the western side of the station. It well represents the chilly and somewhat forbidding aspect of this now nearly deserted place.

H. Burdon Richardson, Delt. John Storey, Lith.
BIRDOSWALD, WESTERN RAMPART.
Printed by W. Monkhouse, York.
]

Westward of Birdoswald, the Wall is in an unusually good state of preservation. Taking into account, not only the height, but the length of the fragment, and the completeness of the facing-stones on both sides, it may be pronounced the finest specimen of the great structure that now remains. Some portions of it, however, are beginning to exhibit evident signs of decrepitude and decay.

Within a short mile of the station, the remains of a castellum appear. Here the Vallum exhibits the unusual feature of a second ditch, as is represented in the subjoined section.[125] Hodgson says—

Through a bog, about a mile west of AMBOGLANNA, the Vallum has had two
ditches, probably intended for draining the military road that ran
between them. They are still very distinct.

A careful examination of the spot induces me to think, that the additional fortification was intended to give increased security to a defile, which, running from the vicinity of the Wall to the bed of the Irthing below, renders the works in this part more than usually liable to attack from the south.

[Sidenote: THE WORKS AT WALLBOURS.]

At the western extremity of this extra ditch, the Wall and Vallum come into close proximity; the space between them was, with the exception of room for the military way, occupied by the foundations of a castellum. The place bears the name of Wallbours.

The Barrier next crosses a small hill called the Pike. The Vallum is a little below the summit of the eminence, on its southern side; if this fortification had been formed irrespective of the Wall, it would doubtless have been drawn along the top of the height. The same remark applies to Hare-hill.

The view from the Pike, of the flat and fertile vale below is truly magnificent.

[Sidenote: THE WALL AT HARE-HILL.]

Soon after passing Banks-burn, we arrive at Hare-hill, where a portion of the Wall stands nine feet ten inches in height. This is the highest piece of the Wall that is anywhere to be met with; but, owing to the smallness of the fragment, and to its being entirely deprived of facing-stones, it is less imposing than it would otherwise be. Hutton’s enthusiasm, however, never fails him; his remark at Hare-hill is—

I viewed this relick with admiration: I saw no part higher.

At this point of our progress, the antiquary may be disposed to turn aside for a little, to view two relics of the mediæval period of great interest—Lanercost Priory and Naworth Castle. The priory is a beautiful specimen of the early English style, and bears architectural evidence of having been built somewhere between the years 1155 and 1160. Besides the church, partially in ruins and partially in repair, the refectory and some portions of the monastic buildings remain. The whole structure has been formed of stones taken from the Roman Wall. In addition to some altars preserved in the crypt of the church, several centurial and carved stones are to be seen in the walls of the adjacent buildings.

[Sidenote: NAWORTH CASTLE.]

Naworth Castle, though still an interesting building, is destitute of some of the attractions which it once possessed. The Roman altars and other primeval monuments collected by lord William Howard, have long been dispersed, and a fire in 1844, almost entirely destroyed the baronial residence of that renowned border-chief, which, until that event, remained nearly in the state in which it was in his own day. The dungeons, however, in which the daring moss-troopers were immured, remain, and two magnificent oak trees near the grand entrance still extend those brawny arms on which, according to tradition, lord William suspended the victims of his lawless power. The load of twenty gasping wretches would not materially weigh down the larger boughs of these fine trees. That the government of lord William—the Belted Will of Border tales—was of a vigorous character, there cannot be a doubt; but that he used his power capriciously, cruelly, or tyrannically, there is no evidence. Lord William seems to have sent the most desperate of his prisoners to Newcastle-upon-Tyne or Carlisle. They would probably have as good a chance for life at Belted Will’s tribunal as at the assizes of either of these towns, if we may judge of the state of feeling towards them from North’s Life of Lord-keeper Guildford. His lordship, then sir Francis North, came to Newcastle, on the northern circuit, in 1676. His biographer says—

The country is yet very sharp upon thieves; and a violent suspicion,
there, is next to conviction. When his lordship held the assizes at
Newcastle, there was one Mungo Noble, supposed to be a great thief,
brought to trial before his lordship, upon four several indictments;
and his lordship was so much a south-country judge as not to think any
of them well proved. One was for stealing a horse of a person unknown,
and the evidence amounted to no more than that a horse was seen
feeding upon the heath near his shiel, and none could tell who was the
owner of it. In short the man escaped, much to the regret of divers
gentlemen, who _thought he deserved_ to be hanged, and that was
enough. While the judge at the trial discoursed of the evidence and
its defects, a Scotch gentleman upon the bench, who was a border
commissioner, made a long neck towards the judge and said—'My laird,
send him to huzz, and ye’s ne'er see him mair.'

On rejoining the Barrier, we find, that though the line of the Wall, in its course to the Eden, may yet be distinctly discerned, in very few instances any portion of the masonry remains.

[Sidenote: MONEY-HOLES.]

The site of a mile-castle nearly opposite Lanercost Priory, is termed Money-holes, in consequence of the efforts made to discover some treasure supposed to be concealed in it. At Crag-hill the north ditch is very bold. At Hayton-gate, a drove road, probably an ancient pass, crosses the line of the Wall from north to south. At Randilands the north fosse is still well developed. After crossing the rivulet, called Burtholme-beck, a piece of the Wall is seen, which stands about seven feet high; its facing-stones are gone, but the rough pebbly mortar possesses its original tenacity. As is often the case, the ruin is tufted with hazel bushes and stunted specimens of the alder and oak. The Vallum is about seventy yards to the south of the Wall.

Approaching Low-wall,[126] something like an out-work appears on the north side of the Barrier. Has there been a double line of wall here? After crossing a road, denominated Friar-wain-gate, which leads from Bewcastle to Lanercost, we reach another house called Wall; Roman masons might claim many of the stones as theirs. At How-gill is a cottage, where probably a mile-castle stood to defend the ‘beck,’ In the modern structure may be observed stones broached in the Roman fashion, and others variously tooled by Roman hands.

The farm-house of Dove-cote is on the eastern bank of the King-water. The fosse and the foundation of the Murus are seen crossing the hill on the northern side of the summit: the Vallum, which is indistinctly marked, probably took a corresponding position on the southern side.

[Sidenote: WALTON.]

The village of Walton, by its very name, bears testimony to its relationship with the great Barrier-line. Many of the stones of the Wall may be detected in its cottages. One of its dwellings furnishes a good specimen of the mode of cottage-building formerly prevalent in the North. The rafters of the house, which consist of large and rudely-shaped pieces of timber, instead of resting upon the walls, come down to the ground; they are tied together near the top by a transverse beam, and the mud walls, as well as the thatched roof, partially depend upon them for support. Horsley says, 'at Wal-town there seems to have been some fortification or encampment. One side of the square is yet very visible, and the ramparts pretty large, about eighty yards long. It is high ground and dry. Perhaps it has been a summer encampment or exploratory post for the garrison at Cambeck.'

At Sandysike farm-house the foundation of the Wall as well as abundant traces of mural vicinage are to be seen. The barn consists of Roman stones marked with the diamond-broaching. Several sculptured stones are built up in the garden-wall; amongst them is one which displays the thunderbolt of Jove; the wall-fruit peacefully rests upon it. Another, exhibiting the wheel of Nemesis, the emblem of swift justice, and which no doubt once formed part of an altar to Jupiter, is built into a pig-sty. A mill-stone of peculiar shape, and closely resembling one at Naworth Castle, is preserved on the grounds; it is probably Roman.

[Sidenote: PETRIANA.]

PETRIANA, the Cambeck-fort of Horsley, and the Castle-steads of the locality, is to the south of the Vallum and Wall. A deep scar separates it from the lines of the Barrier. The site of the station may be recognised, but it is long since its ramparts were overthrown, and the ruined buildings of the interior entirely obliterated.

Its rich soil and sunny exposure recommended it to the father of the present proprietor of Walton-house as a fitting site for a garden, and such it is at the present day. It has yielded many altars and[Sidenote: CAMBECK-FORT.] sculptured stones, some of which are still preserved upon the spot, and from time to time the spade still reveals to the numismatist, treasures, over the loss of which, Romans in ancient days may have mourned, though not in a degree proportioned to their present value. Wood-cuts of three of the coins which have been found at Castlesteads are here introduced, as they commemorate the family of a man whose name is intimately connected with the Wall. They are in the cabinet of Robert Bell, esq., of Irthington.