Chapter XV: Part III: Local Description of the Works (6)

JULIA, the second wife of Severus, and the mother of Caracalla and
Geta. Severus, who was a believer in astrology, on the death of his
first wife, looked out for another whose nativity was favourable to
the ambitious views which he at that time entertained. He heard of a
woman in Syria whose destiny it was to marry a king, and accordingly
solicited and obtained in marriage Julia Domna.

BASSIANUS, commonly called Caracalla. He was created Cæsar by his
father, A.D. 196, when he took the names of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus.
In A.D. 198, he was invested with the dignity of Augustus. Amongst his
other titles, he bore the name of Britannicus, as is shewn on the
coin. The engraver of the die from which this coin was struck, has
probably given a correct likeness of his subject; at least, he has
represented an individual who appears capable of attempting an aged
father’s life, and of imbruing his hands in the blood of a brother.
Vengeance at length overtook him.

GETA, who, together with his brother Caracalla, accompanied his father
to Britain. He was murdered by Caracalla A.D. 212.

The finest of the altars, standing in the garden of Walton-house, is here engraved. The thunderbolt of Jupiter adorns one side of it, the wheel of Nemesis the other. The inscription has been read by Mr. Thomas Hodgson, of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, in the following way, after a careful and learned examination of it, and kindred inscriptions.

I[OVI] O[PTIMO] M[AXIMO] COH[ORS] SECVNDA TVNGR[ORVM] M[ILLIARIA] EQ[ITATA] C[IVIVM] L[ATINORVM] CVI PRAEEST ALB[VS] SEVERVS PR- AEF[ECTVS] TVNG[RORVM] IN- STA[NTE] VIC[TORE] SEVRO PRINCIPI

To Jupiter, the best and greatest, The second cohort of the Tungrians, A milliary _regiment_, having a proportionate supply of horse, _and consisting of_ citizens of Latium, Commanded by Albus Severus, pre- fect of the Tungrians, _erects this_; The work being superintended by Victor Sevrus (or Severus), the princeps.[127]

[Sidenote: PETRIANA.]

The Notitia places the ‘Ala Petriana,’ under a prefect, at PETRIANA. Although two inscriptions belonging to this place mention the second cohort of the Tungri, none have been found here which name the Ala Petriana. It is possible that this cohort may have been a part of the Ala Petriana, but until this point be settled, or some further light thrown upon the subject, the occurrence of Cambeck-fort[Sidenote: CAMBECK-FORT.] next in order to AMBOGLANNA, must be regarded as the best evidence of its being the PETRIANA of the Notitia.

[Sidenote: WRITTEN-ROCK OF GELT.]

Before crossing the Cambeck-water it may be well to remind the reader, that the river Gelt, on whose rocky banks the Roman quarrymen have left lettered memorials of their toil, is about four miles to the south of this place. With the view of clearly displaying the inscription, which has frequently been inaccurately engraved, the lithograph opposite to page 81, has been drawn to a scale which precludes the possibility of shewing the height of the cliff. The adjoining wood-cut partly supplies this deficiency; it exhibits another inscription, not of a very intelligible.[Sidenote: PIGEON-CRAG.] character, on the Pigeon-crag, which is a little higher up the water, and shews the general character of the scenery on this beautiful stream.

The distance of these quarries on the Gelt, from the line of the Barrier, renders it very questionable whether large supplies were derived from them for the Wall. Hodgson remarks—

The quarry at Helbeck-scar (the Written-rock) might serve for the
largest stones for part of the Murus, and the stations at
Brampton-old-church, and Walton-castlesteads; for the general purpose
of the Murus, stone, however, could be got in places much nearer than
Helbeck-scar.

At the quarries of High and Low Breaks, about a mile and a half north of the Wall, there are marks of extensive ancient workings; the quarries are still in use and yield stone of good quality.

The Written-rock will not be easily found by a stranger, but directions and assistance may generally be obtained from the workmen employed upon a modern quarry, which is not far from the spot.

[Sidenote: HEADSWOOD.]

We now rejoin the Barrier. The passage of the Cambeck-water seems to have been guarded with some care. On the eastern margin of the stream, to the north of the Wall, is an earth-work raised a little above the general level of the surface, which here is somewhat depressed. Stones, which do not appear in the contiguous parts, lie scattered about the place. These circumstances seem to favour the idea of there having been some additional fortification in this part. The western bank of the stream consists of a bold breastwork of red-sandstone, rising about fifty feet above the level of the water. The fosse of the Wall has been deeply cut into this rock; it still remains in a state of great perfection. The old drove-road between Newcastle and Carlisle, which, for some distance west of this, runs upon the site of the Wall, or close by it, here avails itself of the fosse as a means of climbing the bank. The ditch of the Vallum is also discernible. The farm-house of Beck is partially constructed of Roman stones, and on the east side of the rivulet of Beck a few stones of the Wall are in their original situation. Headswood, as its name implies, occupies a commanding position. The ditch of the Vallum is at this place peculiarly bold, and is about thirty-five yards distant from the Wall. The fosse of the Wall bends round an object which has the appearance of being an additional fortification outside the Wall. At the west end of Newtown-of-Irthington are the remains of a large mile-castle; the stones still lie in confusion upon the site. The stone represented in the margin was found at this place. We next come to White-flat, where the rubble of the foundation of the Wall is very discernible and the ditch very deep. Hurtleton (the town of strife) is next reached; both lines of fosse are distinct and in close contiguity.

In the corner of a field, called Chapel-field, there are evident signs of a mile-castle; the plough, however, has been drawn over the site. The two works, which between White-flat and this point have approached each other very closely, now quickly diverge, the Wall bending to the north.

[Sidenote: IRTHINGTON.]

The village of Irthington is a little to the south of the Barrier. Here formerly stood one of the strongholds of the powerful Norman family of De Vallibus; the building is now entirely removed, its site being occupied by the Nook, the residence of Robert Bell, esq. The foundations of some of its walls have recently been exposed. The keep probably occupied a lofty earthen mound which is now crowned with thriving trees. The parish church has recently been renewed with much skill and taste. The old fabric was entirely built of Roman wall-stones. In the course of its restoration, a striking proof of the disturbed state of the border district in the middle ages was disclosed; a number of skeletons, confusedly thrown together, being found buried within its area. The church, originally a Transition-Norman building, had evidently at some period after its erection, been contracted in its dimensions by the rejection of the side aisles. The outer walls consisted of the original columns of the aisles, filled up very roughly with common rubble. The columns bore decided marks of fire. The neighbouring parish church of Kirklinton, which has also been recently rebuilt, exhibited similar appearances. On taking down the old tower, which was a fortified stronghold, the bony remnants of upwards of sixty bodies were found in a space of not more than five yards square; others were found in confused masses in other parts. [Sidenote: BORDER STRIFE.] The probable explanation of these circumstances is this:—After the battle of Bannockburn, the Scottish forces, flushed with success, entered England, and the inhabitants, unable to withstand them, fled to the churches for protection. But neither the strength of the buildings nor their supposed sanctity could yield them effectual succour; the miserable people were slain, and their bodies left among the smouldering ruins. Those of their countrymen who escaped, buried them in a hasty manner upon the spot. When the desolated district had recovered energy enough to repair the churches, its utmost efforts were barely sufficient to enclose those parts which had, by their solidity, withstood the fire; and the reduced population required nothing more.

The coins of Edw.I. and II. are comparatively abundant in this district, the armies of that monarch and his immediate successors, frequently taking the western route, in their marches to and from Scotland.

Rejoining the Wall, we meet, when within a quarter of a mile of Old-wall, with the site of a mile-castle. The ruins of the building slightly raise it above the general level, and prevent the plough biting into it. The road formerly deviated from its track to go round it. An altar, an urn, and several coins of Edward I., have been found in it. In the buildings at Old-wall, many Roman stones will be noticed, and the earth-works of both lines of the Barrier may be traced. The Wall is entirely uprooted; upwards of six hundred cart-loads of stones, within the recollection of the inhabitants, have been taken from it in this immediate vicinity.

Between this point and Stanwix, the works may be traced with tolerable satisfaction, an ancient drove-road running upon the site of the Wall for the greater part of the way.

[Sidenote: BLEATARN.]

At Bleatarn (blue tarn or lake), on the south side of the Wall, is a mound of earth resembling an elongated barrow; between this earth-work and the Wall, is a marshy hollow, which is said to have formerly been the bed of a lake or tarn. The Vallum takes a sweep to avoid this morass, and at its greatest distance is removed from the Wall about two hundred and twenty yards.

About half-a-mile south from Bleatarn, is the site of a Roman camp, which Horsley conceived to be one of the stations _per lineam Valli_; it is now called Watch-cross. If it be a station of this class, and if the order in which the stations are arranged in the Notitia exactly corresponds with their consecutive positions in reality, the name of it was ABALLABA, which was garrisoned by a _numerus_ or troop of Moors, under a prefect. There is, however, reason to doubt whether this was a stationary camp at all, as will presently appear.

As already remarked, no inscribed stones have been found to identify any of the stations west of AMBOGLANNA with the list given in the Notitia. Even though this difficulty respecting Watch-cross had not occurred, to go on appropriating the names of the Notitia, station after station, guided solely by the slender thread of the order of their succession, would be a hazardous undertaking, and is rendered still more so by the uncertainty existing as to those which are, and which are not, _stationes per lineam Valli_. In our journey from this point westward, the stations will, therefore, be designated by their modern names; when the Latin names are added, it is to be understood that they are conjectural.

[Sidenote: WATCH-CROSS.]

_WATCH-CROSS._—Horsley gives the following account of this station:—

A little detached from the wall, to the south, is a Roman fort, of
about four chains and an half square, called Watch-cross; and as I was
assured by the country people, and have had it since further
confirmed, a military way has gone near it, or between it and the
military way belonging to the Wall; for they often plough up paving
stones here, and think part of the highway to Brampton to be upon it.
This is the least station on the line of the Wall, and is as usual,
plundered of its stones, as that at Burgh and Drumburgh. However, the
ramparts and ditches are very fair and visible.

The common on which it stood having been enclosed about seventy years ago, and brought into cultivation, all traces of the camp have been obliterated. On a careful examination of its site, I failed to discover any fragments of Roman pottery, or other marks of Roman occupation. In those parts of Cumberland where the soil is not naturally stony, the site of a mile-castle or station, which has been brought into cultivation, may often be distinguished by the occurrence in that particular spot of numerous fragments of freestone. No such appearance here presents itself. The person who farms the ground says it is of better quality than the surrounding land; still, it does not seem to possess the peculiar fertility of a spot that has at any period for a length of time been the resort of a crowded population. Hutchinson describes ‘the whole ground-plot’ as being covered, in his day, ‘with a low growth of heath;’ the sites of all the other cities of the Wall are too replete with animal remains to yield, even unaided by cultivation, so coarse a product. I am therefore strongly disposed to think, with Hodgson, that it was a mere summer encampment. The spot has been well chosen; for, though not greatly elevated, it has an extensive prospect. Horsley himself had some doubts of the propriety of admitting it into the rank of a stationary camp, ‘by reason of its being so small, and having no remains of stone walls.’ The distance, however, between Cambeck-fort and Stanwix, which is rather greater than that between any other two stations, induced him to give it this position.

From Bleatarn the antiquary will, with some care, be able to trace the Barrier by Wall-head, Walby, and Wall-foot, to Tarraby. From this village to Stanwix, a rural road runs upon the foundations of the Wall; the ditch on its north side, which within living memory was very boldly marked, although partially filled up is yet distinctly traceable.

[Sidenote: STANWIX.]

_STANWIX._—The church and church-yard of Stanwix occupy the site of the station which guarded the northern bank of the Eden. Recent explorations have displayed distinct remains of ancient edifices. In pulling down the old church, to make way for the present structure, a very fine figure of Victory, somewhat mutilated, was disclosed, which is now in the museum at Newcastle-upon-Tyne. The name of the place indicates, that whilst the dwellings in the vicinity were made of clay, as many of them are yet, by reason of the plunder of the Roman station, it could boast of being a _town of stones_. The situation is one of great beauty. To the east, at a considerable distance, the Nine-nicks of Thirlwall rear their rugged peaks; and to the south and south-west, appear the beautiful grounds of Rickerby-house, the river Eden permeating a rich and well-cultivated country, the ancient city of Carlisle crowned with its venerable cathedral, and the long vista of country terminating in the Cumbrian mountains.

Between the station and the north bank of the river Eden, the fosse of the Wall is distinctly marked, and a hollowed line, formed by the excavation of the foundation of the Wall itself, shews its track to the water’s edge, near to the Hyssop-holme-well. We are told by Camden—

That the Wall passed the river over against the castle—where in the
very channel, the remains of it, namely, the great stones, appear to
this day.

That the Wall, on the other side of the river, clambered up that part of the castle-bank which projects most boldly forward, is rendered probable by the appearance of masonry, resembling its foundations, beneath the grassy surface. At this point, however, we lose all trace of the great structure until we get beyond the boundaries of the famous Border city of the West.

[Sidenote: CARLISLE.]

All antiquaries agree that Carlisle is the LUGUVALLIUM of the Romans. It is not improbable that it was one of Agricola’s forts. It is not named in the list of the stations _per lineam Valli_ given in the Notitia. The Notitia mentions only the forts having separate garrisons, and it is probable that after the erection of the camp at Stanwix, LUGUVALLIUM became subordinate to that camp, and had no distinct garrison, which will account for its omission.

Whitaker says LUGUVALLIUM signifies, in the ancient Celtic, the fort upon the Waters.

Extensive remains of the ancient city lie beneath the modern Carlisle; seldom is the ground penetrated to any considerable depth without disclosing ancient masonry, Samian ware, and Roman coins.

Carlisle contains two interesting structures of the mediæval period—the castle and the cathedral. The keep of the castle is a good specimen of the Norman donjon, though some parts of it have been modernized. On the walls and door of one of its chambers, used as a prison in the ‘Fifteen’ and the ‘Forty-five,’ are to be seen the coats of arms, the devices, and marks of the ‘sorrowful sighings,’ of the unhappy rebels, who beguiled their wretched hours in carving them. The cathedral exhibits some interesting specimens of the Norman as well as later styles. Its east window, which is of the decorated period, is the finest in the kingdom, with the exception, perhaps, of the west window at York.

About a quarter of a mile beyond the canal basin, and nearly midway between the canal and the river, the track of the Wall may again be discerned. Owing to the difficulty of entirely uprooting it, its foundations have been suffered to remain; they form a cart-road which is used for farm purposes. A little farther on, the plough has won the day, and a uniform green sward or luxuriant harvest baffles our research.

[Sidenote: KIRK-ANDREWS.]

A turf-covered mound on the east side of the church of Kirk-andrews, is occasioned by a portion of the ruins of the Wall. In the village is preserved the altar of which the wood-cut gives a representation. It was found at Kirk-steads, about a mile south of the Wall, and bears marks of having been cut down to suit the purpose of some comparatively modern builder. The focus of the altar is unusually large; the boldness of the lettering indicates an early date. It may be read—

L[VCIVS] IVNIVS VIC-
TORINVS ET (?)
C[AIVS] AELIANVS LEG[ATI]
AUG[VSTALES] LEG[IONIS] VI VIC[TRICIS]
P[IÆ] F[IDELIS] OB RES TRANS
VALLVM PRO-
SPERE GESTAS.

Lucius Junius Vic-
torinus, and
Caius Ælianus, Augustal legates
Of the sixth legion, victorious,
Pious, and faithful, on account of achievements beyond
The Wall pros-
perously performed.

This is a vivid memorial of deeds of common occurrence during the period of Roman occupation. The original possessors of the isthmus, driven from their homes, and forced to seek an asylum in the hills to the north of the Wall, would be accounted the lawful prey of the aggressor.

The gates of mercy shall be all shut up;
And the fleshed soldier,—rough and hard of heart,—
In liberty of bloody hand, shall range
With conscience wide as hell; mowing like grass
Your fresh fair virgins and your flowering infants.

Whilst the Roman warrior gloated over his success, and feasted, and thanked his gods, and recorded his exploits on the votive stone, the routed remnants of the Caledonian bands would mourn over their slaughtered comrades and desolated home-steads.

The great scarcity of stone in the western part of Cumberland has rendered the Wall a valuable quarry to the inhabitants from time immemorial. In our future progress we shall see little of it, except in the buildings contiguous to its site. The heart of the antiquary will, however, occasionally be gladdened by the recognition of the lines of the earth-works—their slightly elevated mounds appearing to his eager gaze scarcely less beautiful than the moulded forms produced by the genius of the sculptor, in districts more rich than this, in the remains of antiquity.

The Vallum appears to have gone nearly due west, along the valley, from Kirk-andrews to Burgh; the Wall proceeds, after its usual manner, from eminence to eminence.

[Sidenote: BURGH-UPON-SANDS.]

_BURGH-UPON-SANDS_ is the next station. In Horsley’s day the remains of its ramparts were to be seen at a place called the Old-castle, a little to the east of the church. He says—

On the west side these remains are most distinct, being about six
chains in length. And Severus’s Wall seems to have formed the north
rampart of the station. I was assured by the person to whom the field
belonged, that stones were often ploughed up in it, and lime with the
stones. Urns have also frequently been found here. I saw, besides an
imperfect inscription, two Roman altars lying at a door in the town,
but neither sculptures nor inscriptions are now visible upon them.
...... If besides all this, we consider the distance from the last
station at Stanwix, I think it can admit of no doubt but there must
have been a station here, though most of its ramparts are now
levelled, the field having been in tillage many years. I shall only
further add, that it was very proper to have a station at each end of
the marsh, which, if the water flowed as high as some believe, would
make a kind of bay.

At present, little meets the eye of the inquirer, to inform him of the spot where the station stood, but when the surface of the ground is broken, the traces of a Roman city are still sufficiently distinct. The church-yard is filled with fragments of red sandstone blocks. At the depth of two feet, it contains several distinct lines of foundations. Entire ‘lachrymatory’ vessels and fragments of unglazed jars and urns have repeatedly been dug up. A small bronze figure was recently found. When the canal was cut, blocks of stone, blackened by smoke, were dug out of the soil to the south-east of the church.

A few inscribed stones have been found since Horsley’s day, but none of them name the cohort which was stationed in the camp. Hence we have no means of knowing whether Watch-cross has been rightly thrown out of the list of ‘stations along the line,’ and whether Burgh is, as Horsley states it to be, the AXELODUNUM of the Notitia, or CONGAVATA, according to the opinion of Hodgson.

In the absence of more decided remains of the camp or Wall, an examination of the church of this long straggling town will reward the attention of the antiquary. It is a good specimen of the fortified Border churches. It has served the threefold purpose of a church, a fortress, and a prison.

In case of an inroad from the Scottish coast, the cattle appear to
have been shut up in the body of the church, and the inhabitants to
have had recourse to the large embattled tower at its western end. The
only entrance to this tower is from the inside of the church, and it
is secured by a ponderous iron door, fastening with two large bolts.
The walls of the tower are seven feet thick. Its lowest apartment is a
vaulted chamber, lighted by three arrow-slits. At the south angle is a
spiral stone staircase, leading to two upper chambers.

Many of the stones of which the church is built, are Roman, and exhibit reticulated tooling.

[Sidenote: KING EDWARD’S MONUMENT.]

Near to Burgh is the site on which the castle of sir Hugh de Morville, one of the murderers of Thomas à Becket, formerly stood. The adjoining field is called—‘Hang-man-tree,’ doubtless because my lord had his gallows here, always ready for use. A neighbouring enclosure bears a designation not less ominous—‘Spill-blood-holm.’ But the most interesting historical memorial which the neighbourhood of Burgh affords, is the monument to king Edward I., which stands on the marsh.

Longshanks had marshalled his army: his numerous host lay encamped
upon the sandy flat on the north of the town: the waters of the Solway
alone separated him from the objects of his vengeance. Here the mighty
Edward was called to enter into conflict with an enemy whom he had
often braved on the battle-field, but who was now to approach him by a
new method of assault. In this struggle, his valour availed him
nothing, his chivalrous hosts could yield him no aid, and no devoted
Eleanor was there to abstract from his veins the subtle poison which
the king of terrors had infused. On Burgh-marsh the ‘ruthless king’
breathed his last. A monument, represented in the vignette at the
close of this part, marks the spot.

[Sidenote: TOWER OF REPENTANCE.]

Another structure, on the opposite side of the Firth, may be noticed by the traveller. The history of the ‘Tower of Repentance’ is strikingly illustrative of the disordered state of society in this district before the union of the two kingdoms.

A chieftain from the northern side having made a successful inroad
into the English border, was crossing the Solway on his return, laden
with booty, when a sudden storm arose. In order to lighten his
labouring vessel, he threw his prisoners overboard in preference to
the cattle which he had stolen. The danger past, he was smitten with
remorse. In order to make such amends as he could, he built a
beacon-tower which overlooks the Solway, and to this day is called the
Tower of Repentance. Tradition avers that the penitent himself carried
all the stones used in its erection to the top of the hill. It is not
far from the town of Ecclefechan.

In passing along the village of Burgh, the observing visitor will notice the large number of boulder-stones, some of them half a ton in weight, which are strewed over the ground; several of them have been used in forming the foundations of the cottages. They are of granite, and in some distant age have been wrenched from the summit of Criffel, the hill which lends so much beauty to the landscape on the northern side of the Solway.

On the western side of the village of Dykesfield, which we next encounter, is a common that contains several earthen ramparts and temporary camps.

Between Dykesfield and the next station, Drumburgh, an extensive marsh occurs, which even now is occasionally overflowed by the waters of the Solway. Hodgson inclines to the belief, that the Wall ran directly across it. Horsley, however, took a different view of the subject.

From hence to Drumburgh Castle no vestige of the Wall is to be seen;
though I think it certain that the Wall did not pass through the
marsh, but by Boustead-hill and Easton, for both tradition and matter
of fact favour this course of it. The country people often strike upon
the Wall, and could tell exactly several places through which, by this
means, they knew it had passed, and always by the side of the marsh.
Besides it is no way reasonable to suppose that the Romans would build
their Wall within tide-mark.

[Sidenote: EASTON-MARSH.]

After careful inquiry, I am disposed to adopt Horsley’s view; even now, stones which appear to be Wall-stones, are turned up by the operations of the husbandmen in the line which the Wall is supposed to have taken by Boustead and Easton. It need not be a subject of surprise, that the Wall in this district has been so thoroughly removed, as there is no quarry within a convenient distance, and the Wall, therefore, has been the source from which the inhabitants of the country have drawn their supply of building stones. The Romans seem to have gone to Howrigg quarry, which is not less than eight miles south of the Barrier, for their facing-stones; those which they used for the interior of the Wall correspond in character with the proceeds of Stone-pot-scar, a quarry on the north shore of the Solway.

We must now part company with the Vallum. This wonderful earth-work, which has outlived the accidents of seventeen centuries, and which we have traced, with but few interruptions, from the modern representative of PONS ÆLII to this point, is not observed going beyond it. As the Vallum falls short of the Wall at its eastern extremity by about four miles, so it does at its western. Horsley, who wrote more than a century ago, and who, consequently, had better opportunities of judging than we can now have, says—

Whether Hadrian’s work (the Vallum) has been continued any further
than this marsh, or to the water-side beyond Drumburgh, is doubtful.
But I am pretty confident that it was not carried on so far as the
Wall of Severus at this end, any more than at the other. And I can by
no means yield to Mr. Gordon’s sentiments, that the one, for a good
space at each end, was built upon the foundation of the other.
However, it is certain that from the side of the marsh to the west end
of the Wall there is no appearance of Hadrian’s work, or any thing
belonging to it.

[Sidenote: DRUMBURGH.]

_DRUMBURGH_ contains distinct remains of a small stationary camp. This, if Watch-cross be rejected, was the sixteenth station of the Wall, and consequently, the AXELODUNUM of the Notitia, which was garrisoned by the first cohort of the Spaniards. The camp is on the grounds of Richard Lawson, esq. The ramparts are well defined, as well as the ditch which surrounds them. The whole area is covered with a luxuriant sward, and its northern margin is shaded by some thriving ash-trees. No portion of the Wall remains in its vicinity, but its present proprietor remembers witnessing the removal of the foundation. The northern rampart of the station did not come up to the Wall, but was removed a few yards from it; probably the military way ran between the station and the Wall. The station at Barr-hill, on the Antonine Wall, is similarly situated.

South of the station is a well, enclosed by a circular wall of Roman masonry. It is still in use, though the water is drawn from it by a pump.

The mediæval castle, of which there are considerable remains, is a very fine specimen of the ancient fortified manor-house. It is built of Roman stones. Extensive alterations were made upon it in the reign of Henry VIII. The habitable part of it is now occupied as a farm-house.

The tranquillity of this region was not always what it now is.

Standing on the northern rampart of the station, Mr. Lawson, the aged
proprietor, directed the attention of the Pilgrim-party of 1849 to a
small cottage on the opposite shore. ‘There,’ said he, ‘lived a
Scottish reaver, who in the days of my grandfather made, on nineteen
successive Easter-eves, a successful foray on the English side. A
twentieth time he prepared to go; his family remonstrated, he however
persisted, saying that this should be his last attempt. Our people
were prepared for him and slew him.’ Some of the party asked ‘what
notice did the law take of the transaction?’ 'None; the law which
could not protect a man, would not punish him for taking the law into
his own hands.'

Now, nearly arrived at the western extremity of the great Barrier, we meet with but few traces of its characteristic masonry; enough, however, remains to lure us pleasantly to our journey’s end.

In cutting the canal from Carlisle to the Solway Firth, in 1823, a prostrate forest of oak was discovered, which belonged to an age anterior to that of Hadrian. The engineer of the canal says—

[Sidenote: PRIMEVAL FOREST.]

A subterraneous forest was cut through in the excavation of the canal,
near the banks of the Solway Firth, about half a mile north-west of
the village of Glasson, and extending into Kirklands. The trees were
all prostrate, and they had fallen, with little deviation, in a
northerly direction, or a little eastward of it.—Some short trunks, of
two or three feet in height, were in the position of their natural
growth; but although the trees, with the exception of their alburnum
and all the branches, were perfectly sound, yet the extremity of the
trunks, whether fallen or standing, were so rugged, that it was not
discoverable whether the trees had been cut down, or had fallen by a
violent storm. The level upon which the trunks lay, was a little below
that of high tides, and from eight to ten feet below the surface of
the ground they were embedded in; which, excepting the superficial
soil, is a soft blue clay, having the appearance of marine
alluvion.... Although the precise period when this forest fell is not
ascertainable, there is a positive proof that it must have been long
prior to the building of the Wall because the foundations of the Wall
passed obliquely over it, and lay three or four feet above the level
of the trees.—_Arch. Æl._ ii. 117.

The forest extends over a considerable tract of ground. It is probable that it was overthrown by a tempest from the south or south-west, at a time when the sea occupied a lower level than it does at present. The wood was so sound, that it was used in common with other oak timber in forming the jetties at the outlet of the canal into the Solway Firth. The president’s chair of the Society of Antiquaries, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, is formed of it.

At Port-Carlisle is a mound resembling an ancient British barrow, called Fisher’s-cross. About half-a-mile to the westward of it is another which has been somewhat encroached upon by the road that runs along the margin of the Solway, and is denominated Knock’s-cross. The proverb is common throughout Cumberland, 'As old as Knock’s-cross.'

In the front of the Steam-packet hotel, Port-Carlisle, is built up the fragment of a small Roman altar, bearing the inscription, SVIS MATRIBVS. It is one of the numerous instances that we meet with, along the line of the Wall, of altars dedicated to the _Deæ Matres_.

[Sidenote: BOWNESS.]

Between Port-Carlisle and Bowness, the site of the Wall may be traced nearly the whole way; not unfrequently the foundations of it and its fosse may be discerned. In one place some large stones resembling those used in forming the gateways of the mile-castles will be noticed. In Brand’s day some considerable portions of the Wall remained, between these points. He says—

About three quarters of a mile to the east of Bowness, some fragments
of Severus’ Wall remain, of a great height; on measuring one of them,
we found it to be about eight feet high; it was bound and overgrown
with ivy in a most picturesque manner. The facing-stones on both sides
have been taken away.

On my first visit to Bowness, I saw a portion of it as Hodgson describes it—

It is six feet high. Its rugged and weathered core, still hard as a
rock, is thickly bearded with sloe-thorn and hazel, and mantled below
with ivy and honey-suckle.

This interesting object has been entirely removed, which is the more to be regretted, as no advantage has been gained by its destruction; it served as a fence between two fields.

H. Burdon Richardson, Delt. John Storey Lith.
BOWNESS.
]

[Sidenote: TERMINATION OF THE WALL.]

_BOWNESS_ is the name of the low, bow-shaped ness, or peninsula, at the extreme point of the left bank of the Solway Firth. It is slightly elevated above the surrounding country, as is plainly seen when it is viewed from a distance. A little to the east of the site of the station, the Solway is easily fordable at low water; but no one, in the memory of the inhabitants of these parts, has forded the estuary westward of the town. This circumstance would render Bowness a fit place at which to terminate the Barrier Wall. With difficulty the antiquary detects some slight traces of the walls of the station, its southern lines near the church being those which are most apparent. No quarry being within several miles of the spot, the Wall and station have furnished the materials of which the church and most of the habitations of the town are composed. A small altar built up in the front of a barn in the principal street, has an inscription importing that it was dedicated to Jupiter the best and greatest, by Sulpicius Secundianus, the tribune of the cohort for the safety of our lords, the emperors Galbus and Volusianus.

Bowness may be the GABROSENTUM of the Notitia; Horsley reckoning Watch-cross among the stations of the line, conceives it to be TUNNOCELUM.

Over that beautiful expanse of waters bounded by the Criffel and other Dumfriesshire hills, which we see from the somewhat elevated beach that has formed the northern margin of the station, the eye of the Roman sentinel must often have listlessly rolled, as he paced his tedious hours away. The memory of Roman and Caledonian feuds gives to the picture, as we now behold it, a charm enhanced by contrast with the state of things which existed in ancient days. [Sidenote: CHANGE OF TIMES.]The hills have the aspect which they formerly bore, the waters of the Solway ebb and flow as they were wont, the same clear sky spans the vault of heaven which was outstretched in Roman days;—but then, the occupants of the opposite shores scowled upon each other with deadly hate, and planned the means of mutual slaughter. Stealthily they cast the net and threw the leister into the margin of the sea, or when they openly appeared upon the waters, it was in galleys armed for sanguinary aggression;—now, with each returning tide, the fisherman plies his peaceful trade, fearless of harm, and the inhabitants of both the northern and the southern shore hail each other as friends and fellow-countrymen.

-----

Footnote 54:

He who has the heart of a pilgrim ‘_per lineam Valli_,’ will not fail
to accompany the author, while he attempts, at the very commencement
of his local peregrination, to pay a tribute of respect to three
departed worthies who made the Wall their especial study.

JOHN HORSLEY was the first and mightiest of the three—is it too much
to say that he was the father of the science of Archæology? Born in an
unknown locality of this county, receiving his elementary education at
Newcastle, his academical at Edinburgh, he spent the greater portion
of his life as the pastor of a Presbyterian congregation in Morpeth.
His tastes, and great familiarity with the classics, induced him to
devote his leisure hours to the study of the antiquities of
Northumberland. Had he conceived that the Britannia Romana would have
cost him one-third of the time which its execution required, the world
would never have seen it. Having embarked in the undertaking, he felt
it his duty to make it as good as he could. How severe his toils, how
great his pecuniary sacrifices, how ardent his aspirations after
emancipation from his self-imposed task, in order that he might
entirely devote himself to his sacred calling, who shall tell? The
thought that his flock might eventually be no losers, that his family
and his own fair fame might gain by the enterprise, buoyed him up in
his course. On 2 Jan. 1731-2, he put the finishing stroke to his
labours, the dedication of his work bearing that date. Now he might
hope to reap the fruits of his toils—the enjoyment of rest, such as
the wearied only know, the congratulations of friends, the approbation
of the learned, the replenishment of his exhausted means. None of
these fruits he enjoyed. He can scarcely have had the satisfaction of
casting his eyes upon a completed copy of his work. The ink of his
dedication was hardly dry when he was summoned to the unseen world.
Respecting him who recorded the mighty doings of the Romans in
Britain, the parish clerk of Morpeth made the following entry in the
church-yard calendar:—Buried,

‘_1731-2, Jan. 15_, Mr. John Horsley.’

‘Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.’ As regards the honours or
enjoyments of this world, he died an utterly unrequited man. Even of
that bubble, posthumous fame, an attempt was made to rob him.
Warburton, in his Vallum Romanum, transfers Horsley ‘in bulk’ to his
pages—he even copies, without alteration, the opinions which Horsley
expresses in the first person. The honest Hutton often quotes the
‘judicious Warburton,’ little knowing whose the feathers are which he
so justly admires. The precise spot where his remains rest is unknown.
He whose lot it was to interpret, after the lapse of many centuries,
the throbbings of natural affection over departed relatives in the
heathen breast, had no one to erect over him, though a Christian
minister, a memorial that should outlive a single century. Even the
parish clerk, in his attachment to the altar and the throne, denies
him, in the sepulchral register, the title which courtesy, at least,
would have accorded him. _Requiescat in pace!_

The Rev. ANTHONY HEDLEY, was also a native of Northumberland; he was a
man of literary tastes, and considerable antiquarian acquirements. He
entered public life as curate of Hexham, where his preaching was that
of a Boanerges. He subsequently held some temporary appointments at
Whelpington, Newcastle, and Whitfield. Having, however, actively
espoused the cause of that political body, who, until lord Grey became
premier, had no patronage to bestow, it was his lot to sigh in vain
for a summons to active occupation in the work which he loved. When
the party whom he had long and conscientiously served, came into
office, neglect was his portion. One of the original members of the
Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, he did much to promote
the study of primæval archæology in the fruitful region traversed by
the Wall. Biased by his taste for antiquities, he was led to select,
as his abode for life’s evening, the beautiful valley of the Chineley
Burn. The rural hall arose at his bidding, nearly every stone of which
was chiseled by Roman hands. The milliary which told to Hadrian’s
soldiers that another mile had been traversed, stood by his barn. The
station of VINDOLANA was in his grounds—many beautiful altars and
other important reliques had he dug out of it—he could tell where the
prætorium stood, where the standards were deposited, where every
soldier slept. Scarcely were all the arrangements for his comfortable
residence at Chesterholm made, when death seized him as its victim.
Imprudently superintending, whilst somewhat indisposed, the exhumation
of an urn in the station, his mortal part was a few days afterwards
deposited in the church-yard at Beltingham. He died in 1835, and his
beautiful abode has since remained desolate.

Westmoreland has the honour of giving birth to the Rev. JOHN HODGSON,
but Northumberland enjoyed the advantage of his youthful and maturer
labours. Successively curate of Sedgefield, Lanchester, and Heworth,
and afterwards vicar of Kirkwhelpington, he was shortly before his
death promoted to the living of Hartburn. He was the chief founder of
the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and the chief
contributor to its transactions. His tastes led him to contemplate,
and an honourable desire to make provision for the education and
settlement of his family, induced him to begin, a history of
Northumberland. Seldom have laudable designs been so signally
defeated. He lived but to complete a part of his task; his health
failed, and his mind gave way under his excessive labours. His
fortunes were not bettered by them; ‘I have lived,’ said he, 'to see
that works of this kind are not suited to the times I live in, perhaps
to any time. It is not profitable to me—it is not suited to my
profession—I ought to do my duty in my profession—to take up night and
day to do it well. Well? no; but as well as good intentions, holy
zeal, every thought and faculty of my mind fully exerted, could do
it.' Hodgson paid great attention to the Wall, and its antiquities.
The last published portion of his history contains a vast mass of
learned information upon the subject. It is perhaps enough for the
present author to say, that had not Horsley and Hodgson cleared the
way before him, he would never have adventured to write a book upon
the Barrier of the Lower Isthmus. Though he cannot be a Horsley or a
Hodgson, he hopes he will never prove a Warburton.

Footnote 55:

Brand conceives that SEGEDUNUM may be derived from the Saxon _secg_, a
sedge or flag, and _dun_, which is an Anglo-Saxon, as well as a Celtic
word; this would give, as its meaning—the hill of sedge. If we can
suppose that any of the Germanic hordes had obtained so complete a
settlement here, as to give them the power of forming a local
vocabulary in accordance with their own language prior to the Roman
occupation of this post, the Saxon origin of the term is by no means
improbable. In no part of England was an early settlement more likely
to take place than on the eastern coast of Northumberland, but, after
all, we must probably assign a later date to the first arrival of our
Gothic forefathers. If a Saxon derivation be at all admissible,
another might be suggested: _sige_ is the Anglo-Saxon for victory, and
_tun_ is town—the town of victory—an appropriate name for a station
occupied either by Roman or Saxon forces.

Footnote 56:

This statement I make on the authority of the late Mr. Buddle, who
said, as I remember, that in his youth he had seen the stones
extending far into the river.

Footnote 57:

This place derived its earlier name from being the property, and
perhaps the suburban residence of John Cosyn, a worthy alderman of
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, in the seventeenth century. About 1740, sir
Robert Carre, a London knight, and draper, but also, it is thought, a
burgess of the northern metropolis, bought Cosyn’s house at Wallsend,
and thenceforward designated it Carre-ville. The present mansion is,
with some little impropriety, called Carville-_hall_.

When I began my inquiries at Wallsend, I had much difficulty in
ascertaining which was Cousin’s-house. One man told me he had lived
all his life in Wallsend—sixty years—and had never heard of it. Our
books still continue to copy from Horsley, and to give us the
out-of-date information that the Wall began at Cousin’s-house.

Footnote 58:

In districts where the Wall has been levelled with the earth, a
foot-path or bridle-road frequently indicates its course. When land
was of less value than it is now, the farmers, who appropriated the
stones of the Wall to their own use, were not at the trouble to remove
its foundation. The stony track, however, afforded a firm road, and
when the increased value of the ground rendered it worth while to
bring the whole into cultivation, a right of way had, in many
instances, been established.

Footnote 59:

Hodgson, II. iii. 169.

Footnote 60:

Horsley’s traditionary account was probably derived from the same
source as Leland’s; and therefore may indicate, not the station wall,
but the great Wall itself. If, as the excavations made since Horsley’s
day seem to prove, the Wall crossed obliquely from the south to the
north side of Collingwood-street, it must have passed over the site of
St. Nicholas’-church—not to the north of it.

Footnote 61:

So inviting a post would not escape the notice of the ancient
British warrior—the appearances Mr. Hodgson describes, are not
inconsistent with its having been an Ancient-British strong-hold.

Footnote 62:

Drawn to twice the usual size.

Footnote 63:

The author, as the leader of the pilgrim-band who traversed the Wall
in the summer of 1849, used a staff made out of this primeval oak. It
is now in the Newcastle collection of antiquities.

Footnote 64:

Tour, iii. 313, quoted by Brand, i. 37.

Footnote 65:

Brand’s Newcastle, i. 37.

Footnote 66:

Jerusalem was called after him Ælia Capitolina, and the games at
Pincum, in Mæsia, Ælia Pincensia.

Footnote 67:

Smith’s Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities.

Footnote 68:

In the possession of the Society of Antiquaries at Somerset-house. The
wood-cuts are drawn to twice the usual scale.

Footnote 69:

Baxter, in his glossary, derives it from the ancient British words
_Pen ual_, the head of the Wall. A comparatively modern village would
hardly take a Celtic name; besides, although the Roman station has a
commanding prospect in a military point of view, it is scarcely so
elevated as to be entitled to the epithet of Pen or Ben; the village
of Benwell is below it.

Footnote 70:

History of Manchester, i. 224.

Footnote 71:

The cottage is still standing in the neighbourhood of Wylam, in which
George Stephenson first saw the light. Aided, in due time, by his son,
worthy of such a father, he did more than any other man to elaborate
our present railway system. The antiquary who has been revelling in
the associations of the past will scarcely fail, as he looks down from
his Wall-traversed heights upon the vale which gave birth to such a
man, to give for a moment the reins to his imagination, and suffering
his mind to penetrate the mists of futurity, ruminate upon the changes
which the efforts of the Stephensons are destined to produce, not only
in the physical, but in the moral aspect of society.

Footnote 72:

Derived from wall and _botle_, the Saxon for an abode.

Footnote 73:

Anciently written Throcklow. Low, or Law, is applied either to a low,
round-topped eminence, or an artificial mound.

Footnote 74:

Hodgson, II. iii. 178.

Footnote 75:

Britannia Romana, 139.

Footnote 76:

Note in Lappenberg’s Anglo-Saxon Kings, i. 91.

Footnote 77:

The road leaves the Wall here, and keeps to the right of the hill. The
north side of the hill is planted with trees, and it is interesting to
notice in the summit of the plantation, a dip, corresponding to the
depression of the fosse of the Wall.

Footnote 78:

Unable to resist the positive testimony of an intelligent eye-witness,
I was, at first, disposed to think that he had included in his
measurement some chamber on the inside of the station wall. I am now
prepared to receive the statement without deduction. Some recent
excavations at Risingham have laid bare a part of the curtain wall
which has been built double, the intervening space, or chamber, being
filled up with rubble and rubbish run together with lime, so as to
form a solid mass of masonry of considerable thickness. The object of
this arrangement may have been, to form a solid, elevated platform,
for the use of the soldiery.

Footnote 79:

Both Horsley and Lingard had previously noticed it. Horsley says he
was told by a countryman that ‘it was what the speaking trumpet was
laid in.’

Footnote 80:

The aqueduct was not traced on the Halton side of the valley, so that
the precise point where it joined the station is not known; it is now
entirely removed.

Footnote 81:

Several of the sculptures at Matfen were sent to Alnwick Castle.
Wallis uses the term, ‘centurial stone,’ very loosely, applying it
even to the large Milking-gap slab.

Footnote 82:

Bede’s Ecclesiastical History, b. III. ch. ii. Giles’s translation.

Footnote 83:

Although a walk of a few minutes will bring the traveller, who knows
exactly whither to bend his steps, to this curious relic, a stranger
may fruitlessly spend much time in examining the many low scars which
diversify the surface of the fell. It is a deeply interesting object.

Footnote 84:

The cramps seem to have been of various kinds. Some authors speak of
iron cramps. One antiquary, I know, spent a livelong summer’s day
knee-deep in the water, extracting one which proved to be entirely of
lead. A. cramp, of very curious form and structure, taken from this
bridge, is preserved in the museum at Chesters, and is figured Plate
VII. fig. 1.; it seems to have been triply dove-tailed; the substance
of it is iron, but it has been coated all over to the thickness of
one-eighth of an inch with lead. The iron would give the instrument
tenacity, and the lead protect the more corrosive metal from
oxidization; truly the Romans built for perpetuity.

Footnote 85:

History of Northumberland, II. iii. 180.

Footnote 86:

The initial L, page 103, is formed of two of these Roman balusters.
The lower one is at Chesters, the upright one at Chesterholm.

Footnote 87:

The section of the hypocaust wall on Plate III is taken from this
example, and shews the hanging floor.

Footnote 88:

See an interesting ‘Account of an Excavation recently made within the
Roman Station at CILURNUM, by John Clayton, esq.’ in the Archæologia
Æliana, iii. 142.

Footnote 89:

The improved method of making draining-tiles for agricultural uses has
suggested the formation of hollow bricks for building purposes. A
floor might be paved and side-walls formed of these, so as readily to
admit of the circulation of air throughout the whole substance of the
apartment, and a handful of coke or charcoal, placed at the entrance
of the flue, would effectually warm the whole. Specimens of bricks of
this kind, remarkably strong, and ingeniously contrived for securely
locking into one another, are before me, for which I am indebted to
Robert Rawlinson, esq., after whose design they were formed. The Latin
comedy represents the miser begrudging the smoke that escaped from his
chimney—well may the benevolent man regret that whilst his poor
neighbours are bending under the chills of winter, three-fourths of
the heat generated in his parlour-grate is absolutely wasted.

Footnote 90:

Now at Alnwick-castle.

Footnote 91:

The words printed in italics have been supplied from contemporaneous
inscriptions; they can scarcely be said to be conjectural readings.

Footnote 92:

Soldiers who by their good conduct had earned a double allowance of
corn or pay.

Footnote 93:

Hodgson learnedly explains this inscription—Arch. Æl. i. 128.

Footnote 94:

Preserved in the interesting collection at Chesters.

Footnote 95: