Brand tells us that great conduits or sewers, composed of large wrought stones, were discovered in the north part of the station at the depth of about a yard and a half.

Several inscribed slabs and small altars have been found in the station. The most important one of these, which is preserved in the parsonage at Ryton, is here represented. By comparing it with the Notitia, we learn the ancient name of the station, and the locality of its original occupants.

The Notitia records that the prÆfect ‘alÆ primÆ Astorum’ was stationed at Condercum. This slab, reads Asturum, not Astorum. At two other stations the same people resided; at Cilurnum, the Notitia places the prÆfect ‘alÆ secundÆ Astorum,’ and at Æsica, the tribune ‘cohortis primÆ Astorum.’ At both these forts, as well as in the case immediately before us, inscriptions have been found which are written Asturum; the probability, therefore, is, that a clerical error has crept into the Notitia, and that it was the Astures, not the Asti (a people of Liguria), who garrisoned these posts. The Astures were a people from the eastern part of the modern Asturias, in Spain. 'Under the empire, the term ala was applied to regiments of horse, raised, it would seem, with very few exceptions, in the provinces.'^[67] This fractured slab, therefore, furnishes us with the information that the camp at Benwell was anciently named Condercum, and that it was garrisoned by a Spanish cavalry regiment. It supplies other facts. This regiment was styled, probably on account of some illustrious achievement, Gordiana. The emperor Gordian, from whom this title is derived, began his reign in the year 238. We have thus a proof of the continued occupation of the camp until a date subsequent to this period. The event recorded by the inscription is to the same effect. A temple which had been erected, probably at the first formation of the station, had through time or the chances of war, become so entirely dilapidated, as to require rebuilding, and Titus Agrippa accomplished the work. The Romans, although they had at this time been long in the occupation of the isthmus, had then no thoughts of relinquishing it. The woodland deities, to whom the temple was dedicated, will require separate discussion afterwards.

To the same occasion will be referred a remarkable altar inscribed to the three LamiÆ, which was discovered at this station. Two altars^[68] of less importance, which were found here, may at once be disposed of. They are dedicated to one of the favourite deities of Rome—Mars. The focus, or place for burning the offering, is deep and well marked in each of them. They are small domestic altars, before which the soldier would perform his private devotions. As such, they give us a little insight into the heart and feelings of the worshipper.

Along with this altar, as Brand tells us, were found two stones resembling pine-apples. This is by no means an unusual ornament of the works along the line. The pine-apple ornament is frequently introduced in the stained-glass works of the middle ages. Altar to MarsAs the fruit to which it bears a resemblance could not be known in Europe until after the discovery of America, the origin of the figure is an interesting speculation. I am disposed to think it is of Mithraic origin, and that the prototype of it was a mass of flame proceeding from the torch usually represented in the statues of that deity. The other altar, here given, is inscribed—

Besides these and some other inscribed stones, many coins have been found here; amongst them, Brand mentions denarii of Trajan, Hadrian, Faustina senior, and Domitian; brass coins of Valentinian, Gratianus, Diocletian, Faustina, and Maxentius, with many others not legible. Obscene figures are frequently found in Roman stations. They were worn by females as a religious charm. Benwell has furnished one such example of a very remarkable kind. Before leaving the station, the inquiring traveller will do well to examine the stones of the park-wall. He will soon detect many of Roman mould, whose faces have been scarred by the blasts of many centuries. The larger ones have been derived from the Wall—the smaller, from the curtain wall of the station, or the dwellings erected within it.

The pleasant village of Benwell lies a little to the south-west of the station. ‘The old tower of Benwell-hall,’ says Bourne, 'was the place where the prior of Tynemouth resided some part of the summer, and the chapel, which Mr. Shaftoe opens and supplies for the good of the people of his village, was the prior’s domestic chapel.' Who that visits the spot will say that the prior who made the selection was not a man of taste? Benwell, as Horsley remarks, is not improbably thought to have its name from the northern word ben, (Saxon binnan) signifying within, and well for wall, as being seated within, or on the south side of the Wall.^[69] Whitaker derives the Roman name of the station, Condercum, from the Celtic Cond ar gui, the height upon the water.^[70] The river being near, the description is apposite.

Leaving Condercum, we again pursue our journey westward. The road for several miles running upon the base of the Wall, the facing stones may not unfrequently be seen for some distance together, protruding through the ‘metal.’ This used to be more the case formerly than at present, for since the diversion of the traffic from the road to the rail, motives of economy have induced the road surveyors to quarry, in some places, the last remnants of this great work of antiquity, for materials with which to repair the highway. The north fosse, as we pursue our journey, becomes more distinct on the right of the road.

Descending Benwell-hill, the village of East Denton is reached. Here we meet for the first time with a fragment of the Wall. The accompanying wood-cut exhibits its present state. William Hutton describes the interesting relic with becoming reverence.

At Denton Dean, situated at the bottom of Benwell-hill, the great road veers a few yards to the right, that is into Severus’ ditch, and gives us for the first time a sight of that most venerable piece of antiquity, The Wall, which is six yards south of the road, and twenty short of the brook I am going to pass. The fragment is thirty-six feet long, has three courses of facing stones on one side, and four on the other, and is exactly nine feet thick. An apple tree grows on the top.

It has lost a course of facing-stones since Hutton saw it, and the apple tree is but the shadow of what it was.

The turnpike road, which usually runs upon the site of the Wall, uniformly swerves to the right when passing a village. The truth is, nearly every house and hamlet in the district has sprung out of the Wall. In many instances a mile-castle, slightly added to, has formed a mediÆval dwelling of some strength. The nucleus thus provided, became, in the course of time, clustered round with contiguous habitations, so that when, after the last season of strife with which the borders were visited, the road came to be constructed, motives of economy required that these spots of increased value should be avoided.

Beyond the burn, the ground again rises, and the Wall, stretching onwards in a line with the road, forms a distinct, but turf-covered mound. At the distance of a field to the south of it, the Vallum is seen in greater distinctness than before. Both of the aggers and the intervening fosse may be clearly made out. Some young ash-trees grow in the ditch.

Advancing a little further, we have Denton-hall, formerly the seat of the literary Mrs. Montague, on the right; attracted by her influence, many of the great spirits of the age were occasionally found to be assembled within its walls. Very nearly opposite the hall, a larger mass of ruin than usual betokens the site of a mile-castle.

Ascending the hill from West Denton, the fosse of the Murus is very distinctly seen. The road is elevated two or three feet above the natural level of the ground, the Wall, probably some courses high, forming its nucleus.

On the left hand, the lines of the Vallum are feebly indicated, but by extending our glance some distance backwards and forwards, we can, with tolerable certainty, distinguish the artificial mounds from the natural heavings of the surface.

Passing the fourth mile-stone, we arrive at Chapel-houses. This name is of sufficiently frequent occurrence along the line to suggest a momentary inquiry into its origin. In the early ages of Christianity, a mile-castle may have occasionally been the resort of the worshippers of the true God; or in the ‘troublesome times’ of border warfare, when the church not unfrequently shared in the general devastation, it may have been set apart as a place for the confirmation of matrimonial vows, and for the performance of religious rites.

From the crown of this hill we have one of the finest views which Northumberland can afford. The Tyne, in all its glittering beauty, stretches far before us. Its southern bank is crowned by the pretty village of Ryton, its left is variegated with the once beautiful, but now furnace-fuming, Wylam. An amphitheatre of hills shuts in the distant scene.^[71]

Horsley describes some ruined ramparts, called the Castle-steads near Chapel-houses, to the south of both Vallum and Wall. They were probably temporary encampments and have now disappeared.

Before crossing Walbottle^[72]-dean, the Vallum, which is very distinct, and the Wall (i. e. the road) approach each other, apparently for mutual support. There are no traces of a bridge across the ravine.

As we ascend the next hill, and pass Throckley,^[73] we have, for the most part, the fosse on the right hand, and the mounds of the Vallum on the left, very boldly developed. By the time the traveller has advanced thus far, he will have learnt the necessity of bearing in mind that he is in a mining district. If he overlook this circumstance, he will be in danger of mistaking the track of some old ‘waggon way’ for the terraced lines of Roman cultivation, or an old ‘pit-heap’ for an indubitable British barrow.

After passing Throckley, just where a gate on the left hand enters the field from the road, a mound covered, in winter at least, with greener herbage than the contiguous ground indicates the site of a mile-castle. A little further on, a range of houses of peculiar appearance, called the Frenchman’s-row, attracts the eye. It was the residence, after the first French revolution, of a number of refugees. The dial which ornaments the Row is of their fabrication. The building is now used as a poor-house.

On the top of the little eminence, at which we arrive before reaching Heddon-on-the-Wall, the north fosse is deeper and bolder than it has hitherto appeared; it must be nearly in its original perfection. The works of the Vallum, about fifty yards to the south, are also finely developed. The ditch, in both cases, is cut through the free-stone rock. Here, also, if the traveller will forsake the turnpike, for the road, as usual, diverges to the right in order to avoid the village, he may see a fragment of the Wall much longer and somewhat higher than the one at Denton. Its north face is destroyed, but about five courses of the southern face are perfect. The accompanying lithograph shews the present state of the Barrier here. The Wall is in the foreground, while in the distance (looking eastward) the section of the north fosse, and of the works of the Vallum, is distinctly seen.

About a mile north of the village is a striking prominence called Heddon-law. Horsley remarks—‘Not far from Heddon-on-the-Wall have been some remarkable tumuli.’

The ditch of the Vallum cuts right through the village, its lowest dip forming the village pond; it is rather remarkable that in such a situation, it should not long ago have been obliterated.

Descending the hill on which Heddon-on-the-Wall stands, the lines of the Barrier keep close together, and not without reason. The crag on the south, now the scene of extensive quarrying operations, completely commands them. Surely a post must have been maintained on this eminence in the days of Roman occupation, though it had only been for the sake of a look-out.

Passing the eighth mile-stone, where the Vallum is in good condition, we approach the fourth great station of the Barrier. A road, crossing the turnpike at right angles, is close to its east rampart.

VINDOBALA.—The station now called Rutchester, stands on flat ground, but commands a considerable prospect. The Notitia places here the tribune of the first cohort of the Frixagi, a people "RUTCHESTER." whose country does not seem to be mentioned by any ancient geographer. The inside dimensions of this station, from north to south, are 178 yards, and from east to west, 135; it consequently contains nearly five acres. The Wall started each way from the north side of its east and west gates; so that a a greater portion of the station lay on the north than on the south side of it, as is shewn in the plan of it, Plate II. At present, the turnpike road runs between these portions; that on the north has been all ploughed, and three of its sides sloped into the ditch; its general outlines may, however, be distinguished; the southern part is irregular in its surface, with heaps of ruins, still covered with sward.^[74] In Horsley’s time, the northern part was sufficiently perfect to enable him to discern six turrets in it, 'one at each corner, one at each side of the gate, and one between each corner, and those adjoining to the gate.'^[75] The Vallum seems to have joined the station in a line with its southern rampart. The ditch on the western side is still tolerably distinct. The suburbs have been to the south of the station, but their site has recently been disturbed by the opening of an extensive quarry which has supplied large quantities of the stone used in carrying the railway over the Tyne, and through Newcastle.

On the brow of the hill, just west of the station, there is still to be seen, hewn out of the solid rock, what Wallis calls a coffin. It has more the appearance of a cistern. It is twelve feet long, four broad, and two deep, and has a hole close to the bottom at one end. When discovered, it had a partition of masonry across it, three feet from one end, and contained many decayed bones, teeth and vertebrÆ, and an iron implement resembling a three-footed candlestick. In the immediate vicinity of this spot, three fine Roman altars were discovered in 1844; they are now in the possession of Mr. James, of Otterburn, and are described in the ArchÆologia Æliana, iv. 5.

The etymology of the name of this station seems to be tolerably plain. ‘Vindobala,’ says Whitaker, ‘signifies merely the fort upon the heights. Bala remains, to the present period, the Welsh and Irish appellation of a town.’ I have received a similar account of the word from those acquainted with the Gaelic language. The station, however, though possessing the advantage of a gentle elevation above the contiguous ground, does not stand upon a lofty eminence.

No inscriptions have been found here mentioning the first cohort of the Frixagi, which, according to the Notitia, was quartered in Vindobala. This is of little consequence; the names of the contiguous stations both east and west having been ascertained, the order of the stations in the Notitia is sufficient evidence as to the identity of this with the ancient Vindobala.

The farm-house at Rutchester partly consists of an ancient building, possessing great strength of masonry. A gothic carving on the interior wall of its principal apartment shews that it is not of Roman construction. It was probably a mediÆval stronghold, made out of the ruins of the station. It contains a well, now boarded over, which may be of Roman date.

Most of the stones of the farm buildings and adjacent fences are Roman, and one or two fragments of Roman inscriptions built up in the stables, besides some small altars preserved on the premises, give interest to the place.

Mr. Hutton is usually very particular in giving a detail of the kind of entertainment he met with at the various points of his journey. The recital of his reception at Rutchester kindles into poetry:

His own appearance, he tells us, was a little peculiar, and archÆological pursuits not being in vogue in that day, the farmer probably had grave doubts as to the propriety of tempting the enthusiastic old man to prolong his stay.

It has frequently been my lot to receive the kindly attentions of the inhabitants of the mural region. Often have my eyes, bedimmed with fatigue, been ‘enlightened’ by partaking of the barley cake of the cottager, (excellent food for a thirsty climb) as well as the costlier viands of the farm tenant, or proprietor. Never shall I forget visiting, on one occasion, a frail tenement near Chesterholm. Its only inmate, an old woman, in the spirit of regal hospitality, asked me to join with her in partaking of her only luxury—her pipe. I recently observed with regret, that the cottage was tenantless.

The inhabitants of that part of the district which is remote from towns, do not affect the dress, or the speech, or the manners of polished citizens. They like to know a person before they welcome him, and make their approaches cautiously. But if slow in grasping the hand, they do it heartily and sincerely. There is scarcely a latch in the wilder regions of the country, that I would not freely lift in the assurance of a smiling welcome. Often as I have groaned under the toils to which my present undertaking has exposed me, I have reason to rejoice, that the Barrier of the Lower Isthmus has been the means of making me acquainted with many of the true-hearted and intelligent yeomen, both of my own county, and of Cumberland, whom I should not otherwise have known. Although their dialect may sound strangely to a southern ear, yet it is English in its native purity and strength; a great authority, Mr. Thorpe, having said, 'I believe the genuine Anglian dialect to be that which is usually denominated the Northumbrian.'^[76]

Proceeding, now, after this long digression, on our journey, we pass, on the left hand side of the road, an inn generally called the Iron-sign. Some of the buildings are entirely composed of Roman stones. In the erection nearest the road are three centurial stones. One has on it COH VIII, another has the word LVPI, probably to announce the fact, that the portion of the Wall in which it was originally inserted had been built by the troop under the command of the centurion Lupus; the third is illegible.

Passing the ninth milestone, we stand upon the top of an eminence from which there is a good view of Harlow-hill, and of the adjacent country. The Wall here slightly changes its course for the purpose of ascending the summit before it. The Vallum keeps company with the Wall for a short distance, but eventually swerves to the south with the design of passing along the base of the hill; it rejoins the Wall on the other side. This is an arrangement which we should not have encountered had the Vallum been intended for an independent barrier against a northern foe. The north fosse is here very distinct, forming a deep groove on the left of the road all the way to Harlow-hill.

Just before entering the village of Harlow-hill, some portions of the heart of the Wall may be seen, and a careful scrutiny will enable us to ascertain its course through the village, a part of its foundation, of the full width (nine feet), yet remaining. As usual, in passing through the village, the turnpike road leaves the Wall for a short distance. There was a mile-castle at Harlow-hill, which, Horsley says, had a high situation, and a large prospect; all traces of it are now gone. A field, about half a mile north of Harlow-hill, bears the ominous name of Grave-riggs; the traditionary account of its origin being, that after a bloody battle in ‘the troublesome times,’ it became the resting-place of slaughtered multitudes.

The village and ancient stronghold of Welton (a corruption no doubt of Wall-town) is about half a mile to the south of the road. The fortlet is entirely built of Roman stones. The adjoining mansion, at present occupied by the farm tenant, bears the date of 1616. Its large hall, with ample hearth and spacious bow-windows, is redolent of ancient hospitality. In the memory of the villagers, the freaks of a benevolent ghost, named Silky, which frequented the old tower, and the feats of strength performed by William of Welton, still survive the weekly intrusion of the newspaper.

At Wall-houses, on the south side of the road, traces of a mile-castle are obscurely visible; between this point and the fourteenth mile-stone all the lines of the Barrier are developed in a degree that is quite inspiriting. The north fosse is, for a considerable distance, planted with trees, which will for some time save it from the envious plough.

Immediately after passing the farm house of Carr-hill, an appearance of great interest presents itself. The works of the Vallum are coming boldly forward in company with the Wall, when suddenly, and at a decided angle, they change their course, evidently to avoid mounting a small barrow-like elevation, called Down-hill.^[77] The Wall pursues its course straightforward. The view, exhibited on the opposite page, taken from the edge of the hill, looking eastward, shews this arrangement. The road, with the ditch on its north side, is the representative of the Wall. The Vallum and Wall again converge as they approach Hunnum. These appearances strongly corroborate the opinion that all the lines of the Barrier are but parts of one great engineering scheme. If the Vallum had been constructed as an independent defence against a northern foe, and nearly a century before the Wall, we cannot conceive that an elevation, which so entirely commands the Vallum, would have been left open to the enemy; especially as it would have been just as easy to take the Vallum along the north flank of the hill as along the south. Horsley, who advocates the opinion that the north agger is Agricola’s Military Way, that the southern aggers were the work of Hadrian, and that the Wall was not erected till the time of Severus, is rather at a loss to account for these appearances. He says:—

Before we come to Halton-chesters, somewhat appears that is pretty remarkable. Hadrian’s Vallum running full upon a little hill, turns at once round about the skirt of it, leaving the hill on the north, and thereby, one would think, rendering the Vallum itself a weak defence at that part. The north agger goes close to the south side of this hill; so that they were also obliged to carry the Vallum round the hill in order to preserve the parallelism. If the north agger was the Old Military Way, and prior to the Vallum, there was nothing improper in carrying it on the south skirts of the hill; and then when the Vallum came afterwards to be built, (for a defence, or place of retreat) they were under a kind of necessity to form it after this manner.

Since so able a man as Horsley can devise no better defence of his theory, it may well be abandoned altogether. It cannot be conceived that, under a rule so vigorous as Hadrian’s, the builders of the Barrier would be allowed to give the enemy a material advantage, in order to save themselves the trouble of reconstructing the Military Way for a short space.

Down-hill bears marks of having been quarried at some distant period for its limestone. A little to the south of the Vallum are some circular lines, which an experienced observer tells me, are the remains of ‘sow-kilns.’ It would, perhaps, be rash to claim for them a primeval date, though in their appearance there is nothing inconsistent with the supposition.

Halton Red-house is next passed on the right hand. It is entirely built of stones taken from the neighbouring station; they have, however, been fresh dressed. In the farm-yard is a rectangular stone trough, which was found in the station, and which its owner describes as a ‘smiddy trow,’ and shews upon the edge the place which had been worn away by the attrition of the blacksmith’s irons. It might, indeed, serve very well for such a purpose, but troughs of this kind are of too frequent occurrence in the buildings along the line to allow us to suppose that this was their usual application. They are generally very rudely carved both outside and in, and not unfrequently are formed of an irregular unsquared block of stone. I think that they were used for domestic and culinary purposes. There is a fragment of one lying in the hypocaust at Chesters, the edge of which is worn down by the sharpening of knives upon it.

We now approach the fifth station of the line,

HUNNUM.—This ancient abode of Rome’s warriors, with its walls, streets, temples, markets, and aqueducts, is nearly one unbroken sweep of luxuriant vegetation. The traveller may readily pass by it, as Hutton did, without discerning symptoms of Roman occupation. A small, half-ruined hut stands within its area, a fitting emblem of the surrounding desolation. It is almost needless to name a city, which has no existence, but for convenience sake,"HALTON-CHESTERS." Horsley conferred upon it the style and title of Halton-chesters. The castle of Halton is close by.

The form of the station is peculiar, as is shewn in the plan of it, Plate II. The Wall joins the station at about one-third the distance between its northern and southern extremity. The portion of the station which is to the north of the Wall is not so broad as the part to the south of it. The only reason which has been assigned for this is, that, as Horsley observes, 'there is a descent or hollow ground joining to the west side of this part, so that the work could not be carried on any farther that way without much trouble and expense; though, it must be owned, the Romans don't usually seem to have valued either the one or the other'. It is remarkable that in adapting the station to the ground, they have not given to the wall, at the north east corner, a slanting direction, as would have been most convenient, but have, as usual, adhered to the rectangular form.

The turnpike road, keeping the line of the Wall, crosses the station from the site of the eastern to that of the western gateway. The section north of the road was brought under cultivation about twenty years ago, when immense quantities of stones were removed. It is now called the ‘Brunt-ha’penny field’ in consequence of the number of corroded copper coins which were found in it. The portion south of the road has a gentle slope and a fair exposure to the sun. It has not recently been ploughed, and consequently exhibits, with considerable distinctness, the lines of the outer entrenchments and ditches, as well as the contour of the ruined buildings and streets of the interior. The suburbs have covered a fine tract of pasture-ground to the south. The valley on the west side of the station would materially strengthen the position in this quarter.

The excavations made in the northern section, a few years ago, revealed several points of interest. The careful manner in which the stones, even of the foundation, were squared and chiselled, struck beholders with surprise. The thickness, of one part at least, of the west wall of the station I have been assured, by a person who superintended the work, was nine feet.^[78] In the angle of the north-west portion of the station, just outside the Wall, was a large heap, containing numerous fragments of Roman pottery, the bones of animals, the horns of deer, and other refuse matter—it must, in short, have been the dung-hill of the camp. Even now, although the plough has passed repeatedly over it, its position is shewn by the darkness of the soil. On the same occasion, there was laid open an aqueduct of about three quarters of a mile in length, which seems to have conducted water from a spring or burn in the high ground north of the place where Stagshawbank fair is held. My informant, who traced it for between two and three hundred yards, says, that it was formed of stone, and was covered with flags.^[79] In crossing the valley to the west of the fort, it must have been supported on pillars, or a mound. The most remarkable circumstance to be noticed respecting this water-course is, that it was on the north, or the enemy’s side of the Wall. It is scarcely probable that the Romans would depend for that portion of their daily supply, which was required for drinking and culinary purposes, on so precarious a source; but it is not unlikely that the water so introduced was meant to fill the fosse to the north of the station, and thus to give the additional security of a wet ditch to a portion of the camp, which, though much exposed, possessed no natural strength of situation.^[80] Crossing the station diagonally from below the eastern gateway to the north-west angle, a sewer or drain was found, of considerable dimensions. My informant crept along it for about one hundred yards. The bottom of it was filled with hardened mud, imbedded in which, were found a lamp and many bone pins, such as those with which the Romans fastened their woollen garments.

The most interesting discovery made on this occasion, however, was a suite of apartments, which have been usually supposed to be ‘the Baths.’ The building was one hundred and thirty-two feet in length, and contained not fewer than eleven rooms. The first of these was forty-three feet long, and twenty wide, and was the place, it has been conjectured, ‘where the bathers waited, and employed themselves in walking and talking, till their turn came to bathe.’ The others beyond are supposed to have been set apart for the purposes of undressing, taking the cold, the tepid, and the hot-bath, sweating, anointing, and robing. If the Roman prefects allowed the most important buildings of their frontier camps to be devoted to the enjoyment of the bath in all its elaborate details, they were more indulgent than some modern generals would be. That one or two of the smaller rooms have been devoted to ablution is not unlikely, this range of buildings having contained two carefully constructed cisterns which may have been used as baths. Several of the rooms had hanging floors, with flues beneath; pipes of burnt clay, fixed to the walls by T-headed holdfasts, communicated with the flues below, and conveyed the hot air up the sides of the apartments. But no provision for heating large quantities of water was discovered, such as we might have expected to find, if the whole building had been used for bathing.

The whole of this interesting structure was removed as the process of exhumation proceeded. Our only consolation is, that a minute and able description of it has been left us by Mr. Hodgson.

Several inscribed and sculptured stones have been discovered here. Camden, in 1600, found a monumental slab, erected to the memory of a soldier of the Ala Sabiniana; the regiment which the Notitia represents as being quartered at Hunnum. A stone, bearing the inscription, LEG. II. AVG. F., Legio secunda Augusta fecit, is at Alnwick castle, and belongs, I think, to this station. Wallis says 'as some labourers were turning up the foundations here, for the sake of the stones to mend the road, they met with a centurial stone with the above inscription, within a civic garland, the crest of the imperial eagle at each end, and that it was taken into the custody of Sir Edward Blackett. The one here shewn, though not a centurial stone, must be the one in question.^[81] It is one of the most elegantly carved stones that have been found upon the line, and closely resembles the style of those erected by the same legion in the Barrier of the Upper Isthmus. The ornament in the upper margin, and at the sides, has probably formed the type of one that prevailed in the Transition Norman and Early English styles.

Several busts of emperors and empresses, preserved about the house and grounds of Matfen, shew the attention which the ancient inhabitants of Hunnum have paid to the decoration of the camp.

A little to the west of the station, not far from the gateway, was recently found the slab which is here figured. Although the inscription is not deeply cut, it is very legible, and doubtless means—The lightning of the gods. When any spot was struck with lightning, it was immediately deemed sacred, and venerated as such by the Romans, being surrounded by a breastwork of masonry, similar to that put round the mouth of a well. Conscious guilt makes cowards of the most dauntless warriors! Perhaps some member of the Sabinian ala, hastening for shelter, and beseeching meanwhile the protection of Jupiter Tonans, was here arrested on life’s journey, and summoned to his great account.

Among the minor antiquities found at this station was a particularly massive finger ring of pure gold, set with an artificial stone, on which a full-length figure was engraved. It was stolen from lady Blackett, to whom it belonged, together with the rest of her jewellery.

An intelligent observer informs me, that an ancient road of Roman construction went direct north from Hunnum. It, no doubt, soon joined the eastern branch of the Watling-street which Horsley lays down, part of whose course is represented in the map accompanying this volume.

Halton-castle is to the south of the station. It is entirely composed of stones taken from the Roman Wall. In the farm-buildings attached to it, are some Roman mouldings, and a weathered figure of primeval aspect.

No probable etymological account of the word Hunnum has yet been offered. If the word Halton can be supposed to have any affinity with Hunnum, besides the initial breathing, this is one of the few instances in which there is any resemblance between the ancient and modern name of the stations.

Leaving Hunnum, we soon reach Stagshawbank-gate, where the ancient Watling-street crosses the road at right-angles. This Roman Way was probably first constructed by Agricola, as a means of keeping up a communication with the garrisons in South Britain, while he was forcing his way into Scotland. A fort formerly stood here to guard the passage through the Wall; no trace of it now remains.

The earth-works between this point and the crown of the hill descending to the North Tyne are remarkably perfect. The description which Hutton gives of them happily holds good at the present moment—

I now travel over a large common, still upon the Wall, with its trench nearly complete. But what was my surprise when I beheld, thirty yards on my left, the united works of Agricola and Hadrian, almost perfect! I climbed over a stone wall to examine the wonder; measured the whole in every direction; surveyed them with surprise, with delight; was fascinated, and unable to proceed; forgot I was upon a wild common, a stranger, and the evening approaching. I had the grandest works under my eye of the greatest men of the age in which they lived, and of the most eminent nation then existing; all of which had suffered but little during the long course of sixteen hundred years. Even hunger and fatigue were lost in the grandeur before me. If a man writes a book upon a turnpike road, he cannot be expected to move quick; but, lost in astonishment, I was not able to move at all.

The first time I visited the spot, this passage, through which there runs so fine a vein of youthful enthusiasm, was fresh in my recollection. The shades of evening were beginning to gather round me, and the blackness of the furze which covered the ground, gave additional solemnity to the scene. I looked for the venerable old man, as if expecting still to find him fixed in his enthusiastic trance; but he was not there. After all, he had moved on; and a few years more removed him from this scene, to sleep in the church-yard under a humbler and less durable mound than his favourite general and emperor had here raised!

The section given in page 52, exhibits the state of the works at this place. The north fosse is very boldly developed between the sixteenth and eighteenth milestone: the whole of its contents lie strewed on its outer margin. Near the eighteenth milestone, on the left of the road, is a mound, which I take to be the remains of a mile-castle. In one part near here, the Wall, as seen in the road, measures ten feet wide, but it speedily becomes narrower.

Where the ground begins to dip strongly to the North Tyne, St. Oswald’s chapel stands. On the north side of the road, is a field called Mould’s-close, in which a number of bones and implements of war have from time to time been turned up, and which is supposed to be the site of a battle. The tradition runs, that from the fight which was won here, England dates her advancing greatness, and that, from the fatal results of a conflict to be lost on the same ground, she will date her decline. "BATTLE OF HEAVEN-FIELD."Hodgson says, ‘Was this the site of part of the battle of Heaven-field, which Bede says was fought just north of the Roman Wall, and in memory of which the chapel of St. Oswald was built?’ That it was, the narrative of the venerable historian will probably shew—

The place is shewn to this day, and held in much veneration, where Oswald (A.D. 635), being about to engage (with the ferocious British king Cadwalla), erected the sign of the holy cross, and on his knees prayed to God that he would assist his worshippers in their great distress. It is further reported, that the cross being made in haste, and the hole dug in which it was to be fixed, the king himself, full of faith, laid hold of it, and held it with both his hands, till it was set fast by throwing in the earth; and this done, raising his voice, he cried to his army, ‘Let us all kneel, and jointly beseech the true and living God Almighty, in his mercy, to defend us from the haughty and fierce enemy; for He knows that we have undertaken a just war for the safety of our nation.’ All did as he had commanded, and accordingly advancing towards the enemy with the first dawn of day, they obtained the victory, as their faith deserved. In that place of prayer very many miraculous cures are known to have been performed, as a token and memorial of the king’s faith; for even to this day, many are wont to cut off small chips of the wood of the holy cross, which being put into water, men or cattle drinking of, or sprinkled with that water, are immediately restored to health. The place in the English tongue is called Hefenfeld, or the Heavenly Field.... The same place is near the Wall with which the Romans formerly enclosed the island from sea to sea, to restrain the fury of the barbarous nations, as has been said before. Hither, also, the brothers of the church of Hagulstad (Hexham), which is not far from thence (it is in the valley directly below), repair yearly on the day before that on which king Oswald was afterwards slain, to watch there for the health of his soul, and having sung many psalms, to offer for him in the morning the sacrifice of the holy oblation. And since that good custom has spread, they have lately built and consecrated a church there, which has attached additional sanctity and honour to that place.^[82]

A little to the south of the road, at St. Oswald’s-hill-head, is Fallowfield-fell, where the Written-rock, of which an engraving is given, page 102, may yet be seen. The face of the rock occupied by the inscription is four feet long; the letters are distinct.^[83] Continuing to descend the hill, we come to Plane-tree-field, where on the left of the road, a conspicuous piece of the Wall remains. It is about thirty-six yards long, and has, in some places, five courses of facing-stones entire; the grout of the interior which rises still higher, gives root to some fine old thorns. This sight may be rendered more interesting by the antiquary’s carrying his eye forward, and tracing the Wall in its onward course; in its modern representative, the turnpike road, it is seen, (having crossed the North Tyne, and passed the station of Cilurnum,) bounding up the opposite hill in its usual unflinching manner, and making for the wastes and mountains which it is speedily to traverse.

In the grounds of Brunton, a little below this, a small piece of the Wall is to be seen in a state of very great perfection. It is seven feet high, and presents nine courses of facing-stones entire. The mortar of the five lower courses is good; the face of the south side is gone. The ditch also is here well developed. The opposite lithograph gives an accurate representation of what Hutton calls ‘this grand exhibition.’ The altar which, at present, stands as it is placed in the drawing, formerly discharged the office of a gate-post at the entry of the yard of St. Oswald’s chapel.

For some reason, which it is hard to divine, the turnpike road now recedes from the Wall, and crosses the river at Chollerford, nearly half-a-mile above the spot where the Roman bridge spanned it.

The remains of this bridge may yet be seen when the water is low, and the surface smooth. There seem to have been three piers of considerable size and solidity, set diagonally to the stream. The stones composing them are large, regularly squared, and fastened with metallic cramps.^[84] Luis-holes, indicating the mode in which they have been lowered into their bed, appear in several of them. The firmness with which these foundation courses still retain the position assigned to them by the soldiers of Hadrian is very remarkable; the rolling floods of sixteen hundred winters seem to have spent their rage upon them almost in vain. As the eastern side of the river is frequently overflowed, the Vallum is here obliterated, but probably both works approached the bridge in close companionship. On the western side, appearances still bear out Horsley’s statement, that the 'Wall falls upon the middle of the fort, and Hadrian’s Vallum, as usual, falls in with the south side of it.'

A plan of Cilurnum, and adjoining works, as figured by Warburton, is given in Plate II. Probably, few who examine it attentively will question the justness of the conclusion to which he has arrived, that the Wall, Vallum, stations, castles, and turrets, ‘by their mutual relation to one another, must have been one entire, united defence, or fortification.’

We are now arrived at the station called in the locality, Chesters, but by Horsley named, for the sake of distinction, Walwick-chesters. An attentive examination of it will well reward the antiquary.

CILURNUM.—This station has, as usual, the form of a parallelogram, the corners being slightly rounded off. It contains an area of fully six acres. In the latter part of the last century, when the mansion and estate of Chesters came into the possession of the family of Clayton, this area was covered with the ruins of buildings which had apparently stood in strait, narrow streets, and although the surface of the station has since been levelled and made smooth, in order to fit it for its use as part of the park, yet its ramparts and fosse, the Wall and Vallum as they approach and leave it, and the road leading to the river, may all be distinctly discerned; even the ruined dwellings of the interior area, as if dissatisfied with their lowly condition, struggle to rear themselves into notice. A portion of the Wall, near the north-west angle, has been freed from the encumbering soil; it is five feet thick, and exhibits four courses of masonry in excellent preservation.

Hutchinson was struck with the linear character which the ruined streets of this fort had in his time, and was reminded, by their appearance, of the arrangements of the Polybian camp. This will be observed in a greater or less degree in all the stations, and there cannot be a doubt but that the dwellings were arranged in rows parallel to the four sides of the stations, and hence, intersecting each other at right angles. It was necessary that the Roman camp, whether of a temporary or permanent character, should be nearly uniform in its plan. If the troops rested but for a night, each man knew the part he had to fill in preparing the fortification, and could set about it at once; in the event of a sudden attack in the darkness of the night, each knew his position, though he may never have rested upon the spot before.

Suburban buildings have occupied the space between the station and the river, and ruins more extensive than usual are spread over the ground to the south. There is no appearance of any habitations having been erected to the north of the Wall. Whenever the surface of the contiguous ground is broken, fragments of Samian ware and other marks of Roman occupation appear.

Two remains of great interest are found within the station. One of these is an underground vault near the middle. Its masonry is rough, and somewhat peculiar; the sides incline slightly inwards, but the roof, instead of being uniformly vaulted, is formed of three ribs arched in the usual manner, and the intervals between them are in technical language—‘stepped over,’ that is, the stones of each course are made to project inwards a little, until, at length, one laid on the top completes the junction. The woodcut, which is here introduced, together with the following extract from Hodgson’s description of it, will give a tolerably correct idea of this curious structure.

This vault, when it was first found, was supposed to have been the Ærarium of the station. Between the joinings of the floor, which were of thin free-stone flags, were found several counterfeit denarii, both of copper and iron plated with silver. The approach to it was by four steps downwards, the lowest of which was a large centurial stone, which had borne an inscription, but nearly all of it had been purposely erased. On the outside of the threshold was found, in a sadly decayed state, its original door of wood, strongly sheathed with plates of iron, and the whole firmly rivetted together with large square nails. Within the door, which had opened inwards, the end wall was two feet thick, plastered and painted. Its internal area is ten feet by nine, and its height to the crown of the arch six feet four inches.^[85]

Some buildings situated near to the spot where the eastern gateway must be, and which have recently been freed from the earth and rubbish that have long enveloped them, are objects of still greater interest. Their general appearance, as seen from a slight elevation, is shewn in the adjoining wood-cut, while, for a more minute knowledge of their size and arrangements, reference may be made to the plan on the opposite page. Eight apartments have already been exposed, and a little more research would doubtless display others.

Descending a few steps (at L in the Plan), a street three feet wide at one extremity, and four at the other, is entered. Another, leading from it at right-angles, and which is paved with flag-stones, conducts to the grand entrance (D) of what appears to be the principal section of the building. The steps are very much worn down by the tread of feet, and even some of the stones, which have evidently been put in the place of others that have been too much abraded to be serviceable, exhibit partial wear. This saloon must have been a place of general concourse—can it have been the hall of justice, or the place where the commander of the station transacted the business of the district under his charge? The floor (E) is probably supported on pillars, and has been warmed by flues beneath; but this cannot be ascertained without injuring it. The upper covering is of flags, the fractured state of which induces the belief, that the walls of the surrounding building have been forcibly thrown down upon them. The northern enemies of Rome, knowing the importance of these stations, would not be slow in involving them in entire ruin, when permitted, by the withdrawal of the troops, to do so without molestation. Passages diverge from this saloon, to the right and left, into other apartments. In the room on the left was found, in good preservation, a cistern or bath (C), lined with red cement. A breach had been made in the street wall of this chamber (at B), and in the rubbish which River-godencumbered the gap, was found the statue of a river-god, of which a correct sketch is here given. It is probably intended to represent the genius of the neighbouring river—the North Tyne. Although executed in coarse sand-stone, it is not without considerable gracefulness of attitude and proportion. It is preserved in the mansion at Chesters. Of the present state of the apartments beyond, the wood-cut in the previous page, and the lithograph here introduced, will give an accurate conception. The floors have been supported upon pillars, some of them being of stone, others of square flat bricks. The stone pillars are, for the most part, fragments of columns and balusters which have been used in a prior structure.^[86] The student of mediÆval architecture will probably recognise in some of them types of the Saxon style. The dilapidated state of the floor of this apartment allows of an easy examination of its mode of construction. Flags, about two inches thick, rest upon the pillars; a layer of compost, five inches thick, and formed of lime, sand, gravel, and burned clay or pounded tile, succeeds, and above that, another covering of thin flag-stones.^[87] This apartment has been provided with a semicircular recess at its eastern extremity (G), and, at the angle next the street (A), has been supported by a buttress. A similar alcoved recess existed on the western side of one of the principal rooms of the ‘baths’ at Hunnum, and the same arrangement may yet be observed in the corresponding building at Lanchester. All of these buildings have been strengthened with buttresses, but it is only in these and analogous cases, that the use of the buttress is admitted among the erections of the Barrier; it never occurs in the great Wall or the curtain-walls of the stations. In the circular recess"THE HYPOCAUSTS." of this apartment is an aperture (G), which probably has served to regulate the current of air circulating in the hypocausts. The furnace which warmed the suite of apartments was situated near the south-east extremity of the building (at F); the pillars near the fire having been much acted upon by the heat, the whole of this part of the floor was reduced, on exposure to the frosts of winter, to the confused heap represented in the drawing. The soot in the flues was found as fresh as if it had been produced by fires lighted the day before.^[88] The walls of this apartment were coated with plaster, and coloured dark red; exposure to the weather soon stripped them of this covering. An arched passage curiously turned with Roman tile took the heated air from the furnace through the party-wall (at X) into the chamber to the west of it. The rooms to the westward of the intersecting street (HD), seem to form an independent building, and have less of the aspect of a place of public concourse than the other portions. They may have been the private residence of the commander of the station. They, too, are heated by hypocausts.

In urging the conviction, that the hanging floors of these Roman buildings were meant to produce a comfortable warmth, rather than to generate steam, by having water sprinkled upon them, attention may be drawn to the thickness of their substance. At present, the floor of the principal apartment is nine inches thick, and when its upper surface was overlaid, as it no doubt was, with a tasteful concrete or mosaic pavement, it would be an inch or two more. It would require a very powerful furnace to raise this mass of matter to a considerable temperature. On the other hand, if the production of a genial and uniform warmth were the object in view, no contrivance could be more suitable. The heated air from a small furnace permeating the underground flues and the walls of a suite of apartments, and not passing off until, in its lengthened passage, it had given out the larger part of the warmth it had derived, would, in the lapse of some hours, give to the whole building a comfortable temperature, which it would not readily lose. Any inattention to the furnace, either by causing it to burn too fiercely or too feebly, would not be felt. The thickness of the floors would prevent the air from being scorched, and producing that disagreeable sensation which is experienced in rooms that are heated by the stoves in common use. It is not improbable that we may return to this method of warming our churches and public halls, even if we do not adopt it in our private buildings.^[89]

The door-ways of some of these apartments have been provided with double doors, probably for more effectually maintaining the warmth of the room.

The masonry of those portions of the walls which are standing, is in an excellent state of preservation. In the angle near the buttress (A), the action of the trowel in giving the finishing touch to the pointing may be perceived. The walls rest upon two strong basement courses, the angle of the uppermost being bevelled off with a neat moulding.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MISCELLANEOUS ANTIQUITIES.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

All the gateways, except the north, have been explored, and present very interesting subjects of study to the antiquary. The western"WEST GATEWAY OF BORCOVICUS." is in the best condition, and is specially worthy of attention. Its arrangements will readily be understood by an inspection of the ground plan which is here introduced, together with the views of it as seen from the outside and inside of the station, on the next page. This gateway, as well as the others which have been explored, is, in every sense of the word, double. Two walls must be passed before the camp can be entered; each is provided with two portals, and each portal has been closed with two-leaved gates. The southern entrance of the outside wall has alone, as yet, been entirely cleared of the masonry that closed it. The jambs and pillars are formed of massive stones of rustic masonry. The doors, if we may judge from the fragments of corroded iron which have been lately picked up, were of wood, strengthened with iron plates and studs; they moved, as is apparent from the pivot-holes, upon pivots of iron. In the centre of each portal stands a strong upright stone, against which the gates have shut. Some of the large projecting stones of the exterior wall are worn as if by the sharpening of knives upon them; this has probably been done by the occupants of the suburban buildings after the closing of the gateway. The guard-chambers on each side are in a state of choice preservation, one of the walls standing fourteen courses high. Were a roof put on them, the antiquary might here stand guard, as the Tungrians did of old, and, for a while, forget that the world is sixteen centuries older than it was when these chambers were reared. At least two of the chambers in this part of the camp have been warmed by U shaped flues running round three of their sides beneath the floor.^[102] These chambers, when recently excavated, were found to be filled with rubbish so highly charged with animal matter as painfully to affect the sensibilities of the labourers. The teeth and bones of oxen, horns resembling those of the red-deer, but larger, and boars’ tusks were very abundant; there was the usual quantity of all the kinds of pottery used by the Romans. It is not improbable that this rubbish may have been derived from some dunghill outside the walls, and thrown here when the gateway was walled up; it is, however, a remarkable fact, that the soil of the interior area of the stations on the Wall is, for the most part, thickly mingled with bones. Is it possible that the Romans have thrown on the floors of their apartments, and suffered to remain amongst the straw or rushes which may have covered them, the refuse of their food?

The view of Housesteads in the accompanying lithograph, is taken from beside the eastern gateway, and gives a general idea of the scene of desolation which it presents.^[103] The only habitation near is a shepherd’s cottage to the south of the station. A peculiarity in the upper division of the eastern gateway requires attention; the lower division, as seen in the lithograph, has been walled up at an early period. A rut, nearly nine inches deep, appears in the threshold, on each side of the central stone against which the gates closed. Grooves, similar in character, are seen in the gateways of the camps at Birdoswald and Maryport. Were it not for the central stone, which presents an impediment to the passage of chariots, no one would doubt that these hollows have been occasioned by the action of their wheels. The following extract, explanatory of the condition of the city of Pompeii, will probably throw light upon this and other things belonging to the camp.

The Domitian way which led to it was narrow, the carriage-way seldom exceeding ten feet in width. The streets of the city itself are paved with large irregular pieces of lava, joined neatly together, in which the chariot wheels have worn ruts, still discernible; in some places they are an inch and a half deep, and in narrow streets follow one track.... In most places, the streets are so narrow, that they may be crossed at one stride; where they are wider, a raised stepping-stone has been placed in the centre of the crossing. This, though in the middle of the carriage-way, did not much inconvenience those who drove about in the biga, or two-horsed chariot, because the width of these streets being only sufficient to admit the carriage, the wheels passed freely in the spaces left between the curb on either side, and the stone in the centre.^[104]

The stone in the centre of the doorway would not be a greater impediment than the stepping stones in the streets of Pompeii.

The remains of the gateways of Borcovicus shew that in plan and construction they must have resembled the Roman Gateway which, under the name of the ‘Porta nera,’ is preserved entire at Treves, AUGUSTA TREVIRORUM, once the seat of government of the Western Empire.

In examining this and other Roman camps, the spectator will, perhaps, be struck with the narrowness of the streets, and the very small capacity of the the dwellings. It is well to recollect that in their encampments the Romans studiously avoided occupying a larger space than was absolutely necessary. Gibbon observes that a modern army would present to the enemy a front three times as extended as a Roman one of the same force. In the field, ten men were apportioned to a tent, ten feet square;^[105] a similar proportion would without doubt be followed in the stationary camp.

It is not easy to ascertain the precise character of the dwellings of the soldiers; the more perfect of the ruins in this and other forts, induce the belief that they were dark, bare, and cheerless. The roofs were probably formed of free-stone slate. Several thin slabs of this kind, with nail-holes in them, as well as some of the nails themselves, have been found in this and other stations.^[106] On Plate XIII, figs. 1, 7, are drawn some door or window heads, found here; these most likely belonged to buildings of a superior class. The entrance into a chamber at Habitancum, recently excavated, was found to be only fourteen inches wide; it was rudely ‘stepped over’ at the top. Fragments of a sort of window glass are frequently found in some of the stations; this would probably be a rare luxury.^[107]

At Housesteads, two or three of the ruined chambers will, above the rest, attract the attention of the visitor. Near the centre of the northern division is one which is seventy feet long and eight broad; it must have been a place of public concourse. In the front of it is a kiln which has probably been used for drying corn; near the southern gateway is another which was nearly destroyed in the endeavour made to extricate a cow which had fallen into it, and, in struggling to relieve herself, had thrust her head and neck into the flue. The Romans seem to have kiln-dried their corn at the close of the harvest; it would not have been safe to stack it in the open fields. They would the more readily do this, as it is still by no means unusual, in the central and southern parts of Europe, to thrash the corn at the close of harvest on the field where it grew.

Three hypocausts have been found here, two within the station, and another to the east of it, on the Knag-burn; the flues of the latter were full of soot; very slight traces of any of them now remain.

In this and most other stations, writes Hodgson, ‘there are found considerable quantities of limestone, having partly the character of stalagmite, and partly that of such cellular stone as forms about the mouths of petrifying wells. Some of it is in amorphous lumps; but the greatest part of it has been either sawn into rectangular pieces, or formed in a fluid state in moulds.’ They are probably artificial; at Habitancum, where this calcareous substance is abundant, it seems to have acquired its porosity by being mixed with straw. The use to which it has been applied is by no means obvious. Hodgson thought that it had been inserted in the side walls of the hypocausts, to allow heat to arise from below without smoke. This is doubtful. At Habitancum, the blocks, I am told, have been used as ordinary stones. In the construction of the Pharos at Dover, (where building stone is scarce) the calcareous composition has been largely used. Why it should have been employed at Habitancum, and other places, where free-stone is abundant, does not appear.

The suburbs of Borcovicus have been very extensive, the ruins of them distinctly appearing on the east, south, and west sides of the station. A little to the south of it, and stretching westward, the ground has been thrown up in long terraced lines, a mode of cultivation much practised in Italy and in the east. Similar terraces, more feebly developed, appear at Bradley; I have seen them very distinctly marked on the banks of the Rede-water, Old Carlisle and other places.

A well, cased with Roman masonry, is in front of the shepherd’s house, south of the station; a spring, yielding excellent water, is at the bottom of the same field; the Knag-burn washes the station on its eastern side, and there is ‘a fine well under the high basaltic cliff’ on which the northern wall of the station stands, ‘which is still well walled round,’ and has occasionally been used as a bath. None has been discovered within the station itself.

In the valley below is a small sandstone ridge, called Chapel-hill, from the idea that a temple stood upon it. Two fine altars have been found here.^[108] The ruins that contained the Mithraic antiquities, to which reference will be made afterwards, stood a little to the west of this hill. All traces of the small, dark temple, where the horrid mysteries of the god were performed, are now nearly obliterated.

The fragments of columns which are engraved in Plate XI, enable us to imagine the original grandeur of the place.^[109] With some of the certainty with which a comparative anatomist decides upon the character and habits of an animal, from an inspection of a fragment of its osseous system, an architect determines the size and style of a building from an examination of some of its parts. Thus, the circular column, of which one of the stones (Plate XI.) that now lies in the valley below the station, has formed a part, was probably not less than twenty feet high; how imposing must the entire temple have been!

Plates XII and XIII exhibit several of the carved figures which formerly lay in confusion among the ruins of the station. They are interesting, as exhibiting the state of the arts in Britain at that time, the mode of dress adopted by the Romans, and the Figure of Victoryhigh degree of attention which they paid to the decoration of their stations. Roman art in Britain has surely been rated too low.

The figure introduced on this page was found here. It represents one of old Rome’s most favourite deities,—Victory, careering, with outstretched wings, over the globe. How strong must the passion for conquest have been in the breast of a people, who, though nurtured in a southern climate, braved for more than three centuries, the fogs, and storms, and desolation of this wild region! Wherever the winged goddess led, they followed, and, most pertinaciously too, maintained their ground. But, there is a tide in the affairs of men.

A Roman poet, in the fulness of his heart, sang—

How different the strains which, in a distant age, and in another clime, were to flow from the lyre of a brother bard, and how appropriate to the present condition of the deserted Borcovicus!—

That Housesteads is the Borcovicus of the empire, Sepulchral Slab to a young Physicianappears plain from the numerous inscriptions that allude to the first cohort of the Tungrians, which, according to the Notitia, was quartered there. One of these inscriptions is shewn on page 63; another, a sepulchral stone, is here presented. The figure on the top of the slab I take to be a rabbit, and suspect that it had some reference to the worship of the obscene god, Priapus. The inscription is usually read in the following manner, though, perhaps, ordinario might with equal propriety be read ordinato:—

From an inscription found at Castlecary, it appears that this cohort of Tungrians built one thousand paces of the Antonine Wall in Scotland. They were from about Tongres, on the banks of the MÆse, in Belgic Gaul. Their rank, as a milliary cohort, conferred on them the dangerous honour of advancing in the van of the army to battle, and their acknowledged valour probably procured for them the appointment to this exposed and dangerous post.

The etymology of Borcovicus is easy. A high hill to the south of the station is called Borcum or Barcomb, a neighbouring stream is designated Bardon-burn, and a village near its confluence with the Tyne, Bardon-mill. Bar, in Celtic, means a height, and probably forms the root of all these names; the termination, vicus, is a Latin word, signifying a village.

The stone used in the inside of the walls of the station, and for other ordinary purposes, has been quarried out of the cliffs in the sandstone ridge, along which the present military road passes. 'The altars, columns, and quoins, and much of the ashlar work, have been taken from a stratum of freestone on the north side of the Wall, and similar to that in which the recesses, called the King and Queen’s Caves, on the south side of Broomlee-lough, are formed.'^[110]

Again taking the Wall as our guide, we will pursue our course westward. For the greater part of the way along the high ground, the Wall is in a sufficiently good state of preservation to make it a varied and interesting study; it not unfrequently exhibits five, six, and even seven courses of facing-stones. The Northumbrian lakes also lend a charm to the scene. Though appearing in native simplicity and rude grandeur, they will not on that account be less appreciated by men of taste. The Vallum is generally very boldly developed, and runs for several miles in the valley below, completely commanded by the hill on which the Wall stands, as is shewn in the section, Plate IV. This fact is surely fatal to the theory of its having been erected to withstand the brunt of a northern foe. It would have been impolitic to allow the enemy to occupy these heights even as a post of observation. It is true, that the Vallum is occasionally commanded by the rising ground on the south: opposite Sewingshields it is so, and opposite Hot-bank, a little to the west of where we now are, it is overlooked on both sides. This difficulty is not a very formidable one. The engineer of the Barrier has drawn the Vallum chiefly in straight lines from one point to another, and has not thought it necessary to guard with excessive jealousy every little rising ground to the south; he never, however, departs from his course to go round the north of a hill, as he does to go round the south of that one near Halton-chesters. The cases, moreover, in which the Vallum is exposed to observation from the south, are very few. Horsley’s own testimony upon this point is decided. He writes—

It must be owned, that the southern prospect of Hadrian’s work, and the defence on that side, is generally better than on the north; whereas the northern prospect and defence have been principally, or only taken care of in the Wall of Severus.^[111]

After passing a mile-castle we come to a depression in the ridge of basalt, that places us opposite the west end of Broomlee-lough; the crag on the west side of this slack is called Cuddy’s-crag. A little farther on, we reach a more extensive pass, called Rapishaw-gap; a road passes through it under the same circumstances as that through Busy-gap, a little above the bottom of the valley. The traveller may here with advantage go to the north of the Wall, in order to examine the geological character of the cliffs he has passed; they are seen ‘to rise in rude and pillared majesty.’

Regaining the high grounds, the Wall for a short space is found to possess less than its usual interest; the ground on the east side of the Bradley estate was formerly common, and the object of our study was every man’s prey. Other objects of inquiry, however, abundantly relieve the attention. Langley castle, on the south bank of the Tyne, is in sight, and during our western journey will long continue to be so. It is a square building strengthened by rectangular towers at the corners. Formerly a seat of the Percys, it became afterwards the property of the Radcliffes. It passed, on the rebellion of 1715, along with the other possessions of the earl of Derwentwater, into the hands of the commissioners of Greenwich Hospital, who at present retain it. Destroyed by fire at an early period, it has never been repaired; its masonry is notwithstanding in excellent preservation. On a clear day the singularly strong tongue of land on which are the ruins of Staward-le-peel, may also be discerned to the south. But, more to our present purpose, the high, brown hill of Borcum, from which the Romans obtained much of the stone used in the construction of this part of the Wall, is in the foreground. "ANCIENT QUARRY" An interesting discovery was made here in 1837, to which subsequent reference will be made. On opening an ancient quarry on the top of it, near the ‘longstone,’ a workman found a small copper vessel, containing a large number of Roman coins; four of these were of the time of Hadrian, and all the rest, of previous reigns. Those of Trajan and Hadrian were as fresh as if new from the die. The conclusion is natural, that the quarry had been last wrought in the time of Hadrian, the Wall itself being possibly of the same date. An extensive earthen camp is on the summit of the hill, probably raised by the soldiers who were engaged in quarrying the rock.

Greenlee-lough is to the north; on its western margin is a modern structure, Bonny-rig, the property of sir Edward Blackett.

Proceeding westward, the Wall again rises into notice. ‘Much of it remains of very various thicknesses, the whole of the perpendicular outsets and insets being on the south side.’

On the tail of the crag on which we now are, the farm-house of Bradley stands. Built up in the doorway of its old kitchen, was a stone, now at Matfen, bearing the fragment of an inscription. Another fractured slab, formerly in the possession of the ‘judicious’ Warburton, and now at Durham, when joined to it, gives an inscription precisely similar to one immediately to be noticed, with the exception of a letter or two in the line of the fracture. The fragments, doubtless, as Hodgson conjectures, formed one stone, deposited in the foundation of some castellum in this neighbourhood, as a memorial of its erection by Hadrian. The wood-cut annexed has been prepared from drawings carefully made of the two portions in their separate localities.

Once, at least, since the days of Hadrian, this central region of the Wall has been honoured with the presence of royalty. Hodgson says,—

On the authority of documents in Rymer, Prynne, and the Calender of Patent Rolls, I find Edward the First testing records in the presence of several great officers of state, at Lanchester, on Aug. 10; at Corbridge, Aug. 14; at Newburgh, Aug. 28, 30, 31, and Sep. 4; at Bradley ‘in Marchia ScotiÆ,’ Sep. 6 and 7; at Haltwhistle on the 11th, and at Thirlwall on the 20th of the same month; and at Lanercost on Oct. 4, A.D. 1306, at which last house he continued all winter. The Bradley here mentioned is probably Bradley-hall, on the right bank of Craglough-burn, and a little south both of Vallum and Wall, not the farm-house of Bradley, which is between the two barriers.—Northd. II. iii. 288.

The exigencies of war have again and again drawn to this secluded spot the mightiest potentates of earth; as yet this imperial ground has not been trodden by the feet of Majesty, attracted by the sweet allurements of peace.

On the margin of the military road, opposite to us, is the only Inn in the district, which is known by no other name than that of Twice Brewed. Before the construction of the Railway it was much resorted to by the carriers who conducted the traffic between the eastern and western portions of the island. As many as fifty horses and about twenty men would be put up here for the night. Now, it is nearly forsaken. Hutton took up his abode here on a carrier’s night. The difficulty he had in procuring an exclusive bed was compensated by the amusement of observing the carriers at their meal—he soon perceived that they had ‘no barricade in the throat; and became convinced that eating was the chief end of man!’

The next break in the basaltic ridge, is the Milking-gap. As we approach it, Crag-lough is seen laving the base of the perpendicular cliff along which the Wall runs. In order to take the high ground, westward of the gap, the Wall here turns at a considerable angle. In this valley, the north fosse again comes to the help of the structure. In front of the farm-house, called Hot-bank, are distinct traces of a mile-castle. In taking up its foundations, the slab, of which the annexed drawing is a faithful copy, was found, which would seem to be a tablet precisely similar to that which is formed by the junction of the two fragments referred to above.

Of all the inscriptions discovered in Britain, Hodgson pronounces this to be of the greatest historical importance, inasmuch as it leads to the true reading of several fragments of similar inscriptions throwing"MILKING-GAP INSCRIPTION." light upon the authorship of the Wall. One of these was known to Horsley, and seems to have puzzled that great antiquary. It and other fragments which have since been found in different mile-castles, tend to produce the conviction, that the mile-castles, (which are on the line of the Wall, ascribed to Severus,) were built by Hadrian. The simplicity of the inscription will strike the classical reader, who will not fail also to observe the peculiarity of the name of the emperor being in the genitive case.

Although the station of Vindolana lies considerably to the south of the lines of the Barrier, it is ranked by the Notitia among the stations per lineam valli, and as such, must be examined by us in our mural peregrination. Leaving Milking-gap with this view, and crossing the low grounds to the south of the Wall, the Vallum is observed, contrary to its usual tendency, making two rapid curves, something in the form of the letter S, to avoid, apparently, the swellings of the contiguous marsh. At High-shields, a cottage on the little ridge south of the turnpike-road, the station comes into view. It stands upon a partially detached eminence, surrounded, though not so closely as to be commanded, by hills of superior elevation. On all sides, except the western, it is naturally defended, whilst the summits of the surrounding heights afford it a degree of shelter which would be peculiarly grateful to the natives of southern Europe. The Chineley-burn flows past it, and the situation is altogether one of peculiar beauty. In modern times, the place has been variously designated Little Chesters, the Bowers, and Chesterholm.

VINDOLANA.—As this station is detached from the Wall, and lies upon the line of the ancient road which ran from Cilurnum to Magna, it is not improbable that it was one of Agricola’s forts. The road which connected it with the Wall may yet be distinctly traced between High Shields and the farm-house of Chesterholm.

The walls, ditches, and gateways of the station are all discernible. The northern gateway would be the one chiefly used by the garrison, as it opens directly upon the Great Military Way. An examination of the western gateway, some years ago, led to the belief that it had been walled up at an early period; this is the most exposed side of the camp. A portion of the wall of the station near the north-east corner, when cleared by its late owner, Mr. Hedley, stood twelve courses high. In this case, as in many others, the researches of the antiquary have only facilitated the operations of the destroyer; much of it has since been removed. The size of the stones, which is considerable in the foundation course, gradually diminishes upwards.

At least two buildings provided with hypocausts, have been discovered here. One of these stood about fifty yards beyond the western rampart, and when discovered, contained a square apartment, vaulted above. Some of the vaulting-stones are still preserved at Chesterholm; they are grooved near the lower extremity, apparently to allow of the joints being strengthened by the insertion between them of keys of slate or wood. The remains of this building were more complete when Hodgson wrote the following paragraph than at present:—

The pillars of the hypocaust are still very black with fire and soot; and people say that the Bowers, from the Roman age till within the last century, was the elysium of a colony of fairies; and this ruined bath, the kitchen to one of their palaces, of which the soot among the stones was undeniable evidence; and confident belief affirmed, that long passages led from this laboratory of savoury messes to subterranean halls that ever echoed to the festivities and music of the Queen of the Bowers, and her aËrial court.

The other hypocaust was partially explored by Warburton in 1717, but more fully by the rev. Ant. Hedley in 1831. It stood within the area of the camp not far from the eastern gateway. In its ruins, Warburton found the fine altar to Fortune, here engraved. It is now preserved in the Library of the Dean and Chapter at Durham, the ‘judicious’ antiquary not having been able to obtain his price for it of my lord Oxford.^[112] Here also Mr. Hedley discovered the three noble altars Hypocaust Pillarwhich are still preserved at Chesterholm. The pillars which supported the floor of the hypocausts were of different shapes and diameters; some of them were portions of square columns, as in the annexed example, some circular, like the balusters of stairs, as may be seen by the specimens of them in the garden at Chesterholm. The Romans themselves, Hodgson remarks, seem to have treated the fallen works of their predecessors here with very little ceremony, when they cut down the handsome columns of halls and temples into pillars for sooty hypocausts.

About a furlong west of the camp is a copious spring, from which the water was taken by a channel formed of large stones into the station. The water still, in some measure, follows its ancient track, as the appearance of the herbage shews, and pours itself, by a covered passage, into the Chineley-burn on the opposite side.

In the vicinity of the camp is an object of peculiar interest. On the line of the ancient Roman road which skirts its northern rampart, stands a mile-stone at the spot where the soldiers of Agricola or Hadrian placed it. The opposite lithograph shews it in the foreground; the camp is in the distance. It is upwards of six feet high, and is nearly two feet in diameter. There are traces of an inscription on its western face, but scarcely a letter can now be deciphered."ROMAN MILE-STONE." Another mile-stone formerly stood to the west of this, but it was removed and split up by its tasteless owner, into two gate-posts. Horsley says that it bore the inscription—

an inscription which, supposing it to be perfect, though this is a little doubtful, is happily contrived to be complimentary to each successive emperor. The Romans, with wise policy, paid great attention to their roads; the stones which they erected at every mile were generally inscribed with the name of the consul or emperor under whose auspices they were made. Horsley mentions another mile-stone, which was to the east of the present one.

Close by the mile-stone is a tumulus of considerable size.

In the house and grounds of the late Mr. Hedley, are preserved some very valuable antiquarian remains. A very fine altar to Jupiter is reserved for subsequent description. Another, whose focus is reddened by the action of fire, is here introduced on account of the evidence which it affords, in corroboration of the conjecture of Horsley, that Little Chesters was the Vindolana of the Romans, where, according to the Notitia, the fourth cohort of the Gauls was stationed.

Several other inscriptions by the fourth cohort of the Gauls have been found here since the time of Horsley.

The altar to Fortune, given in a previous page, shews us that at least a detachment of the sixth legion had, at some period, its abode here. "THE TWENTIETH LEGION." A stone,

preserved at the place, and of which an engraving is here given, bears testimony to the presence of the twentieth legion also, which was surnamed V[ALENS] V[ICTRIX], ‘the valiant and victorious’, and of which the symbol was a boar. This legion was first sent over to Britain by Claudius, and remained in it until the island was abandoned by the Romans. Horsley conceives that this legion was concerned in the erection of the Vallum, though, he adds, we have no inscriptions to prove it. He suspects that it was no-way concerned in building the Wall, because, among all the centurial inscriptions which had come under his notice, not one mentioned this legion, or any cohort belonging to it. The discovery, since the publication of the Britannia Romana, of this and other memorials to be noticed as we proceed, renders

it probable that the twentieth legion was engaged upon both the Wall and the Vallum; and as, according to Horsley, ‘it is evident that this legion was at Chester in the year 154,’ where it long continued, the probability is strengthened, that the Wall, as well as the Vallum, was built before that period. A fragment of an inscription, represented above, bears direct reference to Hadrian. The Milking-gap slab, to which it has a very close resemblance, enables us to supply the parts that are wanting. The only difference seems to be, that the emperor’s name is in the dative case instead of the genitive as in the other example.

The cottage which Mr. Hedley erected for his own residence is, with the exception of the quoins,

entirely formed of stones procured from the station. In addition to the altars which stand in front of the house, several objects of considerable interest are built up in the covered passage which leads from the kitchen to the burn; among them is a range of Roman coping-stones, of the form shewn in the cut. The ‘broaching’ of the stones has been alluded to previously.

Near the stables attached to the house, is a Roman altar converted into a swine-trough; the figure on its side seems to have been intended for an eagle, the emblem of the imperial Jove. A foretaste this of the day when every idol shall be cast to the moles and to the bats. May it speedily arrive!

The probable meaning of the word Vindolana, is ‘the hill of arms;’ vin, with slight variations of pronunciation, signifying, in all the Celtic dialects, a height; and lann, in the Gaelic, weapons. The name well accords with those common in Ossian’s poems.

Rejoining the Wall at Milking-gap, and continuing our course westward, we soon arrive at a conspicuous gap, on the Steel-rig grounds. The Wall on the eastern declivity of this pass may be studied to great advantage. The courses are laid parallel to the horizon; the mortar of each course of the interior seems to have been smoothed over before the superincumbent mass was added. In order to give the in-door antiquary an idea of its condition, a drawing of it is here introduced.

Mounting another hill, and again descending into the valley, we find another gap, in which the remains of a mile-castle will be noticed, from which it has received the name of the Castle-nick. A little farther removed is Peel-crag, one of the most precipitous faces which the Wall has had to traverse. The military way ingeniously avoids the sudden descent by winding round the southern projections of the rock. After passing a cottage, called the Peel, a modern road is encountered which leads to Keilder, and so into Scotland; in its progress northwards, however, it soon degenerates into a mere track. As this pass is more than usually open, the fosse again appears surmounted by a mound on its northern margin; the earth-works are strongly marked, but the Wall is gone.

The lithographic view represents the northern aspect of the crags, as they appear here.

On the western side of this, sheltered by a few trees, is the farm-house of Steel-rig. Attaining the next elevation—Winshields-crag—we are on ground reputed to be the highest between the two seas; a turf cairn has been erected on it for the purposes of the ordnance survey. From this lofty summit, the vessels navigating the Solway may easily be descried.

Proceeding in the same direction, we reach another gap of wide dimensions, but very steep on both declivities. Here the Wall has been provided with a ditch, strengthened, as usual in dangerous situations, with a rampart on its outer margin. If the local vocabulary does not furnish this pass with a name (and I have not been able to find that it does), Bloody-gap, from the following circumstance, well befits it. Nearly direct north from it, is a rising ridge of ground, called Scotch-coulthard. When the moss-troopers, who abounded in these parts, succeeded in safely reaching it, their pursuers commonly considered farther chase useless. Between the Wall and this point of safety, therefore, the race and the conflict were necessarily of the most desperate character; that many deadly conflicts have taken place, is evidenced by the numerous skeletons which are turned up in draining the ground.

A lonely cottage, upon an exposed part of the ridge, is called Shield-on-the-Wall.

Near the modern military way, two large stones, called ‘the mare and foal,’ are standing. In Armstrong’s map of Northumberland, three are marked; they are probably remains of a Druidical circle.

Shortly afterwards we come to a gap of very bold proportions. Popular faith asserts it to have been the abode of evil spirits, and it is known by the ominous name of Bogle-hole. The sides of the gap are steep; on the western declivity the courses of the Wall are for the most part conformable to the ground, but they are stayed up by occasional steps parallel to the horizon. In the valley, to the south, the Vallum is seen bending up towards the Wall, apparently to assist in defending the pass; it would not have done so, had it been an independent fortification. The vicinity of Bogle-hole seems a fitting place for introducing the following passage from Procopius, a writer of the fifth century. We can readily conceive that at a period when the inroads of the Caledonians were still fresh in the memory of the inhabitants, the country north of the Wall would be regarded with superstitious dread. Doubtless, many who passed the boundary, found, to their cost, that in this region lay the pathway to the world of spirits:—

Moreover, in this isle of Brittia, men of ancient time built a long wall, cutting off a great portion of it: for the soil, and the man, and all other things, are not alike on both sides; for on the eastern (southern) side of the Wall, there is a wholesomeness of air in conformity with the seasons, moderately warm in summer, and cool in winter. Many men inhabit here, living much as other men. The trees, with their appropriate fruits, flourish in season, and their corn lands are as productive as others; and the district appears sufficiently fertilized by streams. But on the western (northern) side all is different, insomuch indeed, that it would be impossible for a man to live there, even half an hour. Vipers and serpents innumerable, with all other kinds of wild beasts, infest that place; and, what is most strange, the natives affirm, that if any one, passing the Wall, should proceed to the other side, he would die immediately, unable to endure the unwholesomeness of the atmosphere. Death also, attacking such beasts as go thither, forthwith destroys them.... They say that the souls of men departed are always conducted to this place; but in what manner I will explain immediately, having frequently heard it from men of that region relating it most seriously, although I would rather ascribe their asseverations to a certain dreamy faculty which possesses them.—Giles’s Ancient Britons, I. 404.

The next defile is Caw-gap; some ruined cottages, formed of Wall-stones, stand in it. The extreme jealousy with which the Romans defended an exposed situation is well shewn here. The fosse, which guards the pass through the low ground, is discontinued on the western side as soon as the Wall attains a sufficient elevation, but upon the the ground drooping, though only for the space of a few yards, it re-appears for that short distance.

A road runs through this pass to the north, which soon becomes a mere track. It passes a solitary house, called Burn Deviot, nearly due north from the gap, which was long the resort of smugglers and sheep-stealers. The memory of its last tenants, Nell Nichol and her two daughters, who were a pest to the country, is still fresh in the district. Though many years have elapsed since any one occupied the dwelling, lights are said often to be seen at the windows at night, visible tokens of the presence of the spirits of the murdered children of Nell’s daughters.

The crags along which we soon find ourselves to be proceeding, possess a perpendicular elevation of nearly five hundred feet above the plains below. Passing another small gap, called the Thorny Doors, we come to a tract of Wall in an excellent state of preservation. The lower courses have lately been freed from the rubbish which for centuries has covered them, and the fallen stones replaced in their proper order. The whole face of the Wall has a remarkably fresh appearance, and nowhere can the tooling of the stones be examined with more advantage. Amongst the fallen stones, one was lately found which furnishes us with additional evidence, that the twentieth legion was engaged in the erection of this part of the Wall. It

is preserved amongst the antiquities at Chesters, and is represented in the adjoining cut. This sculpture cannot have been derived from the Vallum, in the construction of which, in the time of Hadrian, the twentieth legion is acknowledged to have been employed; for the Vallum is here distant more than three hundred yards from the Wall. The reader will of course perceive the bearing which this fact has upon the question of the contemporaneous origin of the two structures, and the construction of the Wall, as well as the Vallum, by Hadrian.

While the antiquary is eagerly scrutinizing indentations in stones which were chiselled sixteen centuries ago, his eye will occasionally rest upon the memorials of an antiquity so indefinite as to throw into the shade even his primeval records. Lepidodendra, and other fossils of the mill-stone-grit and coal series, are of occasional occurrence. Who shall tell when these giant plants flourished, how they were enveloped in their sandy bed, and how hardened into the flinty stone made use of by the Roman soldiers? Imagination reels at the questions suggested.

We are now arrived at the most perfect mile-castle remaining on the line, generally named, from the farm-house to the north of it, the Cawfields Castle. The gap which it guarded was denominated by the peripatetic party of 1849, in commemoration of their visit, the Pilgrims’-gap, a name which is beginning to be recognised by the inhabitants of the neighbourhood.

Until recently, the castellum was nearly covered with its own ruins. Since the annexed drawing was taken, the rubbish has been entirely removed from the inside, as well as the out.

The building is a parallelogram, but the corners at its lower side are rounded off. It measures, inside, sixty-three feet from east to west, and forty-nine feet from north to south. The great Wall forms its northern side. The stones used in the construction of this building are of the same size and character as those employed in the Wall itself; the mortar has disappeared from between the courses of the facing-stones, but portions of lime are seen in the grout of the interior. In the western wall, nine courses of stones are standing. The side walls of the castle have not been tied to the great Wall, but have been brought close up to it, and the junction cemented with mortar.

It is provided with a gateway of large dimensions, both on its northern and southern side. In Horsley’s day, it was a matter of doubt whether there was any opening through the Wall, excepting at the points where the Watling-street and the Maiden-way crossed it; the disinterment of this mile-castle sets the question at rest, and justifies us in believing that the passages at Busy-gap, Rapishaw-gap, and other places, are of Roman formation.

The gateways are formed of large slabs of rustic masonry, and to give them full development, the walls are thicker here than in other parts. The width of the wall at the lower gateway is nine feet three inches; at the upper, which was, of course, the more exposed, ten feet six inches. The opening of each gateway is ten feet. Two folding-doors have closed the entrance, which, when thrown back, have fallen into recesses prepared for them. Some of the pivot holes of the doors remain, which exhibit a circular chafing, and are slightly tinged with the oxide of iron. The security of the northern gateway did not entirely depend upon the solidity of its masonry, or the strength of its doors. It opens upon a sort of cliff, and the road from it does not lead directly away, but runs for a little distance under the Wall, so as to give an opportunity of more readily acting against an enemy.

The masonry of the whole building, but particularly of the gateways, is peculiarly fresh. The lines that have been lightly chiselled on some of the large rustic slabs of the gateways, in order to guide the workmen in correctly placing those above which project less than than the others, are still quite distinct. The stone is of a very durable nature, but it is difficult to conceive how such slender markings, particularly when in a horizontal position, could long resist the action of the weather. Were we to judge only from the appearance of the masonry, we might be led to suppose that the building had been enveloped in its own ruins not long after its erection—perhaps in that dreadful irruption of the Caledonians which brought Severus to this country—and that it was never afterwards repaired.

In clearing out the interior of this building, no traces of party-walls, of a substantial character at least, were found. It stands upon a slope of about one foot in five, and, towards the hanging side of it, the ground has been rendered horizontal by ‘made earth.’ Some fragments of gray slate, pierced for roofing, were found among the rubbish; it is therefore not improbable that a shed was laid against the southern wall for the protection of the soldiers. At about the elevation which the raised floor would reach, the Wall is, in one place, eaten away by the action of fire. Here, probably, was the hearth round which the shivering soldiers of the south clustered, to forget, in the recital of their country’s tales, the fierce Caledonians who prowled around them, or the still fiercer tempests, which all their valour and all their engineering skill could not exclude from their dwellings. With the exception of such sheds, or mere temporary erections, the whole building seems to have been open above. Two large fragments of funereal slabs were found in the castellum; one of them has been roughly shaped into a circular form, and is reddened by fire; the letters which remain are distinct and well formed. Has it been the hearth? The inscription has been erased from the other. Another stone of still greater interest was found here, furnishing additional Part of Slab to Hadrianevidence of the erection of the mile-castles by Hadrian. From the annexed cut, it will at once be perceived that it is a duplicate of the inscription, already described, in which the second legion endeavours to perpetuate its name, and those of its emperor, Hadrian, and Aulus Platorius Nepos, his legate. There cannot be a doubt that the castellum and the Wall were built at the same time, and by the same parties; if Hadrian therefore built the one, the other is erroneously ascribed to Severus.

Two small silver coins were found amongst the rubbish within the castellum, one of Vespasian, the other of Marcus Aurelius. Although their testimony is of a negative character, it will be observed, that it is not inconsistent with the idea, that the castle was erected in the time of Hadrian, and with the opinion already hazarded, that it was dismantled at an early period. There were also found large pieces of earthen-ware, chiefly of the coarser kinds, and fragments of millstones formed of lava, which shew that culinary operations were carried on within these cold, bare walls, and a solitary oyster-shell among the rubbish bore testimony to the attachment of the Romans to this article of luxury. The mile-castle is very nearly midway between the seas.

Besides the articles already enumerated, there were picked up within the castellum some large glass beads of somewhat singular appearance, (Plate VII., figs. 7, 8) and a fibula of brass. The whole of these relics are safely deposited in the collection of antiquities at Chesters. The interesting building is, happily, upon an estate belonging to John Clayton, esq.; the hand of the spoiler will therefore not be allowed to touch it.

About one hundred and fifty yards south of the castellum, is a spring of excellent water. Near it, about midway between the Vallum and the Wall, an altar to Apollo was lately discovered, which will afterwards be described.

A road leads from the vicinity of the mile-castle to the town of Haltwhistle, in the sheltered valley of the Tyne, whither, should the shades of evening be approaching, the way-worn antiquary may be glad to bend his steps. At the point where the path joins the modern military road, a Roman camp will be observed. On the sides which are most exposed, double and triple lines of earth-works have been raised. The rock on the western face of the ground where the camp stands, has been wrought by the Romans for stones, and the camp has given them temporary protection. It was here that the inscription on the face of the rock, LEG. VI. V., was discovered in 1847, as already mentioned, page 81. The quarry, not being required for the use of the district, was shortly afterwards closed.

The Castle-hill at Haltwhistle is, apparently, a diluvial deposit; ramparts, still quite distinct, run round the margin of its summit. Several peel-houses in the town and its vicinity, will interest the antiquary.^[113]

To those who cherish the religious views of the early Anglican reformers, it will be interesting to remember, that this is the native district of Nicholas Ridley, bishop and martyr. Willimoteswick-castle, his reputed birth-place, is on the south bank of the Tyne, about three miles below Haltwhistle.^[114]

Rejoining the Wall, Haltwhistle-burn-head is the first object of interest that we meet with in our course westward. The burn, to which important reference will presently be made, is derived from the overflowings of Greenlee-lough. Between its source, and the gap by which it passes the ridge on which the Wall stands, it is called the Caw-burn; below that point it bears the name of Haltwhistle-burn.

As the width of the defile, and the passage of the stream, render this a weak point in the barrier, the two lines of fortification approach very near to each other; they afterwards again diverge.

Westward of Burn-head farm-house, the fosse is boldly developed, but the Wall is traceable only in the ruins of its foundation. As we proceed onwards to Great Chesters, the foundations of a mile-castle which has stood half to the north of the Wall, and half within it, may be, though not without careful scrutiny, observed. The tower which formerly stood at Portgate is the only other known example of a similar arrangement.

ÆSICA, or Great Chesters, is the tenth stationary camp on the line of the Wall. Its superficial contents are 3 acres, 35 poles. The ramparts and fosse are clearly defined. The southern gateway may be traced; it is nearer the eastern than the western side. A double rampart of earth seems to have given additional security to the western side, which, by situation, is the weakest. A vaulted room in the centre of the camp still answers very correctly to the description given of it in 1800 by Dr. Lingard, (quoted by Hodgson, II. iii. 203.)

It is 6½ feet square, and 5 feet high. It was descended by steps, and had, at the opposite end to its entrance, a sort of bench, raised on mason work, 2½ feet wide and high, and covered with a slab of stone. The roof consisted of six similar and contiguous arches of stone, each 15 inches broad. It had also one pillar. The floor had on it a great quantity of ashes, was flagged, and on raising one of the stones, a spring gushed out, which converted the vault into a well.

About one hundred and fifty yards south of the station, in a field which has for years been furrowed by the plough, the remains of a building of somewhat rude construction have just been discovered. Its floor, consisting, for the most part, of the usual compost, is nearly a foot thick. Further examination would probably disclose, in its vicinity, the foundations of numerous suburban buildings.

An ancient road leads from the southern gateway of the station to the great military way which ran from Cilurnum to Magna.

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:

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.

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.

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, Benks-bridge.	25	4	”
0	7	8½		4	0	”	3	5	0	South end, Do.	29	7	”
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 bottom of arched chamber in centre of station.	30	4	”
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:

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.

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.

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.

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.

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—

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]

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.

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.

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—

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?

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.

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.

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 Slab to Hadrian, by Leg. XX. V. V.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—

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.

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.

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—

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.

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.

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 af?, 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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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"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.

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.

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"CAMBECK-FORT." next in order to Amboglanna, must be regarded as the best evidence of its being the Petriana of the Notitia.

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."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.

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 Mural Stone, Leg. II. Aug.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.

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. "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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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—

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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—

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.

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.

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. "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.