Part II A General Description of the Line of the Wall
Numerous are the appellations which the Great Barrier of the Lower Isthmus has obtained. ‘It was called by ancient writers vallum barbaricum, prætentura and clusura; by Dion διατειχισμα; by Herodian χωμα; by Antoninus and others vallum; by some of the Latin historians murus; by the English the Picts’-wall, or the WALL; and by the Britons gual Sever, gal Sever, and mur Sever. The names prætentura and clusura are given to it upon account of its being stretched out against, and excluding the enemy.’ To the names thus enumerated by Camden, must be added, the Thirl Wall, the Kepe Wall, and that by which it is best known at present, the Roman Wall.
GENERAL VIEW OF THE WORKS.
This great fortification consists of three parts.
I. A Stone Wall, strengthened by a ditch on its northern side.
II. A Turf Wall or Vallum, to the south of the stone wall.
III. Stations, Castles, Watch-towers, and Roads, for the accommodation of the soldiery who manned the Barrier, and for the transmission of military stores. These lie, for the most part, between the stone wall and the earthen rampart.
The whole of the works proceed from one side of the island to the other in a nearly direct line, and in comparatively close companionship. The stone wall and earthen rampart are generally within sixty or seventy yards of each other.14 The distance between them, however, varies according to the nature of the country. Sometimes they are so close as barely to admit of the passage of the military way between them, whilst, in one or two instances, they are upwards of half-a-mile apart. It is in the high grounds of the central region that they are most widely separated. Midway between the seas, the country attains a considerable elevation; here the stone wall seeks the highest ridges, but the vallum, forsaking for a while its usual companion, runs along the adjacent valley. Both works are, however, so arranged as to afford each other the greatest amount of support which the nature of the country allows.
PLAN of the BARRIER between CILURNUM and MAGNA AFTER HORSLEY.
A PLAN of CILURNUM after WARBURTON with part of the PLAN of the STONE WALL and VALLUM.
Shewing how they are connected at the Stations, and by their mutual relation to one another must have been one entire united Defence or Fortification.
Reid Litho. 117 Pilgrim Street Newcastle
The stone wall extends from Wall’s-end on the Tyne, to Bowness on the Solway, a space which Horsley estimates at sixty-eight miles and three furlongs—the turf wall falls short of this distance by about three miles at each end, terminating at Newcastle on the east side, and at Drumburgh on the west.
GENERAL VIEW OF THE WORKS.
The Map of the Wall, the more detailed Plans of several parts of it in Plate II, and the Sections given in a subsequent page, will afford a pretty correct idea of the general arrangement of the works.
Most writers who have treated of the Roman remains in Britain, have considered that the two lines of fortification are the works of different periods. The earth-wall, or Vallum, has generally been ascribed to Hadrian, but the stone wall, or Murus, to Septimius Severus. This is the opinion of Horsley, whose judgment is always deserving of the highest consideration. Deferring to a subsequent period the discussion of this question, it will be convenient, meanwhile, to speak of the works as being but different parts of one great engineering scheme.
THE COURSE OF THE WALL.
The most striking feature in the plan, both of the Murus and the Vallum, is the determinate manner in which they pursue their straight-forward course. The Vallum makes fewer deviations from a right line than the stone Wall; but as the Wall traverses higher ground, this remarkable tendency is more easily detected in it than in the other. Shooting over the country, in its onward course, it only swerves from a straight line to take in its route the boldest elevations. So far from declining a hill, it uniformly selects it. For nineteen miles out of Newcastle, the road to Carlisle runs upon the foundation of the Wall, and during the summer months its dusty surface contrasts well with the surrounding verdure. Often will the traveller, after attaining some of the steep acclivities of his path, observe the road stretching for miles in an undeviating course to the east and the west of him, resembling, as Hutton expresses it, a white ribbon on a green ground. But if it never moves from a right line, except to occupy the highest points, it never fails to seize them, as they occur, no matter how often it is compelled, with this view, to change its direction. It never bends in a curve, but always at an angle. Hence, along the craggy precipices between Sewingshields and Thirlwall, it is obliged to pursue a remarkably zig-zag course; for it takes in its range, with the utmost pertinacity, every projecting rock.
This mode of proceeding involves another peculiarity. It is compelled to accommodate itself to the depressions of the mountainous region over which it passes. Without flinching, it sinks into the ‘gap,’ or pass, which ever and anon occurs, and, having crossed the narrow valley, ascends unfalteringly the steep acclivity on the other side. The antiquary, in following it into these ravines, is often compelled to step with the utmost caution, and in clambering up the opposite ascent, he is as frequently constrained to pause for breath. After crossing the river Irthing, in Cumberland, the Wall is opposed in its course westward by a precipice of upwards of one hundred feet in height. It cannot now be ascertained, whether or not the Wall was taken up the edge of this cliff, for the stratum is of a soft and yielding nature, and is continually being removed by the river below. Certain, however, it is, that the Wall, accompanied by its ditch, is still to be seen on the very brink of its summit. If it did not climb this steep, it is the only one which, in the course of the line from sea to sea, it refused—and if it did ascend it, it would more nearly resemble a leaning tower than a barrier wall.
THE HEIGHT OF THE WALL.
In no part of its course is the Wall entirely perfect, and therefore it is difficult to ascertain what its original height has been. Bede, whose cherished home was the monastery of Jarrow, anciently part of the parish of Wall’s-end, is the earliest author who gives its dimensions. He says—‘It is eight feet in breadth, and twelve in height, in a straight line from east to west, as is still visible to beholders.’ Subsequent writers assign to it a greater elevation. It is not unlikely that the venerable monk, who was no traveller, describes it as it existed in his own neighbourhood; and we can readily conceive that in a flat country, and upon the border of a navigable river, it would, even then, have suffered more from the hand of the spoiler than in the wilder regions of the West.
In a letter written by Sir Christopher Ridley, is an account of the Wall as it stood about the year 1572. The writer says—
Rycht worschipfull, where as you spake unto me for a certayn knowledge of one wall builded betwyxt the Brittons and Pightes (which we call the Kepe Wall) builded by the Pightes, sure theyr is one. The length whereof is about, I think, almost a C myles, bilded alwayis whar they cold upon the hyghtes, whereon about the greatest cragis was, and whare theyr was no cragis or hy placis theyr was a great stank cast of other syd, the bredth iij yardis, the hyght remanith in sum placis yet vij yardis, it goith from Bowlness in Cu’berland viij myles beyond Carlell upon the west sea cost till it comes to a town called the Wallis end besyd Tynemouth on the est sea.15
Samson Erdeswick, an English antiquary of some celebrity, visited the Wall, in the year 1574.16 His account is here given—
As towching Hadrian’s17 Wall, begyning abowt a town called Bonus standing vppon the river Sulway now called Eden. The sea ebbeth and floweth there. The forsaid Wall begynning there, and there yet standing of the heyth of 16 fote, for almost a quarter of a myle together, and so along the river syde estwards, they space of an eight myle by the shew of the trench, as certayne ruynes of castills in that wall, tyll a qwarter of a myle of Carlyole, and there passeth ower the river of Eden; and then goeth straight estwards hard by a late abbey called Lanvercost, and so crossing ower the mowntaynes toward Newcastell.
THE WIDTH OF THE WALL.
Camden, who visited the Wall in 1599, says—
Within two furlongs of Carvoran, on a pretty high hill the Wall is still standing fifteen feet in height, and nine in breadth.
These statements leave upon the mind an impression that the estimate of Bede is too low.
In all probability, the Wall would be surmounted by a battlement of not less than four feet in height, and as this part of the structure would be the first to fall into decay, Bede’s calculation was probably irrespective of it. This, however, only gives us a total elevation of sixteen feet. Unless we reject the evidence of Ridley and Erdeswick, we must admit, even after making due allowance for error and exaggeration, that the Wall, when in its integrity, was eighteen or nineteen feet high. This elevation would be in keeping with its breadth.
The thickness of the Wall varies considerably; in some places it is six feet, in others nine feet and a half.18 Probably the prevailing width is eight feet, the measurement given by Bede.
The frequency with which the thickness of the Wall varies, favours the idea that numerous gangs of labourers were simultaneously employed upon the work, and that each superintending centurion was allowed to use his discretion as to its width. The northern face of the Wall is continuous, but the southern has numerous outsets and insets measuring from four to twelve inches, at the points, doubtless, where the sections of the different companies joined.
THE NORTH FOSSE.
Throughout the whole of its length, the Wall is accompanied on its northern margin by a broad and deep Fosse, which, by increasing the comparative height of the Wall, would add greatly to its strength. This portion of the Barrier may yet be traced, with trifling interruptions, from sea to sea. Even in places where the Wall has quite disappeared, its more lowly companion, the fosse, remains. In some fertile districts the plough has been carried over it in vain; owing to the moisture of the site, the corn sown upon it springs up with undue luxuriance, and is almost uniformly laid prostrate before it can ripen. From this circumstance the ground is frequently retained in grass, while the neighbouring parts are under tillage.19 The fosse thus more readily catches the eye, and is likely longer to retain its groove-like form than if subjected to the ordinary process of cultivation.
When the ditch traverses a flat or exposed country, a portion of the materials taken out of it has frequently been thrown upon its northern margin, so as to present to the enemy an additional rampart. In those positions, on the other hand, where its assistance could be of no avail, as along the edge of a cliff, the fosse does not appear.
No small amount of labour has been expended in the excavation of the ditch; it has been drawn indifferently through alluvial soil, and rocks of sandstone, limestone, and basalt. The patient exertion which this involved is well seen on Tepper Moor, where enormous blocks of whin lie just as they have been lifted out of the fosse. The fosse never leaves the Wall to avoid a mechanical difficulty.
The size of the ditch in several places is still considerable. To the east of Heddon-on-the-Wall, it measures thirty four feet across the top, and is nearly nine feet deep; as it descends the hill from Carvoran to Thirlwall, it measures forty feet across the top, fourteen across the bottom, and is ten feet deep. Westward of Tepper Moor is a portion which, reckoning from the top of the mound on its northern margin, has a depth of twenty feet.
The dimensions of the fosse were probably not uniform throughout the line; but these examples prepare us to receive, as tolerably correct, Hutton’s estimate of its average size. ‘The ditch to the north,’ he says ‘was as near as convenient, thirty-six feet wide and fifteen feet deep.’20
The care with which the fosse was dressed, has varied with the taste of the overseer and the forbearance of the enemy. In some tracts, the work presents as smooth and trim an aspect as a modern railway cutting; in others, marks of haste, carelessness, or sudden surprise, appear. The curious circumstance which Hodgson describes in the following paragraph may be seen in more than one locality:—
‘A little west of Portgate, the appearance of the fosse is still, to the eye that loves and understands antiquity, very imposing and grand. The earth taken out of it lies spread abroad to the north, in lines just as the workmen wheeled it out and left it. The tracks of their barrows, with a slight mound on each side remain unaltered in form.’21
THE VALLUM.
The Vallum or Turf Wall, is uniformly to the south of the stone Wall. It consists of three ramparts and a fosse. One of these ramparts is placed close upon the southern edge of the ditch, the two others of larger dimensions22 stand, one to the north, and the other to the south of it, at the distance of about twenty-four feet. The annexed sections of the works exhibit their present condition. They are drawn to the scale of seventy-five feet to the inch. The Wall is in these parts, unhappily, entirely removed.
The ramparts, in some parts of the line, stand, even at present, six or seven feet above the level of the neighbouring ground.23 They are composed of earth, mingled, not unfrequently, with masses of stone. Occasionally, the stone preponderates to such an extent as to yield to the hand of the modern spoiler, ready materials for the formation of stone dikes. In several places they are being quarried with this view.
The fosse of the Vallum is of a character similar to the fosse of the stone Wall; but, judging from present appearances, its dimensions have been rather less. It, too, has been frequently cut through beds of stone.
The question will occasionally occur to the wanderer by the Wall, whence were the materials obtained for constructing the mounds of the Vallum? With the exception of the fosse, there are no marks of excavation in the neighbourhood, and that the fosse of the Vallum would not yield materials sufficient for the purpose, is abundantly evident.24
USE OF THE VALLUM.
The contents of the ditch on the north of the Wall have probably gone to assist in the formation of these lines. This statement of course proceeds upon the supposition that the Wall and the Vallum were contemporaneous works. Upon the same assumption, it may be added that the ramparts of the Vallum are probably indebted for some portion of the stone which they contain, to the chippings of the Wall.
Although the distance between the stone Wall and the Vallum is, as already observed, perpetually varying, the lines of the Vallum maintain amongst themselves nearly the same relative position throughout their entire course.
No apparent paths of egress have been made through these southern lines of fortification. The only mode of communication with the country to the south, originally contemplated, seems to have been by the gateways of the stations.
If we adopt the theory that the Wall and the Vallum exhibit unity of design, a question of some importance arises—With what view was the Vallum constructed? Hodgson, with much probability, conceives that, whilst the Wall undertook the harder duty of warding off the professedly hostile tribes of Caledonia, the Vallum was intended as a protection against sudden surprise from the south. The natives of the country on the south side of the Wall, though conquered, were not to be depended upon; in the event of their kinsmen in the north gaining an advantage, they would be ready to avail themselves of it. The Romans knew this, and with characteristic prudence made themselves secure on both sides.
PECULIAR CONSTRUCTION OF THE VALLUM.
But, whatever we may conceive to have been the design of the Vallum, the peculiarity of its form will excite the attention of the enquirer, though probably without his arriving at any satisfactory explanation. Supposing, according to the common theory, that the Vallum was an independent fortification, erected long before the Wall, to resist a northern foe, why was not the ditch, as in the case of the stone Wall, drawn along the northern edge of the northern agger? I cannot supply an answer. A similar difficulty meets us on the supposition that it was meant to guard against attack from the other side. Again, what part did the smaller rampart on the south edge of the fosse perform? Possibly it may have been intended as a foot-hold for the soldiers when fighting on this platform against the revolted Britons south of the barrier.
The third, and perhaps the most important, part of the barrier line consisted of the structures that were formed for the accommodation of the soldiery, and for the ready transmission of troops and stores. Neither stone walls, nor ditches, nor earthen ramparts, would alone have proved material impediments to the incursions of the Caledonians—
An iron race,...
Foes to the gentler genius of the plain.
It is reported that Agesilaus, when asked where were the walls of Sparta, pointed to his soldiers and said, ‘There.’ The Romans placed their chief reliance on the valour and discipline of their armies, though they did not despise the assistance of mural lines. In a foreign country, to which it was difficult to transmit relays of troops, it became a matter of great importance to economize the lives of the soldiery. Hence arose the Wall.
Those portions of the great barrier which yet await our consideration, are the Stations, the Mile-castles, the Turrets, and the Roads.
THE STATIONS.
At distances along the line which average nearly four miles, Stationary Camps (stationes or castra stativa) were erected. These received their distinctive appellation, in contradistinction from those temporary ramparts, which were thrown up when an army halted for a night or for some brief period.
The stations on the line of the Wall were military cities, adapted for the residence of the chief who commanded the district, and providing secure lodgment for the powerful body of soldiery he had under him. Here the commandant held his court; hence issued decrees which none might gainsay; here Roman arts, and literature, and luxury, struggled for existence, when all around was ignorance and barbarity.
Some of the stations, though connected with the Wall, have evidently, as will afterwards be shewn, been built before it: this does not prove that they did not form part of the great design. To secure a safe retreat for the soldiers employed upon the work would necessarily be the first care of the builder.
The stations are uniformly quadrangular in their shape, though somewhat rounded at the corners, and contain an area of from three to five acres. A stone wall, five feet thick, encloses them, and has probably in every instance been strengthened by a fosse, and one or more earthen ramparts. They usually stand upon ground which slopes to the south, and are naturally defended upon one side at least.
THE PLACE OF THE STATIONS.
The Wall, when it does not fall in with the northern wall of a station, usually comes up to the northern cheek of its eastern and western gateways. The Vallum, in like manner, usually approaches close to the southern wall of the station, or comes up to the defence of the southern side of the eastern and western portals. Examples of these arrangements are given in Plate II. At least three of the stations, it must, however, be observed, are quite detached from both lines of fortification, being situated to the south of them. They may have been members of Agricola’s chain of forts.
Probably all the stations have, on their erection, been provided, after the usual method of Roman castrametation, with four gateways; in several instances one or more of these portals have been walled up at an early period, in consequence, probably, of some natural weakness in the situation.
Narrow streets, intersecting each other at right angles, occupy the interior of the stations, and abundant ruins, outside the walls, indicate the fact that extensive suburbs have, in every instance, been required for the accommodation of the camp-followers.
THE FERTILITY OF THE STATIONS.
In selecting a spot for a station, care has been taken that an abundant supply of water should be at hand. The springs, rivulets, wells, and aqueducts, whence they procured the needful fluid, are still, in many places, to be traced; and never did water more limpid, more sparkling, more invigorating, lave the lips of man, than that which flows from these sources.
For the most part, the stations—cities which for centuries were the abodes of busy men, and which resounded with the hum of multitudes, and the clash of arms,—now present a scene of utter desolation. The wayfarer may pass through them without knowing it; the streets are levelled, the temples are overthrown, and the sons and daughters of Italy, Mauritania, and Spain, whose adopted homes they were, no longer encounter him. The sheep, depasturing the grass-grown ruins, look listlessly upon the passer-by, and the curlew, wheeling above his head, screams as at the presence of an intruder. Whether, or not, sites naturally fertile were chosen for the stations does not appear; but certain it is, that they are now for the most part coated with a sward more green and more luxuriant than that which covers the contiguous grounds. Centuries of occupation have given them a degree of fertility which, probably, they will never lose.25 One can scarcely turn up the soil without meeting, not only with fragments of Roman pottery and other imperishable articles, but with the bones of oxen, the tusks of boars, the horns of deer, and other animal remains. The debris of some of these cities is considered to be more valuable for farm purposes, than the recent produce of the fold-yard, and is used as such.
THE NAMES OF THE STATIONS.
It is not a little remarkable that the names of the stations, which must have been household words in the days of Roman occupation, have for the most part been obliterated from the local vocabulary; they are now only to be recalled, and that with difficulty, by exhuming the stony records of the past, and comparing them with the notices of contemporaneous geographers. The truth is, that military reasons dictated the choice of the stations,—commercial facilities gave rise to modern cities. Long may the mere military outpost be consigned to the shepherd’s use, whilst the wharf and the warehouse are beset by the busy crowd!
According to Horsley, the stations on the line of the Wall, were eighteen in number, besides some that were placed in its immediate vicinity, and lent to it important aid. Hodgson, conceiving that Horsley has in one instance mistaken a mere summer fortification for a stationary camp, reduces the number of stations on the line itself to seventeen.
THE STATIONS ACCORDING TO THE NOTITIA.
In ascertaining the number and the names of the stations, a most valuable document has come down to our times from the period of Roman occupation. The ‘Notitia Imperii’ was probably written about the end of the reign of Theodosius the younger, and was certainly composed before the Romans abandoned this island. It is a sort of list of the several military and civil officers and magistrates both in the eastern and western empires, with the places at which they were stationed. It may, in fact, be regarded as the roll-call of the Roman army. The sixty-ninth section of the work contains a list of the prefects and tribunes under the command of the Honourable the Duke of Britain. The portion of the section in which we are at present interested is headed, Item per lineam valli—Also along the line of the Wall—and contains the following list:—
The Tribune of the fourth cohort of the Lingones26 at Segedunum.
The Tribune of the cohort of the Cornovii at Pons Ælii.
The Prefect of the first ala, or wing, of the Astures27 at Condercum.
The Tribune of the first cohort of the Frixagi at Vindobala.
The Prefect of the Savinian ala at Hunnum.
The Prefect of the second ala of Astures at Cilurnum.
The Tribune of the first cohort of the Batavians at Procolitia.
The Tribune of the first cohort of the Tungri at Borcovicus.
The Tribune of the fourth cohort of the Gauls at Vindolana.
The Tribune of the first cohort of the Astures at Æsica.
The Tribune of the second cohort of the Dalmatians at Magna.
The Tribune of the first cohort of Dacians, styled Ælia, at Amboglanna.
The Prefect of the ala, called Petriana, at Petriana.
The Prefect of a detachment of Moors, styled Aureliani, at Aballaba.
The Tribune of the second cohort of the Lergi at Congavata.
The Tribune of the first cohort of the Spaniards at Axelodunum.
The Tribune of the second cohort of the Thracians at Gabrosentis.
The Tribune of the first marine cohort, styled Ælia, at Tunnocelum.
The Tribune of the first cohort of the Morini at Glannibanta.
The Tribune of the third cohort of the Nervii at Alionis.
The Cuneus of men in armour at Bremetenracum.
The Prefect of the first ala, styled Herculean, at Olenacum.
The Tribune of the sixth cohort of the Nervii at Virosidum.
THE CORROBORATION OF LETTERED STONES.
It is not said, nor does it appear, that all these twenty-three stations were exactly upon the line of the Wall itself. It is very plain indeed, says Horsley, that according to the Notitia, Segedunum was the first, for that immediately follows the title per lineam valli; but he has not told us expressly at what place or station they end.28 Those stations which were not on the Wall were probably in its vicinity, and were connected with it by military ways. The stations in this list are manifestly, as this writer also observes, set down in some order, and those that were near to each other are placed together;29 so that if we ascertain the identity of some of them, we may form a pretty correct estimate of the position of the intermediate or neighbouring stations.
When, in the ruins of a station, inscribed stones are found bearing the name of a cohort mentioned in the Notitia, the inference is natural, that, in most cases at least, the imperial Notitia will furnish us with a key to the ancient designation of the station. The argument becomes irresistible, when, in several successive instances the designations thus obtained correspond exactly with the order of the places as given in the Notitia. Let us take an example. At the station of Chesters, on the North Tyne, several slabs have been found, bearing the name of the second ala, or wing, of the Astures. One of these is here represented.30 It is a sepulchral stone, and bears at the end of the third and the beginning of the fourth lines the words—
· · · · · · ALAE
II ASTVR[UM]· · · ·
CILURNUM APPROPRIATED.
Now, as the Notitia represents this ala, or troop of cavalry, to have been stationed at Cilurnum, the probability is, that the camp on the west bank of the North Tyne is the Cilurnum of Roman Britain.
Immediately following ‘The second wing of the Astures at Cilurnum,’ on the Notitia list, is, ‘The first cohort of the Batavians at Procolitia.’ Now the station immediately west of Chesters is Carrawburgh, and here a slab and an altar have been found, inscribed with the name of this very cohort. The woodcut represents one of them,31 an altar to Fortune, which is thus inscribed—
FORTVNAE
COH I BATAVOR[UM]
CVI PRÆEST
MELACCINIVS
MARCELLUS PRÆ[FECTUS]
To Fortune
The first cohort of the Batavians
Commanded by
Melaccinius
Marcellus, Prefect.
The conclusion is natural,—Carrawburgh is the Procolitia of the Notitia.
BORCOVICUS ASCERTAINED.
Moving westward, the next station we come to is Housesteads; here numerous inscribed stones have been discovered, which mention the first cohort of the Tungri. One of these, an altar to Jupiter, which is now in the possession of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and is preserved in their museum, is accurately given in the accompanying engraving.
I[OVI] O[PTIMO] M[AXIMO]
ET NVMINIBUS
AVG[USTI] COH[ORS] I TV-
NGRORVM
MIL[LIARIA] CVI PRÆE-
ST Q[UINTUS] VERIVS
SVPERSTIS
PRÆEFECTVS
To Jupiter, the greatest and best,
And the Deities
Of Augustus; the first cohort of the
Tungri,
A milliary one,32 commanded by
Quintus Verius
Superstis,
Prefect.
The correspondence between the Notitia and the sculptures derived from this station, is again too striking to admit a doubt, that the Housesteads of the modern shepherd is the Borcovicus of the Roman hosts.
THE FATE OF LETTERED STONES.
In this way, the ancient designations of the stations from Segedunum, Wall’s-end, to Amboglanna, Birdoswald, have been accurately ascertained; but no stony memorial of the past has arisen to confirm the Notitia account of the stations westward of this point. The peculiarly fertile nature of the soil between the river Irthing and the Solway has been inimical to the preservation of the Wall and its antiquities. The wants of a numerous population rendered stones of every kind valuable; and in an ignorant age, when anything in the shape of a letter was regarded as a thing of evil omen, those most precious to the historian were the first to be sacrificed.33 |THE STATIONS WEST OF AMBOGLANNA.|Since the accuracy of the Notitia has been confirmed in so many instances, it is but fair to conclude, that it may be safely taken as a guide in fixing the Roman designations of the remaining stations along the line. Cambeck Fort is the station next to Birdoswald; the Notitia places Petriana next in order to Amboglanna, which has been ascertained to be Birdoswald—doubtless, according to this reasoning, Cambeck Fort is the ancient Petriana. In this way, could it be certainly ascertained which were the stations per lineam valli, each station might have its Roman name restored, though not a syllable of the ancient designation be retained in the modern cognomen. We should have but to read over the roll-call, and let each camp in succession answer to its name. Unhappily, there is some doubt as to which are the stations along the line of the Wall. Horsley conceives that Watch Cross is the station next in order to Cambeck Fort, and, accordingly, calls it Aballaba; Stanwix, Burgh, Drumburgh, and Bowness, he successively denominates, after the Notitia, Congavata, Axelodunum, Gabrosentis, and Tunnocelum. Subsequent inquirers, and, in particular, the Rev. John Hodgson, have seen reason to suspect that Watch Cross was not a station per lineam valli. It probably was destitute of stone walls, and was surrounded only by a rampart of earth.34 It seems to have been a mere castra æstiva—a summer encampment, and consequently, was not entitled to rank with those strongholds that were intended to withstand all foes at all seasons. Should Watch Cross be laid aside, the whole of Horsley’s subsequent allocation of the Notitia names is thrown out of course. It is much to be desired that some ‘Witch Stone’ would start from its hiding-place in the foundation of some cottage or castle in the neighbourhood of any one of the stations west of Cambeck Fort, and resolve the interesting question. Until such an event does occur, some doubt must hang upon the subject. The reader will now understand how it is, that, according to some authorities, the stations immediately dependent upon the Wall are said to be eighteen in number, and according to others only seventeen. For the reason just referred to, the Notitia names of the stations are not given on the Map of the Wall westward of Petriana.
The remainder of the stations of the Notitia were probably out-posts, intended to give support to the whole structure. The difficulty of rightly appropriating the Notitia appellations to such of these as have not yielded inscribed stones, is even greater than in the case of those which follow more closely the line of the Wall.
THE EXTINCTION OF ROMAN NAMES.
Before leaving this subject, the reader will do well to compare the ancient with the modern names of the stations, as far as they are ascertained; in doing so, he will be struck with the almost total absence of any similarity between them. So complete, it would appear, has been the subversion by Pict, and Saxon, and Dane, of the Roman domination in the north of England, that the very names of the cities which were occupied by the empire for centuries have perished,
And, like this unsubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind.
THE CASTELLA OR MILE-CASTLES.
In addition to the Stations, Castella or Mile-Castles were provided for the use of the troops which garrisoned the Wall. They derive their modern name from the circumstance of their being usually placed at the distance of a Roman mile from each other. They were quadrangular buildings, differing somewhat in size, but usually measuring from sixty to seventy feet in each direction. With two exceptions, they have been placed against the southern face of the Wall; the castle at Portgate, every trace of which is now obliterated, and another near Æsica, the foundations of which may, with some difficulty, still be traced, seem to have projected equally to the north and south of the Wall. Though generally placed about seven furlongs from each other, the nature of the ground, independently of distance, has frequently determined the spot of their location. Whenever the Wall has had occasion to traverse a river or a mountain pass, a mile-castle has uniformly been placed on the one side or other to guard the defile. The mile-towers have generally had but one gate of entrance, which was of very substantial masonry, and was uniformly placed in the centre of the south wall; the most perfect specimen now remaining, however, has a northern, as well as a southern gateway. It is not easy to conjecture what were the internal arrangements of these buildings; probably they afforded little accommodation beyond what their four strong walls and well-barred gates gave. Hodgson states that when the foundations of the castle northeast of Housesteads were removed in 1832, the remains of an inner wall were seen, all round, parallel to the outer walls. He hence infers that the space between the walls has been roofed, and the centre uncovered. Deferring the further discussion of this subject until, in the course of our local description, we arrive at the most perfect specimen remaining—the mile-castle near Cawfields—the reader is meanwhile referred to the lithograph which depicts this interesting remain.
THE TURRETS OR WATCH TOWERS.
Between the mile-castles, four subsidiary buildings, generally denominated Turrets or Watch Towers, were placed. They were little more than stone sentry-boxes. It is with much difficulty that they can now be traced. Horsley, in his day, complained that ‘scarce three of them could be made out in succession.’ Would that the modern antiquary could make the same lamentation! Scarcely one along the whole line can with certainty be determined. They contained an interior space of eight or ten feet square. Horsley states the distance between them to have been three hundred and eight yards—the whole number would consequently be three hundred and twenty. Though small buildings, they were, like all the works of the Romans, built for perpetuity. Hodgson found the walls of one near Birdoswald to be nearly three feet thick. Such were the buildings provided for the lodgement and security of the cohorts, whose hard lot it was to guard this frontier barrier. A plan of Cilurnum, and the works in its vicinity, taken from Warburton’s Vallum Romanum, in Plate II., exhibits these arrangements, and shews, as he remarks, how the Wall and the Vallum, the stations, turrets, and castles, yielded mutual assistance to each other.
THE MILITARY WAY.
But all these arrangements were not enough; without Roads, one important element in the strength of the Great Barrier would have been wanting. Nothing economizes military force more effectually than the possession of means for quickly concentrating all available resources upon any point that the enemy may select for attack. The advance of Roman armies, and the formation of roads, were uniformly contemporaneous. The Barrier had its Military Way. It is impossible to over-estimate the importance of this part of the works. Without it, all the rest would have been useless. It would not, perhaps, be incorrect to say that both Vallum and Wall were subsidiary to it, and that the chief use of these structures was to guard the road, and to protect and conceal from view, both on the north and south, the troops that marched along it. The modern history of the district traversed by the Wall furnishes a singular corroboration of this opinion. In the rebellion of 1715, the operations of the royalist forces were greatly impeded by the absence of a good road between Newcastle and Carlisle. In the rebellion of 1745, a similar inconvenience was experienced. Marshal Wade was at Newcastle when the Pretender appeared before the city of Carlisle. The commandant of the city immediately sent an express to inform him of his position. The general’s answer contained these words:—
Newcastle, November 10th, 1745, 7 o’clock.
Gentlemen,
I have just now the favour of your letter by express, with an account of the Rebels’ approach near your city. The spirit and resolution with which you exert yourselves is very commendable, and I hope will contribute to disappoint the Rebels of any design they may have formed against you...... I cannot follow them, the way they may probably take being impassable for Artillery..... but I hope to meet them in Lancashire, and make them repent of their rashness.... I wish you all imaginable success,
And am, Gentlemen, your
Most obedient humble servant,
George Wade.35
THE IMPORTANCE OF MILITARY ROADS.
Thus, for want of a military road across the Isthmus, the importance of which had been perceived by the Romans sixteen centuries previously, the safety of the kingdom was perilled, and a hostile force permitted to pour itself into the heart of England. After such terrible warnings, government at last interfered, and an act of Parliament was passed which set forth in the preamble:—
Whereas the making and keeping a free and open communication between the city of Carlisle and the town of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, by a road for the passage of troops, horses, and carriages, at all times of the year, would be of great use and service to the public, and it hath been found by experience, that the want of such road, passage, and communication, hath been attended with great inconvenience and danger to this kingdom.....: Be it enacted, &c.
The road now known in the district by the name of the Military Road was accordingly made at the public expense. It is not a little remarkable that it takes precisely the track which the engineers of Rome had so many centuries before selected. In the map of the Wall which accompanies this work, the modern military road is delineated.
The importance of a good road, protected by military posts at short intervals, in securing the tranquillity of a turbulent district, is strikingly shewn in another instance. That part of the great highway between Madrid and Cadiz which crosses the wild hills of the Sierra barrier, was formerly left to the robber and the wolf, without roads or villages. A road, admirably planned, was at length executed by Charles Le Maur, an able engineer in the service of Charles III. The task of guarding it was the difficulty next to be overcome. For this purpose, Spain, who had colonized the new world, and expelled her rich Jews and industrious Moors, was compelled to resort to foreign assistance. In 1768, a colony of Germans and Swiss settled upon the line on condition of maintaining a constant guard.36 This is done to the present day. Several consecutive towns, such as Carolina, in Andalusia, are occupied by people speaking nothing but the German language, and regular patrols are constantly on the move from one town to another. These Germans have their land in better order and cultivation than the Spaniards. This Spanish highway, with its stations at regular intervals, with its foreign guards, who from generation to generation maintain the tongue and the habits of their fatherland, presents too many points of resemblance to the manner in which the northern frontier of Roman power in Britain was defended, to be passed over without obtaining at least this brief notice.
MILITARY ROADS.
Gordon, in his Itinerarium Septentrionale, says, that two military ways belonged to the Barrier; a small Military Way a little to the south of the Wall, and, beyond it, the Great Military Way. In addition to these, Horsley enumerates a third, which he calls the Old Military Way. Horsley conceives that the north rampart of the Vallum constitutes the road which was used by Agricola and Hadrian in transporting their troops from station to station, and that when Severus built the Wall, he formed a new road—the great military way—which pursued an independent course, sometimes coinciding with the old road, but more frequently keeping nearer to the Wall. That there may have been a path-way immediately under the Wall which went from turret to turret, on which the Roman sentries marched with slow and measured pace, when they did not choose to expose themselves upon the parapets of the Wall, is not improbable; though we now look in vain for any traces of it. But that the north agger of the Vallum was thrown up either by Agricola or Hadrian to serve the purposes of a road, is a proposition too startling to be received even on the authority of the learned Horsley. In some places, indeed, it is sufficiently flattened to admit of the passage of traffic along it, but in the greater part of the course where the works of the Vallum are not under cultivation, the rampart is too conical, too narrow, and too ragged, to admit of such a use. Excepting in those situations, where stones are mingled with the whole mass of the agger, it exhibits no signs of having been paved.37 The manner in which all the ramparts of the Vallum on Tepper Moor are encumbered with blocks of basalt, clearly shews, that here at least there has been no road. Besides, few who trace the lines of the Vallum from sea to sea, and observe their complete parallelism, will be able to resist the conclusion, that the whole of the works were contemporaneous; whereas, Horsley’s theory ascribes part to Agricola, and part to Hadrian: moreover, it may be added, that so much do the northern and the southernmost aggers resemble each other, that unbiassed observers will scarcely entertain a doubt, that they have been thrown up to serve a precisely similar purpose.
THE MILITARY WAY.
Happily, there is no room for doubt respecting the other road, which Horsley calls Severus’ Greater Military Way, as in the untilled districts of the country it may be traced for several consecutive miles; and if we receive the theory, that the Murus and Vallum are one work, there is no need to seek for any other.
CONSTRUCTION OF THE ROAD.
The Military Way is usually about seventeen feet wide, and is composed of rubble so arranged as to present a rounded surface, elevated in its centre a foot or eighteen inches above the adjoining ground. When carried along the slope of a hill, the hanging side is made up by large kerb-stones. In most places where it still remains, it is completely grass-grown, but may, notwithstanding, be easily distinguished from the neighbouring ground by the colour of its herbage, the dryness of its substratum allowing the growth of a finer description of plant. For the same reason, a sheep-track generally runs along it. For the accommodation of the soldiery, the road went from castle to castle, and so, from station to station. In doing this, it did not always keep close to the Wall, but took the easiest path between the required points. In traversing the precipitous grounds between Sewingshields and Thirlwall, the ingenuity of the engineer has been severely tried; but most successfully has he performed his task. Whilst, as previously observed, the Wall shoots over the highest and steepest summits, the road pursues its tortuous course from one platform of the rock to another, so as to bring the traveller from mile-castle to mile-castle by the easiest possible gradients. Often has it been my lot to notice how naturally, towards the close of a fatiguing day’s march, the less zealous of our exploring party, more anxious to select an easy track than to keep close companionship with the Wall, have, most unconsciously, pursued the route of the Roman way. But, notwithstanding all the art of the engineer, the steepness of the road in some places is such, that most of our modern carmen, with all their boasted skill, would be greatly puzzled if required to traverse it with a waggon laden with military stores.38
ADDITIONAL ROAD.
Although the road now described has probably been the only carriage-way between the two great lines of fortification, another, situated to the south of them, has afforded direct communication between some of the inland stations. From Cilurnum to Magna, the Wall forms a curved line, in order to gain the highest hills of the district. For the accommodation of those whose business did not require them to call at any intermediate point, a road went, like the string of a bow, direct from the one station to the other. This road, which is shewn in Plate II., went near the modern village of Newburgh, where Roman remains are occasionally found, and passed by the north gate of Vindolana, Chesterholm, near to which a Roman mile-stone still stands. Some portions of the ancient pavement still remain near Morwood. It is probable that this Roman Military Way was further continued, south of the Wall, direct to Stanwix.
SPEAKING TUBES IN THE WALL.
If tradition is to be credited, the Romans were not satisfied with roads as a means of rapidly communicating information; speaking-trumpets or pipes, we are told, ran along the whole length of the Wall. Of this, Drayton, long ago, sang in his Polyolbion—
Townes stood upon my length, where garrisons were laid Their limits to defend; and for my greater aid, With turrets I was built, where sentinels were plac’d To watch upon the Pict; so me my makers grac’d With hollow pipes of brasse, along me still they went, By which they in one fort still to another sent, By speaking in the same, to tell them what to doe, And soe from sea to sea could I be whispered through.
Sir Christopher Ridley, in his letter tells us, that—
In this Wall was theyr a trunck of brass, or whatever kynd of mettal, which went from one place to another along the Wall, and came into the Captaynes chamber, whereat they had watchers for the same, and yf theyr had bene stryfe or business betwyxt the enemies, and that the watchmen did blow a horn in at the end of the truncke that came into the chamber, and so from one to one; there was certayn money payed yearly to the mantenance of this trunck by the inhabitants theyrabout, and doith yet pay to some gentilmen in Northymberland, the which money is called horn-geld money.39
THE THEORY PROBABLY INCORRECT.
Camden also refers to this curious tradition. Once, but only once, have I met with this story in my own rambles. Such myths will not long outlive the introduction of the electric telegraph. ‘There are no old people upon the Wall now,’ as a man of three-score lately said to me, when I was endeavouring to persuade him to gather up from his still more ancient neighbour the fire-side lore of by-gone times.
It is curious to observe that a similar statement is made respecting the Barrier of the Upper Isthmus. A correspondent writes—
One old man told me, that when he was young, on digging through one of the wall stations—at Upper Croy—they came upon stone pipes, laid horizontally in the soil, and joined at the ends like those for water. From the elevation of the place, it is quite obvious that they could not be water conduits. This old person said that the idea he had heard ‘learned people’ give of these pipes, was, that they were for speaking through. That the pipes were found, and made of stone, not clay, is certain.
Pipes of lead are occasionally met with in the ruins of the stations, and pipes of burnt clay are of very frequent occurrence. To this circumstance the tradition probably owes its rise. They are not, however, found in the Wall, and when placed in the stations, seem to have served a different purpose. One use to which the tile-tubes have been put has been the transmission of warm air throughout an apartment. The walls of one of the chambers of the ‘baths’ at Hunnum were lined with them. Others may have been used, especially in high situations, for collecting rain-water from the roofs of the dwellings, and conveying it to cisterns. Besides, the inutility of the contrivance militates against the probability of its adoption: the sentinels at their posts could easily transmit hasty intelligence from end to end, by the voice or by horns, without pipes imbedded in the Wall, which, even if constructed, would probably be useless for such a purpose.
This traditionary fiction is probably of more than mediæval antiquity. Xiphiline, in his life of Severus, tells some such marvellous tale about the towers of Byzantium.
THE MASONRY OF THE WALL.
A description of the Masonry of the erections which have passed in review before us will conclude this general examination of the Barrier.
The following extract of a letter with which I have been favoured by Robert Rawlinson, esq., Inspector of the Board of Health, will form an excellent introduction to the subject.
I have several times thought over the subject of the Roman Wall since I had the pleasure of seeing you. The Romans constructed works with many different kinds of masonry; no doubt all chosen to suit the material used, the place, and the skill of the builders. In Rome, and Italy generally, works of great magnificence were constructed, when the art displayed was equal to the grandeur of the design. Such a work was the famed Arch of Trajan, the Arch of Septimius Severus, the Arch of Constantine, the Baths of Diocletian, and others. In these works, construction of the highest order was used, and the sculptor emulated the architect. The lettered altars and sculptured figures found on the line of ‘the Wall’ must not be compared with the best workmanship of Rome.
NATIVE LABOURERS EMPLOYED.
I am quite satisfied, in my own mind, that the general character of the work on the Wall was adapted to suit the time, the country, and more especially, the labourers employed on the work. The Wall, being a work of defence, had to be constructed in haste; the country was wild, rude, and without roads, excepting such as the Romans caused to be made. This ‘caused to be made’ is I think, the key to the character of the masonry chosen.... The form of construction is the easiest and strongest which rude, uneducated men could accomplish; and, with good mortar, such as the Romans knew so well how to make, is the kind of work calculated to endure for centuries, as we find it has done.... The works of the Wall I consider to have been chiefly constructed by the natives, under the armed superintendence and teaching of the soldier. The Roman knew no right but that of the conqueror; his object was conquest for use; use of the land, and the labour that was upon it. The Roman soldier was a fighting animal, and was so far civilized as to know how to make the comparative savage do his work upon his plan, and this was shaped to suit the labour used. Consider the length of the Wall, and the extent of the works upon it, and it will be seen that for the army to have constructed it, would have been to have kept them constantly working instead of watching and fighting.
Some years ago I had a large quantity of heavy masonry to construct on one of the railways. It was not unlike the Roman Wall in character. I found a difficulty in dealing with the regularly educated mason, and bought several scores of trowels and hammers; these I placed in the hands of uneducated labourers, set them to work under the superintendence of educated foremen, looking after the whole myself. This is a case similar to the one I have imagined for the great Wall; only the work my labourers performed had more difficulties about it than the Wall, and yet, these uneducated men performed the work perfectly.40
Think of the Roman bringing in at the sword’s point, hundreds of captive natives, placing for the first time tools in their hands, indicating the work to be done, and compelling the trembling slaves to do it!41
The stones employed in building the Wall and stations were very carefully selected. When good stones were to be had near at hand, they were taken; but those of inferior quality were never used to avoid the labour of bringing better from a distance. In some parts of the line, in Cumberland especially, the stone must have been brought from quarries seven or eight miles off. A quartzose grit was generally selected not only on account of its hardness, but because its rough surface gave it a firmer adhesion to the mortar. The stone which has been used in the works at Wallsend is of a much coarser grit than any that is found in the neighbourhood.
THE QUARRIES USED.
The quarries from which the stone has been procured can in many instances be precisely ascertained. At Fallowfield, not far from Cilurnum, is an ancient quarry on the face of which the words,
[P]ETRA FLAVI CARANTINI, the rock of Flavius Carantinus—are still to be traced. The vignette at the close of this part represents its present condition. On opening out, in the year 1837, some old quarries on the high, brown hill of Borcum, near Thorngrafton, a small copper vessel was found, containing a large number of coins, all of the upper empire. Another Roman quarry existed on Haltwhistle Fell. In a paper recently read before the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Mr. John Clayton says—
In riding over Haltwhistle Fell, before its enclosure, in the summer of 1844, I came upon some workmen employed in re-opening an old quarry. They told me they had met with a ‘written stone’; I dismounted, and climbed the face of the rock, when I found inscribed in letters clear and fresh
LEG. VI. V.
From its position on a wide waste, far removed from any abode, but in the immediate vicinity of the Roman Wall, this quarry could not possibly have been used for any other purpose than to supply stones for the building of the Wall; and from the freshness of the letters of the inscription, it must have been filled up with earth soon after the soldiers ceased to use it. The workmen promised to spare the ‘written rock,’ but the next time I rode that way it had been shivered to atoms.
INSCRIPTIONS ON THE QUARRIES.
In Cumberland, there are several Roman inscriptions on the face of the ancient quarries. About a mile west of Birdoswald, and little more than a quarter of a mile south of the road, is Coome Crag, which, besides other markings, presents the following inscription—
SE · · RVS
AI · · · ·
· · · VSTUS
This perhaps may be read—Severus Alexander Augustus. The most remarkable of this class of Antiquities, however, is the ‘Written Rock of the Gelt,’ near Brampton. The lithograph on the opposite page is a very accurate representation of this curious relic of antiquity. As the scar is nearly perpendicular, and the river Gelt washes its base, it is not without some difficulty that the inquiring visitor can give it a satisfactory examination; it will, however, well reward his exertions, and the beauty of the surrounding scenery will give additional zest to the ramble. |INSCRIPTIONS ON THE QUARRIES.|The inscribed part of the rock is fully fifty feet above the water. The letters seem to have been made by connecting with a chisel or pick a number of holes drilled in the rock in the required order; at all events, the terminations of the strokes have been thus formed. Some doubt exists as to the precise reading of the inscription, but the general purport of it is this:—The vexillarii of the second legion under an optio called Agricola, were, in the consulship of Flavius Aper and Albinus Maximus (A.D. 207), employed to hew stone here for the Romans.42 It is piteous, when surveying so interesting a relic of antiquity, and one which has outlived the accidents of upwards of sixteen centuries, to observe that it has been approached by men who cannot sympathize with the mighty dead, and who care not what violence they do to the feelings of those who can. To the defacement, as I believe, of some portion of the inscription, the names of F. GRAHAM, W. HARDCASTLE, T. THOMPSON, W. NELSON, have been carved upon the rock. Notoriety is easily earned, but it is not always of an enviable character.
CHARACTER OF THE FACING-STONES.
The exterior masonry of the Wall consists, on both sides, of carefully squared free-stone blocks43; the interior, of rubble of any description firmly imbedded in mortar. The character of the facing-stones is peculiar, yet pretty uniform. They are eight or nine inches thick, and ten or eleven broad; their length, which is perhaps their characteristic feature, not unfrequently amounts to twenty inches. The part of the stone exposed to the weather is cut across ‘the bait,’ so as to avoid its scaling off by the lines of stratification; the stone tapers towards the end which is set into the Wall, and has a form nearly resembling that of a wedge. The cut shews its usual form. Owing to the extent to which the stones are set into the Wall, the necessity of bonding tiles—so characteristic of Roman masonry in the south of England—is altogether superseded. There does not appear to have been a single tile used in any part of the Wall. Stones of the shape and size which have now been described were just those which could be most easily wrought in the quarry, most conveniently carried on the backs of the poor enslaved Britons to the Wall, and most easily fitted into their bed. The uniformity in their appearance is such as to enable us, after a little practice, at once to recognize them in the churches, castles, farm-buildings, and fences of the district through which the Wall runs.
MASONRY OF THE STATIONS.
In Cumberland, the stones are rather larger than in the eastern portion of the line, a thickness of twelve inches not being uncommon, with a corresponding breadth. The blocks in the north face of the Wall, also, are not unfrequently larger than those in the south. The stones of which the walls of the stations are composed are smaller than those of the main Wall. Their average thickness is from five to seven inches, and their breadth from six to eight. The woodcut which is here introduced, depicts the junction of the west wall of the station of Amboglanna with the Wall, and well displays the different character of the stones used in two erections. As already observed, the stations appear to have been built before the Wall, and as the necessity of the case required that they should be run up as quickly as possible, a smaller class of stone was allowed to pass muster here than was used in the Wall. The workmanship also is of inferior quality.
THE TOOLING OF THE STONES.
The front of the stones, both of the Wall and stations, is roughly ‘scabbled’ with the pick. In some parts of the line, this tooling takes a definite form; when this is the case, the marking called the diamond broaching is most common. Sometimes the stone is scored with waved lines, or with small squares, or with nearly upright lines. The woodcuts illustrative of the masonry at Chester Holm, and of the Crypt at Hexham, to be introduced along with the account of these places, will exemplify some of these kinds of broaching. It was not until I had become tolerably familiar with the Wall, that my attention was called to this peculiar kind of tooling. A visit to Habitancum and Bremenium, where the stones are nearly all broached in the diamond fashion, induced me to inspect the Wall more narrowly in this respect. I have since frequently detected it, especially in Cumberland. It is rare in the Northumbrian portion. Is this broaching peculiar to a particular legion, or to a certain period? The station of Habitancum is understood to have been rebuilt by Caracalla—can the other stations, and those parts of the Wall where this kind of marking appears, have also undergone repair at the same time, or is it the work of some particular legion? The same kind of broaching may be noticed in some of the stones at Chester, the Deva Icenorum of the Romans, which was for a long time the head quarters of the 20th legion. Though unable to resolve the doubt, I think that the prosecution of the inquiry may lead to some worthy result.
MASONS’ MARKS.
Cuttings resembling masons’ marks occasionally occur. Sometimes they consist of a single or double stroke; sometimes of a diagonal cross, sometimes of a rectangular. The other marks which are here represented are less frequently met with.44
ROMAN MORTAR.
The tenacity of the mortar which was used, forms an important element in the strength of the whole fabric. That which is in use now is generally spoiled, from a variety of circumstances. The prevailing practice is, first of all, to slack the lime by pouring a quantity of water upon it when lying in a heap; in most cases this does not sufficiently pulverize it: it is then mixed with any earth bearing the least resemblance to sand, and the two are worked together very imperfectly with a shovel. The mortar thus made often stands and hardens, so as to require to to be once and again mixed with water, and worked up before it is used. It thus becomes quite impoverished; and, after all, for the convenience of the mason, it is employed in so dry a state that the stone soon takes all the moisture from it, and it becomes little better than powder. The gigantic railway operations of recent times have driven men out of the beaten track, and compelled them afresh to discover the Roman method of preparing mortar. On the authority of engineers well acquainted with the Roman Wall, I am enabled to state, that the mortar of that structure is precisely similar to the grout and concrete45 of the railway mason of the present day. Specimens of the ancient and modern grout are before me, and there cannot be a doubt as to the identity of their preparation.
The following is the mode in which the railway engineer prepares his mortar. The lime, in the state in which it comes from the kiln, is first ground to powder, and is then mixed with sand and gravel, and chippings of stone. The purposes for which the mortar is required indicate the coarseness and quantity of the intermingling gravel. When wanted as concrete, to form, independently of other materials, the foundation of some heavy structure, stony fragments of larger size are mingled with the lime than when the mortar is to be used to cement chiselled stones, or even than when wanted to constitute with rubble the interior of a wall. The mixture of pounded lime and gravel, when made, is not mingled with water, until the moment of its application to the work for which it is required, but it is then intimately united with an abundant quantity of it. When used as concrete, the mass will, in three hours, have solidity sufficient to bear the weight of a man, and in about three days it will have acquired a rock-like firmness.
Such, doubtless, is the way46 in which the mortar of the Roman Wall was prepared, and it would have this very important advantage over that generally used at present, that, in a very short time, the work would acquire a massiveness and strength, sufficient to resist the attacks of an enemy. The mortar of the Saxon and Norman periods is of the same character.
Occasionally, but by no means frequently, small pieces of charcoal are mixed with the mortar. These have evidently been derived from the wood used in burning the lime. Excepting in the buildings of the stations, pounded tile, so characteristic of the Roman mortar in the south of England, is by no means a common constituent of the mortar of the Wall. Limestone is abundant in most parts of the district through which the Wall passes. The Romans probably burnt it in ‘sow kilns.’ The limestone and fuel being arranged in alternate layers, the whole was carefully covered with turf and ignited. This simple method is still much resorted to when the lime is wanted for farm purposes.
THE MODE OF BUILDING.
Supposing the stones to be now quarried and squared, the lime burnt and mixed with sand and gravel, the next point to be attended to is the method of using them. The foundation has been prepared by the removal of the natural soil to the width of about nine feet. In the hill district, a very scanty portion of earth covers the rocks; in the richer regions an excavation of from fifteen to eighteen inches has been made before the subsoil was reached. On the outer and inner margins of the ground thus bared, two rows of flags of from two to four inches in thickness, and from eighteen to twenty in breadth, were generally laid; no mortar was placed under them.47 On these lay the first course of facing-stones, which were usually the largest stones used in the structure. In higher courses the facing-stones are uniformly of free-stone, on the ground course a ‘whin-stone’ is occasionally introduced. The flagstones of the foundation usually project from one to five inches beyond the first course of facing-stones, and these again usually stand out an inch or two beyond the second course, after which, the wall is taken straight up. In some parts of the line the flagstones do not appear in the foundation—the first course of facing-stones being laid directly upon the ground. In the neighbourhood of Sewingshields, where large tracts of the Wall have been recently removed, a careful observer informs me, that the entire foundation has for some distance been laid upon a bed of clay of three or four inches thick.
THE RUBBLE OF THE WALL.
One or two courses of facing-stones having been placed in their beds and carefully pointed, a mass of mortar in a very fluid state was poured into the interior of the wall, and stones of any kind or shape that were of a convenient size were ‘puddled’ in amongst it. Whin-stones, as being most abundant in the district, are generally used for the filling. Course after course was added, and one mass of concrete imposed upon another, until the Wall reached the required height. When the whole was finished it formed a solid, compact mass, without any holes or crevices in the interior, and in a short time became as firm as the unhewn rock.
In some parts of the line the mortar has been ‘hand-laid.’ The rubble of the interior having been first disposed in its place, the mortar has been laid upon it with a trowel. In this case the mortar never penetrates the interstices of the mass, and does not make such solid masonry as the method generally pursued. When, however, this plan is adopted, the rubble stones are often laid upon their edges in a slanting position; and when those of the next layer, as occasionally occurs, are made to lean in the opposite direction, we have the kind of masonry represented in the adjoining diagram, which is appropriately called herring-bone work. The nearest approach to this that I have seen upon the line of the Wall is at Steel-rig, and Hare-hill. In Hodgson’s Northumberland48 a section of the Wall on Walltown crag is given, exhibiting herring-bone masonry. In this instance the stones are disposed transversely to the Wall, at Steel-rig and Hare-hill they are disposed longitudinally; the latter method is the easier of the two.49
On wavy ground the courses of the Wall follow the undulations of the surface, but on steep inclines the stones are laid parallel to the horizon. The Wall, in this case, must have been built up from the bottom of the defile, where also, in order the better to resist the superincumbent mass, it not unfrequently has a greater breadth than usual. As shewing that different sections of the Wall have been erected under distinct superintendents, it may occasionally be observed that, whilst on one slope of a ‘gap’ the stones are laid parallel to the horizon, on the other, differing little perhaps in inclination, they are laid even with the ground.
DURABILITY OF THE STRUCTURE.
We must now take leave of this important part of our subject, the masonry of the Wall. Judging from those portions of it which remain, it may safely be asserted, that no structure can be conceived to possess greater strength and durability. The first time I happened to visit Bowness (in the year 1831), some portions of the Wall, seven feet high, were in the course of being removed; it was found necessary to resort to the force of gunpowder in order to effect its destruction. In the substantial nature of their works, the Romans have left the impress of their own mighty minds. They built not for the day. They did not conceive that their existence was bound up in the fate of a single generation, but that it was spread over the destinies of succeeding ages. Their works contrast strongly with the efforts of some modern builders. The editor of the pictorial volume, styled ‘Old England,’ seems, in the following passage, to speak from personal observation.
Passing by the fragments of which we have spoken, we are under the north wall [of Richborough]—a wondrous work calculated to impress us with a conviction that the people who built it were not the petty labourers of an hour, who were contented with temporary defences and frail resting places. The outer works upon the southern cliff of Dover, which were run up during the war with Napoleon, at prodigious expense, are crumbling and perishing, through the weakness of job and contract, which could not endure for half a century. And here stand the walls of Richborough, as they have stood for eighteen hundred years, from twenty to thirty feet high, eleven or twelve feet thick at the base, with their outer masonry in many parts as perfect as at the hour when their courses of tiles and stones were first laid in beautiful regularity.
ITS EVENTUAL DECAY.
If the meddling hand of man had been withheld from the Barrier of the Lower Isthmus, the Wall might have stood, even to the present hour, in almost its original integrity. It is necessary to say ‘almost,’ for nothing can be more correct than the observation of Hodgson—
Though man has had the chief labour in effecting its destruction, its whole line and all its stations, castles, and towers, ever since it was deserted by the Romans, have been incessantly suffering prostration by the hand of nature. The feeble roots of grasses, ferns, and shrubs, have been assisted by the more destructive wedges and levers of forest trees in levelling it with the ground; and, in many places in the west of this county, for considerable distances together, the ruins that time has thrown from its brow, lie in a deep green mound at its feet; and thorns, briars, hazel, and mountain ash (entwined with relentless ivy), are still, in the parts that remain above ground, at the labour of demolition in which, for the last fourteen centuries, they have been unceasingly engaged.
In this day, when the Arabic numerals assert an influence quite as potent as that which the lictors’ rods obtained in ancient Rome, the inquiries may not be destitute of interest—What amount of labour was involved in the construction of the Barrier, in what time could it be accomplished, and what, at the present value of labour and materials, would be the cost of its construction?
MONEY VALUE OF THE BARRIER.
The Wall is sixty-eight miles long; granting that it was only sixteen feet high, but had a continuous thickness of eight feet, we have 1,702,115 cubic yards of masonry, to say nothing of stations, mile-castles, and turrets.
Twelve shillings per cubic yard is as near as may be the present value of masonry, such as that of which the Roman Wall consists—the cost of this part of the structure would therefore be 1,021,269l.
Taking into account that the labour was forced, each cubic yard of the Wall would, at the least, require, in quarrying the stone, its carriage to the Wall, its setting, and other operations, one entire day’s exertions of one man. In this way we have 1,702,115 days’ labour in the stone Wall.
Taking the north fosse at the dimensions already given, its excavation would involve the removal of 5,585,072 cubic yards. A modern excavator, stimulated by pay proportioned to his work, enjoying food, and raiment, and shelter, such as the ancient Briton was a stranger to, and possessing the advantage of good tools, and good organization, can remove the enormous quantity of twenty cubic yards of earth per day. The labourer, driven to his ungrateful task by a Roman task-master, and compelled to support himself as best he might, and to labour with tools of the rudest construction, would not accomplish the half of this task; the removal of eight yards per diem would probably be an average day’s work. The excavation of the north fosse would thus, under these circumstances, involve 698,134 days’ labour. At the present time, when twenty cubic yards may be removed per man in a day, and when a day’s wages may be set down at half-a-crown, the whole cost of the excavation of the fosse would be 34,906l.
In this estimate no account has been taken of the increased labour occasioned by cutting through the rocks that are sometimes met with. The entire absence of the ditch, however, in the hilly district, compensates for this omission.
The fosse of the Vallum is rather less than that of the Wall. Making a deduction of one-third on this account, and supposing that the distance which the Vallum falls short of the Wall at each extremity, makes amends for the increased labour of cutting through the rocky ground, we have 3,723,382 cubic yards to be removed, involving 465,422 days of forced labour. The whole could now be done for the sum of 23,271l. No account is taken of the labour expended in raising the earthen ramparts, or the cost of their construction, for the reason, that the removal of the earth from the fosse implied its being deposited somewhere; no place would be more convenient for this purpose than the mounds of the rampart.
TIME REQUIRED FOR ITS CONSTRUCTION.
Adding together these results, we find that the cost of the Wall and its north fosse would be 1,056,175l., and that the cost of the Vallum, added to this would form a total of 1,079,446l. The number of days’ labour involved in the Wall would be 2,400,249, and, adding to this, that of the Vallum, we have for the whole 2,865,671 days’ labour.
The largest number of men that we can conceive to be brought to bear at once upon the Wall, including such of the Roman troops as could be spared from military operations, is ten thousand. This body, at the rate already supposed, would, by continuous labour, execute the Wall and its ditch in 240 days, and, taking the Vallum also into account, in 286 days. In the exposed district over which the Wall runs, it is not probable that the weather would allow of the work being pursued during more than two hundred days in the year. If, in addition to this, we make deductions for the chances of war, two years may be stated as the shortest time in which the whole of the works could be executed.
A recent writer, who, in a work denominated ‘A History of the Picts or Romano-British Wall,’ adopts the notion of Gildas, that the stone wall was built, not by Hadrian or Severus, but by the trembling Britons on their abandonment by the Romans, supports his opinion by denominating the work an un-Roman-like defence, and argues that men who were unaccustomed to fear, would not seek the assistance of a wall and a ditch. However regardless of life the Romans may, in the abstract, have been, they knew how to economize their resources. In the battle of the Grampians, Agricola withheld his legionary soldiers, and made use only of his auxiliary troops. He could better afford to expend the one than the other. As well might a warrior despise the protection of a helmet or a shield, as refuse the defence of a stone wall.
WALLS NOT UNWORTHY OF ROME.
The best refutation, however, of this theory, is the fact, that in other places the Romans, about the same period, raised similar barriers. At two of these we shall glance, before beginning a detailed inspection of the Barrier of the Lower Isthmus. The comparison will probably afford valuable instruction.
THE GERMAN BARRIER.
The Devil’s Wall, in Germany, bears many marks of resemblance to the English Wall. It seems50 to consist of the Pfahl, a mound of stakes, or vallum, ascribed to Hadrian, and a stone wall which is said to have been executed by some of his successors. The works extended westwards from Regensburg [Ratisbon] on the Danube, towards the sources of that river, a distance of nearly two hundred miles. They formed the boundary of the Roman empire in those parts where the Danube was not broad and deep enough to be of itself a sufficient protection. A deep trench ran along the Wall on its northern side, and along its southern face roads and camps were formed. At regular intervals of one mile, towers of observation were placed of the same size, though, being circular, not of the same form as the mile-castles on the English Wall. It is not possible, from the present remains, to determine with certainty the height or breadth of the Wall. ‘I found it in many places,’ says Professor Buchner, ‘from four to six, in others from ten to twelve, feet broad. We may therefore perhaps conclude, that its medium breadth was from six to seven feet, and that its height, as corresponding to this breadth, may have been from eighteen to twenty-four feet.’ The works have the same tendency to advance in a straight line as those of our own Barrier. ‘No mountain is so high, no abyss so steep, no wood so thick, no morass so profound, through which it does not penetrate.’ ‘The whole line of the fortification has been laid down and executed according to a well-digested plan.’
THE ANTONINE WALL.
Graham’s Dike, so denominated probably from the Celtic words grym, strength, and diog, a ditch, is a barrier which fortified the Upper Isthmus of Britain. It extended from Borrowstoness, on the Firth of Forth, to West Kilpatrick, on the river Clyde, a distance of about twenty-seven English miles. It was constructed by Lollius Urbicus in the reign of Antoninus Pius, the adopted son of Hadrian. The following succinct account of this important design is taken from the ‘Caledonia Romana,’ a work of great ability, by the late lamented Mr. Robert Stuart, of Glasgow:—
This great military work consisted, in the first place, of an immense fosse or ditch—averaging about forty feet in width, by some twenty in depth—which extended over hill and plain, in one unbroken line, from sea to sea. Behind this ditch, on its southern side, and within a few feet of its edge, was raised a rampart of intermingled stone and earth, strengthened by sods of turf, which measured, it is supposed, about twenty feet in height, and twenty-four in thickness at the base. This rampart, or agger, was surmounted by a parapet, behind which ran a level platform, for the accommodation of its defenders. To the southward of the whole was situated the Military Way—a regular causewayed road, about twenty-feet wide—which kept by the course of the Wall at irregular distances, approaching, in some instances, to within a few yards, and in others receding to a considerable extent. Along the entire line there were established, it is believed, nineteen principal stations or forts. The mean distance between each may be stated at rather more than two English miles. Along these intervals were placed many smaller castella, or watch-towers. While the continuous rampart seems to have been little more than a well-formed earthen mound, it is probable that many, if not all, of the stations, were either rivetted with stone or entirely built of that material. In some places, it would even appear that the Vallum itself had been raised upon a stone foundation—probably in situations where the ground was low and marshy, and where it was found necessary to form drains beneath the works, to prevent the accumulation of water on their anterior side.
MUTUAL SUPPORT OF THE BARRIERS.
The Barrier of the Upper Isthmus never consisted of more than a single line of fortification. This circumstance may seem to militate against the view that we have taken of the double line of the Southern Barrier. If in the one case the conquered tribes to the south were disregarded, why should they not be so in the other also? We shall not, however, greatly err if we regard the Antonine Wall as but an advanced work of Hadrian’s entrenchment. On this view of the matter, the difficulty is at once removed, for the Lower Barrier would be a sufficient security against danger in the rear. Certain it is, that the southern line was not abandoned when the other was constructed. Several altars have been found on the Lower Barrier inscribed with the name Antoninus Pius.51 A slab bearing the names of the consuls Sex. Sulpicius Tertullus, and C. Tineius Sacerdos, elicits the following remarks from judge Cay52:—
These were consuls in A.D. 158; consequently, we have undeniable authority to assert, that Antoninus Pius repaired Hadrian’s Vallum (or, at least, the stations per lineam Valli), as well as built one between the Scottish Firths. This stone is certainly most valuable, as it clearly proves, that though Antoninus extended the boundary so far north, he could not, or durst not, trust the Mæatæ, but thought himself obliged to keep up the southern pretenturæ, lest they should, on any disturbance, join the Caledonians.
Such prudence is characteristic of good generalship. Napoleon never made an important move without first resolving what to do in case of failure. Assuredly Hadrian did not act in a manner unbecoming a Roman, when, at the same time that he shewed a stony front to the Caledonians, he placed an earthen rampart between himself and the doubtful fidelity of his southern subjects.
THE BARRIERS IN RELATION TO THE RIVERS.
The position of the Barriers of the Lower and of the Upper Isthmus, and of the Devil’s Wall, in relation to the rivers in their vicinity, requires some remark. The Tyne in the eastern, and the Irthing and the Eden in the western part of the island, are uniformly to the south of the English Wall. A similar remark applies to the Devil’s Wall, in Germany, which is drawn along the northern shore of the Danube, the side exposed to the enemy. The Clyde, and its feeders, are to the south of the Antonine Wall. Why did the Romans not avail themselves of the natural trenches of these river-basins? The valley of the Tyne is peculiarly broad and deep. A chain of camps on its southern bank, where the mediæval castles afterwards stood, would alone, we might suppose, have bid defiance to the passage of any foe.
A similarity of practice in these cases favours the belief that important objects were to be accomplished by it. What are they?—
By erecting a chain of posts on the high grounds to the north of the rivers, a better observation of the movements of the enemy was obtained than would otherwise have been practicable. In the days of Roman occupation, large tracts of country, the banks of rivers especially, would be covered with forests. The conquerors, unless they had secured the enemy’s side of the river-basins, would have been perpetually subject to unexpected attacks. They could not be so easily taken by surprise on the high grounds of the northern slopes.
IMPORTANCE OF RIVER BASINS.
Probably the value of the land on the margin of the rivers, was an additional motive for the course pursued. The alluvial soil by a river’s side is usually the most fertile portion of a country. The banks of the Tyne and the Eden are peculiarly productive. Without a wall the enemy would have had undisputed possession of the slopes which enjoyed the finest aspect—that to the south—while those on the other side would have been subject to frequent depredation. This consideration is of the more importance, as the lands of the district were given to the soldiers who garrisoned the frontier, as a means of securing their fidelity.
PRUDENCE OF THE ROMANS.
So far from the importance of the natural boundary, the river, being overlooked by the Romans, I am disposed to regard the works on its northern bank as a proof of the value which they set upon it. The natural and the artificial barriers were probably regarded by them as but separate members of one complete fortification. In case of a rush of invasion from the North, the Wall would arrest the attack and the river entirely repel it. The stone and earth works would impede the progress of a foe, however formidable, and give time for the formation of an army on the southern bank of the stream. It was, moreover, ‘political in the Romans,’ as Stukely remarks,53 ‘to leave on the north side of the Wall that huge tract of waterless and dismal moor, a great barren solitude, where in some places you may walk sixty miles endwise, without meeting with a house or tree; to ride is impracticable. Thus, as much as in them lay, without the horror of barbarity, did they remove the barbarians from their territories; whilst within the Wall, either naturally or by their industry, all things smiled like the garden of Eden.’
The vast hosts which the Caledonians were able to muster rendered all these precautions necessary; and it was, moreover, becoming in the Romans—a generation of warriors the mightiest the world has ever seen—to plant the foot firmly on any land they thought fit to occupy. Assuredly they did so in the Lower Isthmus of Britain.
The Roman Barrier of the
Lower Isthmus.