William Hutton

“ I SHALL find it difficult to support an opinion when all the world, from Bede to the present day are against me; to which must be added that of the whole country. But, as it is not the fashion, as in a former day, to burn a man for his opinion, allow me to state mine, and I will attend to yours.
All agree, "that the stone of which Severus's Wall was built is not a native of the country, for the grit differs."—But no evidence is produced where it was brought from. ”

“ Again. "They made the Wall between two straits, or bays of the sea, a thousand miles!" Surely this must be charged to the printer.
Some authors have amused themselves and readers with a brass pipe running through the internal part of the Wall, to convey intelligence.
From the above absurdities, and fifty more which I could select, can a reader form a regular set of ideas, as he peruses a work? The eye of the Historian should see; and it rests with him to cause the reader to see as he does. ”

“ Plunder is the order of the day. I wished to see Severus's works in a superior style, but am an age too late. They have suffered more during the last century, than in the fifteen before it.
THE BUILDING.
SOME authors say, "Hadrian's Wall" as they term it, "is built of earth and stone:" but, I believe there was no more stone than was promiscuously thrown out, with the soil of the neighbouring ditch, of which it is composed.
Again: "that Severus's Wall is faced with casing-stones on the outside, and the internal part filled up with stones placed in an oblique direction." ”