Roman Wall

“ AN EPITOME OF THE HISTORY OF ROMAN OCCUPATION IN BRITAIN.
IN no country of the world are there such evident traces of the march of Roman legions as in Britain. In the northern parts of England especially, the footprints of the Empire are very distinct. Northumberland, as Wallis long ago remarked, is Roman ground. Every other monument in Britain yields in importance to The Wall. As this work, in grandeur of conception, is worthy of the Mistress of Nations, so, in durability of structure, is it the becoming offspring of the Eternal City.
A dead wall may seem to most a very unpromising subject. ”

“ 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. ”

“ My former school-fellow, William Woodman, esq., town-clerk of Morpeth, besides otherwise assisting me, has caused surveys to be made for my use of not fewer than eighty of the strongholds of the Britons still existing on the heights north of the Wall. To trace the movements of the brave people whom the Romans drove to the more inaccessible portions of the island, would have been an interesting sequel to the account of the Roman Wall, but I found the undertaking too great for me. ”

“ How much delight would it afford the modern antiquarian eye, could he survey the works of Agricola, Hadrian, and Severus, as they then appeared! the noblest sight ever beheld in this Island! the work of strength, of genius, and of years! Men have been deified for trifles compared to this admirable structure; a Wall seventy miles in length, furnished with eighteen Cities, eighty-one Castles, and three hundred and thirty Turrets, with all their mounds, roads, ramparts, and astonishing apparatus! One sight would raise the mind to a rapturous sublimity. ”

“ 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. ”

“ A recent writer, who, in a work denominated ‘A History of the Picts or Romano-British Wall,’ adopts 96the 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. ”

“ Yet the civilisation which led to such combined exertion as was needed both for the erection and defence of such an extent of wall must have been considerable. History has doubtless burdened itself with the charge of many meaner themes. The correspondence of the general design to the two Roman walls seems very clearly to point to its erection by the southern Britons after the departure of the Romans, when we know that they frequently suffered from inroads of the northern tribes. ”

“ 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 ”

“ MISCELLANEOUS ANTIQUITIES FOUND ON THE LINE OF THE WALL.
Most apposite is the remark of Dr. Johnson, that ‘Whatever withdraws us from the power of our senses; whatever makes the past, the distant, or the future predominate over the present, advances us in the dignity of thinking beings.’ Few things are so well calculated to produce this effect, as the altars and lettered tablets that have been left on our soil by the Romans. When we but glance at them, who is not moved at the reflection, that they were chiselled by 394hands which for so many centuries have mouldered nerveless in the dust! ”

“ 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 concrete [45] of the railway mason of the present day. ”

“ The spade and the plough of the rustic have often exposed documents, which have revealed the movements, as well as the modes of thought and feeling, of those who have slept in the dust for centuries. The casual wanderer by the relics of the Vallum and the Wall, may not succeed in culling facts that are new to the Historian, but he will probably get those vivid glances into Roman character, and acquire that personal interest in Roman story, which will give to the prosaic records of chroniclers, a reality, and a charm, which they did not before possess. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The Wall is here six or seven feet high, but in confusion; keeps a zig-zag line merely to follow the precipice. I requested my friend Magnay to conduct me to the famous Busy Gap, about twenty-nine miles from Newcastle; so called from the frequency of the Picts and Scots breaking through this gap, and surprizing the Romans and Britons, and afterwards of the Moss Troopers. This I also found to be a break in the mountain over which the Wall ran, now filled up by a common-field gate, two yards and a half wide. It lies one mile beyond Shewenshields.
The human mind is apt to rise into the wonderful. ”

“ Perhaps Hadrian's Bank would be more in character, as agreeing with the materials of which it is composed; Severus's Wall is more proper, because he erected the stone wall, part of which is remaining. It is often called The Roman Wall, and by way of pre-eminence, The Wall.
That man is born a savage there needs no other proof than Severus's Wall. It characterizes two nations as robbers and murderers. Nineteen in twenty of our race sustain half this character during life. Some individuals correct the crude passions, adhere to justice, and avoid whatever is worthy of blame. ”

“ Busy life ruins antiquity. The faithful Warburton will lead me along this crowded place, where nothing of the Roman is seen; after which I shall be able to walk, alone, and perhaps correct my leader.
Though we are arrived at Pandongate, I apprehend we are not arrived at the Station, but a gate in the town wall, where a turret of the Roman Wall once stood. Pandon, in the time of the Romans, and for ages after, was a distinct village, and given to Newcastle by Edward the First.
Warburton proves that Severus's Wall lies a little to the North of St. Nicholas's church ”

“ 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. ”

“ Numerous individual objects of interest are scattered over the country, and he who would examine them all 136must travel several hundred miles, and propitiate the favour of many private gentlemen, as well as public bodies. Documents illustrative of the history of a country may be regarded as the property of the country, so far at least, as to be made easily accessible to all. Pons Ælii is the fitting place to deposit those antiquities of the Wall which cannot be carefully preserved on the spot where the Romans originally placed them. ”

“ 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 79calculated 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 ”

“ It is true the Romans walled out humanity from us; but it is as certain they thought the Caledonians a very formidable people, when they at so much labour and cost built this Wall; as before they had made a Vallum between the Forth and the Clyde. ”

“ Many have been found by accident, as e.g., in 1734, a silver dish was dug up weighing 148 oz., and ornamented with figures of deities. Again, much later, in 1908, there was recovered a hoard of gold coins, wrapped in leadfoil, and thrust into the chink of a wall by a fugitive who was fated never to return and recover his treasure. The first-rate importance of the city in its relation to the Roman Wall, and military operations based on Corstopitum as a centre, was only fully revealed by systematic investigations begun in 1907. ”

“ 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-CHESTERS. 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. ”

“ THE WALL ON 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ We rode chiefly on the new western road, which lies on the old Roman Wall. Some part of this is still to be seen, as are the remains of most of the towers, which were built a mile distant from each other, quite from sea to sea. But where are the men of renown who built them, and who once made all the land tremble? Crumbled into dust! Gone hence, to be no more seen, till the earth shall give up her dead!"
The next fort on the line of the Wall is VINDOBALA, and the farm-house of Rudchester stands close to its site. ”

“ In the absence of any decisive testimony from the historians of Rome, respecting the emperor who upreared the Murus, we may next examine the inscribed stones which have been found upon it.
COMMEMORATIVE SLABS. In some instances, inscriptions attached to Roman buildings give their history with great particularity. This is the case with the Antonine Wall in Scotland. Slabs inserted at intervals, record the name of the reigning emperor, of his legate, of the troops engaged upon the work, and also the number of paces executed by each detachment. ”

“ I am now descending a hill of some magnitude, called Wall Fell, and am within half a mile of the river of North Tyne. Could I follow the line of the Wall, it would lead me to what was once the Roman Bridge over that river; the foundation of which, I was given to understand, I might see, if I would wade; but as I could not do one, nor wished to do the other, I submitted to the turnpike road, and the present bridge, which perhaps is half a mile above that of the Romans, and which obliged me to quit the line of the Wall for two miles. ”