Costume -- Great Britain -- History; Great Britain -- History; Great Britain -- History -- Pictorial works
(Fig. 1): Food vessel of the prevailing type, ornamented with
dots and lines, forming saw-like patterns around it. (From
Greenwell’s _British Barrows_.) (Fig. 2): Immolation urn or
incense cup, covered with a pattern. (British Museum.) (Fig.
3): Food vessel of a rather uncommon type, of good form and
elaborately ornamented. (From Greenwell’s _British Barrows_.)
(Fig. 4): A large drinking cup, the outer surface being
almost covered with ornament, formed by the point of a sharp
instrument (found in a barrow at East Kennet). (Fig. 5):
Drinking cup, found in a barrow near Goodmanham, ornamented
with patterns formed with lines. (From Greenwell’s _British
Barrows_.)]
THE ROMAN WALL.
Much difference of opinion has been expressed between archæologists
as to who built the Roman Wall, it being severally attributed to both
Hadrian and Severus. A recent writer of authority says: “No one really
knows who built the Roman Wall, and the evidence now available is, in
the present writer’s opinion, wholly insufficient to enable us to
decide the difficult problem.... A commonsense and probable view is
that Hadrian caused the vallum (earthen rampart), which may have been
there before his time, to be supplemented by walls and forts, built of
stone, in such extremely exposed and commanding positions as we find
at or near Borcovicus (Homesteads), and that, about 86 years after the
Emperor left Britain, Severus ordered these to be repaired, and the
whole of the Roman fortifications to be built of stone, and the wall to
be carried across from sea to sea.” It stretches from Wallsend, near
Newcastle, to Carlisle. A section of its general structure is shown in
Pl. 7, Fig. 11. It was very strong, and consisted of a ditch on the
north side, about 15 ft. deep, and then a broad stone wall about 18 ft.
high and 8 ft. thick. South of the ditch was a broad road, and next to
that a rampart or earthen wall. In some parts, however, there were two
roads made, parallel to one another.
At fairly regular intervals along the wall were fortified military
“stations,” variously computed at from 18 to 23 in number.
Between them, at intervals of about a mile, were rectangular towers,
called “mile castles,” and smaller towers or “turrets” were placed
about four to the mile between these.
The _Stations_ were small, rectangular towns, the inhabitants of
which lived probably under martial law. They varied in extent from
one to six acres, were always strongly fortified with walls six to
nine feet thick, surrounded by a ditch. Each Station had, at least,
four gateways, one on each side, and its area was crossed by two main
streets, which bisected each other at right angles.
The larger Stations were provided with a _Forum_, serving as a
marketplace and a place for public assembly; a _Pretorium_, or
residence for the Commandant; baths, barracks, and numerous smaller
dwellings for the minor officials and others.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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