Still farther south is Fallowfield Fell, where there is a series of Roman quarries, and a "written rock." Flavius Carantinus, a quarryman, left his mark there: "PETRA FLAVI CARANTINI." An old woman outside a cottage directed me where to find the rock, telling me it was near some "old wawkins." The Northumbrian country people so often elide the letter "r" and the final "g." One man puzzled me very much by talking about the "'Omans;" not till I had been listening to him for five minutes did I realize that he meant the Romans! I found the old coal shaft, but I had some difficulty in finding the stone, and when found it was hardly decipherable. So many other people had wanted to claim the stone of Flavius, for no other reason than because he had claimed it, and had written their names beside his, when there were any number of unclaimed stones to be had! Well, that's the way {71} of the world, I suppose; the way of the spoilt child, who only waits to see his brother pick up a pebble, and then wails: "_I_ wanted that." However, it was worth anything to have come; the outlook is so beautiful from Fallowfield Fell; and the beautiful name suits it. It is a wide heathery expanse, flecked by cloud-shadows, as I saw it, and sloping steeply down towards Hexham and the Abbey, which lie, tree-surrounded, at the foot of the Fell. And beyond the Tyne, hill upon hill recede into the distance as far as the eye can follow. {72} CHAPTER VIII BRUNTON AND THE ROMAN BRIDGE Returning to the road, the next landmark I saw was a mile-castle, just visible by a field-gate on the right. Black Pasture Quarry is also on the right. Here the Romans obtained much of their sandstone for the Wall, and for the Roman bridge at Chesters. Now there are mountains of broken fragments, covered more or less with a grassy growth, and shadowed by large trees, with paths winding in and out. It is a queer-looking place altogether, and worth a visit.