England -- Antiquities, Roman; Hadrian's Wall (England); Walls, Roman -- England
As I reached the top of the hill, I saw a boy leaning against the
stone fence, so I asked him if he could tell me whether I was near
the piece of Wall on Black Carts Farm. He said: "D'ye see that bit
dene in the field yonder? That's the Wall." And he pointed on
ahead, to a field on the right. The "bit dene" was a hollow, filled
with trees and undergrowth, running parallel to the road through a
field of young corn. At the very top of the hill on which I stood
there is a young plantation, and just beyond it a stile on the right
leads by a little path to the site of a mile-castle. From this point
I found that, for the first time, I could walk continuously along the
line of the Wall as it ran through the grass. The "bit dene" still
lay ahead.
It was a perfect "Wall-day," and both Wall and Vallum were traceable
to perfection in front of me, one on either side of the road, right
up to the top of the steep Limestone Bank. At my feet {103} were
purple orchis growing in the young bracken, and the whole countryside
was clothed in what Chaucer calls "the gladde brighte grene" of
spring.
Following the line of the Wall, I soon came to the "bit dene" on
Black Carts Farm, where there is a very fine piece of Wall standing,
and also a considerable portion of a Wall turret. The facing-stones
of the Wall are in position on both sides for a considerable
distance, and to a height of 7 feet. In the turret were found coins
of Constantine the Great, showing that it was not disused, as some of
the recently examined turrets were, when the Wall was reconstructed
by Severus, about A.D. 207-10.
The wild flowers in the "bit dene" were very lovely and varied:
bluebells, cowslips, campion, wild garlic, cranesbill, herb bennet,
sweet woodruff, the great stitchwort, and purple orchis were all
growing in profusion.
Still following the Wall, I crossed a lane known as "Hen Gap," and
began to climb the hill called Limestone Bank, where another fine
piece of Wall is standing, overhung with gorse, now in full blossom.
The Vallum-ditch is very remarkable in this region; and hazel,
hawthorn and mountain-ash trees grow on its steep sides.
Looking back from Limestone Bank, you can see the Wall and the Vallum
very clearly, running {104} one on either side of Wade's Road. The
mile-castle mentioned on page 102 lies close to the road on the left,
just where it disappears over the hill.
I was first brought to this spot with my painting-things by friends
in their car, and just as we reached it I saw on ahead, walking along
the line of the Wall, a hatless, stockingless, shoeless figure, with
a haversack on its back.
"Look!" I cried; "there's a real 'Pilgrim of the Wall.' Take me on
another half-mile, and I'll walk back and meet her."
They did so, but the Pilgrim disappeared behind a stone fence before
we passed her.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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