Itinerarium curiosum (centuria II) : $b or, an account of the antiquities, and remarkable curiosities in nature or art, observed in travels through Great Britain. To which is added, the Itinerary of Richard of Cirencester, monk of Westminster. With an account of that author and his workStukeley, William
History
Itinerarium curiosum (centuria II) : $b or, an account of the antiquities, and remarkable curiosities in nature or art, observed in travels through Great Britain. To which is added, the Itinerary of Richard of Cirencester, monk of Westminster. With an account of that author and his work
Stukeley, William
Great Britain -- Antiquities -- Early works to 1800; Great Britain -- Description and travel -- Early works to 1800
A mile off Cockermouth, on the north side of the river, lies this
Roman station. The river water is very clear, according to its name,
notwithstanding the floods here, owing to its running through rocky
ground. The Roman _castrum_ lies upon the top of the hill, above
the village. I soon traced out its whole circumference, though the
inhabitants had not the least notion of where it stood, supposing it
to be lower down. I saw a bit of the Roman wall, which they wonder at,
because it strikes fire when struck upon with a pick-axe, by reason
of the hardness of the mortar: it lies by the road-side going to
Wigton; and there the ditch is plainly visible, though half filled up
with the rubbish of the wall. The whole town, and perhaps Cockermouth
castle and town, are built out of it; likewise the walls of all the
pastures and corn-fields adjoining. Free-stone cut is very common,
which they say must have been fetched a good way off, because there is
none such in the neighbourhood; and a great deal of ashler is still
left in the ground. The field upon the top of the hill, the highest
part of the _castrum_, is called the Boroughs. A man told me he found
a hand mill-stone about the bulk of his hat, which he admired for its
prettiness: he found a Roman coin too of Claudius, and others; but
they are lost. Several other people told me they found coins upon
the side of the hill; and the children pick them up after a shower
of rain. Mr. Senhouse showed me a silver Geta, _pont._ reverse,
_princeps juventutis_, among others found here. The famous font, now
at Bridekirk, was taken up at this place, in the pasture south of the
south-east angle of the city, by the lane called Moor-went. In the same
place lately they found a subterraneous vault, floored with free-stone,
of very large dimensions; the top of it made with the same sort of
stone, all brought a distance off. The name of Boroughs includes both
closes where the old city, or rather _castrum_, stood; for they find
stones and slates with iron pins in them, coins, and all other matters
of antiquity, upon the whole spot below the _castrum_, toward the water
side. This was a beautiful and well-chosen place, a south-west side of
a hill, a most noble river running under it, and a pretty good country
about it, as one may judge by the churches; for that I find generally a
good criterion of the goodness of a country, as Mr. Senhouse observed,
who accompanied me hither. On the side of the hill are many pretty
springs: at one of them we drank a bottle of wine, to the memory of the
founders; then poured some of the red juice into the fountain-head,
to the Nymph of the place. A person told us he had dug up, in the
Boroughs, the foundation of a wall where the stones were laid slanting
side by side, and liquid mortar poured upon them, as was often the
Roman method; likewise several floors made of cement. The kind of
slates dug up here, are brought too a good way off. Mr. Senhouse
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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