The Roman Wall: A historical, topographical, and descriptive account of the barrier of the lower isthmus, extending from the Tyne to the Solway, deduced from numerous personal surveysBruce, J. Collingwood (John Collingwood)
History
The Roman Wall: A historical, topographical, and descriptive account of the barrier of the lower isthmus, extending from the Tyne to the Solway, deduced from numerous personal surveys
Bruce, J. Collingwood (John Collingwood)
Great Britain -- Antiquities, Roman; Walls, Roman -- Great Britain
A little detached from the wall, to the south, is a Roman fort, of
about four chains and an half square, called Watch-cross; and as I was
assured by the country people, and have had it since further
confirmed, a military way has gone near it, or between it and the
military way belonging to the Wall; for they often plough up paving
stones here, and think part of the highway to Brampton to be upon it.
This is the least station on the line of the Wall, and is as usual,
plundered of its stones, as that at Burgh and Drumburgh. However, the
ramparts and ditches are very fair and visible.
The common on which it stood having been enclosed about seventy years
ago, and brought into cultivation, all traces of the camp have been
obliterated. On a careful examination of its site, I failed to discover
any fragments of Roman pottery, or other marks of Roman occupation. In
those parts of Cumberland where the soil is not naturally stony, the
site of a mile-castle or station, which has been brought into
cultivation, may often be distinguished by the occurrence in that
particular spot of numerous fragments of freestone. No such appearance
here presents itself. The person who farms the ground says it is of
better quality than the surrounding land; still, it does not seem to
possess the peculiar fertility of a spot that has at any period for a
length of time been the resort of a crowded population. Hutchinson
describes ‘the whole ground-plot’ as being covered, in his day, ‘with a
low growth of heath;’ the sites of all the other cities of the Wall are
too replete with animal remains to yield, even unaided by cultivation,
so coarse a product. I am therefore strongly disposed to think, with
Hodgson, that it was a mere summer encampment. The spot has been well
chosen; for, though not greatly elevated, it has an extensive prospect.
Horsley himself had some doubts of the propriety of admitting it into
the rank of a stationary camp, ‘by reason of its being so small, and
having no remains of stone walls.’ The distance, however, between
Cambeck-fort and Stanwix, which is rather greater than that between any
other two stations, induced him to give it this position.
From Bleatarn the antiquary will, with some care, be able to trace the
Barrier by Wall-head, Walby, and Wall-foot, to Tarraby. From this
village to Stanwix, a rural road runs upon the foundations of the Wall;
the ditch on its north side, which within living memory was very boldly
marked, although partially filled up is yet distinctly traceable.
[Sidenote: STANWIX.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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