Popular testimony, apart from the authentic records of history, is of value for our present purpose only so far as it is the traditional statement of the knowledge of those who lived when the event took place. The nearer to its source that we trace a tradition, the clearer and more unequivocal it will become, if it have its origin in truth. The popular opinion that Severus built the Wall, will not stand this test. Whatever value may be attached to the testimony of Gildas, the first British historian, it is not denied that he records correctly the hear-say evidence of his day. He does not mention Severus, but tells us, that after the departure of the Romans, the Britons, distressed by the Picts and Scots, sought the assistance of their former conquerors, and at their suggestion, and with their assistance, raised first a wall of turf, and afterwards, when that was found insufficient, a wall of stone. The narrative of Gildas has been already given. (_p._ 29.) [Sidenote: BEDE’S TESTIMONY.] Bede refers to the opinion that Severus built the stone Wall, only to refute it; he says— Severus was drawn into Britain by the revolt of almost all the confederate tribes; and, after many great and dangerous battles, he thought fit to divide that part of the island which he had recovered from the other unconquered nations, not with a wall, as some imagine, but with a rampart. For a wall is made of stones, but a rampart, with which camps are fortified to repel the assaults of enemies, is made of sods, cut out of the earth, and raised above the ground all around like a wall, having in front of it the ditch whence the sods were taken, and strong stakes of wood fixed upon its top. Thus Severus drew a great ditch and strong rampart, fortified with several towers, from sea to sea; and was afterwards taken sick, and died at York. He then repeats Gildas’ account of the origin of the Wall, and adds—‘that it was not far from the trench of Severus.’ These quotations are made simply to prove, that the testimony of tradition, at a period not long subsequent to the departure of the Romans, was by no means decisive; no stress ought, therefore, now to be laid upon it. [Sidenote: TRADITION IN ERROR.]