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
The quarries from which the stone has been procured can in many
instances be precisely ascertained. At Fallowfield, not far from
CILURNUM, is an ancient quarry on the face of which the words,
[P]ETRA FLAVI CARANTINI,
the rock of Flavius Carantinus—are still to be traced. The vignette at
the close of this part represents its present condition. On opening out,
in the year 1837, some old quarries on the high, brown hill of Borcum,
near Thorngrafton, a small copper vessel was found, containing a large
number of coins, all of the upper empire. Another Roman quarry existed
on Haltwhistle Fell. In a paper recently read before the Society of
Antiquaries of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Mr. John Clayton says—
In riding over Haltwhistle Fell, before its enclosure, in the summer
of 1844, I came upon some workmen employed in re-opening an old
quarry. They told me they had met with a ‘written stone’; I
dismounted, and climbed the face of the rock, when I found inscribed
in letters clear and fresh
LEG. VI. V.
From its position on a wide waste, far removed from any abode, but in
the immediate vicinity of the Roman Wall, this quarry could not
possibly have been used for any other purpose than to supply stones
for the building of the Wall; and from the freshness of the letters of
the inscription, it must have been filled up with earth soon after the
soldiers ceased to use it. The workmen promised to spare the ‘written
rock,’ but the next time I rode that way it had been shivered to
atoms.
[Illustration:
Drawn & Lithographed by John Storey
WRITTEN ROCK ON THE RIVER GELT.
]
[Sidenote: INSCRIPTIONS ON THE QUARRIES.]
In Cumberland, there are several Roman inscriptions on the face of the
ancient quarries. About a mile west of Birdoswald, and little more than
a quarter of a mile south of the road, is Coome Crag, which, besides
other markings, presents the following inscription—
SE · · RVS
AI · · · ·
· · · VSTUS
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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