Hadrian's Wall

Soon the familiar George came into sight, but the familiar face of the landlord was not to be seen outside. This was very unusual on a fine day, so I entered, and turned towards the office, expecting to find him there. Two men were seated there, half buried in papers, and they came forward to ask my business. I said I wanted a bed for the night, and would like to see Mrs. Simmonds. They sent for her, and she soon appeared, gave me a. kindly welcome, said they could quite well take me in for the night, and surely I must be wanting some tea? But the house seemed strangely quiet. I had my tea alone in the coffee-room, and then I wrote letters till dinner-time. One of the maids came to ask: "Will you be taking dinner?" "Certainly," I said, with some surprise.

But when I found myself quite alone at dinner, I knew something was wrong, and I made inquiries of the waitress. "Why, yes," she said; "didn't you know? Haven't you seen the papers? Mr. Simmonds was buried yesterday." No, I had not heard; I had seen no papers since I left London, for I had been on the road all the time. After dinner, I hastened to see Mrs. Simmonds, to express my sympathy, and to explain what must have seemed my strange behaviour.

And so the George has lost its landlord; and many people have lost a kind friend and neighbour. From morning to night in fine weather his tall figure and cheery face, crowned with white hair, were to be seen outside the George, where he held himself ready to extend a welcome to all who came. He will indeed be missed.

Next morning I started westward again, first to visit Chesters, within half a mile of Chollerford, where are the famous remains of tie Roman fort of CILURNUM. My plan was to walk every step of the line of the Wall, as far as possible consecutively, so now I had to pick it up again on the west bank of the North Tyne where the Roman bridge had crossed.

It was a perfect morning, with a sweet fresh air, and great clouds rolling up, from behind which the sun shone coquettishly at frequent intervals. The beeches which here overhang the road were at their freshest stage of green, having just scattered their bright russet leaf-caps all over the road, as a carpet for the wayfarer to tread upon. The pink and white leaf-caps of the sycamores made less show, in colour as in quantity; there is no tree so lavishly clothed with leaves as is the beech.

I once had a little conversation with the genial landlord of the George about these very beeches, one evening when he was showing me his garden.

He was telling me of the famous people who had visited the George and signed its visitors' book, amongst them Bernard Shaw and Rudyard Kipling; and then he added: "It's a funny thing, but do you know, Mr. Rudyard Kipling didn't know the difference between a beech and an oak—clever gentleman as he is. Would you have believed it?"

I said: "What makes you think that?"

"Well, he came up to me, and he said: 'Mr. Simmonds, you have some very fine oaks in this part of the country.' I said: 'They're not oaks, sir, they're beeches.' And he said: 'Oh, are they?' So you see he didn't know."

"But how can you be sure he was not referring to the oaks, for there are oaks about here too?"

"Oh no; he meant the beeches right enough."

And so we left it at that.

CHAPTER IX

CILURNUM

It was the late Mr. John Clayton of Chesters who laid the foundation of the new knowledge of the Wall which excavation has brought to light. As other people collect antiquities to put in a glass case, so he collected the Roman Wall. Whenever a piece of ground along its line was in the market, he was first in the field to buy it; and to his zeal and knowledge it is due that so much has been preserved and excavated. It was his life-work. Therefore it is no mere figure of speech to say that a visit to the Roman Wall is a visit to his shrine; and since Chesters was his home for so many years, the Museum there, and the very fort of Cilurnum itself are especially commemorative of him and his work.

All the forts along the line follow a general plan, though each has its distinctive features. In plan they are parallelograms, with rounded corners, enclosed by a stone wall at least 5 feet thick, with a circumscribing ditch, and with gateways north, south, east and west.

Fig. 8.—Plan of the Fort of Cilurnum at Chesters. (From Archæologia Æliana.)

These gateways have double portals, which were arched over, and were closed by two-leaved wooden doors, swinging on pivots shod with iron. The doors shut against a stone set up in the centre, or else against a stone threshold. The pivot-holes can very often be seen, and sometimes the iron sheath is still in the pivot-hole, although the wooden door has perished.

In the case of this fort of Cilurnum, as also at Amboglanna, there were six gateways altogether, two smaller ones to the south of the main eastern and western gateways; these had only one portal instead of two.

Fig. 9.—Fortification Turrets from Trajan's Column. (After John Ward.)

Chambers above gateways are also shown on Trajan's column, which suggest to the mind's eye a possible reconstruction of the single gateways of the Wall-forts.

Fig. 10.—Fortification Gates from Trajan's Column. (After John Ward.)

Mr. John Ward (in Romano-British Buildings and Earthworks, p. 70) calls attention also to a gate figured on a mosaic in the Avignon Museum, as suggesting the possible character of the double gates on the Wall-line.

Frequently the great Wall aligns itself with the northern wall of the forts, as at Borcovicium, Æsica and Amboglanna; but sometimes, as here at Cilurnum, it strikes the fort about one-third way along the eastern and western walls, leaving one-third, including a gateway, to project northwards into the enemy's country. This looks as if the garrison could not have lived in a constant state of warfare.

Fig. 11.—Gate of a Fort on a mosaic in the Avignon Museum.
From Collectanea Antiqua. (After John Ward.)

This always includes an open courtyard, surrounded by a covered colonnade, the bases of whose piers are still to be seen here at Chesters, as also the gutter-stones to carry off the drippings from the roof.

Roofing-tiles are found, made of a grey shaly sandstone, which would readily cut into thin slabs. They are almost square, and were hung angularly, from one corner, on nails driven into wooden beams, as the rust in the holes still shows. This kind of roofing slab is used up to the present day, but it is hung on a wooden peg. At one period they used to be hung on sheep-bones thrust in under the beams.

The Romans also used red pantiles, specimens of which are found here.

The entrance to the Principia always faced the main gate of the fort (the north gate at Cilurnum, the east gate at Borcovicium). At the far end was a series of five small office-rooms, of which the middle one was the most important. It was the sacellum or Chapel of the Standards, the centre of the religious life and of the esprit de corps of the cohort or ala which occupied the fort. It was a constant feature of all Roman forts. The standards themselves, which were deposited there, were objects of worship. They bore a medallion or effigy of the reigning Emperor, and thus these Chapels were the official centres of "Emperor-worship," a cult actively propagated by the government for political motives. The fact that Christians refused to join in this cult, and thereby committed a political offence, was the initial cause of their persecution.

Here, in the sacellum, the deferred pay of the soldiers was deposited until it became due to them on their discharge. Here also were kept the army pay-sheets, an actual example of which has been found in the sands of Egypt.

At Cilurnum a strong room has been constructed, evidently in a later and more disturbed period. It is entered by steps leading down from the sacellum, and lies under the office-room next to the sacellum on the east, blocking that room in such a way as to prove it could be no part of the original plan. Early in the nineteenth century the heavy oak door of the strong room, studded with nails, was still in place, but it perished when exposed to the air. A slab of stone has been thrown (probably by invaders) across the flight of steps, so that in descending them one has to stoop very low.

The arched roof of the strong room is formed by a series of large stones "stepping over" each other; and its back wall is also "stepped over," so as to make it incline towards the roof.

On my last visit I saw a blackbird's nest neatly tucked in between the stones of this roof. It contained three young ones, with their mouths perpetually open—creatures of one idea, for the time. There had been five eggs, but tourists had taken two away, as mementoes of Cilurnum.

The colonnade of the Principia at Cilurnum consisted of neat piers made of specially small stones, instead of the circular columns that are found elsewhere. The paving is beautiful; but there are indications that it covers an earlier floor. The chamfered bases of the piers go below the level of the present paving-stones, which may some day be removed, and the original floor-level reached and dated. It would be interesting to see in what state of preservation that floor would be found.

In this outer court there is a round well, still half full of water; the stones are all the original Roman work except the top row. There are "set-backs" at intervals down the sides of the well, to form footholds when it was necessary to descend it. Its workmanship is beautiful.

Another necessary and constant feature in the inner arrangement of a Roman fort was the pair of granaries, often set close together, side by side. These granaries were the strongest of the inner buildings. Their walls were thick and heavily buttressed, and their floors supported either on dwarf walls, or on pillars, to provide for the circulation of air underneath them and so prevent damp.

The remains of the granaries at Cilurnum have unfortunately been removed; they stood to the south-west of the Principia.

A very important find in a guard-chamber at Cilurnum was what is known as the "Chesters Diploma," a bronze tablet, conferring the privileges of Roman citizenship on certain soldiers who had earned it by faithful service. It is now in the British Museum. Dr. Bruce gives a full description of it in his Handbook to the Roman Wall.

The barracks are another essential feature of a Roman fort.

At Cilurnum these were situated to the north of the Principia, and important remains are to be seen in the north-eastern section of the fort area.

There was probably accommodation for six companies of one hundred men, ten men in a room. The Asturians who formed the garrison came from a mountainous district in the north of Spain, where it is quite as cold as the valley of the North Tyne. The hardy mountain ponies they brought with them were known as Asturco by the Romans. The stables have not been identified. The barrack-rooms had a covered way or verandah running in front, with a series of columns, some of whose bases remain. A massive stone gutter runs down the middle of the street between the barracks. They probably had little pent-house roofs. When the rooms were excavated they were full of pottery, bones, oyster-shells, and rubbish of all kinds, giving a very bad impression of the standard of refinement and comfort of the last occupiers.

To the east of the Principia is what is most probably the residence of the commandant, with private baths, as well as dwelling-rooms, elaborately heated by means of hypocausts. The building was finely designed and finished. A beautiful moulding runs round the base, and also round the buttress.

The site of the furnace is close to a large yew-tree; it is semi-circular, and the fuel for it was wood. The hot gases and smoke were drawn under the floors of the rooms, which were supported on hypocaustal pillars of burnt clay tiles mortared together, or of stones such as are used in the walls. Brick tiles were used nearest the furnace, because the heat would have cracked the stone. Fragments of circular columns are also used, but these are diverted from their original purpose. The floors of the rooms were of double slabs of stones, cemented together, so as to prevent the smoke from coming up through the floors.

The tiles were roughened with a tool usually, to give a grip to the mortar. Accidental marks, made on them when wet, are often seen: the footprints of dogs, dents from the nails of a sandal, thumb-marks, showing the lines of the skin, and the mark of a man's bare foot, showing the great toe.

The baths had been cemented all over with pink cement, probably made with brick-dust. The rooms were plastered inside, and the plaster decorated with deep red, terre-verte and yellow ochre. Evidently they had been replastered sometimes over the paint, and coloured again on the top, just as we put on successive wall-papers.

The level of the floors had been raised nearly 3 feet since the building was first made.

Over its ruined walls there grows the pretty little purple "Erinus Alpinus," which is said by some to have made a mysterious appearance only since the excavations were begun. Did it spring from seed which had long lain dormant, having been originally brought from Spain by one of the Asturians who garrisoned this fort?

It is an attractive legend, and I would like to believe it true; but the hard cold fact is that somebody remembers its having been deliberately planted on the ruins after the excavations were made!

A very interesting point which must not be missed is the way in which the stone thresholds of the gateways have been worn by the chariot-wheels passing over them. It must have been a dreadful jolt for the occupants to cross these high thresholds when they were new, but Roman soldiers were of course above minding little things like that! The ruts are just over 4 feet 6½ inches apart, exactly the distance of the wheel-marks we see in the streets of Pompeii.

The Vallum runs into the circumscribing ditch at Cilurnum; that is to say, the two ditches coalesce at the south of the fort.

What has been called the Roman "Villa" at Cilurnum is now definitely recognized as the bath-house provided for the comfort of the troops, or perhaps for the officers only. It is the best-preserved building on the Wall-line, one of its chambers still standing twenty-three courses of stones, or 9½ feet high.

The great storehouse at Corstopitum, which might claim to rival it, is 2½ miles south of the Wall.

There is a great bath-house built for the local garrison at Ravenglass which is even more striking, as its walls are standing almost their whole height. It was excavated in 1881.

The position of the buildings at Cilurnum, outside the fort walls, at the foot of a slope and close to the river, where the soil has been washed down and has covered them up, accounts for their excellent preservation.

The baths are entered now (by a flight of wooden steps) just at the point where the original entrance doorway stood. An outer lobby led into what appears to have been the unrobing and anointing room, a very large flagged chamber, with seven round-arched stone niches on the west wall. There has been much speculation about their use, and nothing certain is known, but it is suggested that they may have been cupboards for the bathers to hang their clothes in.

From this apartment one passes into a lobby, giving access to the hot rooms, to the right, and to the cold rooms, with a fountain, to the left. Straight forward is the final "rest-and-amusements" room, which has flues in the form of a cross.

Turning out of this is another chamber, also with cross-flues, and with a semi-circular apse, out of which opens a splayed window, 4 feet wide. Roman window-glass, of a bluish-green, was found on the ground outside this window. The glass is not very transparent, having probably been poured out on a flat surface when made. It is very rare to find examples of Roman windows, because buildings are hardly ever preserved up to the window-level. These walls are twenty-three courses of stones high, or about 9½ feet.

There are two hot rooms, one leading out of the other, and both heated by hypocausts. The jambs of the doorway between them are single stones, each 6 feet high. The walls of one chamber stand 7½ feet high.

The furnace lies beyond these two rooms and is immediately behind the wall with the seven niches.

THE BATH-HOUSE AT CILURNUM, SEEN ACROSS THE NORTH TYNE.

There are remains of the concrete vaultings of the rooms, and in several instances there are double thresholds, where the floor levels have been raised. We see also drainage arrangements for carrying the water down to the river.

Altogether this is a most interesting building, and it is a pity that no inscriptions have been found here which would fix definitely its date and its purpose.

As seen across the North Tyne it is very inconspicuous, because the grassy river-bank hides it. The soil having in the course of ages washed down and buried the building, now that it has been excavated it stands in a hollow. However, the seven arches of the unrobing-room are very plainly seen. The yew-tree, behind the cows in the picture, marks the situation of the furnace for the heating arrangements of the Commandant's house.

The western abutment of the Roman bridge can sometimes be seen in the water under the trees to the right.

I was sitting painting here one day when the river was very dry; the stones showed me much more of themselves than I wanted to see. I said to myself: "I do wish the river would fill up a little." Almost immediately after, I looked up, and it had filled up a little, just about enough to suit my purpose. I hardly had time to be thankful before it had risen a good deal more than enough, and in a very short time there was not a stone to be seen. This was indeed too much of a good thing! I realized that the river had "come down," as they call it. It was now rushing madly along, getting very brown and frothy, and boughs of trees were beginning to be borne along on its current. When I went home to lunch, I met a dead sheep being carried along, and at the George they told me that Barrasford Ferry was impassable. Haughton Castle had telephoned to say so, and to ask to have its friends coming by rail stopped at Humshaugh Station.

No wonder ardent fishers are warned to be careful when fishing in these northern streams.

Another day, when I was painting here and the stream was fairly low, I was entertained by the antics of a merry party of girls. They kept crossing and recrossing the river by means of very inadequate stepping-stones, and at last two of them tumbled in. They made no trouble of it, but took off their pink cotton frocks and hung them up in a tree to dry, put on their waterproofs, and went off to view the fort. Meantime the cows came down to the river to drink, and, curious as cows always are, they began licking the dresses until at last they licked them off the tree. I on my side of the stream was powerless to help. Finally they went off, leaving the dresses in a huddled heap of pink, and wetter than ever, I should think. I was only thankful that they had not shared the fate of a blue woollen motor-scarf on the banks of the Dee, which was hung over the back of a car by its owner while she went fishing. She returned to see the last six inches disappearing down the throat of a cow! She was left frivolously wondering whether, in its new sphere of influence, it would turn the milk blue.

* * * * * * *

One more word about Cilurnum. In the church at Chollerton, about 1½ miles up the North Tyne from Chollerford, the columns of the south side of the nave bear evidence of Roman origin, and no one who is following the Wall should miss seeing them. They are round columns, each consisting of a single stone, and are of the same diameter and general character as portions of shafts found at Cilurnum. It is more than likely that they were stolen from the ruined fort to occupy their present position, and that to this they owe their perfect preservation.

CHAPTER X

WALWICK TO SEWINGSHIELDS

After striking off from the western gateway of Cilurnum, the Wall appears once again in the grounds of Chesters, several courses high, and is then just traceable through the plantation to the west of the house till we come out on to the road leading to Walwick. Here the Vallum is clearly visible in a field on the left. The foundations of the Wall could long be seen in the road on the rise of the hill towards Walwick, but I doubt if they can often be seen now. "A good surface for cars" is made so that it does not easily wash off, even in thunder-showers!

I did not see them myself; but I have since been told that, though the north face is very seldom seen, the south facing-stones can be made out just at the south edge of the road, unless too much covered by the wayside grass. With this hint, my readers may be more successful than I was in finding them. Hutton says of Walwick: "The village is delightful, and the prospect most charming," and this is as true to-day as it was when he wrote it. From the top of the hill, Hexham, with its towers, the valleys of the Tyne, and a fine wooded country with hills beyond are spread out before you. Presently the Wall-ditch appears in good condition on the right of the road. Nearly opposite the road on the left leading to Fourstones is a cottage, built entirely of stones from the Wall. It presents a very solid rectangular eastern face, from which four battlements project, and it is known as "Tower Taye." A bit of wall running behind it looked in the distance like the Wall, so I went to examine it. As I drew near the house, which lies in a field a little way back from the road, I noticed that the gate into the yard was merely the head of an old iron bedstead, originally painted green. One castor remained—on the loose leg; the other leg was tied, at top and bottom, to the wooden gate-post, and its foot sunk deep into the soil. It made a decidedly original gate! A huge sow, with a litter of young ones, had flung herself down in front of this gate, as though to act as a watch-dog. A large tin basin, full of dirty soap-suds, stood in the middle of the path to the front door, which was a heavy oaken one, thickly studded with nails. Altogether the place struck me as being a very well-defended Tower!

The wall behind was not the Wall, so I came away. As I emerged on to the road, a young man was passing in a light cart. He pulled up and asked if I was going far. I said I was following the Roman Wall. "Well, I could have given you a lift. It's not much of a trap; I only bought it yesterday at a fair, and one of the wheels is a bit shaky, but I don't think it will come off." I should not have minded the rickety cart, but "lifts" were not in my line just now; so I thanked him, saying I was pledged to walk, and he drove on. Shortly afterwards two caravan-carts passed. One was covered at the back with red-brown tarpaulin, from under which a fat brown baby could be seen, lying asleep.

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 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 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.

When I met her she was not at all the strong-minded female I had expected to see, but a gentle-looking young thing, a school teacher from Newcastle, and it was sheer timidity that had made her hide behind a wall when she saw us coming.

However, she was delighted to have some one to talk to when she saw I was not shocked at her bare feet! She told me she was walking from Hexham to Crosby-on-Eden, and hoped to sleep at Gilsland that night. As for the Wall, she knew very little about it, but she hoped to learn more on the way.

At the top of Limestone Bank I found a pictureesque encampment by the side of the road. Four horses were tethered, cropping the grass, while two mothers and a swarm of children out of the caravan carts were busily employed in lighting a fire in the shelter of a little copse. Two men were collecting fuel, and in one of them I recognized the young man of the light cart.

The women greeted me cheerily. They were making for Appleby Fair, and reckoned on doing about 20 miles a day.

A mile-castle is easily distinguished on the right of the road, just opposite where the plantation ends. A piece of its wall has been uncovered. The military way is specially worthy of notice here, coming up to the south gateway of the mile-castle, for it is the first time we have come across it, with its curved surface and stone kerbs. We shall very frequently meet with it, where the Wall runs over the heights.

From this summit can be noticed for the first time the curious formation of the hills in these parts, sloping up gradually from the south, and ending precipitously on the north, for all the world like a breaking wave; following each other also just like a succession of waves. The Romans made good use of this formation, planting the Wall and their forts on the very highest ridges, wherever it was possible.

The Wall-ditch and the Vallum-ditch demand all our attention just over the crest of Limestone Bank. They have been cut through the solid basalt rock, and huge boulders lie about still, just as they lay when the Roman workmen left them.

Peewits and curlews now began to be very plentiful on this open moorland, the former flying round and round me, with their plaintive cry, fearful lest I should track their nests. I noticed how difficult it is to see their crests when they are flying; they lay them back so close to their heads. I suppose they would otherwise retard their flight.

Speaking of crests, reminds me of an old lady who takes in visitors along the line of the Wall, and who has been heard to say that she much prefers to have "crested people" to stay with her!

The west wind was getting stronger and colder as I walked on. Great pillars of cloud stood up against the deep blue sky to the north-west; while on the south-west, over Tindale Fell, it was raining hard.

The next farm-house is Carrawburgh, and near here lay the Roman fort of PROCOLITIA. A mile-castle is seen on the left just before we come to the fort.

There is very little indeed of Procolitia to be seen on the surface. The famous well of the water-goddess, Coventina, is merely a patch of rushes railed round, and too wet even to be examined. It is just possible to make out the walls and gateways of the fort under the grass. The great Wall joined on to the north wall of the fort. The Vallum curves round to the south to avoid it.

The first cohort of the Batavians was stationed at Procolitia; and the Tungrians were stationed at the next fort, Borcovicium. This is significant, because Tacitus mentions that Batavians and Tungrians fought side by side in Agricola's army when he won the battle of Mons Graupius. So it seems that they first came to Britain under Vespasian.

After we have passed the farm-house of Carraw, built by the monks of Hexham for a summer residence, Sewingshields comes into full view, nestling in trees, exactly over the top of the next hill in the road. The land has now become still more bleak and barren; there are no longer fresh green pastures, but brownish sheep-moors, dotted with tufts of rushes and coarse grass. Presently I saw something dark sticking up in the long grass by the side of the road. I was meeting the wind, so I got quite close before it moved. It was the two dark ears of a hare which sped like lightning, when it saw me, under a five-barred gate on the right, and so across the moor, till it vanished, as a speck, over the horizon.

And now at last the Wall leaves Wade's Road, so I climbed over the stone fence which bounds the road to walk on its grassy mound. It diverges more and more from the road, and makes straight for where the crags begin at Sewingshields.

It soon brought me to a very interesting mile-castle which has been excavated. The northern gateway is the first good specimen of a mile-castle gateway that we have come to. It is fenced round to protect it from animals. I clambered over the stone dyke and down into the Wall-ditch, to gaze up at the massive masonry, which looks much more imposing seen from the north. Nine courses of stones are in place on the western side of this gateway.

There were now two stone dykes between me and Wade's Road. The Wall-ditch continued to be very deep and striking. Flags and water-reeds covered its bottom, and great boulders lay strewn about.

At a fir-plantation the Vallum crosses Wade's Road, and from this point onwards it runs along in the low land while the Wall clings to the heights.

On this May day the brown moorland to the north of the Wall was thickly sprinkled with cotton-grass, its downy white heads giving a silvery sheen to an otherwise dull expanse. "Moss-troopers," the children call them, a white army invading from the north! Or, as a farmer's wife put it to me: "They bits o' flooff would mak' ye think we'd had a shower o' snaw."

And so I came to Sewingshields, where the most fascinating part of the walk begins.

Fig. 12. CONTOUR OF THE WALL RIDGE,
FROM SEWING-SHIELD TO THE NINE NICKS OF THIRLWALL,
AS SEEN FROM THE TOP OF BARCOMBE

Hitherto I had had to keep almost entirely to Wade's Road. Now, good-bye to the high road, and hurrah for the heights!

Not till we come to Birdoswald, full 13 miles ahead, is it necessary to follow a road again; and even then, after 3 or 4 miles of road, the path lies mainly through fields as far as Burgh-by-sands.

The house at Sewingshields is now used as a shooting-box by Mr. Charles Straker of High Warden, near Hexham. It is built entirely of Roman stones, so it is not surprising that there is very little Wall left in its neighbourhood. The centurial stone, which Dr. Bruce mentions, has been taken out, and is preserved inside the house, where it was shown to me.

The fir-plantation which now shelters the house from the north winds is only of comparatively recent planting. It must have been bleak indeed up there without this protection. The plantation is entered by a stile, just on the site of the Wall, and this is really where the crags begin.

Let us sit a moment on this stile and look back the way we have come.

The ditch of the Vallum and its triple mounds are very clearly marked on the right of Wade's Road, and the Wall-ditch is very plainly visible on the left. The low rays of the sun cast shadows which emphasize the form, and all round the eye can follow wave upon wave of undulating ground, right into the dim blue distance.

CHAPTER XI

SEWINGSHIELDS TO HOUSESTEADS

The path from the stile takes us, behind the house of Sewingshields, along the very line of the Wall, until we emerge from the trees by another stile, and find ourselves, as it were, on the very Roof of the World, with steep crags to the right, and long-drawn-out slopes to the left, and magnificent views all round.

To the north lie what are called "The Wastes," with only scattered farms and sheep-moors; a desolate-looking country, I grant you, in dull weather, but a very fairyland as seen from the Wall on an ideal "Wall-day," when its vast expanse is flecked with blue cloud-shadows, reflecting the blue of the sky overhead, and when the little hills seem to "rejoice on every side."

I think I love this view to the north, bare as it is, even more than the one to the south, over the fertile Tyne valley.

An ideal Wall-day is a day of mingled cloud and sunshine, with a bit of a breeze, and yet not enough to make it "windy;" a day when heavy cumulus clouds marshal themselves along the horizon, and then spread, and scatter, and form again, always threatening to do something great, but always thinking better of it; a day when it is perhaps raining heavily over Barcombe, or over Tindale Fell, and rainbows are chasing each other across the rolling fells to the south; but when "the top of the world," where we follow the Wall, is peaceful and calm in the sunshine, sweet with the smell of the wild thyme as we tread it under our feet, and musical with the notes of the curlews.

I have known many such days. On such a day one is inclined to feel that the lot of a Roman sentry on the Wall was to be envied, until one remembers the other side of the picture—the drenching rain, the bitter wind, the snowdrifts, to say nothing of the constant sense of the need for vigilance, and the actual encounters with an unscrupulous enemy.

Here at Sewingshields we are farther from shops and civilization than at any other point on the Wall. It is 5 miles to Haydon Bridge, the nearest post-office.

The name "Shield" or "Shields" occurs so often along the line of the Wall that it is interesting to see how Camden uses the word in 1599. He says:

"Here every way round about in the Wasts, as they tearme them, as also in Gillesland, you may see as it were the ancient Nomades, a martiall kind of men, who from the moneth of Aprill into August, lye out scattering and summering (as they tearme it) with their cattell, in little cottages here and there, which they call Sheales and Shealings."

Sewingshields is said to mean "wellings by the seugh (or ditch);" but Camden calls it "Seaven-shale," so it may have merely meant "Seven cottages."

All the 10 miles from Sewingshields to Carvoran the Wall runs along the tops of "basaltic columns," huge pillars of volcanic rock crystallized in hexagonal formation, and making a great natural barrier. The course of the Wall is mainly in a westerly direction, but it also has a general tendency towards the south. Carvoran is just 3 miles farther south than Sewingshields.

THE BASALT CLIFFS ABOVE CRAG LOUGH,
ALONG THE TOP OF WHICH THE WALL RUNS.
HOT BANK CRAGS ARE SEEN IN THE DISTANCE

A steep pass leads down to the plain shortly after we cross the stile from the Sewingshields plantation. This is called Cat Gate. When I was staying in this neighbourhood the farmer told me it was the only point where the Sewingshields Crags could be ascended or descended. I did not dispute it, but I smiled to myself, for during my wanderings I had many times gone up and down the Crags at other points. I used to love to sit half-way down the Crags and watch the rabbits, who got so used to me that I believe they only thought of me as a queer kind of a rock. When I was sketching I used to see hundreds of rabbits sitting about, one on every projecting rock below me. The Crags swarm with them. One evening an old father rabbit showed his unconcern at my presence by sitting up a few feet off, scratching his front abstractedly with his fore-paws while he looked at me, as much as to say, "I know what you are." Just then I gave an unfortunate sneeze, and it seemed to set all the crags in motion. The thump, thump, of the parental hind-legs, warning their subterranean families of danger, sounded on every side. It is a great proof of family affection that these older rabbits will stop in the danger-zone and thump, as they do, thus losing precious time that might be occupied in flight. The first time I saw this process, I thought my friend the rabbit had been seized with a sudden nervous affection, but I soon found it was only obeying a universal instinct; and even hutched rabbits, after generations of domesticity, and with their families safe by their sides, will carry on the tradition, and thump on the floor of their hutches, to give warning of danger.

Once at the top of Cat Gate I found a pocket-book, almost hidden in the heather. I picked it up, and could see it contained a sheaf of Treasury notes. An hour or so later I saw a young man coming slowly along at the foot of the Crags, looking distractedly from side to side. I stood up, and shouted, "Catch!" and you should have seen the way his expression changed as the pocket-book went hurtling through the air! In these almost pathless regions it is a serious matter to lose anything of value.

But to return to our rabbits. The rabbits are turned into a source of revenue by the farmers. They increase so rapidly that their numbers have to be kept in check. Sometimes a farmer will sell the "rabbiting" on his farm for the season, for £50 or so, just as the "shooting" is let. Then the rabbit-catcher makes what he can out of it. At other times the farmer will pay the rabbit-catcher so much for every couple caught, and then sell them at a profit. I have known fifty-seven couple to be caught by one man in a day on Sewingshields Crags. You need to look well to your walking when the rabbit-catcher is abroad, for of course he makes his loops of wire as invisible as possible, and you would certainly be brought to the ground if you put your foot in one of them. I was very glad that I never came across a rabbit in a trap, though I used to see hundreds of traps. A shepherd told me that once he saw a pathetic sight: a rabbit in a trap, still feeding her young ones. Missing her, they had crept up out of the burrow, and had traced her to the trap. He set her free at once, for she was not hurt.

This has been a long delay on our walk, but it is so hot that to sit and watch the rabbits will have done us all good.

There used to be a castle, known as Sewingshields Castle, in the fields to the north, built there, it is supposed, to defend this pass of Cat Gate. The field where it stood is still known as "The Castle."

Continuing along the crags, I soon came to the site of another mile-castle. All along here the Wall is in a very ruinous condition, but one can follow closely the mound which once was Wall.

Before leaving the Sewingshields region, we see ahead an important gap called Busy Gap.

Here the Wall bends nearly southward, in order to avoid Broomlee Lough (which laps the feet of Sewingshields Crags) and to make for the next line of crags.

Nothing but the foundations remain of the actual Wall, but stones are piled up roughly on them to make a field-boundary.

It is the interval between the end of Sewingshields Crags and the beginning of the Housesteads series which is known as "Busy Gap," for it was a very weak place on the Wall, and the enemy knew it. Besides digging the usual Wall-ditch across the gap, the Romans made an earthern rampart, triangular in form, as an additional protection. Camden says of this Gap in 1599:

"I could not with safetie take the full Survey of it for the ranke-robbers thereabout."

One evening when I was returning home from this spot, quite suddenly the mist came down, and blotted everything out. I could not even see the ground at my feet, and anyhow there is no path to follow. So the only thing I could do was to strike upwards until I came to the mound of the Wall on the top of the crags, and then to keep along its south side. After a while the mist lifted as suddenly as it had come down, and I found myself within a stone's-throw of the little plantation at Sewingshields.

It is no joke to be caught by a mist on these fells in the evening; they come down without any warning, and sometimes last for days.

Just beyond the grass-grown site of another mile-castle the platform of the fort of BORCOVICIUM comes into view, with the farm-house of Housesteads. All this time the Vallum can be seen to the left, traversing the low land between us and Wade's Road.

Following the Wall up and down the steep sides of two unchristened gaps, I came to a little wood, which can only be entered and left by climbing the stone wall which surrounds it. A few steps beyond the wood, and there was the "amphitheatre" of Borcovicium lying before me, where Dr. Bruce thought that gladiatorial contests were carried on for the entertainment of the soldiers of the fort. There was also a splendid stretch of Wall, 8 feet wide and 6 feet high, with a flat grass-grown surface, running along right up to the wall of the fort! This was indeed worth seeing!

I went down into the "amphitheatre," a mere grassy hollow, where Dr. Bruce says nettles are usually growing. I found, not stinging-nettles—not the smallest trace of one—but bright patches of purple "heartsease," surely a far better omen for poor suffering humanity!

It must have been a cynic who first started the idea that stinging-nettles were a sign of human presence. I would like to think that pansies give a truer sign; that good "thoughts," instead of evil ones, are more truly representative of man. In the way in which heartsease has (apparently) displaced stinging-nettles here, on the site of many a bloody contest, let us see a symbol and a prophecy of the displacement of human hatred and rivalry by the spirit of fellowship and love.

But wait! I am forgetting. The "bloody contests" are a myth. Professor Bosanquet trenched the hollow in 1898 and proved it to be an ancient quarry. And so it is marked on the new Ordnance Survey!

Now for the first time it was possible to walk along the top of the Wall, feeling that it was the very structure built by the Romans, and not a mere mound. Soon the course of the Wall was interrupted by a gateway, supposed, by Dr. Bruce, to have been made as an approach to the "amphitheatre," but the probable explanation of its existence is given on page 122.

Just here the Wall crosses the Knag Burn, and it is interesting to note how it crosses, because it was no doubt the method employed by the Romans to carry the Wall over every narrow stream. First, the bed of the stream has been paved with stone; then low walls, four or five courses high, have been built along the edges of the stream for a distance of about 10 feet. Lastly, large slabs of stone have been thrown across from wall to wall, to bridge the stream to a width of 10 feet, and on this foundation the Wall has been built. It leaves an opening for the stream about 34 inches high, 30 inches wide, and 10 feet long, not a very pleasant passage for one man to squeeze through, even when the stream was dry, and hopeless for a raiding band!

At this point a notice is posted: "Admission 6d.; parties over 20, 3d. each." It reminded me of the old lady who claimed to be so much over twenty that she ought to be admitted for a penny!

The Wall joins the north wall of the fort at its rounded north-east angle.

CHAPTER XII

HOUSESTEADS TO PEEL CRAG

BORCOVICIUM

The fort of Borcovicium was constructed on the same general plan as that of Cilurnum, but it presents also a very great contrast in situation and in its special features.

Cilurnum lies in the fertile valley of the North Tyne; Borcovicium clings to the bleak heights; but they are alike in the massive nature of their gateways, in which pivot-holes and wheel-ruts can still be seen, and alike in the general arrangement of the Principia and other buildings.

At Borcovicium the Principia faces east, instead of north. A wide arch covered the main entrance, and there were two similar arches inside. There was the usual outer court, surrounded by a colonnade which supported a pent-house roof; the inner court, with a portico; and the series of five small rooms at the back.

In the northernmost room were found over eight hundred iron arrow-heads and some scrap iron, as if some one had been making arrow-heads here before the fort was finally deserted.

The columns here are round, as contrasted with the square piers of Cilurnum. One very beautiful base is left; it was probably turned on a lathe, as a pattern, and then the building appears to have been interrupted, and the other bases were copied from the first, not very successfully.

The storehouses (horrea), for supplies to last all the winter, have had as usual very thick walls and buttresses, in order to support the heavy stone roofs, tiled with stone slabs, to prevent their being set on fire by red-hot sling-bullets. The floors were raised above the ground on squared blocks of stone, to keep the buildings dry, and so preserve the grain. In the Middle Ages a circular kiln was made in the southern granary.

The masonry of the gateways at Borcovicium is particularly massive and beautiful. The north gateway opens on to such a steep slope as to render it practically useless for wheeled traffic. It has been suggested that general instructions were issued, and then carried out au pied de la lettre, even when inappropriate, under special conditions. Such a thing has been known to occur in more recent military works.

Fig. 12. Plan of the Fort of Borcovicium. (After Dickie and Bosanquet.)
(Reproduced, by permission, from Romano-British Buildings and Earthworks,
by John Ward, F.S.A.)

There is a large stone tank by the north gateway, the purpose of which is doubtful. Knives have been sharpened round the edges, giving it a scalloped appearance, as shown in the picture of this gateway which faces this page.

The so-called "amphitheatre" is seen on the left—a grassy hollow in the angle formed by the Wall and a field-boundary. The gateway in the Wall by the Knag Burn is also seen. In the distance are Sewingshields Crags with the Wall running along the ridge.

It is probable that it was found necessary to make the gateway in the Wall by the Knag Burn because, after the building of the Wall, the only access to the enemy side would otherwise have been by the almost impassable north gate.

Prior to the building of the Wall the east gate was the most available route.

The gateways have been all more or less filled up during some period of the Roman occupation, but the filling-up has been entirely removed. This was done in the dark ages of archæology over fifty years ago, and no records were kept at that time of the finds and the different floor-levels, by means of which it is alone possible to learn the period when the gates were blocked. At Rudchester they were filled up in the second century.

The barracks were long narrow huts, about 30 feet in width, built to accommodate a hundred men. They each contained ten or eleven rooms. Here at Borcovicium they run along the length of the fort, instead of crosswise as usual.

NORTH GATE, BORCOVICIUM. THE GREAT WALL IS SEEN RUNNING UP
TOWARDS THE PLANTATION, AND THE SO-CALLED "AMPHITHEATRE"
APPEARS AS A HOLLOW ON ITS LEFT.
SEWINGSHIELDS CRAGS RISE IN THE DISTANCE,
WITH THE WALL FOLLOWING THEIR LINE

The long building by the western gateway was a workshop; part of it was a smithy; there were traces of iron and coal.

The sanitary system was very complete, and is one of the chief evidences of the high level of civilization and comfort which Rome demanded for her soldiers, even at such a remote outpost of the Empire.

The north-east angle tower has been moved when the Wall was built, in order to be in a better position for commanding the line of the Wall, showing that the Wall was not thought of when the fort was built.

The slopes to the south outside the south gateway were covered with buildings so closely that there was no room for a man to pass between the walls of the houses; and to the west there are signs of terraced gardens, such as are common now in Italy.

There are many traces at Borcovicium of the occupation of the enemy, during which time he has destroyed as much as possible of the buildings and walls; and the Romans on re-entering have built again on the ruins, without removing the débris. This accounts for great differences in floor-levels that are found.

I left Borcovicium by the north gate, and followed along the north wall till I came to a little wood, which begins just where the fort ends. The track of the Wall runs through this little wood, almost hidden in lush and lusty grass, on the extreme edge of the basalt cliffs, which are very steep again here. With slight breaks, the best walking is along the top of the Wall all the way from this little wood to Rapishaw Gap; and then again from Cat Stairs to the west end of Peel Crag. A splendid piece of Wall is this that we are now traversing!

A quarter of a mile from Borcovicium is what is known as the Housesteads mile-castle, the most perfect specimen of a mile-castle that can be seen to-day above ground.

As usual the Wall forms its northern wall, and here it stands fourteen courses, or 9½ feet, high. The thickness of the Wall at the north gateway is not less than 10 feet. The original opening was 10 feet wide, and spanned by an arch, the springers of which are in position still, as also one of the voussoirs; and one of the voussoirs of the arch of the inner gateway is placed on the impost of the outer, as shown in the picture facing this page. Broomlee Lough is seen in the distance.

THE NORTH GATE OF HOUSESTEADS MILE-CASTLE SHOWING HOW
THE GATEWAY WAS NARROWED IN LATTER ROMAN TIMES

The inner gateway has been made, at a later period, by walling up the original one, and so reducing the width from 10 feet to 3¾ feet, and the floor has been raised 3½ feet above the original level. Everything goes to indicate that the gateway has been destroyed several times, and that the Romans have built it up again without removing the débris. This partial walling-up of the gateways seems to have been done in the case of most of the forts and mile-castles, in the later period of Roman occupation, when Rome could not spare many soldiers for this outlying province.

If we examine the north gateway from the north side it is clear that one of the piers has been partly overthrown when the enemy was in occupation. Something has been inserted in the bar-holes, and the whole Wall has been levered out. This would make the arch collapse. In Severus's reconstruction the pier has been left thus, pushed out of place, and has been built round.

Severus's reconstructions are much better work than some of the later ones.

Still walking on the Wall, I came to Cuddy's Crag (Cuddy is a pet name for St. Cuthbert), the Wall maintaining its full breadth of 8 feet and a height of 5 or 6 feet for a long distance. The picture which faces page 28 shows the Wall as seen from Cuddy's Crag, looking eastwards, along the way we have come. Wade's Road is seen like a white ribbon to the left of the trees. Just below it is the gateway through the Wall referred to on page 122. The hollowed line on the extreme left of the picture, near the horizon, where the Wall makes a great dip down, is Busy Gap.

Over Cuddy's Crag we come to Rapishaw Gap, where the Wall becomes too steep and rough for walking on. Apparently the mat of turf which covers it elsewhere could not grow on this steep slope.

Just here I came across a sad sight—a new-born lamb with its eyes pierced, evidently by a kite or some such bird of prey.

Next come Hotbank Crags, from the top of which Crag Lough comes grandly into view. To the south of Wade's Road, Barcombe is now prominent, covered with heather, still in its sombre stage, and with the Long Stone standing out sharply against the sky. Beyond Barcombe the green platform of the fort of Vindolanda, at Chesterholm, can be distinguished.

Crag Lough is one of the most beautiful natural features along the line of the Wall. Lying for its whole length immediately under the steep basalt crags, it has the advantage of Broomlee and Greenlee, which spread themselves out in the plain.

Crag Lough is reached through Milking Gap, which lies between the Lake and the farm-house of Hotbank. I tried to get rooms at Hotbank when I was painting along the Wall, but the family was too large to allow of their taking visitors.

There is a mile-castle in Milking Gap; and thence the Wall climbs the slope to the summit of Highshield Crag, where the columns of basalt are particularly striking.

CRAG LOUGH FROM MILKING GAP, WITH WINSHIELDS IN THE DISTANCE.
THE WALL IS VISIBLE ON THE HEIGHTS ABOVE THE LOUGH,
AND ALSO RUNNING OVER WINSHIELDS.

In the picture facing this page, the Wall is seen running along the top of Highshield Crag above the Lough, having passed through the little wood.

In the distance it is seen taking its farther course over Winshields, the highest hill that it traverses.

The basaltic columns overhanging the Lough, and Hotbank farm-house in the distance, are seen in the picture which faces page 112.

It is a beautiful walk through the little wood above the Lough, with its waters seen through the branches of the trees. Hosts of jackdaws dwell in these crags, and keep up a perpetual conversation with each other.

The wind had now dropped, and it was warm walking on the unsheltered crags. I had met no one since leaving Sewingshields, so I took off my shoes and stockings and walked barefoot on the grass. But I kept wanting to cross and recross the Wall, and to climb stone hedges, and this was not pleasant with bare feet, so at last I took my bedroom-slippers out of my haversack, and walked in them for several miles, till I suddenly found that I had worn them into holes on the rocks, so they were no longer any protection!

At Steel Rigg Gap the ground falls very steeply, and the Wall-stones are laid horizontally. Here in the gap is a small walled enclosure, with a sycamore growing in it. No! it is not a Wall turret, only a sheep-fold.

Now comes Castle Nick, containing a mile-castle in very good condition. It is 50 feet by 62 feet. Probably the narrowness of the gap explains why its greatest size is north and south, instead of east and west, as usual.

The south gateway is smaller than the north. Under the foundations of the south gateway have been found the pivot-holes of a wider gate.

Foundations of buildings are to be seen within the walls; no doubt they were similar to the barracks in the stations, and had pent-house roofs.

The next gap is called Cat Stairs, where a very rough and rocky path descends to the plain.

CASTLE NICK MILE-CASTLE, WITH CRAG LOUGH IN THE DISTANCE

I was coming this way once with my sketching-things at six o'clock in the morning, and I though I would go down the Stairs, and get a view of the Wall from the plains. My things were heavy, so I left them at the top, just where a stone boundary wall crosses the Wall. Having seen enough, I was returning, when I heard a noise. Surely some very large Cat was coming down the stairs! Stones were bounding from rock to rock and falling on the plain. I waited, and there swung into view a tall young shepherd with my sketching-things hung round his neck! It was amusing to see his astonishment and confusion. But I knew at once what had happened without his needing to explain. He thought my things had been forgotten the day before by some member of a party who had visited the Wall, for he said he had never before seen any one about there so early. I thanked him for his kind intentions, and asked him to add to his kindness by taking the things "upstairs" again. Which he did, and I went on my way.

And here I must interrupt the Walk for a little while to speak of life at the lonely farms, where they so kindly took me in. Nearly always they said, "No," at first. If they gave no reason, or an incontrovertible one, I went away. If they said, "We can't get meat for oorsel's, and we're fair stoured wi' rabbits," I saw my chance, and protested that I wanted no meat at all, only eggs and bread and butter and milk. Then they usually yielded at once, with a "Well, ye sanna go hungert!"

The middle of May is the annual moving-time for the farms, I found; so it is a bad time to try to get taken in.

Once they had hardly got straight after a move when I called, and the good-wife said doubtfully, "Would ye mind a fixt bed?"

"Oh dear, no," I said gaily, not having the faintest idea what it was! But I thought it must be better than a peripatetic one! When the time came, my bed looked very ordinary indeed, and I was quite disappointed. I made inquiries, and the housewife smiled, and said her extra bed had come by the carrier unexpectedly soon. "But ye can see the fixt bed if ye like." I found it was a two-legged wooden bedstead forming part of the structure of a small attic, with the back built against the wall, and the two legs at the foot immovably glued to the floor. Rather nice, when one moves in to a new house, to find one bed already there!

At these "out-by" farms they keep very early hours; they often have dinner at 10.30, tea at 2.30, supper at 5.30, and go to bed at 7.30.

Sometimes I would spend a day out with the children on the moors, or mosses, as they are usually called, where in places the draining-ditches are so close together that progress is a perpetual jump. Or if there are no ditches, it means jumping from one clump of rushes to the next. But "nae rash-bush e'er deceived true Scot," as the proverb says, and the rush-bushes never let us down, Scots though we were not.

There I saw cranberry-blossom for the first time; and any amount of milk-wort, all colours, and butter-wort, and the sticky round-leaved sundew.

Once they made me cut a peat, my first peat, standing by and laughing while I tried my prentice-hand at it.

It looks so easy to cut one of these slices of "chocolate-mould." But it isn't!

The crust of the ground is hard, and one is apt not to exert enough force to start with. Then perhaps one overdoes it, and goes through the crust all of a sudden, and so slithering down through the soft damp peat far more quickly than one intended. But they were kind to me, though they laughed. They said: "She didn't break her first peat; that was champion!"

We would roam on the moors and hear the badgers barking, and sometimes we would see one; and we'd go and watch the sheep-washing down by the "Sike." There is no end to what one can do in the country "out-by"!

The names of some of the houses are very unusual. There is "Seldom Seen," a herd's cottage on the Stanegate; and "Cold Knuckles," an out-by homestead which was burnt down (in its efforts to warm itself, apparently) and has not been rebuilt. A pity that such a name should also perish in the flames!