ds about 40 yᵈˢ. in circumference.
about 3 bow shoots from the upper
The Circle is also in the same field.
A Monument in Seland near the Highway to the Village of Birke.
Stukeley delin.
On a hill above the upper end of Loch Kreigness in Argileshire
At Klochlynach in Dynfarri near Benbwysken
Stukeley delin. Harris sculp.
near Helmstad
near Bulke in Halsatia
Doctissimo Viro Joħi Keysler Amico plurimum æstimando Tabulam Jure & Lubentissime d. d. W:m Stukeley
The 9 maids in the Parish of S.t Colomb.
PENRITH.
At the conflux of the rivers Louther and Eimont there is a remarkable curiosity, that illustrates the method of the religious solemnities of the old Britons, as much as any I have seen. Upon the edge of the Louther, where the bridge now passes it, is a delicate little plain, of an oblong form, bounded on the other side by a natural declivity: this is used to this day for a country rendezvous, either for sports or military exercises, shooting with bows, &c. On this plain stands the antiquity commonly called King Arthur’s Round Table, and supposed to be used for tilts and tournaments: it is a circle inclosed with a ditch, and that with a vallum. At first sight we may see that it was intended for sports, but not on horseback, because much too little: the vallum on the outside lies sloping inward with a very gradual declivity, on purpose for spectators to stand around it; and it would hold at least 10,000 people. The outside of the vallum is pretty steep: it was high originally, as may be seen now in some parts; but it is worn down, as being by the side of the common road; and the inhabitants carry it away to mend the highways withal. There are two entrances into the area, north and south, or nearly so: one end is inclosed into a neighbouring pasture: the area had a circle within, somewhat higher in elevation than the other. The outer verge of the vallum is a circle of 300 foot: the composition of it is intirely coggles and gravel, dug out of the ditch. Upon part of the plain are marks of the tents of the Scots army, that accompanied King Charles II. in his way to Worcester: they encamped here for some time, and drew a small line across part of the southern circle: this was done within memory.
Just 400 foot from the verge of the south entrance is another circle, 300 foot in diameter, made contrarywise to the former: the vallum is small, and the ditch whence it was taken is outermost. Thus these two circles and the interval make 1000 foot in length; and there is just room enough without them, next the river and next the bank, for a circus or foot-race, according to the old manner of the Grecian, which were always celebrated by the sides of rivers.
Centum ego quadrijugos agitabo ad flumina currus, &c. Virg. and probably British chariots had here their courses. On the southern end it is manifest they contrived it just to leave room enough for the turn; and it required good skill to drive a chariot so as not to fall there, or into the river. It must be understood, that the bridge at present, and another of wood formerly a little below it, have impaired the banks by the more southern circle. This is the most delightful place that can be imagined for recreation: the rapid river Louther runs all along the side of it; the Eimot joins it a little way off, in view: beyond is a charming view of a vast wood, and of Brougham castle; beyond that, the ancient Roman city, and the Roman road going along under the high hill whereon is the beacon. But these are things later in time than our antiquity.
Though upon first sight of the place I knew its purport, yet I was more fully convinced thereof when I went to see Mayborough, as called, which is a little higher up the hill, on an eminence higher than any near it, and full west from this place, or circus: it is a vast concavity, of the same diameter as the circles just mentioned, viz. 300 foot: it is made with an artificial vallum of loose stones, without any ditch, carried with great labour from some other place, and here orderly piled up, so as to make a rampart as high and as broad as that at Abury: in some places the turf, with which it was covered originally, is peeled off: it slopes inward with a gentle descent on account of spectators; outwardly it is as steep as the nature of the materials would suffer, and now covered over with great timber-trees: the entrance is wide, and opens full east, and to the circus. Within this fine plain, which is now ploughed up, have been two circles of huge stones; four remaining of the inner circle till a year or two ago, that they were blown to pieces with gunpowder: they were of a hard black kind of stone, like that of the altar at Stonehenge: one now stands, ten foot high, seventeen in circumference, of a good shapely kind; another lies along: this inner circle was fifty foot in diameter. One stone, at least, of the outer circle remains, by the edge of the corn; and some more lie at the entrance within side, others without, and fragments all about. Just by the entrance, along the road runs a spring, full eastward.
This I suppose to be a great British temple, where the country met on solemn days to sacrifice. After the religious duties were over, they went down to the circus to celebrate their games: and I could not but admire the fine genius of these people in chusing places for their sports; for upon the verge of the acclivity, along the circus, an infinite number of people might stand to see the whole without the least inconvenience, besides those in the plain between the two circles; and these two circles admirably well executed the intent of the meta’s, but much better than those in the Roman circus’s. In ploughing at Mayborough they dug up a brass Celt. On the other side of the Eimot, upon a high ground overlooking all, is a very fine round tumulus, of a large size, and set about with a circle of stones: this in all probability was the funeral monument of the king that founded the temple and circus. Somebody has lately been digging away part of the barrow, and carried off some of the stones, and demolished others.
There is another Celtic monument in the fields beyond the Louther, and south-east of Countess pillar, upon a fine dry spot of ground near the moors: this is in sight of the temple. It consists of many burial-places, marked out with stones set at equal distances. One points eastward, and is what I take to be an arch-druid’s; being above 100 foot long, not a raised tumulus, but a pyramidal form designed by two sides of stones like an avenue. A little way above the head of this is another longish burial, and on a sort of barrow: it points differently from the former. Farther on is the arc of a circle, consisting of four large stones equidistant, opening south: I believe this to be part of another: one of the stones is of the same nature as those at Shap. Further on is one side of another long burial, like the first. There are many more such-like hereabouts, but ruinous; for the stones are carried away for building the adjacent moor-houses and walls. In the pasture on the eastern bank of the Louther, in the way to Clifton, are several cairns, or carracks, as the Scotch call them, made of dry stones heaped together; also many other monuments of stones, three, four, five, set upright together. They are generally by the country people said to be done by Michael Scot, a noted conjuror in their opinion, who was a monk of Holm abbey in Cumberland: they have a notion too that one Turquin, a giant, lived at Brougham castle; and there is a tower there, called Pagan tower; and Sir Lancelot de Lake lived at Mayborough, and slew him. Near Clifton is a famous spring, where the people go annually on May-day to drink, by a custom beyond all remembrance: they hold it an earnest of good luck the ensuing year, to be there and drink of the water before sun-rise. This, no doubt, has been continued from the British times, and is a remain of the great quarterly festival of the vernal equinox. So at Sidbury, on Palm Sunday.
Old Penrith is Petrianis, on the river Peterel: it signifies the warth over the river Petria; so that Penrith, its successor, is but a corruption of Petterith.
GALAVA.
The Roman city lies on the east side of the Louther, just by Brougham castle, whose walls, and those of the park, are for part built of the stones from the old city, being manifestly of a Roman cut. The trace of the place is very easily discovered, where the ditch went between the Roman road and the river. I saw many fragments of altars and inscriptions at the hall nearer the bridge, all exposed, in the court-yard, to weather, and injuries of every sort. In the wall by the Roman road beyond Brougham castle, and near the countess of Pembroke’s pillar, is a pretty busto, part of a funeral monument; the bulla of the mantle most conspicuous, though much injured. Farther on, in the same dry wall, nearer the corner, is another basso relievo, but so defaced, that I could not make any thing of it. The Roman road coming from Carlisle, very apparent as they tell me, passes above or north of the town of Penrith, under the beacon-hill; then passes the river just under the castle; then went by the south side of the city, where its pavement is now firm and good; then where Countess pillar now stands: here it is visible as far as the horizon in a very strait lane, going full east to Appleby. Vast quantities of Roman stone, taken up in the city, have been burnt into lime. Coins, Mosaic floors, and every sort of antiquity, are daily found: they cannot strike a stroke into the ground but inscriptions, pillars, and some sort or other of ancient remains, appear. The site of the city is an elevated piece of ground by the river side; a woody country about it: a vast hill, or fell, of an immense height, goes all along the partition of this county from Durham, in sight here; and by the side of it, three remarkable lesser hills, or pikes, as they call them deservedly; being extremely sharp and conical, and very regularly so.
On the corner of Clifton house is an inscription with carving on it: it is an admirable fine stone, or rather two joined together in the middle; placed at the very top of a gable end: two winged Victories, with garlands and palm-branches in their hands, stand on their sides.
I saw at Lowther, the seat of lord Lonsdale, an ugly brass figure with wings, and somewhat like a laurel-garland about his head, found in the Picts wall near Drumburg castle.
The square plot of the city is very perfect, on the south side of Brougham castle: it had a broad ditch round it. The castle stands on the north end of it, and was built of its wall; the track of which is visible upon the edge of the vallum. The high ground by Countess pillar, where most of the inscriptions were found, seems to have been the site of the city, and this the castle or fort; the Roman road lying between. A good way farther on the road toward Kirkby, there is a hawthorn-tree with a buck’s horns fastened upon it: this stands by one of great note and antiquity, now decayed, where was a brass plate of
They say the bark of the tree had covered the bottom of the horns for a great many inches.
In the church-yard of Penrith is a monument of a giant, Sir Owen Cæsarius, a knight, I suppose, of their king Arthur; two pyramidal stones with rude carvings and letters on them, seemingly Runic. This church is new built, and fitted up very handsomely. Selden speaks of an image at Lowther. There is a castle at Penrith in the upper part of the town. Over-against Brougham is Isanparles, an odd rock.
The Madan-way goes over Cross-fell very perfect: an inscription on the side of a house built upon it: it goes to Barwic on the Wall. Cross-fell is the highest ground hereabouts; they can see the Irish sea from thence. A fine meadow by the river side over-against the Roman castrum. The stones of the city are of a different sort from those of the country.
Mr. Gale says there is such a work as the round table near his house in Yorkshire, with many barrows near it. Mayborough is finely incircled by the river Eimot, which is very deep. Dr. Hugh Todd, minister of Penrith, has a great collection of antiquities.
Many Roman inscriptions have been found lately at Netherhall, by the sea side near Workington, which are placed on the stable-wall at lord Lonsdale’s there. The fine inscription at the end of Clifton house has been there for 300 years, exposed to the rain and weather; so that the inscription is worn away; only it seems that imper. legat. aug. in Africa, is just visible. Another inscription is on the inside of the barn there. Some Roman carvings on the quarry whence the pillars of Penrith church were taken. I saw a Roman vessel of copper found near Clifton: it is deep, with a handle to it like a skillet, on which is stamped the maker’s name, TALIOF: within this is placed a cullender, and within that another: the use of it, I guess, was to carry lighted charcoal in, at the sacrifices. The spring below Clifton is a pretty grotto, much talked of, where, as I said, the anniversary meeting is on May-day. The great barrow incompassed with stones, by the Eimot side, is called Haransley hill.
LONG MEG.
Mr. Patten and I went to view that famous monument of antiquity called Long Meg and her Daughters, in the parish of Addingham, between Little Salkeld and Glasenby. It stands upon a barren elevated plain of high ground, under the vast hill called Cross-fell, to the east. This plain declines to the east gently, or rather north-east, for that I find to be the principal line observed by the founders. It is a great Celtic temple, being a circle of 300 foot diameter, consisting of 100 stones: they are of unequal bulk; some are of very large dimensions: many are standing, but more fallen, and several carried away; but lately they have destroyed some by blasting, as they call it, i. e. blowing them in pieces with gunpowder; others they have sawed for mill-stones: but the major part remaining, gives one a just idea of the whole; and it is a most noble work. The stones are not all of the same kind; some made of square crystallisations, of the same sort as those at Shap; and I saw many of that sort of stone scattered about the country; others of the blue, hard, flaky sort, like those of the temple at Mayborough. The intervals are not exactly equal, but judiciously adapted to the bulks of the stones, to preserve as much as possible a regular appearance. This large ring, thus declining north-east, is now parted through by a ditch; so that the larger half lies in an inclosure, the other in a common; and the road lies by the side of it, that goes from Little Salkeld to Glasenby. South-west from it, seventy foot, stands a very great and high stone, called Long Meg, of a reddish girt, seeming to have been taken from the side of some quarry of the country: I think it leans a little north-east: it is about fifteen foot high. In the middle of the circle are two roundish plots of ground, of a different colour from the rest apparently, and more stony and barren; which probably were the immediate places of burning the sacrifices, or the like. Not far hence toward Glasenby is a very fine spring; whence, no doubt, they had the element of water, used at their religious solemnities: and higher up the field is a large spring, intrenched about with a vallum and foss, of a pretty great circumference, but no depth. Full south-west from this work, in the next inclosure and higher ground, is another circle of lesser stones, in number twenty: the circle is fifty foot diameter; and at some distance above it is another stone placed, regarding it, as Meg does the larger circle. In that part of the greater circle next the single stone called Meg, are two stones standing beyond the circle a little, and another fallen; which I believe were a sort of sacellum, perhaps for the pontifex to officiate in: and westward is another stone or two, perhaps of a like work; but the ruinous condition of the work would not admit of any certainty about it.
KESWICK.
We continued our journey through this rough country, and passed half round the bottom of the famous Skidhaw, a high mountain named from its fancied likewise to a shoe (yscyd.) Penruddoc, a town near it, with a Welsh name. These desolate and hilly regions were the retiring places of the Britons from the power of the Romans; which perhaps is the reason of the great number of temples scattered throughout the country; for a mile before we came to Keswick, on an eminence in the middle of a great concavity of those rude hills, and not far from the banks of the river Greata, I observed another Celtic work, very intire: it is 100 foot in diameter, and consists of forty stones, some very large. At the east end of it is a grave, made of such other stones, in number about ten: this is placed in the very east point of the circle, and within it: there is not a stone wanting, though some are removed a little out of their first station: they call it the Carsles, and, corruptly I suppose, Castle-rig. There seemed to be another larger circle in the next pasture toward the town.
The ascent to this hill (Skidhaw) is from the east; for the west side of it is exceeding steep, and drawn down into frightful ribs, like the roots of a tree. There is a place on the top called Skidhaw maen; a kind of sea-mark, by what information I could get: it seems to be a kist-vaen. Cnut-berries grow a-top of it, a delicious fruit.
There is no doubt, that when the globe of the earth received its motion round its axis, all the solid parts of metals, minerals and stone, flew to the outward parts at farthest distance from the centre, contrary to the assumption of our theorists, and the laws of Nature; for which reason we find the most hard materials on the highest mountains: these by time, and the heat of the external air, consolidated, and left great cavities lower down, when the matter underneath came closer together, and could not bring down these arch-like bodies: at length, when the parts of the globe became accustomed to this motion, the remainder of its internal matter I will allow to sink according to its specific gravity; and questionless the central constituents are heavier than that between it and the present surface; and probably this is fluid. Supposing then the matter of iron-stone fell to the centre, it formed a great magnet, according to Dr. Halley’s hypothesis, and may have a liberty of turning round itself with a slow motion, the intermediate fluid giving it that liberty; though, as to a subterraneous world, as that famous mathematician would suggest, I cannot believe the least of it: but this internal magnet, being not fastened to the whole earth, will naturally, as he supposes, have a motion of its own, somewhat different from that of the earth, and retain a regular revolution of that motion; which solves the famous variation of the magnetic needle.
Keswick is placed in a narrow bottom, under these vast mountains, which seem to hang over our heads. There is a place called Castle-head, a great rock, which has, no doubt, been a castle, I fancy in British times, and called a caer, whence the name of the town, Caerswic, as Keston in Kent, from the camp there, originally Caerston. Here are variety of mines hereabouts; some of lead, some of copper, and others of black-lead, which is no contemptible manufacture: there are scarce any other black lead mines, but what are here; they use it for glasing pots: it lies pretty much above ground. In our way hither we had sight of that vast receptacle of water called Ulles lake; and, when going hence to Cockermouth, we rode all along the side of a great lake upon the river Derwent. These collections of fluid element are owing to the rocks, which suffer not the water thoroughly to drain out of the valleys. When one stands at the end of these lakes, the prospect: is exceeding delightful; the mountains on each side rising to a great height, one behind another the whole length, and broke off into short ones, like the scenes at a playhouse: nor need a painter go to Italy for variety and grandeur of prospects. Though the sides of these hills are very stony, and even rocks of marble, yet the valleys every where look very green, and produce great crops, in years when they have a reasonable share of dry weather: but that, I believe, is not very frequent; for the hills will scarce suffer any clouds to pass over from any quarter, but dash them in pieces; so that the frequency of springs and cascades, and the rapidity and force of the brooks and rivers, is wonderful.
COCKERMOUTH.
At this place they manufacture cotton yarn for candlewicks. It owes its name to the river Cocker, here emptying itself into the Derwent. The castle belonging to the dukes of Somerset stands in the angle of union, and very pleasantly: the valley is rich ground: it was a stately building, and strong in the old manner; but now they daily pull it down for the sake of its materials. They report that the earth of the vallum on the outside the walls was fetched from Ireland, whence no venomous creature can pass over it. A fine vault here, which they call the Chapel.
OLENACVM. Elenborough.
Going toward this Roman station, we passed the river Derwent, and over a moor not far from the sea, where are coal-mines. Elenborough is a little village on the river Elen, the daughter of a great Roman city, which has produced a copious and instructive harvest of antiquities; as may be seen in Mr. Camden, p. 826. I quote Dr. Gibson’s first edition; for his second does disgrace this most excellent author, by mixing the notes with his masterly text. Here that great genius of old Britain, with Sir Robert Cotton, was entertained by the ancestor of the present possessor, Humphrey Senhouse, esq; who inherits a true love for these studies. His seat is on the other side the river: the walls of the house are incrusted over,TAB. LXIII. as we may say, with inscriptions, carvings, and bas reliefs, taken from the ruins of the Roman city. The first cohort of the Dalmatians, the first cohort of the Spaniards, and the first cohort of the Bœtasians, here kept garrison; as appears by the inscriptions.
TAB. LXX. LXXI.That noble altar now at Sir James Lowther’s, at Whitehaven, belongs to this place; the grandest yet seen in Britain: it is five foot and a half high: on the back, VOLANTI VIVAS import a sacred wish for the prosperity of his friend Volantius, hoping to see him again. Mr. Gale has observed several of this sort in Gruter.
In the wall of Mr. Senhouse’s dwelling is a curiosity seldom to be met with; a very large stone, whereon a man on horseback is designed to be carved, but left unfinished: it is a pleasure to see only the sketch of a Roman artist; and we are not to suspect these works here are so barbarous as our authors make them, for want of proper skill in drawing.
TAB. LXXII.There is another relievo of a lady sacrificing, which by the compartment of the inscription at bottom, though worn out, seems to have been fixed upon a temple by the founders. A most stately altar is placed in the middle of the garden, with a sun-dial on the discus. Some are somewhat more securely set up within the porch: many given away; as, one to the bishop of the Isle of Man; another, to Wm. Kirkby esq; at Ashlec in Kirkby, Lancashire: two altars lately found are placed upon a farm-house, which is now commonly known by the name of Volantium, falsely fixed upon this station: this is by the sea-side in Mr. Senhouse’s demesnes. It is much to be lamented that these fine remains should now be exposed to the weather.[2]
The castrum is just 400 foot square, two ditches about it, and three entrances: it had likewise a stone wall on the high vallum. On the north side of this castrum lay the city OLENACVM, of a great extent, as is plain from the ruins of it, but dug up all about. The family of the Senhouses, and the Eaglesfields whose heiress they married, have been continually digging here; and the ruins are still inexhaustible: the dwelling-house and all the out-houses are built from it, as from a quarry: hundreds of cart-loads of hewn stone now lie there.
One may trace many square plots of the houses, and of the streets, paved with broad flag-stones, that are visibly worn with use. All the walls that divide the pastures are made of these squared stones: I saw innumerable of them upon the spot, with mouldings on them of various sorts, gutter-stones, architraves, cornices, &c. The faces of the squared stones are generally not perfectly smoothed, but have the mark of the axe upon them; and I see many such sort of masonry in the old gates of London. Coins innumerable have been found formerly, now but seldom; urns, and other antiquities, which it is endless to particularise.
Mr. Senhouse told me there is a paved military way, besides the streets of the city, going hence northward along the sea-coast; another, to Papcastle by Cockermouth. Most of the inscriptions are found in the city and precincts; bits of altars, and fragments. In the castle are many vaults still left. The altar at Sir James Lowther’s was found in the north-west angle of the castle, on the vallum.
Here is a most magnificent prospect of the Scotch coast of Galway, and of the great sea between the two kingdoms. In the evening, when the sun shines, and it is clear weather, the lights and shadows of those lofty hills are extremely entertaining. The Isle of Man appears perfectly.
The river Elen did not empty itself, formerly, directly into the ocean, as at present, but went northward under the cliff, till it came under the castle: the old channel of it is visible: the sea has eaten away a large quantity of marsh and high ground between it and the castle. To this elbow of land, which made the mouth of the river, is the name OLENACVM owing. They talk likewise of anchors being found thereabouts: many Roman hand-mill stones found at Elenborough. I imagine this river is one of the Alaunas. Toward Cockermouth the western roots of the Cumbrian hills being very steep, exhibit a most curious spectacle; the declining sun shining on them from over the Irish sea; so that we need not travel to the Alps for magnificent views of this nature.
PAPCASTLE.
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 says he can trace the remains of the Roman road between this place and Elenborough in many places. This certainly was a town thoroughly peopled; and perhaps its name was Derventio, because standing upon this river Derwent. Fitz-house is on the south side of the river. Mr. Gilpin of Whitehaven has seen many Roman coins found at Papcastle, especially of Adrian.
WHITE-HAVEN.
This is a new sea-port town, standing in a little bay, sprung up from its conveniency for the coal-mines hard by. There are many salt-works upon this coast. Rock-samphire grows here. This western country, left beyond the monstrous hills, is sand and clay. Skidhaw is in view from hence, and with the rest deceives one exceedingly in its distance; for one of these hills, which we should be apt to compute a mile off, is seven; the eye judging according to the angle it makes from the horizon in such objects as it has been accustomed to. Here is but a small rivulet, which is a detriment to the haven, for want of scowering. They transport great quantities of coals to Ireland and other places. We walked two miles in these coal-works, the stratum of pure coal being all the way about ten foot thick, declining gradually, about one foot in five, till we got 300 foot below the surface; a rock of stone over head all along. Their method of digging is generally to run the grooves in a strait line, others going out on both sides at right angles; so that square pillars of coal are left to support the incumbent rock: hence some roads are made along the descent, the others parallel to its declivity. There are trappings now and then, but not very frequent, nor great; and those are both along the declivity, and sideways. Their methods of conveying the coal to the shafts where they are drawn up, and of conveying air from one passage to the other, to prevent damps and stagnations, and of drawing up the water from one height to another, are very dextrous, and worth seeing. At last the famous fire-engine discharges the water, which is a notable piece of machinery working itself intirely: it creates a vacuum by first rarifying the air with hot steam, then condenses it suddenly by cold water; whence a piston is drawn up and down alternately, at one end of a beam: this actuates a pump at the other end, which, let down into the works, draws the water out: it makes about 14 strokes in a minute; so that it empties 140 hogsheads in an hour, with moderate working. With this quantity of declivity it goes toward the sea, and below its level at present; and so, no doubt, proceeds under the sea as far as the outward shell of the globe reaches. From this it is most indisputable, that the convex thereof is formed into a spiral figure of layers of different materials; and it must be owing to the first rotation of the earth upon its own axis.
Here is likewise a great copperas work, which is effected by laying a great quantity of sulphurous and ferruginous earth into a great yard, walled about. This stuff is partly got out of the coal-mines, and out of the adjacent hills; in long tract of time the rains falling here, and passing through this earth, drain into a receptacle; into that they put all the old iron they can get, which it eats up presently: this is boiled to a proper degree of evaporation, then is let into leaden cisterns, where it crystallises against the sides of the vessels in pure copperas: it shoots into figures of regular surfaces, some triangular, others hexangular, &c.
MORBIVM,
Moresby, a mile north of Whitehaven. Here is a Roman castrum, notorious enough, at some distance, by its elevation above the plain of the field it stands in. This is one of the castles built at convenient intervals along this coast, to guard against the depredations of the Scots by sea: it lies upon a piece of high ground in a valley, bounded by higher all around, except seaward. Parton haven, where they are now making a new pier, is on one side; and a large creek, or little bay, on the other. The wall that stood on the edge of the vallum was just 400 foot square, as that at Elenborough. There is a great dry wall of stones now stands in its place, the stones taken originally from it: they are all squared: the stones of all the pastures, fences, and houses round about, and the stones of Mr. Brome’s house, and the churches, are most evidently taken thence; being of the Roman cut, as the inhabitants take notice, and wonder at it: they own the stone is of a different grit from that of the place.
The site of the Roman castle has been ploughed up. Many coins and urns found about the place; stones in great quantities still within the place: I saw one squarish, of a very large bulk. A reddish sort of slate to cover houses is dug here; they do not know of any such nearer than Scotland: such was the indefatigable labour of the Romans. There is no ditch about this castle; but the vallum is pretty high quite round. The church stands on the east side of it: in the church-yard is an ash-tree, that bends eastward fifty foot from the stem, by the force of the westerly winds continually pressing on it.
The new front of the hall is of an excellent model; I doubt not but it is from some of the admirable Inigo Jones’s designs: the inside is of the same relish. The Isle of Man is very clearly discerned from this place; and the Scotch coast quite to the mull of Galway: it is about thirty miles off.
In some pastures a little east of the place I saw a flat stone set upright by the road-side, and converted into a stile: it was a monument of some young Roman, but pretty much worn: he is robed with a toga, and holds a scroll in his right hand, to denote his being a scholar, perhaps a pleader, a disciple of the famous Papinian. I could not see to the bottom of it, where probably is an inscription. The man that rents the ground says it was found in the ditch, under the hedge, a little lower down.
At the next stile of the same pasture is another monumental stone of an old man; for such seems to be the head cut in the tympanum above. The inscription upon it is scarce legible: it was poorly cut at first, and has been thus long exposed with the face upwards; and because it is somewhat broader than the wall, and was apt to fall down, the man knocked off all one side of it: he has been courted with money and fair words to part with it, but in vain. Thus, as well as I can judge, the inscription should be read:
Dis Manibus sacrum Mertio Maximo, militum phractariorum equestori, stipendiorum decem, vixit triginta quinque annos.
There are evident signs of a Roman road from Morbium to Papcastle all the way, especially over the moor. The soil all along to the west of the Cumbrian hills, between them and the sea, is sandy, with rock underneath, sometimes lime-stone, sometimes of the red stone. Morbium, in the Notitia, is said to be the station of the numerus cataphractariorum; and the inscription above proves it.
There were six Roman castles against this western shore in Cumberland; a cohort in each took up half a legion to garrison: they are ten miles distant from each other; Mawborough, ten miles from Boulness; Elenborough; Morbium; another at Egremont; Maglove, Ravenglass. I suppose they were made by Stilico, who is celebrated for it in Claudian.
He was general to Theodosius.
CASTRVM EXPLORATORVM.
Now called Old Carlisle; a mile off Wigton, upon an eminence: the fairest show of foundations I ever yet saw: one might almost draw an intire plan of it, and of every dwelling. The castrum was double-ditched, 500 foot from south-east to north-west, 400 the other way: the wall has been dug up to the foundations; but the hollow where it stood on the edge of the rampart appears quite round, and the track of all the streets and buildings obvious. A street of forty foot wide quite round the inside of the wall. From the north-east entrance two Roman roads depart; one full north, as far as we could see, paved with coggles; on each side of it are the square plots of houses: the other road marches north-east, paved in like manner; it passes over two great moors, and there it is very apparent: we travelled along it to Carlisle. I saw a group of barrows near it. Many antiquities have been found at Old Carlisle, and inscriptions; one on the side of a house a mile off Wigton, as Mr. Gilpin told me: others are at Ilkirk.
There are several springs all round the bottom of the hill, and quarries; and an extensive prospect, especially toward the sea-shore. Some coal-works in our journey from Cockermouth hither. I doubt not but the Romans had knowledge of this subterraneous treasure, though they neglected it, because there was wood enough in their time: but Solinus mentions it among the wonders of Britain, that they burnt globos saxeos into ashes. I saw a silver Antoninus Pius found here; reverse, rector orbis.