It was a refined piece of management, and great knowledge of things, the Romans showed in the method of this wall; and a matter worthy of remark, that they chose all along to raise this work on the north side of the two rivers, that partly cross the island hereabouts, the Eden and Tyne. Many are apt to wonder at it, and think it was injudicious, imagining the rivers, with a very slender work on the south side of them, would have been sufficient security, and saved them much labour: but, if we consider this matter, we must confess it was not done without great consideration, and a master-stroke of military policy; for by this means the Romans took in all the fine rich ground lying upon the rivers for the sustentation of their troops, encouraged thereby to cultivate it, and build towns near, and make possessions to themselves and families, that they might live easy, and think themselves at home in these distant regions: here too trade and navigation might be carried on, and supplies of corn, wood, and other materials, conveyed from garrison to garrison; and in the times of the perfection of this work it must be looked upon as the best planted spot of ground in the island: and we may imagine the glorious show of towns, cities, castles, temples, and the like, on the south side of this Wall, by contemplating the prodigious quantities of their ruins and memorials beyond that of any other part of Europe, scarce excepting imperial Rome: and we have reason to think this will continue to be a source of entertainment for the curious and learned, when that is exhausted. Hither let the young noblemen and gentry travel, to admire the wonders of their native country, thick sown by that great, wise and industrious people, and learn with them how to value it.
Cæsar tells us the warlike nation of the Germans, the Suevi, gloried most in laying waste all the bordering countries around them, in destroying every thing that might administer sustenance to an enemy in approaching to their quarters. It was certainly equally political in the Romans to leave on the north side of the Wall that huge tract of waterless and dismal moor, a great barren solitude, where in some places you may walk sixty miles endwise without meeting with a house, or a tree: to ride it is impracticable. Thus, as much as in them lay, without the horror of barbarity did they remove the barbarians from their territories; whilst within the Wall, either naturally or by their industry, all things smiled like the garden of Eden: and indeed, toward both sea-coasts, about Carlisle and Newcastle, it is a very desirable and delightful country: and even in the midland moory tracts, by their great roads made every where, it was very good travelling; and in the worst parts, where their castra stood, and upon the valleys, it is now tolerably good, and was much better in their days, in the hands of those who could almost conquer Nature herself.
One of the Benwell inscriptions is plainly to be filled up at top thus; Jovi O. M. Dolicheno & numinibus Aug. Mr. Gale says, there is an inscription in Gruter, with Jovi Dolicheno ubi ferrum nascitur: there is another inscription, to Jovi Dolicheno, found in Wales: whence he infers with verisimilitude, that Dolichenus signifies not a topical deity; rather, some that presided over iron-works: but I cannot imagine what language it is. In the town I found three more inscriptions, though endeavoured to be concealed from me with a rudeness I never met before, even among the most unbred rustics. The fort at Benwell hill goes north of the road too, with an equal bulk; so that the Wall takes a circuit northward to inviron it: it is full of ruins too; so that it was really a city, induced probably by the extreme pleasantness of the place. A well was lately filled up there.
I find very plainly that the Picts wall, east of the town, came from Red Barns all along the street, so to Pandon gate, there being a great declivity, and a brook running without: then it crossed the valley within the town, where the brook runs, and went up the next hill to All-Saints church, which no doubt stands upon the Wall, out of which it was built: here is still a descent, where Silver-street is; and northward then it went directly to the lane called Panter-haugh, (probably from the old name, Panna, corrupted) with a descent still northward; so to the brow of the hill where the castle stands: here it met the Wall coming from West gate; and no doubt the site of the present castle was the ancient Panna, and this castle was built out of the ruins of the old one, and the adjacent parts of the Wall together. I suspect much, that a piece of the outer wall of the present castle, which stands on the west side in a tattered condition, may be Roman, at least built with Roman stone: this going upon the slope of the hill, the courses of the stone slope too, parallel with the declivity: but, be that as it will, at the foundation of it, a little lower, I saw a bit of the true old Roman wall, and indubitably so, made of white lime-stone, with mortar prodigiously hard, and ringing like a bell when struck upon. This castle has a great precipice eastward over Sand hill, and southward toward the river.
In the fields eastward, between Pandon gate and Red Barns, the counter-guard as I call that (vulgarly Adrian’s vallum) is plain, running all along parallel to the Wall; which method it observes where the ground leaves it that liberty. I suppose the city that belonged to this castle of Panna lay about Sand hill, at the end of the ferry. The south-west part of the town-wall to the postern was built on the counter-guard of that side. This town stands on three lingulas sloping toward the river. Probably William Rufus rebuilt this castle too, as that at Carlisle, and with the same purpose, as a guard against the pillaging Scots.
The manner of conveying the coals down to the river side from the pits, is very ingenious: a cart-way is made by a frame of timber, on which the wheels of the carts run without horses, with great celerity; so that they are forced to moderate their descent by a piece of wood like a lever applied to one of the wheels. The manner of rowing their great barges here is also very particular, and not unworthy of remark: four men manage the whole; three to a great and long oar, that push it forward; and one to another such a-stern, that assists the other motion, but at the same time steers the keel, and corrects the biass the other gives it. They observe that horses kept under ground in the coal-mines for two or three years, as sometimes they do, have their hair very fine and sleek, and as short almost as that of a mouse. We saw Col. Lyddal’s coal-works at Tanfield, where he carries the road over valleys filled up with earth, 100 foot high, 300 foot broad at bottom: other valleys as large have a stone bridge laid across: in other places hills are cut through for half a mile together; and in this manner a road is made, and frames of timber laid, for five miles, to the river side, where coals were delivered at 5s. the chaldron.
We were conducted down the river, by the officers of the customs, to North Sheels, at the mouth of the river, the Tunnocelum of the Romans. This is a very pleasant open river, and broad: sometimes 300 or 400 sail of ships lie here. Tinmouth castle, no doubt, was the Roman castle, standing high on the northern promontory. Clifford’s fort is a small insignificant fort upon the edge of the water. The shore of the river for the most part is rocky, and in some places pleasantly covered with wood. We saw Tarrow to the southward, famous for the birth-place of the most learned monk, venerable Bede.
Some of the coal-works here dip full East: it is plain south-east is the natural dip in general; those at Whitehaven, inclining south-west, I suppose receive a counter-bias, as being on the west side of the island. Sometimes they set green poles of alder and the like within the works, to support a weak part of the rock over-head; and then it is observed the juices in the tree will work upwards, and spread themselves upon the rock in a branch-like efflorescence.
Ravensworth castle was moated about, and castellated; but I could hear of no Roman antiquities found there. It stands under a very pleasant wood, and in a fine vale extending itself into Yorkshire, as they say, and farther; perhaps through the whole kingdom. Above this house to the west, upon the top of the fell, toward Tanfield is a most extensive prospect, over a great part of the Roman wall; so to the Cheviot hills toward Scotland, to Tinmouth castle, the sea, Lumley castle, and quite round; that it is very probable somewhere hereabouts was a Roman castle, and this might be the Ravonia Mr. Baxter places at Ravensworth.
The fund of coal in this country is inexhaustible; for the whole country is a mine of coal quite across the kingdom, in the moors, and so to Scotland: and this will be an eternal source of seamen in the kingdom. Going up the hill toward Benwell, I find the counter-guard goes just 300 foot off the wall, which was sufficient for the march of the detachments from place to place. The eastward part of the wall joined the castle where the stairs now are. A good part of the friery is standing, being a court: the chapel is converted into a hall for the smiths. Nothing of the nunnery left, but the jambs of the gate-house next the street.
GABROCENTVM.
Was Gateshead, as its name imports in British, I suppose, from the sign of some inn: a Goat still stands upon a sign of the Golden Lion, crowned. I guess this was a fortified town in the times of the Romans, where a ferry was for passage northward; but by reason of the buildings no traces of it are left: it stands on a deep rocky descent Westward. The Roman road here, which is the true Hermen-street coming from Sussex, coming down Gateshead fell, passes in a strait line to the bridge. I saw several Roman stones here, the recipient part of their hand-mills. In this place, in the time of the Notitia, lay the second cohort of the Thracians in garrison. There is an odd mausoleum in the church-yard.
Lord Hertford’s workmen, digging up the Roman city by Marlborough, found a piece of brass with an inscription in Romano-barbarous letters, a quarter of an inch high, thus: ʌ.MʌIS
CONDERCVM. Chester on the Street.
Lumley castle has a fine appearance hence. The Hermen-street is very plain, being in a strait line hither when we descend from Gateshead fell. I think Bede mentions this station, as called Concester, which retains part of the Roman name. Great coal-works too hereabouts. The first wing of the Astures made this their garrison, as the Notitia tells us, being ad lineam valli; for, though it be not upon the Wall, it is reasonable to think his expression is not to be strictly taken: it was convenient that some of the forces that guarded the wall should be quartered at some suitable distance, that they might have room of country for their maintenance. Here was a collegiate church founded by Anthony Bec, bishop of Durham; and here lived the Lindisfarn bishops, with the celebrated body of St. Cuthbert, before they settled at Durham. At Lumley castle is a curious old picture of Chaucer, said to be an original. Egelric monk of Peterborough, after bishop, built a church here in the time of William I. in digging the foundation he found an infinite deal of money, (Roman, I suppose,) with which he repaired the church at Burgh, and made a causeway through the fens between Spalding and Deeping.
DURHAM.
Extremely well seated in a bend of the Vedra. The neck of the peninsula is guarded by a strong castle, with a great tower upon a keep, or mount: it is now the bishop’s palace: all beyond that is the abbey-ground. The city lies before the castle, and on both sides the river: this being very high ground, the back side of every street has gardens, with a fine prospect over the river. It would be very strange if the Romans missed so fine and strong a situation, so near the great road; yet I do not hear of any antiquities found here: but eastward over the river, upon another peninsula of high ground, I saw a camp, called Maidencastle, which I judge to be theirs: it is almost incompassed too by a rivulet falling into the river from the east: it is of an oblong form, 500 foot long, very steep on three sides; the neck is guarded by a rampart, and without that, at some little distance, with a ditch. The prospect is large, more especially eastward.
The church antiquities of this place are capable of a large history, if pursued thoroughly by a judicious hand: it would give one a good idea of the ancient manner and magnificence of our great abbeys: there are no where such remains of that kind left among us. The revenues hereof are very great; which enables them to keep every thing in good repair, and to live very splendidly: indeed the whole city is supported only by the church. The cathedral is a very large and majestic pile, of the Saxon manner of building intirely, and all of a piece, except the east end transept and middle tower, and some later windows of mullion-work put into the old frames. I call that the Saxon manner which was in use among us at the time of the Conquest; being somewhat Roman degenerate, with semicircular windows, and arches, and great round pillars; the walls very thick, without buttresses: these, I suppose, together with pointed arches, slender pillars, and the like, which we call the Gothic, came from France. Very few monuments are left here: one of a bishop, under the bishop’s throne: in the choir the largest one, of a bishop, I ever saw; it is upon the ground, composed of two huge flat stones: the brass of it, which was proportional, is pulled off. Here are many of the ancient original copes, very richly embroidered, in which they officiate at the sacrament service; a custom here only preserved. The screen at the high altar is of stone, with pinacle work, somewhat like that at St. Alban’s; with many niches for images: behind is the stone under which lies the body of St. Cuthbert, and upon which stood his shrine. The eastern wall of the church is one intire transept, as long as the cross transept (I think,) and called the Nine Altars, from so many there placed. Much painted glass of saints, &c. Two images, among others left, are those of St. Cuthbert, and venerable Bede. The dome under the middle tower is very high, with a handsome balustrade of ancient manner within side. At the west end, built upon a high wall from the edge of the river, is a place called the Galilee, consisting of five ailes supported with handsome pillars: the use of it, and the meaning of the name, I know not; but the middlemost seems to have been an oratory, to pray for the soul of the founder of it, whose tomb stands at the east end: his arms are, Palé of ten, a mullet for difference. Near it, under a plain black tomb, lies the great Bede, the light of learning in darkest times; the first and the last among the monks. The cloisters are large and handsome; so is the chapter-house. The dean’s lodging is that of the prior’s; for the most part preserved in its primitive state; the hall, the parlour, large and stately; the prior’s lodging-room well cieled, and roofed with Irish oak, which Mr. Gale conjectures as old as Richard the Second’s time, by the chained white-harts carved therein: the prior’s kitchen is intire; a curious piece of geometry in stone, and vies with that of the abbot of Glastonbury; octagonal, with square outlets at the corners. The prebend’s houses are all very good. A large and handsome library, founded by dean Subden; his picture at full length at the end of it. Here is an excellent and large collection of old manuscripts; a very fine Latin Bible in three volumes; a psaltery wrote by Bede; a collection of Roman and others coins. Sir George Wheeler, a prebend here, gave his intire collection of Greek and other coins, which he collected in his travels; together with some natural curiosities, particularly the impressions of fishes, and other antediluvian matters, upon slate. Here are a great many Roman altars, inscriptions, basso relievo’s, &c. belonging to our own country;TAB. LXXIV. which they got from about the Picts Wall, Lanchester, &c. We were particularly favoured with a sight of the treasury as called, being a very numerous repository of the charters, bulls, inspeximus’s, and muniments, belonging to the church, from the kings of England, Scotland, popes, bishops, &c. digested into lockers: among others, an original Magna Charta. We saw likewise the old dormitory of the monks.
In the minster-yard are some monumental stones of knights, and a lady on the ground, with others of flower-work: among them I saw a Roman altar set for a grave-stone, but no inscription left. Likewise Dr. Hunter showed me a Roman head in a garden-wall: if I be not mistaken, it is of Marcus Aurelius. The doctor has a great collection of antiquities. On a coral-coloured patera the potter’s mark, AMANDVS: many of these vessels curiously wrought with lions, flowers, &c. found at Binchester, Vinovium: the clay is there met withall, and there was a great pottery. He showed us a pretty onyx, found at Piercebridge: I think it is Psyche. He says there was an aqueduct at Lanchester: many inscriptions broke there, just before he went. He has a recipient celt, found with some others, and an odd piece of cast brass, at Weremouth near Sunderland, by the sea-side: the edge of the celt is turned up at both ends, and confirms my notion of the use of them, being designed for no great force: it is three inches and a half long, pretty much worn, but sharp yet.
There was a Roman city at Pierce bridge: remains of the castle-ditch. Cunscliff, a mile off, was the place they had their stone from; and there the inscription was found; whence some would fix Condate at this place, though it is plainly Dis Manibus Condati, &c. and refers to a man, not a city. There is an old chapel on the bridge. They call the Roman road here the Watling-street. A brass Jupiter fulminans, and a genius alatus, found at Lanchester, at Dr. Hunter’s. A golden inscription to Hercules, in the library at Durham.
From Pierce bridge we entered immediately upon the Roman road, which comes to the river a little lower down than the present bridge: it is a broad, very strait, and hard road at this day; the great ridge of stone originally laid, being not worn out through so many ages, though broken and in great need of reparation. Several mile-stones by the way. Upon a moor we saw a branch run from it north-west, which goes to Bowes, Lavatræ, and other stations towards Carlisle.
CATARACTONIVM. Catteric.
Brough, on the south banks of the Swale, was a castle: much Roman coins and antiquities found thereabouts. The town Catteric, which so evidently retains the name, is a mile off.
Thornborough, the old city, stands a little above the bridge and road: it is a farm-house only, on a high ground, and on the edge of the river, being steep. Foundations of the old walls left, and much antiquity dug up.
The Hermen-street continues southward by the British name of Leming-lane, all composed of stone, and paved with large coggles, which the neighbouring inhabitants take away to build withal, and pave their yards, &c. This is a ridge of ground that was originally down: on both sides lie the most delightful plains of Yorkshire, bounded by distant hills both ways: it is a rich country, admirably watered, and well planted with wood, thronged with towns, and Roman antiquities; for that people knew how to set a just value on it. Mr. Gale showed me, at his pleasant seat of Scruton, his admirable library, where are no fewer than 430 choice manuscripts, collected by his father, many finely illuminated; many ancient classics of great value; a Priscian, wrote by a disciple of his.
ISVRIVM. Boroughbridge.
We travelled along the Roman road, strait and perfect, till we turned out to Rippon. The market-place is a square, spacious enough: in the middle of it an obelisk is erected: had it been of large stones, of a good kind, and of a good proportion, it would have been a real ornament to the place. The cathedral here is a large strong building, handsome enough: there is an entrance from the west part of the great tower within, to go under ground, exactly like that we saw at Hexham, and made for the same intent: here is a chapel to St. Wilfrid, where I suppose his bones lie; and a place called his Needle, a passage the vulgar amuse themselves with. Hence we went by Newby, a new seat of Sir Edward Blackett’s, in a rich country. So we fell into the Roman road again at Boroughbridge. We visited Aldborough, a mile off, the Isurium Brigantum. Here was a great city walled about: the church and present town, which is a borough by prescription, is inclosed within it. We saw the foundation of the Wall, where they have long been digging it up, as the common quarry for stone, when they want it: it was curious to observe their method of laying the foundation of it in clay: above that the stones are laid in mortar. This same manner I found used at the Picts wall, where I saw the foundation of it, by Chester. We saw and heard of many antiquities at this place: coins of Antoninus, Constantine, Tetricus, and many more; some of which I purchased: intaglia’s are very frequent here; for such, together with coins, are commonly taken up after rain; and the people customarily look for them as they walk through the town. There has been some very great building in the street before the church; for many stones were taken up there, many remain. We saw some at the church-yard gate, and at people’s doors; among which, two pieces of pillars; the hypotrachelion on one; and several foundations of a gate, in which were the iron hinges. I saw the stones; they were of a large size. Many square stones, with a square hole in the middle, lie at the ale-house door over-against the church, all manifestly of a Roman cut; and the whole town abounds with them. The man at the ale-house says the earth all about is exceeding rich, quite black, is never manured; that coins rusted together are found perpetually, and pavements, &c. In his sisters house, west of the church, we were highly delighted with a great part of a Mosaic pavement, perfectly preserved, and covered with a roof: the remainder is now under the causeway of the street: it was laid with stones, red, blue, and white, of excellent colour: some part is also under the adjacent barn-floor. The late Rev. Mr. Morris, minister here, collected much: Mr. Wilkinson, the duke of Newcastle’s steward, collects now. Slates are sometimes ploughed up, (none such near;) many silver coins, some of which were bought by Sir James Dalrymple. In the church wall are many Gothic remains of basso relievo’s, figures of animals, much like lord Winchelsea’s Sark antiquities. A figure of Pan in the vestry-wall of Aldborough: an intagliate cornelian was found there; an eagle, a signum militare, a cornucopia cut on it.
Rippon monastery was founded by Wilfrid, the Saxon bishop, about anno Dom. 670, the same who founded St. Leonard’s priory by Stamford; and likewise that at Hexam, which afterwards became a bishoprick. Wilfrid died at Oundle, and was buried at Rippon.
The stones,TAB. XC. as much famed by the name of the Devil’s Arrows, as misrepresented by writers, stand in some fields, half a mile west of the Roman road south of Boroughbridge. Some think them Roman, though they regard not any Roman work hereabouts: some say they are factitious, though plain stone as possible. They are stones of very large dimensions, and have been hewn pretty square, much as those at Stonehenge; but silly people have knocked off the edges: their height is very great: they were very taper and well-shaped, and much of an obelisk form; but the tops are decayed, and long furrows worn down on all sides along the tenderest part of the grain of the stone. I remarked, that they all lean somewhat southward. The stone is entirely composed of small white crystals, unperishable by weather: they are certainly natural, and brought about ten miles off, from the west, where more such lie above ground in great plenty. Three now stand; one was taken away, as all report, to make a bridge over the bec a little eastward. The cross near the church is of the same stone. These stones stood 200 foot asunder, pretty near in a line north and south: the first stone westward is not so high as the other, but broader much, and stands square, or perpendicular to the line of direction; it is 8½ foot broad, 4½ thick, 23 foot about: the second in the next pasture is square each side, but not precisely; it is 5 foot broad, 4 foot thick, 18 foot square: the next is twice as far distant, and beyond the road, of a figure much like the former, but rather higher, as that is higher than the first; this is 5 foot by 4: the two last are very beautiful obelisks, and their height about 25 foot, as I guess. The ground this fine monument stands on is high, and declines every way a little from it: the great river, the brook, and some low ground to the south, hem it in as it were. Mr. Gale, and the beforementioned clergyman, some time since dug under one to the foundation, and found that it was about five foot under ground, and fastened into its seat by stones laid in clay, quite around it, as a wall: they put four half-pence, in a leaden box underneath, of queen Anne, Vigo, &c. and filled it up again. I could not commend them for it, as it could only tend to mislead the curious of future times.
Two of these found on lead; BRIG. on the side. AVG. 833, the year of Jul. Agricola coming hither.
EBORACVM. York.
We went upon a Roman way till we came to the river Nidd, half-way to York, where moor begins. At Ackham we saw the hill called Severs hill, with much reason thought to be that on which was performed the consecration of Severus the emperor; and, no doubt, with great magnificence: it is a large round hill, and the highest ground near York, about two miles distance from it: there seemed to be a long barrow west of it. York is a very large city, but old, and narrow streets. I saw the multangular tower in the city-wall, just by St. Mary’s abbey, which was built by the Romans, as to the bottom part: the upper has been added; it was originally of twelve sides: the stones are of squared faces, four Roman inches high; the inside, rubble, and excessive hard mortar: it seems within side as if a seat had been carried round it: three of the sides are gone: it is on the west side of the city. I went to see the two statues on St. Laurence church-wall, thought to be Roman; but they are not so: they are monumental tomb-stones of founders of churches laid just above ground somewhere, and removed hither: they are very ancient; I believe, about king John’s time. TAB. XCVIII.The cathedral here is a noble building; but, except that the side-walks are somewhat broader, and are carried on the west side of the transepts, it is exceeded in every thing by Lincoln minster; as, for instance, in the manner of approach on the west, in the front for breadth and height, in the stone roof, the towers, the cloisters, and in general the magnificence of the whole: the chapter-house here is only vaulted with wainscot; that at Lincoln with stone. The river Ouse divides the city in two. The walls on the west side are in good repair, and may be walked round. All the walls here are low, but built upon a huge agger of earth; I suppose, the Roman manner. There are two figures of Ulphus’s horn in the cathedral. In the west end of the steeple of St. Martin’s church, Micklegate, is the remnant of a fine funeral monument, Roman; a man and his wife, with their son, a child, in their habits: near it a piece of flower-work, perhaps belonging to the frize of some magnificent building. There are twenty four parish-churches here. The bridge over the Ouse, commonly magnified to strangers, is a very ordinary thing, and exceeded by most of the bridges in the county.
6 pa. diam 10. stones of a very hard sort full of flints, the tallest to W. 8 f. h. the N. 7 broad 6 high.
Karnedhan Hengum above a quarter of a Mile South East of Dynas Gortyn, both in the Parish of Lhan Aber Meir.
Coeten Arthur.
Karn Maur
Chori Eccl: Cath: Ebor:
Arcus Australis.
Cornu Ulphi
Drawn by Dr. Johnston among his Yorkshire Antiquitys. P. 54. of the Drawings.
Henrico Torkington de Stukely mag. Ar. Tabula Votiva.
Of Severus thus writes Herodian III. Antoninus, and Geta his brother, governed the empire jointly: they sailed from Britain, and went to Rome with their father’s reliques; for his body being burnt, they carried thither his ashes, put into an alabaster urn with gums and sweets, that they might be reposed in the sacred monuments of the princes.
There were two reasons why the Roman Emperors residing here chose to make York their imperial seat. 1. Because of its vicinity to the Scotch frontiers, where they were perpetually upon their guard upon the Wall against their incursions. 2. Because it is in a fruitful country, upon a navigable river; but more because they could bring hither corn from the southern countries of Northamptonshire, Huntingdonshire, Cambridgeshire, &c. all the way by water carriage, from the river Ouse or Nen at Peterborough, up the Cardike, the Witham to Lincoln, the Fossdike (undoubtedly a work of theirs) the Trent, across the Humber, up the Ouse to York; a particular not yet taken notice of. The old arch in the bar leading to Micklegate is said to be Roman.
CALCARIA. Tadcaster.
We still kept on the Roman road all the way hither. A great sconce a little way off York, called the Mount, consisting of four bastions raised in the civil wars. It is a most delicious country, overflowing with plenty. The Roman castrum here is now called the Castle-field; it was square, about 400 foot, and had walls round: it stands north of the town, near the church and river: its ground within, and rampires are high; but it must be understood withall, that the place has been altered, and made into a castle of later form, with a keep or mount. I heard of coins being found here; but at Newton Kyme, a mile off, vast quantities of antiquities are discovered. The castle at Tadcaster is called Kelkbar; a remnant of the ancient name. This country is a lime-stone quarry, and, by reason of its convenient rivers, was a trading place in that commodity in the time of the Romans; whence its name. Many barrows are to be seen hereabouts, for I suppose it was formerly a down.
LEGEOLIVM. Castleford.
Here the Hermen-street passes the river Aire, remarkable for its smooth face and gentle current: it is broad and deep withall; navigable hither: thus the river Arar, synonymous in Gaul. The place where the Roman ford was, is a little above the cascade: the stones are in great part left, but the mill-dam lays it too deep under water. Hence the paved road goes up the bank to the east side of the church, and forward through the fields, where innumerable coins are ploughed up: one part is called Stone-acre. A man told us he had formerly ploughed up a dozen Roman coins in a day: urns are often found: there are stone pavements, foundations, &c. South of the church is a pasture, called Castle garth: here were buildings of the city; but the Roman castrum was where the church now stands, built probably out of its ruins: it is very high ground, and included the parsonage-house, gardens, &c. the low ground of the ditch that incompassed it is manifest. The country people have a notion of its being an old city, and of the Roman road crossing the meadows by this ford; and of great seats and palaces having been here formerly. Here is a sweet meadow, north of the river, of great extent. There is a ditch a little west of the old castle, which I take to be some later work. Great coal-works here. The Romans ran the Hermen-street through this country as much to the west as they reasonably could, to obtain fords over the numerous rivers; because they avoided ferries and bridges, as troublesome, and wanting frequent reparation. Much dane-weed, or wild elder, grows here.
DANVM. Doncaster.
Just before we came to Robin Hood’s well, we met the Hermen-street with a very high and perfect ridge coming from Castle-ford; it bears north-west and south-east precisely: presently after, it makes an angle, and goes southward. Robin Hood’s well stands upon the road in a valley: there is a new cover made to it lately by Sir John Vanbrug. Then the Roman road leaves us on the right a little, till at Doncaster town-end. At the marsh-gate is an old chapel and a cross of stone, triangular, with three niches. Doncaster church and steeple is large and beautiful: at the east end is an old chapel, now converted to secular uses. Near the market-place another older chapel, of St. Magdalen, which the corporation use for their place of assembly. I believe the Roman castrum was by the river side, where the church and parsonage-house stand. Coming out of the town is another cross upon the road, where they fable a Roman emperor was buried. The Roman road a little farther is very apparent, going over a fine heath, so to Bawtry, upon the river Idle, slowly conducting its waters through a large level moor to the Humber. Probably here was a camp formerly. They have some trade here in lead from Derbyshire, mill-stones, and Roch-abbey stone of a good kind. Hither comes the Hermen-street, which I call the new branch, from Agelocum. We passed over a deep valley at Went, beyond Robin Hood’s well: the northern precipice of it is rocky, as that of Gateshead.
Having brought this journal to the edge of Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire, of which parts I gave my observations in former Iters, I conclude this with the following reflections. The amazing scene of Roman grandeur in Britain which I beheld this journey, the more it occurred with pleasure to my own imagination, the more I despaired of conveying it to the reader in a proper light by a rehearsal. It is easy for some nations to magnify trifles, and in words gild over inconsiderable transactions till they swell to the appearance of an history; and some moderns have gone great lengths that way: but if in any people action has outdone the capacity of rhetoric, or in any place they have left historians far behind in their valour and military performances, it was in our own country; and we are as much surprised in finding such infinite reliques of theirs here, as that we have no history of them that speaks with any particularity of the last 300 years that the Romans dwelt in Britain, and rendered it perfectly provincial. The learned memoirs are very short; and it is well they were guided with such a spirit, as left monuments sufficient to supply that defect, when handled as they deserve: though I have no hope of coming up to that, yet I hold myself obliged to preserve, as well as I can, the memory of such things as I saw; which, added to what future times will discover, will revive the Roman glory among us, and may serve to invite noble minds to endeavour at that merit and public-spiritedness which shine through all their actions. This tribute at least we owe them, and they deserve it at our hands, to preserve their remains.