ITER BOREALE.
IN the year 1725, I travelled over the western and northern parts of England, in company of Mr. Roger Gale, a gentleman well known to the learned world; as his father, Dr. Thomas Gale, dean of York. I was requested, by some lovers of antiquity, to transcribe those notes which I wrote day by day during our journey; and though I had visited several of the places, through which we passed, in my former journeys, yet a second view (especially in company of a person so well versed in antiquities) gave me an opportunity of making some farther remarks, which I flatter myself may be of use to those who are fond of studying the antiquities of our own country.
I shall begin with Dunstable, the MAGIOVINIVM of the Romans. Many large brass coins, and many silver, are found in ploughing the fields here, and when digging in the ruins of the old priory by the church: I got a Nero of Corinthian brass, and a Faustina. The downs here are but a rib or narrow ridge of chalk; or northward is sand or clay.
Madan castle is circular, perhaps oval: the space within is a fine plain: the vallum is small, and the ditch much smaller; so that I am persuaded it was made rather for spectacle than defence. Tethill castle is a little further westward, a strong little camp upon one of the many north-west precipices of chalk exceeding steep: a village underneath, and springs of water: it is a double camp, both square; in one a round keep, or large tumulus ditched about, which shows it is a Saxon work.
The prospect all along the steep northern sides of the Chiltern hills is lovely; the Icening-street goes at the bottom; it is corn-field for the most part. These hills are all steep westward and northward.
Brick hill, or more properly Brink hill, stands on a very high sandy hill, steep north-west: the Watling-street, just before it arrives here, winds a little eastward, to avoid a deep valley, and passes above it.
Stone begins beyond Brick hill; and we enter a country of long-extended ridges, with large valleys and rivulets at bottom.
DAVENTRY.
The country here, which is probably the highest in England, is a quarry of reddish stone, in small strata; the uppermost very full of shells, especially belemnites. The air must needs be exceeding good, as in the centre of England; the soil is a reddish clay. This is a neat pleasant town, well situate: two springs of the Avon run close by it. Eastward the great hill whereon is Borough-hill camp: a very pretty spring arises in the inner ditch, probably the highest in England; it is on the north-east side, which way the hill declines. This camp is on that end of the hill which it fills up, and conforms to its shape; double ditched, but toward the entrance the ditches separate, and meet at the entrance obliquely, after a manner I have not seen elsewhere. All round the mid-way of the hill it is boggy and springy: the whole hill is stone. Upon it are many more works of great compass; I suppose, some later camps of the Danes, Saxons, or Britons against them: there seem to have been some entrenchments round that part of Daventry town where the church stands: the inner ditch of the first-mentioned camp is very broad, and the vallum proportionable. Spellwell is the name of the spring on Borough hill; it looks blue: they say it is good for sore eyes, and is a great dryer.
It is a stony and clayey soil all the way from Daventry to Warwick: the country is open and full of corn-fields. The river divides countries of different nature; for on the other side it is a very good sort of large rocks: the country is very woody.
PRAESIDIVM. Warwick.
There seem to be signs of a camp on the east side of the river, over-against the castle, in a close where is an old chapel now become a barn: a spring riles a little above it: if so, then this was the garrison before the Romans built the city on the west side. Warwick is a very neat and beautiful town; many fine houses and public buildings of good stone, dug up at hand. The old castle is very perfect, and a noble seat: many fine pictures of the Greville family, and others, particularly an original of Sir Philip Sidney: the whole length of the place is one suite of rooms very magnificent; one wainscotted with cedar: they all look over the river. One may see here much of the ancient manner of fortification: their methods of defence, two gates, two portcullices at the entrance; with hole to drop down poles, and an immense strength of stone-work: before the towers at the gates are iron hooks fastened into the wall, which they told us were for hanging wool-sacks on in a siege: a tower in the corner of each wing, very high; that at the corner next the river they call Cæsar’s tower, made of three circular segments; that at the corner next the town is twelve-angled, called Guy’s tower: the keep is very high, now made with a circular walk to the top. At the priory, in two galleries which seem to be part of the first building, are some paintings on glass, of religious stories. The chapel at Guy’s cliff is double, having two arches within, that divide its length into two ailes or chapels. Under the castle-walls, by the river side, upon the rock grows much liver-wort, thriving in so agreeable a place. I observed the lowermost rocks are perpetually dripping, which gathering together in a channel underneath, makes a small rivulet. This seems to indicate, that fountains are the effect of exudation from the most elevated protuberances into some internal cavity; which though by drops only, yet the sum amounts to enough to make a spring run perpetually; as the alembic distills the vapors. Now the tops of the hills are kept always moist by the natural ascent of the water below. I know nothing against this doctrine, but springs arising in very large quantity from narrow apexes, and where no other higher ground is near, if any such springs there be: but we want sufficient number of instances and data to determine this great question. People since the creation have been very negligent, or very injudicious, in making observations for this purpose. This is not an useless inquiry; for if we found out Nature’s method in this affair, it would assist in making artificial springs, or finding out natural ones, to the great enrichment of barren lands, and watering all in a dry season; water being the universal instrument of all increase and nutrition.
Warwick bridge has twelve arches. The potamogeiton majus grows in the river; a large yellow flower, tripetalous, with an apple like the Egyptian lotus.
COVENTRY.
Dr. Philemon Holland, who translated Camden’s Britannia, is buried in the choir of Trinity church. In the window is a piece of painted glass of Leofric earl of Chester, lord of this place, and Godiva his wife: he holds a charter in his hand with this writing, I Luryche for love of thee grawnte Covetre tol fre. Stichell, a mile south of Coventry, has its name from the clays. The road here is paved very broad for a great length. St. Michael’s church is a very stately and magnificent building: the spire is very fine, and the highest of any I have seen for its base, but built of a mouldering stone. Over-against it is the town-house, a large stone building, and old, like a church: a very old wooden chair there, said to be that wherein king John was crowned; much old rusty armour; pictures of several kings of England, and other benefactors; and many inscriptions, Latin and English, relating to them. A vintner bought some ground north of St. Michael’s, and built a house upon it: he dug up great ruins of the old convent, and many coffins, and among the rest (as they say) that of Leofric and Godiva. This is a very large and populous city, but narrow irregular streets; and the houses chiefly of wood, and very old, hanging over the streets. The gates are many and stately: no doubt the walls were answerable, but now demolished for the most part, after the rebellion: in some places, where parcels are left, it is very thick, and so strong, that they only undermined it, and threw it down flat; as particularly in the meadows north of St. Michael’s, where it passed over the brook by an arch. Between that and the church stood the priory, founded by Leofric before the Conquest: some old walls of it remain. Here have been many elegant brasses in the churches, but broke up. The famous Cross is of a pretty model, but of perishing stone. The basis of St. Michael’s steeple is but twelve yards from outside to outside of the buttresses. Every road hence is paved with a broad high-raised causeway, from every gate a mile.
Griff coal-works here, forty ells deep, of vast compass. No sort of fossils found in them. Griff, from grave, grooff, digging. The soil sandy from Coventry hither, then black earth. The coal-mine runs from Coventry to Tamworth in a line: here are such breaches that intercept the strata, and such trapping and dipping as in Somersetshire: the fissures, upon breaking the track and parallelism of the strata, make them diverge generally. Great old toads are often found in the solid coal, leaving a cavity of their own shape. They draw away the water from the mines by an invention originally of the earl of Worcester, improved by Captain Savery and others: it works with a vast power from the atmosphere pressing into a receiver exhausted of air, by vapor, and then condensed. I saw the ruined chapel of Nuneaton. Many religious houses thereabouts, and remains of camps, castles, &c. and nothing else can make amends for the badness of the roads.
MANDVESSEDVM.
Dugdale says, divers Roman coins of brass and silver have been found here. It stands on the river Anker. The first syllable of the name remains, Man-castle or ’cester. At Oldbury a square fort of thirty acres, with very high rampires, situate on an eminence: this, no doubt, was a camp: to the north of it have been found frequently flint axes of the old Britons, about four inches and a half broad, ground to an edge: there are no flints within forty miles of the place. Either our maps are wrong, or the Roman road goes very much winding, perhaps to avoid the great Arduen forest. The name of this forest left in divers places, Weston in Arden, Henly in Arden, Ardbury, &c.
I called on Mr. Henry Beighton, an ingenious gentleman, who is making a map of this county; and we visited this station. South a little of the bridge, under which the Anker passes the Watling-street, I found the old city: it lies on both sides the road, and is of a square form: the road passes exactly through the middle of its length, which is 600 foot, its breadth 200, on each side the road. The field in Leicestershire is called Old-field banks; that in Warwickshire, Castle banks. The ditch is very perfect quite round, and the bank whereon stood the wall. The people know of great stones, and mortar work exceeding strong, being dug up; much Roman brick, iron, and great numbers of coins brass and silver, and some gold: in sinking wells the like things found. Several vaults go quite through, and cattle have sometimes dropt into them. A spring at the north-east gate. Oldbury is a great camp upon a high hill, west of the place; whence a most delightful prospect. The hill whereon stands the church of Mancester, which is a field or two off the bridge, seems to have been a camp too: it is intrenched very deeply, but I cannot say with so much regularity, as to its present appearance, that will ascertain it to the Romans: it is in the way to Oldbury. The houses reached from the castle to the bridge; for in the ploughed piece between, called the Furlong, foundations have been discovered, and many bridges. A great family has lived at Mancester, and of that name, who probably made, or altered, the ditches there. Geo. Astley esq. of Wolvey, near High-cross, has a great collection of coins found at High-cross, and all the neighbouring places; as Monks Kirby, where urns and ashes have been often found. The prospect from Oldbury is exceeding extensive all over the country; the camps of Shugbury, Arbury, and Borough, all in view, and the country that way, where the Watling-street runs, as far as Watford gap; so all into Nottinghamshire, and westward to a great distance. Withersley, and several villages round, parish to Mancester as their mother-church. The church there is a pretty large building with a tower-steeple. The country there is all a rock, and abounds with springs: the rock is of very hard stone, and dips westward, as the adjacent coal-mines. Mancester stands on much higher ground than the road and old city. More coal-mines about Dudley, Wolverhampton in Staffordshire. Sometimes the ends of the coal at those breaches bend the contrary way: this shows the breaches were made before the coal was perfectly hardened. When the damps exanimate a man at these coal-pits, they draw him up instantly, and make a round hole in the earth, put his head in, and cover it with fresh mold, which infallibly restores him. Between Wormleighton and Stanton they found, in a pit, a trunk of a tree hewn into a coffin, with bones in it; and many coins, particularly of Constantine. At Wolfencote, upon the Leam, in sinking a well they came to a vault with urns and coins: in digging at the priory at Coventry they found the old cloysters, with many grave-stones of monks; and in the old walls, which were very thick, bones and skulls with teeth, &c. were laid in, as fillings-up, from ruins of the older monastery.
BIRMINGHAM.
A large rich town, the very shop of Vulcan. The vicinity of the coal-mines has made it the chief place in England for all sorts of iron work, sent hence throughout the whole world, in great abundance: it is a pleasant, woody, plentiful country hereabouts: they have repaired an old church, and built a new one: the streets are large and good buildings: there is a pretty square, inclosed and planted like Soho: the town lies on a declivity. In the old church are tombs, in alabaster, of a Jerusalem knight, two other knights, and some others. Deritend chapel built of timber, 5 R. II. by the river side. Here is a large school-house founded by Edward VI. not long since rebuilt: they have marked out large tracts of ground on the hill round the new church for buildings.
I find the Rigning-street way comes from Alcester, directly north and south, by Moseley, over a heath where the road appears now very broad, on the east side of the rivulet Rea: it descends Camp hill, and passes the river by the present bridge, and the valley where the low and old part of the town stood: it makes an angle in order to pass this broad meadow, directly as the Icening-street does at Newbury, or ad Spinas. No doubt but here was a station in the time of the Romans, because a convenient distance, ten miles from Etocetum: but of its name I know no footsteps. I imagine the present name derived from the great quantity of broom growing all round. Ingham signifies the dwelling upon the meadows; for the town has advanced itself but by degrees up the hill. When the Roman road has passed the valley, it turns up the first street on the right hand (Park street) to take the most convenient rise up hill, and at the end of the town falls into the present road, with its former direction to Etocetum. Probably upon Camp hill has been a camp, being by the road side, and having a fine prospect: what with the deep roads to Coventry and Warwick, here meeting the Ricning; and the inclosures, and digging for brick and tile, I could discern no signs of it. At this town is a considerable manufacture for thread. Beyond Birmingham, the Rigning-way runs upon the division between the counties of Stafford and Warwick, by Aldston.
In the forges here, three men beat together with successive strokes; which brought into my mind Virgil’s
ETOCETVM.
A little to the west of where the Rigning crosses the Watling-street, south-west of Litchfield stands a little village, called Wall; south of that a quarter of a mile is Chesterfield. This is said to be the oldest city in England, by the inhabitants; and the Watling-street the oldest road. The Itinerary of Antoninus sufficiently evinces the place to be Etocetum. Part of the Rigning-way, northward hence, is very fair, with a high strait bank; part very mirey and bad. The country is sandy, clay, and full of round coggles, of which the road was composed. The Watling-street eastward hence about half a mile is inclosed in fields; but westward it appears very strait and broad. They call the Rigning the Hickling street at this place; and likewise Port-lane: it goes to Burton upon Trent. Many Roman coins found here, both great and small. Mr. Quintin, living here, has many: he owns the field called the Butts, where I saw great ruins of walls equidistant twelve foot, and twelve high, like square cellars. I saw bits of pavement there, Irish slate, Roman bricks, some pieces thus marked . The walls are a yard thick, of strong mortar, rubble stone, &c. The Watling-street parts the two villages, Chesterfield south, and Wall north. By the side of a road going northward thence to Pipe hill, I immediately espied the Roman walls, notorious by the manner of their structure; of rag-stone, a course laid sloping this way, a course that way, with very strong and white mortar: this lies under a hedge, and the roots of old oak-trees for the length of a hundred yards, till intercepted by a dwelling-house. They say the building in Butt’s close was a temple; and probably they are not mistaken. The Watling-street at this old city goes precisely east and west: some mile-stones found by the brook running west of the city: a pretty spring there; ruins upon digging all the fields round: the brook has a broad marsh along it westward. A little below the temple, we saw the crown of a subterraneous arch in the hedge. They showed me where the Rigning-way went through a corn-field south of the castle, and passed the river west of Shenston: it is a field way still southward, and an open road north. The castle stood in the north-west angle, between the Watling and another road, going to Litchfield, upon a gentle southern declivity: the old walls are founded upon the solid rock, and much more of them was left within memory: now they pull them down to build withal. There is a gate crosses the Watling-street at the castle end, by the side of the other road. That called the Temple is upon the western declivity, much lower in elevation than the castle, which is upon the highest ground in the neighbourhood, and somewhat raised above the common level, by heaps of rubbish, and foundations, which I could discern above ground in the orchard. The place of this old city is an elevation, and has a good prospect, especially southward: Oldbury castle and Mancester are in view. Wm. Milner, at the Swan, is an antiquary, and knows the old name of the place: he showed me a Roman wall in his cellar, and says it goes far backward by the garden. No doubt there were houses all the way, on both sides the road, from the castle to the brook, which is a sweet descent westward. There was a Roman coin of gold found near Hales-Owen. Many floors, pots, and other antiquities, found on the south side the Watling-street, in the ploughed fields called Chesterfield Crofts; and a very fine red earthen ware, with figures of bucks upon them. The circumference of the castle is hardly to be found; the ground has not been dug in the yards hereabouts. The Rigning-way goes by Lyn-lane, and so passes the river west of Shenston, at Shenston nether town. This country lies upon a rock here and there interspersed, but not a good stone; but there is a quarry of good free-stone, of a brown colour, by Swinfield. I saw a Nero of Corinthian brass, and some square Roman pavements found there.
The Rigning runs on the east side of an eminence called Mawcop hill, as it passes northward hence. The building in Butts close is level at top with the pasture, except toward the declivity, where they have dug away the earth, and the great wall that ran along it. Two miles beyond Etocetum, on the top of a hill is Knave’s castle, on the south side the Watling-street: it is a large tumulus inclosed within three ditches; an entrance on the south side: it has been hollowed at top. This is in a vast moor, or common full of heath, as the nature of the soil is all the way. The Watling is very fair and strait, and in many places the ridge is perfect for a great length. A little west of the bridge, under which the river Penk crosses the Watling, are a few houses belonging to Stretton, upon an eminence. This is thought to be the
PENNOCRVCIVM.
And, no doubt, it was hereabouts, to answer the miles in the Itinerary. The village of Stretton lies a little to the north of the road; and a mile south is Brewood, another village, which they say has been an old city: it lies upon the Penk. Upon ploughing the fields they find Roman coins frequently, and much other antiquities. In that great old city, king John kept his court. A little brook runs a pasture or two below the road, and parallel to it, into the Penk, called Horse brook: it is a very full river, and the bridge is broad it runs through. The Watling-street is here east and west. Three large stone bridges cross the river in two miles. The old Roman city, no doubt, was by the road-side somewhere near here, and perhaps by Horse brook. Brewood may have been a Roman town, but it is too far out of the road for the convenience of travellers; and Penkridge is two miles and a half off, so that it can put in no claim. This town must have borrowed its name from the river, as that from the Roman city. Penkridge stands by the side of a large marsh made by the river: the church is built of good stone; a remarkable stone cross in the street. The healthiness of this country favours Mr. Baxter’s conjecture of the derivation of Pennocrucium.
The prospect hence southward is noble, and very comprehensive. Dudley castle, and many of the steep summits of the hills in Worcestershire, are in view; together with the mighty height of the Wrekin, which, from a plain, rises like a sugar-loaf to a narrow tip, and of very difficult ascent. The Watling-street runs under it. It is good land here, warm and woody, being just beyond the moor.
STAFFORD.
The castle here to the north west, a mile and half off, stands on a tip of rising ground very steep to the north-west; on which they have raised a keep, or high mount of earth: on that stood a square tower of stone, part of which remains. Here is the most magnificent prospect quite round, that one can imagine; the Malvern, the Wrekin, and many Welsh mountains, lift up their narrow heads beyond the utmost horizon, and above the clouds, as it seems. To the eastward is room for the castle, fenced too with a deep ditch. This was the work of Edward the elder, in the Saxon times; or rather his sister, the virago Elfleda, A. D. 913. A little church stands near the castle, called the Castle church, with a house or two near it. The situation of Stafford is low, in a broad marshy vale, where several rivers meet; and it has been fortified quite round, the waters of the rivers favouring that purpose. Two miles directly eastward is Beacon hill, a large parcel of rocks laid upon a level eminence, and covered with grass, having a steep ascent on every side, like a camp: it has a very pleasant prospect. The town-house here is a handsome large building. Upon St. Amor heath, under Beacon hill, a battle was fought in the civil wars.
We passed through Uttoxeter, where I could find nothing Roman, notwithstanding its name, cester; only heard of three gold coins found by the river side, not far off, some time since: it stands in a very fine country, watered by the Dove, a fruitful river, running through large meadows. Thence, in our way to Derby, we saw several large, flat Celtic barrows, upon a common at Sidbury. We rode over the meadows under Tutbury castle, famous for the bull-running on Aug. 10. where the people of two counties meet according to ancient usage, and contend for the honour of their counties, sometimes to bloodshed. The castle, once the seat of the dukes of Lancaster, stands on a very high precipice, looking north and west, strong by nature and art; very probably a Roman camp originally, as its name, bury, imports: it is not far from the Rigning-way. Tot signifies an eminence. Underneath it we went through Hilton. The lord of the manor there held of the dukes, by a ridiculous appearance before him, on the day after Christmas, whilst Jack of Hilton blowed the fire. Of this, of the king of the fidlers, of the bull-running, &c. see a large account in Dr. Plot. Mr. Gale says, this Jack of Hilton was a Saxon idol, called Pouster: it was made of brass, hollow, with a little hole, which when filled with water, and set before the fire, as an æolipile, vented its contents in vapor, rarified with great force. This was a good philosophical trick to delude the vulgar, and would appear like magic to them, ignorant of the cause.
Mr. Prescot of Chester showed us the impression of an intaglia found at Uttoxeter.
A mile and half off Derby we fell into the Rigning-street coming from Burton; which, leaving Derby a little on the east, passes over Nun-green to Derventio: there it crossed the river on a bridge, and thence went to Chesterfield.
DERVENTIO.
I find the Rigning proceeds over the common, by the mill and brook at the west end of Derby, and falls into a valley, which gives a gentle descent to the river side, every where else steep, over-against the old city: this, no doubt, is the reason why the Romans placed it in that very spot. The river is very broad and deep, equal to the Medway at Maidstone; the sides steep, so that a ford was not at all practicable: it is six or seven foot deep here at least. Darley slade is the name of the valley where the descent of the road is: they call the road the Foss hereabouts; which shows that no more is meant by the name, than that it is an artificial work: the Foss and Rigning therefore are but synonymous terms. A little up the river, beyond the city, was the bridge: in time of a frost, when there is clear ice, they can see the foundation of the piers very plainly, and a piece of one is still left. Thence the road proceeds over the pasture, where, after a fortnight’s dry weather in summer, they can distinguish it by the parched grass: it goes up the valley north of Bradsal, by Priory Hall, so to Chesterfield. Another such way, they say, went up the hill directly from the street of the city by Chadsden: part of it has been dug up near the town by the Crown ale-house, and its ridge is still visible. In the pasture over-against the house two square Roman wells were opened by a violent flood in Sir Simon Degg’s time: they were made of very broad flat stones, let into one another, and were paved at bottom with bricks set edge-wise, as they tell me. Roman coins are found in every road, foot-path, and ditch, about the town: they never dig in the gardens, or pastures, but they find them, together with rings and other antiquities. A man who kept the Duke’s-head ale-house found seven score at a time in digging a hole to set a post in but they are all dispersed. The city of Derventio is in possession of the deanery of Lincoln: the city walls were dug up in great quantities to mend the ways with but they were so strong, they were forced to blow them up with gunpowder. There is much painted glass in Morley church, a mile beyond Bradsal, and tombs of the Sacheverels. A piece of the wall of Derventio is left under Mr. Hodgkinson’s garden-house. I saw a piece of a vase of coral-coloured earth found there, also several pieces of pillars; and they meet with foundations wherever they dig. Mrs. Hodgkinson showed us a gold Anastasius, victoria aug. g. g. said to be found near Leicester and a silver Arcadius. I saw a large brass coin, found at Derventio, Diva Faustina. I find this city is exactly of the same dimensions as Manduessedum, 120 paces long, 80 broad.
I rode to the hill south of Littleover, upon the Rigning-way, which lies in a strait line under the eye as far as Etocetum, and the hills beyond it. Litchfield cathedral appears a little to the west of it. The valley of the Trent, by Burton, is bounded on each hand by great heights. Repton, the burial-place of Ethelbald and other Mercian kings, is in view. From the other side of the hill, north of Littleover, the road butts upon the valley of Bradsal, by Priory hall, directly over Derventio. The Rigning is the common road from Burton to Derby, till a little north of Littleover it descends the hill to the left of the common road, which there is drawn to the right on account of Derby. I saw a great number of coins found here; Trajan, Carausius, pax aug. Victorinus, Magnentius, Dioclesian, Valens, &c. Mr. Hodgkinson gave me a Constantine, soli invicto comiti, struck at London. I measured the castrum with exactness: it is 600 foot long, 500 broad. We saw the wall on the outside Mr. Lord’s house: the mortar is full of pebbles as big as nuts, but excessively hard. Darley Slade is a fine descent for the road. We saw the admirable silk-looms again: there is a large additional building to them. The five churches here have all tower-steeples: the new one, a spacious and neat pile; the tower belonging to it, of old work, is stately. There is an old chapel on the bridge. A weak chalybeat water was found out lately, two miles off. The market-place is a pretty square.
Entering the Peak country, where the rocks begin, we saw two tumuli on the edges of two opposite hills. We came by the great rock called Radcliff, where the hermitage is: these and the neighbouring rocks have a frightful appearance: on the back of them are some stones set upright, two and two, as if the remains of a Celtic avenue. All around, the hills are big with lead ore. The cattle drinking the water here are liable to a distemper called the belon: it is owing to the mercury that falls in the smoak of the smelting-mills: they become asthmatic, and frequently run mad. Cats, dogs, and poultry, are seized with it.
BAKEWELL.
This town seems to be Roman, and possibly its name was Braciaca, because of the inscription found near here in Camden, DEO MARTI BRACIACAE. There is a large tall stone in the church-yard, raised on a pedestal, as a cross, with engravings, very ancient, of George and the dragon, a crucifix and other things, with flower-work: it is eight foot high, besides the pedestal. The church is a large handsome building, but in very bad repair; a spire-steeple upon an octagonal tower, and that set on a square one; the whole in the middle of the church; the choir large: an alabaster tomb before the altar, of one of the family of Vernon: the south transept has, in a large chapel, many tombs of the Vernons, and Manners’s, ancestors of the duke of Rutland, but in a ruinous condition: many other old tombs; a knightly one of Colepepper, one of Foljamb, &c. a very ancient font with images, as rudely cut as those on the cross. The church stands much higher than the town. The Wye is a very rapid river; it never overflows, so great is the descent from it. The castle is a square plot of high ground, with a large tumulus hollow at top. I cannot affirm there is any thing Roman. This town stands in a flat valley, where the river passes in meanders; and the prospect every way is very romantic. A cold bath at the Angel inn, arched over, and made very convenient. Derbyshire marble wrought here, very beautiful, bears a good polish, full of belemnites and other curious shells petrified together.
CHATSWORTH.
We reviewed this noble seat of the duke of Devonshire’s. The front of the house is a fine design; the colour of the stone agreeably overcast with a faint redness. Several antique marbles: upon the pedestal of a busto this inscription, P. Ælius Aug. libertus. Lycus fecit Solusæ libertæ suæ. a sepulchral urn.
Another, Dis manibus Ti. Claudi thalliani Vix. Ann. XX. dieb. XX. Claudia felicula Mater filio piissimo.
The canal hewn out of the rock is made where a great hill was: now it opens a beautiful prospect towards Winster: it is 325 yards long, 25 broad: the hill was 44 foot high: the cascade is 212 yards long, with 23 breaks. There is an admirable antique Plato in the duke’s library, like that at Wilton; and a cast of Hobbes from the life: also an antique ram’s head. The painting about the house is by Verrio, la Guerre, Thornhill: the gallery is a curious room, painted by Cheron. Vast quantities of Derbyshire marble, of all colours, and beautiful.
BUXTON.
Just before we come to this place, on the right hand is a square vallum, ditch inward; both small, about fifty feet each side: eastward adjoins a roundish space, marked out in the same manner. There are barrows upon the tips of the hills hereabouts. We found infinite quantities of shells among the stone: but the belemnites are most frequent; they are dropped as it were into the superficies of the stone, while soft, with the points downwards. The soil of this country is sandy and rock: the whole superficies of it is a rock, whose strata lie every where parallel to the declivity of the ground: it is lime-stone, like that at Bath; but the layers of it are much thicker. One may guess hence, that this sort of stone by some means procures the warmth of the waters.
We saw Mam Torr from hence seven miles; a steep huge rock elevated above the hills. There is a great yawning between two rocks split as it were from top to bottom: on the precipice of one jaw is an old castle, whence the adjacent town Castleton. Between it is the great cavern called the Devil’s Arse. A few little houses under the very rock. This country is fruitful in what we may call the magnalia naturæ. By these wonders of the Peak, and the warm waters, people are tempted to visit these wild wastes. At a place called Hope I learnt there are some stones, called Marvel-stones, which cannot be numbered: I guess them to be a Celtic temple. I could not hear of those at Chelmerton, though I fancy there must be such, because of some barrows on the hills looking that way: it requires some time, labour, and hazard, to hunt them out, by reason of the rockiness of the country. The sides of the hills, where the villages are, are divided into closes by stone walls, as in other places by hedges.
We went into Pool’s Hole again. This cavern rises, as we go farther in, with the hill: the stones within are covered over with petrifaction, from the water distilling down: some of the icicles are three or four yards long, hanging from the roof; the slow accretion of ages: the springs dribble down every where, as draining through the strata into this cavity. I fancy there are such in most rocky hills, and they cause springs: for we may conceive that after the harder shell of a hill was condensed, and first, as being outermost and more exposed to the external heat, in the infant globe; the internal parts, when they came to harden afterwards, by attraction of so much solidity, cracked and shrunk (as we see clay does in the open air) and so left casual fissures every where: the water then by degrees found or made an outlet from many meeting together; and this created fountains, most commonly toward the bottom of hills. This reasoning is strengthened by springs running in less quantity in summer than winter, because the sun exhales the dew and moisture, not suffering it so freely to sink down into the earth.
Escaped from this Stygian cave, I revisited the antiquity called the Round Fold, by the road side from Chelmerton hither, at Stadon; and under the hill called Stadon Hoe. I take it to be a curious Celtic antiquity, much of the nature of those which in Anglesey and Wiltshire we call Druids houses: so in Dorsetshire circles of stones they call Folds. The country people say it was cast up in war-time long since. It consists of a square vallum, 100 feet each side: the ditch whence it came is on the inside: eastward from this is a circle of 160 feet diameter, of like manner: the whole stands on an open plain, which declines northward: the square is upon a level; but the circular part declines gently from thence: on that point of the circle farthest from the square is a little semicircular cove of earth, like the place of a tabernacle. It is hard to say whether it was for a private use, or for judicature, or religious affairs; but in the pasture behind it is a barrow, and several more barrows in view, on the hill-tops. At Stadon I saw a large square intrenchment, now divided into pastures; and upon the top of the hoe, where the hawthorn stands, seem to have been some works. This circle of ours, by sinking the ditch within, seems well contrived for shows: five or six tire of people may stand commodiously round it, and look over one another’s heads. Both vallum and ditch are but small, much inferior to that of a camp.
In the field by the garden at Buxton are two springs close together, one hot, the other cold. Little flint arrow-heads of the ancient Britons, called Elfs arrows, are frequently ploughed up here. Roman plaster found here, mentioned in Thoresby’s Ducat. Leodiens. p. 558. A Roman road is said to go hence to Burgh, beyond Elden park.
Journeying hence over the remainder of these Alpine regions, we come to Goyt house, in the very centre of desolation. The most western of these hills are more barren and difficult than the others, and fuller of springs. At length we entered the pleasant country of Cheshire, as into a new world; wondering that people are found who can content themselves with the poverty and horror of the Peak, so near riches and delight.
MACCLESFIELD
Is a pretty large and pleasant town, sheltering itself from eastern blasts by its vicinity to these high hills: it stands upon an eminence, and is famous for manufactures of silk twisting, mohair, making buttons, &c. The church is placed upon the edge of the hill. South is a large chapel of the ancient family of Rivers (Ripariis) another of the Leighs, where, for saying a small number of Ave-marys and Paternosters, we obtain 26,000 years and odd days of pardon: to such a degree of extravagance was the superstitious folly of our ancestors advanced!
Stockport is built on a hill of rock. The church is spacious. A place called the Castle-yard, walled in. The Tame, Mersey, and other rivers, meet here, falling from the Derbyshire hills: united they pass swiftly through a rocky channel under a bridge of a single arch, large and well turned: they cut themselves houses in the rock here, as at Nottingham. Sometimes the floods reach the top of the bridge.
MANCVNIVM.
The Roman castrum was on the west side of the Roman road going from Chester, by Stretford, and on the northern bank of the river Medloc. It is a small piece of level ground, somewhat higher than that around it: it does not cover the whole piece, but is a square, 500 foot one way, 400 the other: nor can it well be said to be ditched about; but the ground near it, for some distance, is manifestly removed into the castle, and spread along its verge, not as a regular vallum, but sloping inward: by this means the area of it is higher on the sides than middle, and the external ground is lowered all around, to the foot of the castle, which is steep like the side of a vallum. Upon this edge there has been a wall quite round: the foundations of it are to be discerned almost every where; in some places large parcels of it left, but not above ground. Now they call it the Castle croft. The river Medloc runs near it, but is no security to it, as being not close enough: nor are its banks steep hereabouts, though its channel is rock, as is the whole country near. This is a quarter of a mile from the present town of Manchester. The Irwell river, coming through the town, runs on the west side the castle, and there the Medloc joins it. I look upon Manchester to be no ancient town; and even the hundred is denominated from Saltford, the village on the other side the bridge, therefore older: but Manchester is a much better situation, as higher; placed too between two rivers, having rocky and precipicious banks, with a good prospect: it is a very pleasant, large, populous, and thriving town; new buildings added every day: the roads are mending about it, and the river is making navigable; which will still contribute to its prosperity. The old church is very spacious and handsome, and enlarged still with numbers of large chapels and oratories; but the monuments, which were many, are destroyed and obliterated: a priest, of the name of Huntingdon, lies before the altar. It is a collegiate church, and the stalls in the choir are of very good carved work in the old manner.
This country is very woody, and affords a fine prospect every where, bounded by high and distant hills. A conflux of the many roads at this place gave origin to the town. Saltford is a large town; a broad and very strait street leading to Warington, probably Roman: a very good bridge over the river. Ten yards west from the castle is a natural precipice, which the Romans disregarded, trusting to their walls, but more to their own valour. A cavity cut in the rock by the river, under the south-west angle. The natural track of this road is north-east, but towards Manchester it trends a little more northward; I suppose, with an intent to come to the bridge, where it met the road from Veratinum.
I saw the altar at Holm house, lady Bland’s: it is 16 Roman inches broad, one front; a foot on the sides; 28 inches high: it is now removed out of the garden into coverture. They call the castle the Giant’s castle. Probably there was a town at the river Medloc in Roman times: an annual fair is still kept there. The castle stands parallel to the road. The river Irke comes in here under the college-walls: the castle-walls were pulled up to mend and build the churches and bridges.
I find the Roman road went across the church-yard originally, and so by the common street to the bridge over the Irke, called Scotland bridge: then it ascends the hill, and proceeds with its original direction north-east to Rochdale, which way the old Coccium was. Edward the elder by our monkish authors is said to have built a castle here, which probably was by the church and college; and the church may be founded on its ruins: this drew the town that way: the meeting of the two rivers there, and the steep rocks upon them, rendered it a convenient situation for such a work.
The college founded by Chetham, a tradesman, has a very good library, and good salary: here are about fifty boys maintained.
Mr. Prescot of Chester has a gold Otho found here. I saw a Celt found in the mosses.
CONDATE.
We rode all the way upon the Roman road from Manchester to this place: it is the common road throughout, except a little near Altringham: that market-town has caused it to be left, by a common; but we recover it again at Bowden hill, whence we had the prospect of it a long way before us, in a strait line: it leaves Altringham a little to the east, passes west of Rotherston mere, close on the west of North Tabley house, and so directly to Northwich, which therefore must be of necessity the Condate of Antoninus. The Britons called these wiches, or places of salt-works, Hellath, from heli, salsugo: the last syllable seems to be in Condate: then it will signify the principal salt-work, cond, caput. Part of the road hither, by the Bollin river, they call Wash-way, from its wateriness; which shows the derivation of our country washes. This town stands in an angle made by the Weaver river and the Dane, both which are passed by bridges, sometimes overflow with great fury. South of the bridge, upon the high ground by the Chester road, is a great tumulus, or keep, of Saxon work, called the Castle. This is a pretty large town, but meanly built, depending intirely upon the salt trade: here are the strongest springs of brine, and the wonderful mines or rocks of salt, 60 yards under ground, which they work like coal-mines: how far they extend, is not known. I doubt not but there are many more all over this country: these are found out by chance, not many years since: they carry it into Ireland, Wales, and other places; and boil it up afresh with seawater. It is a most liberal gift of Nature, a compendious way of making salt; these springs being stronger than the ocean: the rock salt stronger than they; for it is perfect salt, transparent like crystal: it lies not in veins, or strata, as other minerals, or metals; but a solid rock, of unknown dimensions, which they hew away with steeled pick-axes, leaving pillars and spaces, as big as a cathedral. Poplar-trees are plentiful in this country: they all lean eastward, as continually pressed by the west winds from the sea.
The country from Northwich to Chester is intirely sand, and very deep: a barren view; once a forest. They dig up the turf every where for fewel; which prevents for ever its being capable of cultivation, otherwise not impracticable: the oaks are all gone. Mid-way is the Chamber in the forest, as called, upon a very high hill of sandy stone. Here they say Edelfleda, the great Mercian princess, built a city; I rather believe, a fortress, and that probably one of the Romans originally, to guard this road. We can scarce affirm any thing of the Roman way is visible, except at first setting out from Northwich, and near Chester, where it falls into the original Watling-street, half a mile off the city, by the river side: but there can be no manner of doubt but that a Roman way was drawn here, to that we rode on before: how it was done by that people, I cannot guess; for it was impracticable to raise a bank; and it would be wholly vain in this sand, unless they dug it away to the bottom, which is impossible: I suppose it was by stones set on both sides at proper distances, for a direction only, which are since carried away, or buried by the sands; for now and then we saw a stone seeming to be milliary. There is a horse-race, with a very good course; which shows the turf is well consolidated, where not skimmed off for the purposes aforesaid. When we draw near to Chester, we see on the left the Welsh mountains: on one, which is a very steep precipice on all sides, stands Beeston castle: before us, they rise one above another, and leave the clouds below their summits. Mr. Gale gives us several instances of Condate, and the like words, signifying a place where is the union of some rivers: and such is the situation of Northwich, where the Dane and the Weaver meet at the town; and the Pever a little below it, by the salt-rock. At Tarvin, where the road passes over a river approaching to Chester, is Stanford, so called from it.
DEVA. Chester.
This is a noble old city, the work of the victorious 20th Legion, the conquerors of these western regions. It is manifest at first sight, that they regarded, in the plan of it, the known form of their camps: it is a parallelogram set to the four quarters of the heavens; the longest side north and south: suburbs are extended eastward, and a new gate called the bars, where the Watling-street, and the road from Condate, enters: the Roman walls take in exactly the space of 10,000 foot, or two miles. The soil is sandy, upon rock of a red colour and sandy composure, with small pebbles intermixed. The soil has been more or less sandy ever since we left the Chiltern hills at Dunstable.