BINCHESTER. Thomas Wright, in his work " The Celt, the Boman, and the Saxon," says : — " There is hardly a corner in our island in which the spade and the plough does not, from time to time, turn up relics of its earlier inhabitants to astonish and to excite the curiosity of the observer, who, when he looks to an ordinary history of England, finds that the period to which such remains belong is passed over with so little notice, that he is left with no more information on the subject of his research than he possessed before he opened the book" There is, in fact, no popular history of what is termed by antiquarians the Primeval Period, and those who are placed in the position just mentioned, if they happen not to possess a library of expensive publica- tions, or to have the opportimity of consulting with those who have made archsBOlogy their study, are at present obliged to remain satisfied with uncertain conjectures, and are thus led, in the absence of the requisite elementary knowledge, to form theories of their own which are far removed from the truth. These remarks apply very forcibly to the place, the modem name of which stands at the head of this chapter. The name Binchester is said to be a compound of the two words Binci Castra, signifying two camps, and is undoubtedly the place mentioned by several Boman and other historians under the title of " Vinovium." Ptolemy, who wrote about A.D. 120 (and who merely enumerated the stations which were then of the most account), is the first who seems to have noticed it as one amongst the many Boman towns in the island which were at that time scattered over the once wild haimts of the fierce Brigantes ; and amongst which we find Eburaca (York) mentioned as the head quarters of the sixth legion. He also mentions Isuriam (Aldbrough), Cataractoni (Catterick), and Epiaco (Lanchester), all places which modem discoveries have proved to have been stations of considerable magnitude during the time our island was under Boman rale. We also find Vinovium mentioned in the "Itinerary" of Antoninus, compiled about the year 320, in which he places it about nineteen miles from Vindomora (Ebchester), and twenty-two miles from Cataractoni, which is found to be nearly the exact distance, and seems to point out Binchester with a degree of certainty as the precise site of that once important Boman town. We also find Vinovium mentioned in a treatise on geographical science, compiled in the seventh century, by an anonymous writer in the city of Bavenna. In another description of Britain, attributed to Bichard of Cirencester, an old monk of the fourteenth century, we also find it mentioned imder the same name, and in tracing the Boman road north- ward he places it as twelve miles beyond the Tisum (Tees). It is the opinion of some antiquarians that Binchester, previous to its having been taken possession of by the Bomans, had been a British hiU-fort, as it was no uncommon thing for the Bomans to take possession of those places first when invading this country, as they were usually found to be upon sites which commanded a view of the surrounding neighbourhood, as well as being convenient for a good water supply, and other requisites for the use of a camp or town. It would almost appear, from the numerous human remains* which have been found, that it had either had a burial place attached to it of considerable extent, or that some great battle had been fought near it Fordyce says, " It would be no diflScult stretch of imagination to conceive the fierce Briton skUftdly driving his scythed chariot along the eminence of Binchester, uttering his appathng war-cry as he charged the foe who dared to scale its steep declivity, or propitiating
- About half a centary ago, an old woman named Blakey, who liTod in Back Bondgate, had a namber of skalls, which were found
at Binchester, arrauged on a ehelf in her kitchen. The Romans, during their occupation of Binchester, seem to have adopted the practice of cremation in the burial of their dead. As has already been stated (psge 2), urns have been found containing burnt human remains ; though we learn from ancient writers that it was the earlier practice of the Bomans to bury the bodies of their dead entire^ and that it was not till the time of the dictatorship of Sylla, B.a 60, that the custom of burning was established. Wright says '* that both modes of burial were used indiscriminately in Roman Britain, and it is probable that the different peoples who composed the Roman population adopted that practice which was most agreeable to their own prejudices." Digitized by Google
