Archaeological Journal/Volume 11/The Maiden Way, Section II. The Branch Way and Roman Station at Bewcastle
THE MAIDEN WAY,
BY THE REV. JOHN MAUGHAN, B.A., Rector of Bewcastle, Cumberland.
Section II.—The Branch Way and Roman Station at Bewcastle.[1]
At the point where the Maiden Way crossed the road to the Wastes (see the map, p. 18, ante) another Way branches off to the West, and proceeds down the side of the hedge to a young ash tree, at the distance of 477 yards, following thus far the line of the Waste Road. Here it turns to the North-west down the hill, across the meadow, in a direct line to the Ford. Several detached stones may still be seen on the side of the hill. This bog was drained about three years since, and the drains intersected the Way in different places. It was cut through by a drain close against the garden behind the Public House.
At 877 yards, it passes a mound of stones in front of the Rectory House; about seventy yards farther, it enters the bed of the river Kirkbeck, close under the station, and would, probably, lead to an entrance into the station on the West side.
This branch appears to be continued straight forwards past the station to the North-west, through the Hallsyke; over the Hallhills, where it is considerably raised; into the Peelshill ground, near the gate above the quarry; through the Park ground, close past the Langriggknow; and it aims for Tinnieshill in Scotland, where there has been an ancient encampment, and where it would probably unite with the old Roman road, leading between Netherby and Trimontium or Eildon, in Scotland. "The Wheel Causeway" from Crew, would, probably, either join it or cross it somewhere on the North side of the parish of Bewcastle.
The Roman Station at Bewcastle.
Bewcastle, from its shape, has been considered by some to have been a Pictish encampment before it was occupied by the Romans. Horsley thinks, that the ancient name of this station was Apiatorium. Mr. Hodgson, in his History of Northumberland, supposes that it may have been Banna. But as neither of these writers appears to have any very strong grounds for their suppositions, I may venture to suggest that if Whitley Castle be the Alionis, then, in all probability, Bewcastle will be the Galava of the Tenth Iter of the Itinerary.
The word Galava may be derived from more than one etymon, but each appears to correspond with the general features of the place. If we derive it from the Celtic word, gallt, a rock, and by a commutation of letters from the Celtic Welsh, afon, or the Celtic Gaelic and Irish, abhan, a river, we have an allusion at once to the little rocky river Kirkbeck, which flows close past the Station. Or if we derive it from the word cald or kalt, cold; it may refer to the cold exposed situation of the fortress, or to the peculiar nature of the river, which is generally cold in summer, and hence caldafon or kaltafon, and by corruption Galava, may mean the Station at the cold river. Or if we suppose gal to be a corruption of the old word keld, a well; this also agrees with the situation of the place, as there is a river on the South side, and a celebrated well on the South-east side of the Station. It may also allude to the river itself, which is formed by the waters flowing from several copious wells in the immediate neighbourhood. Tradition also seems to support my view, that Bewcastle is the Galava of the ancients. There is a large district in the North side of the parish of Lanercost (immediately South of Bewcastle), which was formerly called Wuleva or Wulyevva. Here is a remarkable resemblance to the word Galava. The old people in the neighbourhood, say that this district was always called Wuleva Quarter in their young days, and that the Cairn on the Tower-brow was called the Cairn of Wulyevva, and sometimes the Pikes of Wulyevva. Wulyevva Quarter is now more generally called Askerton Quarter or Township.
The Station at Bewcastle has been placed on the nearly level surface of an irregularly-shaped eminence; its form being hexagonal, but its sides are unequal. Their respective lengths are as follows:—South-west side, 108 yards; South, 78 yards; South-east, 95 yards; North-east, 125 yards; North, 146 yards; and North-west, 83 yards. The station, therefore, would occupy about six acres of ground. The outer wall of the Station appears to have been of considerable thickness, but it is now in ruins, and covered with turf. In some places it is nearly level with the ground, but it still shows distinctly the site of the wall. It appears to have been protected by an outer rampart and a fosse on the East, South-east, and South-west sides. The South side would be defended by the steep bank of the river Kirkbeck. On the North side of the station there are some traces of ramparts at a small distance from it, which appear to have been a procestrium or advanced post of defence. The South-east side has declined a little from its original elevation, the river having made encroachments here at different times, and washed away the bottom of the bank, which is a sort of quicksand. There is a spring of excellent water on this side. On the Western side the pistrina has been placed at the distance of sixty yards. Within the Southern side, and nearly upon the Southern wall, the New Rectory House and garden are placed, and on the North side of these are the church and churchyard. Within the Northern side, and on the Northern station wall, a large, rude, and irregularly built border castle (about eighty-seven feet square) has been erected, partly, at least, constructed of stones of the station, and it has been surrounded by a deep and wide ditch. There is no date known of the erection of this castle, but the cement shows it to have been of ancient construction. The entrance has been on the West side, and has been considered by some to have been added at a later period. Within the Northern side are also the Manor House, farm-buildings, and garden. The remainder of the Station is an excellent pasture. It shows several traces of foundations of buildings, proving it to have been a place of considerable importance. Almost every grave that is made cuts through foundation walls. There are also several traces of pavements. On the top of the hill, to the North-west, are some groundworks, which are said to have been a hall occupied by one of the younger branches of the family settled at Bewcastle,—hence the place is called the Hallhills. They appear to have been connected with the Station by a road, which has been raised above the adjoining ground. From a stratum of ashes which is often found in the graves, about three feet below the surface, we may infer that the place had been destroyed by fire at some period. About 400 yards above the station, on the margin of the river, is a place called "the cannon-holes," where Oliver Cromwell is said to have planted his cannon when he destroyed the castle.
This Station is not destitute of its memorials and evidences of ancient occupation. Several Roman coins, rings, urns, millstones, pieces of "Samian" pottery both plain and figured, vases, tiles, bricks, glass, votive tablets, and inscribed altars have been found at different periods. About eight years since, a gold ring set with a brilliant in it, was found in the garden hedge of the Manor House, and taken possession of by the farmer's daughter. In the year 1840, a brass coin of Antoninus Pius was found about five or six feet beneath the surface. Several other coins were found at the bottom of a grave about twenty years ago. A stone, with a broad sword cut upon it, was dug out of the same grave, and now forms part of the door of one of the offices of the Rectory House. In the same grave was also found part of an old grate, which the blacksmith pronounced to be made of the best iron that ever passed under his hammer. I have also a silver coin of the Emperor Nerva. Many other coins have been found at different periods, but they have not been preserved. I recently found a piece of yellow-coloured pottery, about six inches long, having apparently been part of the handle of an amphora. Such fragments have, I understand, been rarely found in Britain.
Camden says that he saw a stone in the churchyard, made use of for a gravestone, with this inscription—
LEG. II. AVG.
FECIT.
Horsley thinks that he afterwards saw the same stone in Naworth Garden. May we not infer from this stone that the second legion was engaged in the erection of this station?
Horsley mentions an inscribed stone which was found at the bottom of a grave, but which was set upright on edge at the head of a grave when he visited the station. He considered it to have been an honorary monument erected to Hadrian by the Legio Sccunda Augusta and the Legio Vicesima. The stone was much defaced, but the following reading has been proposed—
IMP. CAES. TRAIAN
HADRIANO AVG.
LEG. II. AVG. ET XX V V
SVB. LICINIO PRISCO
LEG. AVG. P.R.P.R.
Imperatori Cæsari Trajano Hadriano Augusto Legiones Secunda Augusta et Vicesima valens victrix sub Licinio Prisco Legato Augustali Proprætore. If we follow the mode of interpreting inscribed stones adopted by some writers, we might infer from this stone that Hadrian was the builder of this station. But a more legitimate inference would be, that the station was in existence at the time of Hadrian, and visited by him; and that it was probably one of the forts built by Agricola.
Hutchinson, in his "History of Cumberland," vol. i., p. 93, also mentions a stone which he found over the channel of the gate of the public-house yard, bearing the following inscription—
I. O. M.
COH. I. DAC . . . .
ATL . . . . T CENTVR
. . FECIT . . . .
None of the above-mentioned stones are to be found at Bewcastle at the present day.
Hutchinson also mentions an altar which he says "was found lately, and is in the possession of the Rev. J. D. Carlyle," who was afterwards Chancellor of the Diocese of Carlisle. An account of it was communicated by him to the Society of Antiquaries in 1792, which was published with a representation of the altar, in the "Archæologia," vol. xi., pl. vi., p. 69. He stated that it had been sent to him a few months previously, having been found in the bed of a rivulet at Bewcastle, and he gave the following reading of the inscription—
SANCTO CO
CIDEO T AVRVNC
FELICISSI
MVS. TRIBVN
EX EVOCATO
V. S. L. M.
Mr. Carlyle supposed this altar to have been dedicated to Cocideus, a local deity, by Titus Auruncus, promoted to the rank of tribune, having been an erocatus, or volunteer, continuing to serve after the usual time of military service had been completed. This stone, being dedicated to the god Cocideus,[2] rather strengthens my suggestion respecting the Maiden Way and the Tenth Iter, for this deity is supposed to have been in some way connected with the important station Coccium, which is given as one of the stations of this Iter.
An aged neighbour informs me that a stone covered with letters, was found about sixty years since on the edge of the water near the Byer Cottage, and stood for a long time at the door of the Rev. Mr. Messenger. It was afterwards carted away by this man's father, but he cannot say where it was taken. A stone with some sculpture in relief was found about thirty years since, near the same place, and is now in the wall in the Bewcastle Barn.
In the Spring of 1852, I found the upper part of a Roman altar. It appears to have been dedicated on the erection of a Temple (probably by the Roman workers in iron) a solo—from the foundation; pro salute—for the safety of some person whose name may have been inscribed on the part of the stone now broken off, as there appear to be letters in the fifth line underneath: or the concluding words may have been, pro se ac suis, for himself and his family. It has been dedicated—Jovi optimo maximo immortali Dolicheno. To Jupiter Dolichenus, the best, the greatest, the immortal. Jupiter was sometimes styled Dolichenus, from Doliche, a district in Macedonia, famous for its iron. As there have been only two altars previously found in Britain, so dedicated, this relic must be regarded as claiming especial notice. It is now placed in the stone wall between the north-west corner of the churchyard, and the Manor House garden. I furnished Dr. Bruce with a sketch of it which has been engraved for his second edition of "The Roman Wall."[3] Horsley mentions a stone with the word Templum upon it, but says that it was then broken and destroyed; this is probably the same stone.
In the churchyard the Monolithic Obelisk, or shaft of an ancient cross, is still standing, but remains unexplained. I have recently cleared the inscribed parts from the moss with which they were thickly coated, but have not been able to decypher the characters in a satisfactory manner. The letters appear to be Anglo-Saxon Runes, and much the same as those on the Ruthwell monument in Dumfriesshire. On a fillet on the north side the following letters are very legible. In the year 1685 these characters were somewhat differently read by Bishop Nicholson, and expounded by him to mean, "Rynburn, the burial of the Runæ," or "Ryeburn, Cemeterium, or Cadaverum Sepulchrum." In the year 1742, an article appeared in the Gentleman's Magazine communicated by Mr. Smith, who read it "Kuniburuk, Sepulchrum Regis." As however these interpretations appear to be based on an incorrect copying of the letters, I would suggest another reading. I suppose the second letter to be a Runic Y; and the penultimate letter to be a compound of OU; and I would propose to read Kyneburoug. The word Cyne or Kin of the Saxons was synonymous with nation or people; and the Anglo-Saxon byrig, byrg, burh, burg, buroug, &c., was the generic term for any place, large or small, which was fortified by walls or mounds. The fortifications of the continental Saxons, before their inroads on the Roman Empire, were mere earthworks, for in their half-nomadic state they had neither means nor motive for constructing any other. But their conquest and colonisation of the greater part of Roman Britain put them in possession of a more solid class of fortifications, such as this at Bewcastle. I would suggest, therefore, that these Runes may signify the burgh or fortified town of the nation or people who occupied this district, it is probable that this was in early times a place of some importance. In the reign of Edward I., 1279, John Swinburne obtained a fair and market to be held here.
On a fillet on the south side appear to be the following characters. What the first three may mean is doubtful, but the subsequent letters appear to be the word DANEGELT. This term was first applied to a tribute of 30,000, or according to some writers, 36,000 pounds (A. Sax.), raised in the year 1007 during the reign of Ethelred the Unready, to purchase a precarious peace from the Danes. It was also sometimes used to designate taxes imposed on other extraordinary occasions.
On the western side are three figures, which, as Bishop Nicholson says, "evidently enough manifest the monument to be Christian.[4] The highest may be, as the learned prelate suggested, the Blessed Virgin with the Babe in her arms.[5] The next is that of our Saviour with the glory round his head. In a compartment underneath this is the principal inscription, consisting of nine lines; and underneath this is the figure of a man with a bird upon his hand, and in front of him a perch, which, in the absence of a better explanation, may possibly have been intended to represent Odin, or some Danish chieftain, and his dreaded raven: and we may suppose that he was placed at the bottom of the group to typify his conversion and subjection to the Redeemer, who was descended from the Blessed Virgin. The inscription appears to be as follows, so far as I have been able to trace the letters (see woodcut, p. 132). The eighth and ninth lines are quite illegible.
In the first line the three characters at the commencement probably form the monogram I H S, and being placed immediately under the figure of our Saviour, show that the monument is of a Christian character; the last letter being evidently the Runic S, and not an inverted Z. as supposed by Mr. Smith.
The first letter in the second line is distinctly legible, and undoubtedly U. I sometimes fancy, that by taking the last imperfect letter of the preceding line, we may possibly obtain the word DUNSTANO. Dunstan, however, was dead before the time already mentioned, and though he lived to place the crown upon the head of Ethelred, and may without impropriety be classed among the contemporaries of that period, yet as he died in 988, he cannot have taken any part in the events above mentioned.
The tradition of the district says that a king was buried here, and also points out the locality from which this stone was procured. On White Lyne Common, about five miles from Bewcastle, is a long ridge of rocks, called the Langbar. About the centre of this ridge a stone is now lying, about fifteen feet in length, the very counterpart of the Bewcastle Obelisk. This stone has evidently been cut into two parts at some period, as the wedge marks distinctly appear, and the western is much fresher than the other sides. The obelisk is of a peculiar rock, a very hard white freestone, thickly marked with spots of grey, precisely such as is found at the Langbar and the adjacent rocks on the south side of the White Lyne River, but in no other part of the country. It is a sandstone of a sharp rough gritty nature, and as a material for sharpening scythes is much in use.
Uncertainty as to the forms of the other letters, prevents me from attempting further explanation of the inscription at present, but I am not without hope that in time I may become better satisfied as to the proper reading.
The inquiry will naturally occur to the reader, what was the origin of the term "Maiden Way." and, before proceeding to another Section, it may be desirable to advert to various conjectures of those who have indulged in etymological speculations on this subject.
Some have supposed that it has had its source in the Saxon macan or machen, to make, and that by a commutation of letters it became ge magden waeg, i.e., a made road, and since well-made roads would probably be very scarce at that period in Britain, this may have been the first road made by the Romans after their arrival in this district, and consequently named, by way of distinction, the made road, which name it afterwards retained. The adoption and permanent retention of the Saxon word waeg certainly gives some countenance to this supposition. Others are of opinion that it has arisen from the Saxon words maeden, maegden, maid or maiden, and give it the Latin appellation. "Via puellarum," a term which has been found in some old Boundary Rolls. There is a tradition in the district that it was made by women carrying the stones in their aprons, but the mere mention of such a legend is enough. Others assign it to a date more ancient than the Saxons, and would derive it from some word cognate with the Welsh midian, an area, an enclosure, considering that ancient ways were trenched or enclosed on the sides, and that the terra "Maiden Way" is expressive of an enclosed road, as some have supposed that the Watling Street was so called from being fenced on the sides with wattles, the Saxon name for long rods or saplings. In my researches, however, I have not found traces of such enclosure. Lysons, in his "History of Cumberland," says, "Among the moors on the east borders of the county a third road is evidently to be traced under the name of the Maiden Way, a term familiar to all persons conversant in these matters of antiquity, and supposed by Warton to be corrupted from the British word Madan, fair." Another suggestion has been made as to the Celtic origin of this term by the Rev. C. H. Hartshorne, who, in his "Salopia Antiqua," adopts the Celtic etymon Mad and Madien, an eminence or elevation. "It derived this appellation (Maiden Way) either because it was a raised road, or else, which seems more likely, from its passing by Maiden Castle in Westmoreland, and by a small fort called Maidenhold, between Crackenthorp and Kirkby There. In either case Maiden Way is synonymous with Highway" A close inspection of the road leads me to conclude that this is the most probable origin of the name. For the most part it traverses moors and mosses, and may have been formed at first by the Celts or British, who possibly, by digging two parallel ditches, and casting the earth between them, raised the way, and called it the Madien road. The Romans, on their arrival, may have found it convenient to complete this line. In the Slack-house ground, on the Waterhead Fell, the Snowden-close Pasture, and the Side Fell, the road retains a considerable elevation. In these places the adjacent ground is of a stiff clayey nature, and has prevented the road from sinking to the level of the surrounding surface, or subsiding under it.
(To be continued.)
- ↑ Continued from page 22.
- ↑ This appears to have been the local name of Mars, since an altar found at Lancaster bears the inscription—"Deo Sancto Marti Cocidio." Archæologia, vol xiii., p. 401. Seven altars dedicated to Cocidius have occurred in Cumberland, and the inscriptions are given by Lysons, "History of Cumberland," pp. cliii, cxlviii.
- ↑ "Roman Wall," p. 378. We are indebted to the kindness of Dr. Bruce for the use of the woodcut given above. The lower part of an I, it should be observed, may be discerned after the letters I. O. M.
- ↑ "Camden's Britannia," ed. by Gibson, vol. ii., p. 1028.
- ↑ It must be admitted that this supposition is somewhat countenanced by the fact that the Church of Bewcastle is dedicated to the Virgin. The representation, however, of these weather-worn sculptures, given by Lysons in his "History of Cumberland," p. cxcix, suggests the notion, that what has been supposed to be the Infant Saviour, may be the Agnus Dei, and it is so described by him. If this be correct, the figure must represent the Baptist, and the two lines of characters, now defaced, under its feet, as shown in Lysons' plate, possibly comprised some mention of St. John. The figure at the base, as some have thought, most probably pourtrayed some person of note by whom this remarkable Christian monument was erected. The bird which he has taken off its perch, appears to be a hawk, introduced, possibly, to mark his noble rank. In examining Lysons' plate, the best representation of the sculptures, hitherto published, attention is arrested by the introduction of a vertical dial on the south side, resembling those at Kirkdale and Bishopstone, described in this volume of the Journal, p. 60, the only examples of so early a date hitherto noticed.—Ed.
- ↑ I may mention that a friend to whom I gave a copy of my reading of the inscription, suggests that in the second line is "the word kisle, one of the cases of kisil, gravel." It is difficult to conceive however, why such an immense stone should be brought from so great a distance and covered with the most elaborate sculpture, for the purpose of making any record about gravel.