at the beginning, and, as usually happens in such instances, it has received very contrary interpretations. Brand supposed it to commemorate the construction of a harbour and temple by Caius Julius Verus Maximinus of the sixth legion[1], while the Rev. John Hodgson, the late accomplished historian of Northumberland, believed it to refer to the erection of a cippus on a base, and a temple. Either reading is unsatisfactory, and it is not easy to offer a solution of the difficulty. Thus much is certain, there is nothing, the harbour theory being rejected, to identify this inscription with the place of its discovery. However, there is much probability in the conjecture that, during the Roman occupation of Britain, Tynemouth may have been a military post, subordinate in importance to Segedunum, the most easterly of the known garrisons on the wall of Severus.
Nothing certain is known of the history of Tynemouth until the close of the eighth century. It may be possible, as Mr. Gibson seems to believe, that soon after the conversion of the northern parts to Christianity, it obtained a reputation for local sanctity; but in the entire absence of evidence, it is useless to discuss the question. Yet one or two points raised by the author require observation. It is improbable, as he is disposed to think, that Tynemouth was the monastery of the holy Abbess Virca, mentioned in Beda's life of St. Cuthbert, as the words of that writer present this objection, that the house referred to, if situated near the mouth of Tyne[2], must have stood on the southern bank of the river. The legend of St. Oswin, patron of the foundation, was not written until five centuries after his death, and like many legends it is obnoxious to criticism in respect both of events and dates: but even admitting the fact therein stated, that Oswin was buried in the oratory of the Virgin Mary, at the mouth of the river Tyne, A.D. 651, we are not told whether on the north or south side[3]; it must be also admitted that the earliest genuine mention of the place, anterior to this legend of the twelfth century, is a notice, in the Saxon Chronicle, that Osred, king of Northumbria, was interred at Tynemouth A.D. 792. From this, indeed, it may be fairly inferred that at the close of the eighth century a church, and possibly a convent, existed there, but beyond the slight record of Osred's burial, there is not an iota of evidence,
- ↑ See his explanation of the Tynemouth inscriptions, and representations of the three sculptured sides of the altar, Archæologia, vol. viii. p. 326, and Gough's Camden, vol. iii. p. 514. These interesting memorials, discovered in 1783 by Major Durnford, were presented to the Society of Antiquaries of London, with a fragment of an early stone cross, found amongst the ruins with the altars. Mr. Gibson does not appear to have been aware of the existence of this relic; and on recent enquiry regarding the preservation of these remains amongst the valuable collections of the Society, we were informed that they had been long since consigned to the vault serving as a storehouse, under the great court at Somerset-house.
- ↑ "Est denique monasterium non longe ab ostio Tini fluminis ad meridiem situm," &c.
- ↑ Oswin is said to have been born at a town called Urfa, south of the Tyne, and opposite to the site of the monastery, now known as South Shields. Is it not at least probable he may have been interred at his birth-place?
