northern rampart of Pons Elii. Horsley considered that each side of this station measured six chains, and that its east wall ran at right angles from the wall where the St. George’s Porch of St. Nicholas’ Church is situated, and continued along the brow of the hill—at the part called the Head of the Side—till intercepted by the earthen rampart called Hadrian’s Vallum, near the east-end of Bailey Gate. The old castle is conceived by Horsley to have stood a little more to the south-east than the present castle, erected in the reign of William the Conqueror, and from which the town took its name of Newcastle. On the brink of a height looking down upon the bridge, masses of strong masonry and a chaos of Roman ruins were found when the ground was cleared for building the present Moot Hall; likewise a Roman doorway, walled up, a well, and a quantity of the débris common to Roman stations. It is highly probable that the new castle was built from the stones of its predecessor; and Brand expresses his belief that inscriptions belonging to the station of Pons Elii lie concealed in the walls of the present castle.
The Wall and Vallum near Heddon-on-the-Wall.
From St. George’s Porch the wall stretched through the garden of the vicarage and intersected the line of the town wall a little to the north of the west gate, then mounting the rising ground it reached the station of Condercum. There are plans of this station, and of the Roman hypocaust, found near it, in Brand’s “History of New castle,” drawn in 1751, by Robert Shafts, Esq. Some altars and inscriptions were found here; one of them, discovered in 1669, is referred by Horsley to the time of the Emperors Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus. This altar is dedicated to Jupiter Dolichenus, who presided over mines, and this has led to a supposition that the coal seam of this neighbourhood had been wrought by Roman hands. Coins, bronzes, and other Roman relics, have, from time to time, been found here. For nineteen miles out of Newcastle, the Carlisle road runs chiefly upon the foundation of the wall. At East Denton the wall becomes visible in a fragment thirty-six feet long, having three courses of facing stones on one side, and four on the other. Beyond Denton Burn, the wall, turf-covered, travels with the road, but apart, for some distance, and here the vallum is very prominent. Near Denton Hall, formerly the residence of Lady Mary Wortley Montague, a mound indicates the site of a Mile Castle. Before crossing Walbottle Dean, the vallum appears very distinctly, skirting the road which here runs upon the wall again, and as it approaches Heddon-on-the-Wall, the fosse appears on the right of the wall, and the vallum, boldly prominent on the left. Here a considerable length of the wall, with four courses of facing stones, is very perfect. At this part the ditch or fosse is carried through freestone rock. About a mile to the north of Heddon-on-the-Wall are some tumuli. Past the eighth mile-stone is Rutchester—probably a corruption of Roodchester, from a rood or cross. This station is recognised as the Vindobala of the Notitia. The wall intersects its east and west ramparts. It includes an area of nearly five acres. At an ancient stronghold which has been converted into a farm-house, Hutton, in his famous Wall Pilgrimages, experienced a churlish reception, as he considered; perhaps it was only a manifestation of the canny north country way—kindly but cautious—for he himself admits that his travelling appearance was not prepossessing; but he has his fling in the following homely verse:
I saw old Sir at dinner sit,
Who ne’er said “Stranger, take a bit,”
Yet might, although a poet said it,
Have saved his beef and raised his credit.
The above tower has the repute of being haunted by a tricksy, but not malevolent sprite called Silky. The tower is reported to have been raised by William of Welton, a worthy whose strength is still proverbial in those parts. One of his feats of prowess is said to have been exhibited when age had deprived him of sight. This blind Samson, sitting outside the tower, called a plough-boy to him, and asked him to let him feel his arm, as he wished to find what sort of bones folk had now-a-days. The lad, apprehensive of his grip, held forth instead of his arm the iron plough coulter, which Will forthwith snapped in twain, pensively observing: “Men’s banes are nought but girsels (gristles) to what they were in my day.”
Near Halton Castle is the station of Halton Chesters, the Roman Hunnum. An aqueduct of about three-quarters of a mile in length was opened out, and it is remarkable that it lay on the north, or hostile side of the wall, where the supply of water was liable to be cut off by the enemy. The foundations of a building were likewise found one hundred and thirty-two feet in length, containing eleven apartments, the first of which was forty-three feet long, and twenty wide. It is conjectured to have been the apartment appropriated to persons waiting their turn for the bath, the other rooms being for the hot, cold, tepid, and sweating baths used by the Romans; who, doubtless, derived health and vigour from their scrupulous attention to clealiness. The greater part of these interesting remains have been demolished and the station
