suburban buildings. Within, and near the middle of the station, is a vaulted chamber, or cell, which is entered by a descent of four steps. At the threshold was found the original door of wood, sheathed with plates of iron, the whole being firmly riveted together with large square nails. The roof is vaulted over, and the side walls incline slightly inwards. Some excavations near the eastern rampart have brought to light a series of eight apartments. A street, three feet wide, increasing to four feet, is met at right angles by another, paved with flag stones, which leads to the entrance of a large apartment, under the floors of which are flues for warming the building, similar to those at Halton Chesters. In one of the rooms a cistern, or bath, was found. From this chamber passages on the right and left lead into apartments, in one of which the statue of a river god—perhaps, it has been surmised, the genius of North Tyne—was found. This figure is much superior to the ordinary pitch of Roman provincial art. Indeed, although carved in a coarse material, it is conceived in a high style of design. A bank, overhanging the river, at a short distance from the station, is conceived, from the discovery of several sepulchral monuments, to have been the Roman cemetery. It is a spot well suited to the quiet and sanctity of death, the west wind sighing through the grove that overshadows it, and the river flowing round the base of the hill towards the most beautiful of its many fine curving sweeps, might sound to the fanciful ear like an everlastingly murmured dirge for the repose of the departed who rest there.
At Walwick Chesters, many fine pieces of sculpture and architectural fragments are preserved, together with a dedicatory inscription of the soldiers of the second wing of the Astures, which appears to have been appended to a temple. This having fallen to decay, was restored by command of Marius Valerianus, under the superintendence of Septimus Nilus, Prefect. This stone has the peculiar interest of having furnished the key by which the succession of stations became identified by collation with the Notitia.
On the summit of Warden Hill, sometimes called Castle Hill, to the south of the Chesters, and near the confluence of the North and South Tyne, there is a circular camp, which comprehends an area of about two acres. The circular form indicates a British stronghold, but it may have been appropriated by the Romans as a lookout post, as it overlooks the country surrounding the station and bridge to a considerable distance. This elevation commands a fine view of the vale of the South Tyne, on whose southern bank the venerable towers of Hexham are conspicuous. Following the works over the hill of Tower Tay, from the summit of which an extensive prospect is obtained, including the groves of Nunwick, and, on the other bank of the North Tyne, Chipchase Castle, the ancient stronghold of the Herons, a bold undulation of hilly country is bounded by the grey peaks of the Cheviot Hills. Near Tower Tay are the remains of a Mile Castle. Here the fosse of the wall and the vallum are hewn out of the solid basalt rock.
The next station, being the seventh, on the Roman line, is Carraw, the Roman Procolita. It was garrisoned by the first Batavian cohort—that which fought with Agricola against Galgacus, in the great battle of the Grampian Hills. A mutilated stone, bearing the word BATAVORUM, was found among its débris. This station is a mere heap of shattered ruins. Leaving Carraw, we have before us a succession of four mountainous ridges which face the north in crests of perpendicular crags, some higher than others, and forming a mass of basalt that crosses the country in a rugged line bearing north by east to the sea at Holy Island. The wall rises boldly as we approach the central portion of the barrier, which, in harmony with the scenery, pursues a more determined course, and presents itself in more imposing masses. Where the wall tops the crown of the crag, the north fosse disappears, and the vallum follows the course of the wall at the bases of the hills. Those inaccessible precipices offer to the north a barrier to which the wall cannot have added strength, and it must have been carried over them chiefly to shelter the guards and sentinels against the bitter northern blast.
On the side of the hill at Sewingshields are the remains of a Mile Castle. From this height, looking northward, a dreary stretch of waste and moss land extends from the base of the crag as far as the eye can reach, while, on the south, the view is rich and extensive, Hexham being clearly visible, nestled in an inflexion of the woody banks of the Tyne. Northward of the crag, there stood a border tower, called Sewingshields Castle, but not a stone remains. It is said to have suggested the idea of Scott’s “Castle of Seven Shields.” A buried treasure, it was believed, lay concealed within its walls.
Seven monarchs’ wealth in that castle lies stow’d,
The foul fiends brood o'er them like raven and toad.
Whoever shall guesten these chambers within,
From curfew till matins, that treasure shall win.
But as there is no longer a chamber to “guesten” within, the adventure is nought, and the prophecy fulfilled.
The waste ridge of Cheviot shall wave with the rye,
Before the rude Scots shall Northumberland fly,
And the flint cliffs of Bambro’ shall melt in the sun,
Before that adventure be peril’d and won.
Among some traditions told by the people hereabout, I select one communicated to Dr. Bruce by Mr. Adam Cranston, Master of Grindon School, relative to an odd plan practised by the Scots of angling for Romans. “The Romans are said to have been remarkably lazy, so much so, that in the hot weather of summer, having almost nothing to do, they lay basking in the sun, on the south side of the wall, almost in a state of torpor. The Scots were in the habit of watching their opportunity, and, throwing hooks with lines attached to them, over the wall, caught the poor Romans by their clothes or flesh, and by this means dragging them to the other side, made them prisoners.”
In some of the local traditions, King Arthur and Queen Guenevra are the hero and heroine. A column of basalt in the neighbouring crag is called King Arthur’s Chair.
Beyond Sewingshields is a gap in the crag,
