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start of The Wall |
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Page 216:-
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The Wall, dimensions
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[oc]casioned this error. There may have been also some
exploratory castles belonging to Hadrian's work, though
there be little appearance of such at present., unless the
small remains at Chappel houses near Newburn, and those near
Heddon on the wall, which we call Castle steeds, be
of this sort. The smaller turrets have been more generally
and intirely ruined than the castella, so that it is hard to
find any three of them together with any certainty. But
there were probably four of them between every two castella,
and they were about four feet square. This short distance
makes the alarm-pipe as unecessary as it it is fanciful and
fictitious. There have also been 18 larger forts or stations
on or near the wall, at about four miles asunder. The wall
generally runs on the top or ridge of the higher ground,
keeping a descent on the north or enemy's side, and thereby
has a greater strength and better prospect. Hadrian's vallum
differs in this respect, but both seem to have been carried
on pretty much in a strait line from station to station.
Where Watling-street passes the wall there is a visible
track of a square gate, and the ditch belonging to the wall
manifestly goes about the other half of it, the inner half
being so visible. This gate seems to be of much the same
size with the castles 60 feet square, only these are wholly
within the wall but the gate within and without. The other
two military ways seem to have crossed at the station of
Caernarvon and Stanwicks. The thickness of the wall is from
seven feet to seven feet four inches at the foundation,
probably a Roman pace and an half near Boulness on the
Solway frith, where the tides come up to it it measures nine
feet. The military way measured constantly about 17 feet,
perhaps three and an half Roman paces. The ditch of
Hadrian's vallum is near nine feet deep and eleven over and
the sides sloping. That of Severus was wider and deeper.
Hadrian's wall is of earth sometimes mixed with stone.
Severus's of free stone, sometimes formed on oak piles, the
inner filling of stones pretty large, broad, and thin, set
on edge obliquely in mortar [i]. Severus's wall reaches at
each end beyond Hadrian's [k]. If we divide the wall into
four equal parts, the one and three quarters from the east
end seem to have been built by the Leg. II. Aug. and the two
and last by the Leg. VI. Victrix. Hadrian's ended east at
Newcastle, and Severus's at Cousin's house, and at Boulness
west [l]. It had on it eighteen castella or stations.
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Mr Horsley's account of The
Wall
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The following account of the present state of Hadrian's
vallum, and the wall of Severus is taken from Mr. Horsley's
Britannia Romana: c.9. p.135.
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The Wall, state of
preservation
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"I shall reduce these remains to four degrees of appearance:
As to Hadrian's vallum, I would call it the highest or
fourth degree, if in any part the present state could be
supposed to be nearly equal to what it originally was, but
this I think never is the case; the first and lowest degree
is, when there are any certain visible remains or vestiges,
though not very large; and the second and third are the
intertmediate degrees, as they approach nearer to the
highest or lowest. But in the stone wall I call that the
fourth degree, where any of the original regular courses are
remaining, and usually name the number of courses. Where the
original stones remain upon the spot, though not in their
regular order, I call it the third degree; where the rubbish
is high and distinct, though covered with earth, or grown
over with grass, I call it the second; and the first is
where there are any remaining vestiges of the wall though
faint and obscure.
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I. SEGDUNUM.
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Segedunum
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"Severus's wall has manifestly terminated in a square fort
or station, above a furlong to the east of the mansion
called COUSIN'S HOUSE. The ruins of a Roman station and town
at this place are still very discernible; though it has all
been plowed, and is now a very rich meadow. The stones and
rubbish of the buildings are levelled, and covered with
earth and grass; but the ramparts of the fort may be
distinctly traced out, both they and the ditch being visible
at least in one degree almost quite round. There are very
evident remains of two turrets at the western and eastern
entries to the station, and of another at the south-west
corner. The west entry has been close to the wall, and the
eastern one directly opposite to it. The fort has been about
140 yards, or perhaps six chains, square, and so the
contents of it above three acres and an half. About sixty
yards of the western and eastern sides lie without, or to
the north of the line of the wall, and 80 within it; so that
the wall falls upon the sides of the station, not far from
the middle of them. The south rampart of this fort is about
three quarters of a furlong from the river side, and runs
along the brow of the hill, or at the head of a considerable
descent from thence to the river. There have been ruins of
buildings on this part, and to the south-west of the fort;
but they are now so levelled and covered, that little
evidence appears above ground; yet the stones and remains of
rubbish are easily discovered when the surface is anywhere
removed: and some of these inequalties in the surface, which
usually arise from ruins, yet remain, and may easily be
perceived to be hillocks of stones or rubbish. Mr. Gordon
supposes that the wall itself forms almost a right angle,
and then is continued down to the side of the river [m]. But
it is the western rampart of the station which makes that
angle with the wall. Nor does this rampart reach to the
river, though 'tis likely the town, or buildings without the
fort, may have extended so far. On the north side of the
station there are some crooked risings and settlings of the
ground, which at first view appeared to me not unlike a
round fort or tower, projecting from the station with a
triple rampart and ditch. The two closes in which the Roman
town and station have stood, are called Well-lawes,
perhaps it had been Wall-lawes; there being other instances
wherein the names well and wall have been
changed one for the other. If the name lawes be owing
to the rising ground only, the termination lawes or
lowes, which signifies hills, so far correspond to
the Roman name Segdunum: but as there are yet two
distinct tumuli remaining near the Beehouses, and not
far from these closes: I rather think that from these and a
supposition that the ruins of the station and buildings
about it were of the same nature, these closes may have
borrowed this name; a lawe or lowe being one
of those names by which such tumuli are frequently expressed
[n]. There is one remarkable ruinous heap in the south-west
corner of the western close, which is supposed to have been
an antient building, perhaps a temple; though it might be
mistaken for a tumulus. There are some inscriptions
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[i]
Horsley, p.118, 119, 120, 121, 122, 123.
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[k]
Ib. 127.
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[l]
Ib. 130. 134.
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[m]
Itin. Septent. p.70.
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[n]
The field, in which the station at South Shields has stood,
is called the Lawe. Formerly it went by the name of
the Burrough meadow.
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and
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gazetteer links
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-- Hadrian's Wall
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