Aug. 3, 1861.]
AN ARTIST’S RAMBLE ALONG THE LINE OF THE PICTS’ WALL.
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the fosse. One of these ramparts, or aggers—the north rampart of the vallum—Horsley conceives may have served the purpose of a military way; but the inequality of the surface, together with its conical shape, render that supposition quite improbable. But the fosse itself may have done good service as a covered way for the passage of troops and stores between one station and another. I am not aware if the appropriateness of the vallum for that purpose has been taken into consideration; but, supposing such to have been the case, it would equally well have served its other purpose of a barrier to the south, while it may have been employed with advantage for the protection of the soldiers in going to and fro while engaged upon the erection of the wall. The stations along the line of the wall have been planted at an average distance of about four miles. These were military cities, the permanent seats of tribunes, or prefects, and of the guard stationed under their command. The stations are invariably found in a situation which commands an abundant supply of water, and their site has been chosen with a southern aspect, and on the slope of a hill, for the sake of shelter against the cold north wind.
Horsley allots eighteen to the line of the wall; but Hodgson assumes one of the number that came under Horsley’s notice to have been no more than a temporary or summer camp, and he limits the number to seventeen. In addition to these stations, as we find in taking our way along the line of the wall, are a succession of mile-castles; so designated in the modern nomenclature of wall pilgrims, from their being found at about the distance of a Roman mile from each other. They were quadrangular buildings, usually measuring from sixty to seventy feet.
Wherever the wall has been carried across a defile or river, a mile-castle has been planted on one side or the other to guard the pass. The mile-castles are found generally to have but one entrance, of strong masonry, but an exception occurs of which mention will be made as we proceed. Between the mile-castles, four subsidiary erections, denominated turrets, or watch-towers, were placed, being little more than stone sentry-boxes. Their vestiges can now scarcely be traced. They are described as containing an interior space, of from eight to ten feet square. Horsley states the distance between them to have been three hundred and eight yards, the whole number is therefore computed at three hundred and twenty. To say that the barrier was provided with suitable roads for the transition of troops, and the ready conveyance of stores, is, in a manner, to put the assertion in an inverse order, for one great object in raising the former must have been for the protection of the line of military operations, and the road must have been the first consideration. Gordon (“Itinerarium Septentrionale”) says, that two military ways belonged to the barrier; a small military way a little to the south of the wall, and, beyond it, the great military way. That there may have been a footway immediately under the wall which went from turret to turret, on which the Roman sentry marched when not exposed on the walls, is not improbable, although no traces of such a way exist. In the rebellion of the year 1715, the operations of the Royalist forces were greatly retarded by the absence of a practicable road between Newcastle and Carlisle, and the same inconvenience was experienced in 1745. Soon after this the present military road was constructed, upon the track of the great Roman road, which, in all likelihood, was laid down by Severus when he built the wall. And that the reconstruction of the whole frontier barrier is to be attributed to Severus appears, after a careful survey of the work itself, and due consideration of the opinions of the different authorities who have argued the topic, to be the most reasonable conclusion, in default of positive and contemporary testimony. Having thus satisfied ourselves we turned our faces to the sun, now declining to the west, and proceeded. still holding on to the wall, on our return to Haltwhistle for the night. The heights to the west of Housesteads overlook a prospect that reminded us of the fine apostrophe of our northern
