four miles to the eastward—a space commanded by the position of this extremity of the wall. This site is recognised as the Segedunum of the Romans, and traces of the station are still visible on the spot called the Well or Wall Laws, about six yards south of the engines of Wallsend colliery. In Horsley’s time there were distinct traces of the ramparts of this work, and evident remains of two turrets at the western and eastern corners of the station, and another at the south-west corner. A wall and other works have extended to the river, where the remains of a quay and the traces of a causeway in communication with it mark the spot where, upwards of sixteen centuries ago, the Roman vessels loaded or discharged their cargoes, long ere the coal trade was dreamed of, and where now the staithes appertaining to the waggon-ways of Bigge’s Main, Fawdon, Cox Lodge, and Wallsend collieries render the scene a right busy and a black one. The name of this station is derived by Wallis, the historian of Northumberland, from the Roman seges,—corn—and the British dun, a hill, and he conceives that here was a magazine for corn shipped from the more southern provinces of the empire. Although I have said that Wallsend is recognised as Segedunum, there is no direct evidence by which it can be exactly identified with the station so named in the Notitia Imperii, a list of the several military officers and magistrates of the eastern and western empires, with the names of the places at which they were stationed, probably composed about the end of the reign of the Emperor Theodosius the younger, before the Romans were compelled by home disturbances to abandon this island. The sixty-ninth section of this document contains a list of the prefects and tribunes under the command of the Honourable the Duke of Britain. That portion of the list which refers to the stations between the Tyne and the Solway is headed Item per lineam valli—also along the line of the wall, and contains references which the wall-pilgrim may consult with advantage.
Before setting forth, being anxious to tread upon sure ground, we cast about in order to obtain the best information for our guidance in identifying the several stations, and above all, to make a sure start; we therefore consulted the volume of Dr. Bruce,[1] the latest and best of the wall guides. The Segedunum of the Notitia immediately follows the title per lineam valli, but the point is at which end of the line to place it, to discover, indeed, whether we are to proceed with the names set down in the list from east to west along the line, or the contrary way. “The stations on this list are manifestly,” as Horsley observes, “set down in some order, so that if we ascertain the identity of some of them, we may form a pretty correct estimate of the position of the intermediate, or neighbouring stations. When in the remains of a station inscribed stones are found bearing the name of a cohort mentioned in the Notitia, the inference is natural, in most cases at least, that the Imperial Notitia will furnish us with a key to the ancient designation of the station, and the argument is perfect when the designations thus obtained correspond exactly in the order of the places as given in the Notitia.” Dr. Bruce points to an example in the station of Chesters, on the North Tyne, where several slabs have been found bearing the name of the second ala or wing of the Astures.
ALAE
II ASTVR(UM).
“Now as the Notitia represents this ala or troop of cavalry to have been stationed at Cilurnum, the probability is that the camp on the west bank of the North Tyne is the Cilurnum of Roman Britain.
“Immediately following the second wing of the Astures at Cilurnum on the Notitia list is the first cohort of the Batavians at Procolita. Now the station immediately west of Chesters is Carrawburgh, and here a slab and an altar have been found inscribed with the name of this very cohort. The conclusion is natural—Carrawburgh is the Procolita of the Notitia.” In this way a succession of stations have been identified from Segedunum (Wallsend) to Amboglanna (Bird Oswald) in Cumberland; but here, from the land being more under cultivation, traces are less evident, and no inscriptions have been found to identify the stations westward of this point. No inscribed stones of any consequence have been found at Wallsend, although it is conjectured many have been worked into the masonry of the colliery for which the station served as a quarry. But this deficiency was in a measure made good by the discovery, at Tynemouth, where it is supposed there was a Roman fort, of an altar, the inscription on which reads as follows:—
I (OVI) O(PTIMO) M(AXIMO)
AEL(IVS)RVFVS
PRAEF(ECTVS) COH(ORTIS)
IIII LIGNO
NVM
From Wallsend the wall ran westward, and, passing Walker, i. e., the town by the wall, and climbing Byker Hill, it proceeded to the bank overlooking the Ouse Burn, a stream which runs into the Tyne on the eastern boundary of Newcastle, where there was a castellum or exploratory tower. Descending the hill from thence, where the fosse is still to be traced, it crossed the burn and reached the Sally Port-gate of the mediæval walla of Newcastle, where there was a castellum, and crossing the top of the hill, called the Wall Knoll, it passed a small stream called Pandon Dean, by an arch near the Stock Bridge. Ascending another hill it crossed the Lort Burn by an arch, and reached the site now occupied by St. Nicholas’ Church, and formed the rampart of the next station.
Newcastle—the Pons Elii of the Notitia—has afforded a position of great strength and command. It is supposed to have taken its Roman appellation from the Emperor Hadrian, who was of the Ælian family. He rebuilt Jerusalem and bestowed on it the name of Ælia Capitolina.
Evidences that the old bridge stood upon a Roman foundation were evident on its being rebuilt after the great flood in 1771. The wall formed the- ↑ The “Notitia” list of stations is printed in Dr. Bruce’s compendious history of the Roman Wall.
