RIBLECHESTER.
I went to view this old station: it is prettily seated on a rising knoll upon the river; at some distance all round inclosed with higher ground, well clothed with wood and hedge-rows: beyond which the barren mountains, or Fells, as they generally call them here, from the Cimbric fala. The soil hereabouts is gravel with clay and sand by spots. The river Rible is very broad at this place, rapid and sonorous, running over the pebbles, and, what is much to be lamented, over innumerable Roman antiquities; for in this long tract of time it has eaten away a third part of the city. I traced out the old ground-plot, and where the wall and ditch went round it: it lay in length east and west along the north side of the river, upon its brink, 800 foot long, 500 broad: originally, I apprehend, two streets ran along its length, and three crossed them on its breadth. This place has been long famous for old monuments found therein; and some fragments still remaining I had a sight of. At the door of the Red-lion ale-house I saw the base of a pillar, and a most noble shaft, seven foot long, handsomely turned; which was fished out of the river: it is undoubtedly Roman originally, though the base has, I guess, been used as the stump of a later cross, in which this country abounds: there is a scotia and two torus’s at the bottom, though not very elegantly formed; perhaps it was never finished: the whole piece is 2½ foot high, 22 inches in diameter: the frustum of the column lay in the ale-house yard, where the weather, and other accidents, have obliterated an inscription consisting of three or four lines, towards the top: it is 17 inches diameter at top. One corner of this house is a Roman partition-wall, built of pebbles and hard mortar, as usual. This house now is by the brink of the river, leaving only a scanty road between; but within memory a great many houses opposite, and among them the chief inn of the town, were washed away. Farther on, down the river, a great part of an orchard fell down last year; and the apple-trees still grow in their own soil at bottom. Viewing the breach of the bank exposed thereby, I saw the joists and boards of a floor of oak, four foot under the present surface, with many bits of Roman bricks, potsherds, and the like; and such floors are to be seen along the whole bank, whence most antiquities are found in the river. The late minister of this place, Mr. Ogden, collected all the coins, intaglia’s, and other antiquities, found here in great quantities; but his widow, as far as I could learn, disposed of them to Mr. Prescot of Chester: I was shown the top of a great two-handled amphora, or wine-jar, taken out of the river, of whitish clay: I saw another like fragment; and among antiquities he took up a very large piece of corallium tubulatum, bigger than a man’s head; an admirable curiosity of nature. By symmetry I find the whole channel of the river, at present, lies within the precincts of the old city: the original channel on the other side being filled up with the city-walls, and rubbish; for it bends with a great elbow toward the city. The eastern limit of the city, or that upward of the river, lies against a brook there falling in; and the two streams playing against that angle, have carried it away, and still threaten them. At the western end of the city, or down the stream, a whole road, and some houses too, by a barn, are absorbed; and great quantity of ashler, the remains of the wall, has been carried off for building: much remains in the ground, and on the edge of the stream. Farther up the land, and all along the west side of the church-wall, the ditch is perfect, and the rampire where the wall stood pretty high, and the foundation of the wall a little apparent. They tell me the ashler stone still lies its whole length. They call this Anchor hill; and, when digging by the house that stands upon part of it, they found anchors, and great quantities of iron pins, of all sizes, for ships or barges; for they say this river was navigable so high formerly, at least for smaller vessels. The north-west angle of the city is manifest, and where the northern wall turned round the north side of the church: a little way down a lane at that angle, a great bank runs westward, made of stone, like a Roman road. There is a lane goes down, north of the city, to the brook, called the Strand; which confirms their having some sort of navigation here. At the end of this lane is the street which is the Roman road, running directly northward up the fell, called Green gate: it passes over Langridge, a great mountain so named from it, so through Bowland forest: it appears green to the eye. In this street, over-against the Strand, is an old white house, where they say Oliver Cromwell lay, when going to Preston in pursuit of the Scots, after the battle of Marston-moor. The eastern wall over the brook stood likewise on a sort of precipice. I saw a large coin of Domitian, of yellow brass, very fair, found in the river, Imp. cæs. domit. aug. germ. cos. xvi. cens. per pp. reverse, Jupiter sitting in a curule chair, the hasta pura in his left, an eagle on his right hand, Jovi victori; exergue S. C. another pedestal of a pillar found in the river. Just under the Red-lion a subterraneous canal comes into the river, so high that one may walk upright in it, paved at the bottom. Many urns have been found hereabouts, but all lost and disregarded since Mr. Ogden died, who collected such things. They know the track of the Roman road all the way over the hills. In a garden by the Unicorn’s head a gold finger was found, and another brass finger as large as a man’s; two intaglia’s of Mercury with wings on his feet, the caduceus, &c. found near Anchor hill: much ashes and bones found about the city. Up the river, eight miles off, is Pendle hill, a vast black mountain, which is the morning weather-glass of the country people: upon it grows the cloud-berry plant. Digging in the church-yard, silver coins have been frequently turned up. The river hither is open and deep; but at Salesbury, a mile higher, rocks begin: therefore it is likely this place was chosen by the Romans because at the extent of navigation. Half of one longitudinal street, and of two latitudinals, are consumed. Horses and carriages frequently fall down the steep from the street, because it is narrow, and but factitious ground.
Panstones, up the hill, by the Green-moor lane, or Roman road, is a place much talked of; but they know not for what. I suppose it is either some Roman building, or a road eastward, or some terminus. They told me of an altar thereabouts with an inscription, axes, and the like, carved on it: it is on Duttonley, by Panstones. Haughton tower is within view; a great castle upon a precipicious hill.
Many are the inscriptions found here from time to time: Dr. Leigh has seen them all. Now they are removed, lost, or spoiled: one great altar they told me was carried to Dunkin hall, the seat of lady Petre, with an inscription, a ram, and a knife; many taken away by the family of Warrens, living lately at Salesbury hall. I saw the fragment of a stone, in the corner of a house by the mill, cut with very fair large letters: under the next house is the frustum of a pillar, 20 inches diameter, made into a horse-block: I saw another flat stone at the town’s end, laid over a gutter, with a monumental moulding upon it.
Above the town half a mile is a noble bridge of four very large arches, built lately by the country: over this I went to Salesbury; but all the inscriptions are carried away, probably to Mr. Warren’s other seat, near Stockport in Cheshire. I found a large stone in the corner of the house, which has been a Roman monumental stone, foolishly placed there for the sake of the carving: there are three large figures upon it, sweetly performed, and good drapery, though half worn way by time; a man and woman holding hands, both half naked; somewhat roundish in the woman’s hand: at the end is Apollo resting on his harp, his head leaning on his hand, as melancholy for the loss of a votary; for such we may guess the deceased, either a poet, physician, or musician: probably there was more carving on those sides within the wall. This has been a very large seat, with a park. They told me there were some carved stones at Dinkley, another seat of Mr. Warren’s, a mile farther; but I found they were all carried elsewhere, save two altars, both obliterated, but well cut: one stood in a grass-plot in the garden, covered over with moss and weeds; another used in the house as a cheese-press. This is a romantic place, hanging over the river purling across the rocky falls, and covered with wood. The late Mr. Warren was very careful of these learned remnants. They told me that Ribchester was destroyed by the Scots. These are all the memoirs I could pick up in about five hours I staid there, & antiquum tenuerunt flumina nomen. Ovid. Met.
Dr. Leigh, in Lancaster, says a Roman way goes from Manchester to Ribchester by strange ways towards Bury: he gives a cut of a ruby found here; on it a soldier with spear and shield. I take the two altars I saw at Salesbury to be those described in Dr. Leigh’s Lancaster.
At Langho, Ardulf king of Northumberland gained a victory, anno 798.