The Roman Wall / A historical, topographical, and descriptive account of the barrier of the lower isthmus, extending from the Tyne to the Solway, deduced from numerous personal surveys

by J. Collingwood Bruce

That some important object was gained by the formation of so long a cutting is undoubted, but what that object was is a perplexing question. It can scarcely be supposed that the garrison at Æsica were dependent for their daily supply of so important an article as water upon an open cutting outside the Barrier. The feeblest of their foes could, in an instant, cut off the provision. No doubt the country, for some distance north of the Wall, was held in subjection by the Roman forces, but when the Wall was built, and the station planned, such was not the case. The station itself is not destitute of water. A well, sunk some years ago, to the depth of twenty-four feet, yields to the tenants of the farm-house an unfailing supply. I am disposed to think that the water brought by the cutting was to give to the north rampart of the station the advantage of a wet ditch. By throwing an embankment across the depression on the north of the station, as it begins to slope down to the bed of the Haltwhistle-burn, a considerable body of water would lodge here. The station of Æsica was an important one. In a particularly wild district, at an unusual distance from the great lines of Roman communication, and close beside the great opening in the mural ridge, by which the waters of the Forest of Lowes effect a passage to the low grounds, it would be peculiarly exposed to the attacks of the enemy. Although somewhat elevated above the ground north of the Wall, it is not so much so as to be impregnable on that quarter. A body of water collected here to keep the enemy at a still greater distance might not be beneath the attention of the garrison. Any temporary interference with the aqueduct would in this case be productive of no inconvenience. The existence of a water-course on the enemy’s side of the Wall at Hunnum, which may have served a similar purpose, has already been noticed. At Bremenium, High Rochester, some guttered stones, covered with flags, were recently found lying in a direction which led to the supposition, that they brought water from some springs outside the station to the eastern moat.

In the Archæologia Æliana[^[117]] is a plan and description of an ancient aqueduct, which brought water from some distant rivulets to the station at Lanchester. It consists of two branches, the longer of which is nearly four miles in extent. Earthen embankments, to preserve the level, are occasionally used in both of them, and, as they run over sandy ground, the bottom of them has been puddled. The two lines, after uniting, deliver their water into a reservoir outside the station, near to its south-west corner. That the water of this aqueduct cannot have been used for domestic purposes appears from what Hodgson, the author of the paper, adds—‘Several wells have, from time to time, been discovered here by labourers, on the outside of the walls, and there is a plentiful spring at a short distance from where the bath stood.’

Whatever may have been the object served, the water-course at Æsica is a striking memorial of the skill, forethought, and industry of the Roman garrisons. At the present day, in a highly civilized country, and after the enjoyment of a long period of internal peace, we are but beginning to see the necessity of bringing water from a distance into our large towns. An individual garrison, exposed to all the hazards of war, scrupled not, even fourteen or sixteen centuries ago, for some purpose which they thought important, to cut a water-course six miles long!

It is not a little remarkable too, that after the lapse of so long a period, the cutting should be distinctly visible through so large a portion of its track.

The view which is here taken of the object of the water-course is not given because it is absolutely satisfactory, but because it presents the fewest difficulties. We might have expected that if a miniature lake had been formed on the north of the station, some remains of the embankment necessary to confine its waters would appear; none are, however, to be observed. The soil, on being turned up, has not the black and sludgy aspect, which might be anticipated, but is of a yellow hue; the bottom of a pond at Wall-mill, which was drained within living memory, has, however, a precisely similar appearance.

To the south of Great Chesters is Wall-mill, near to which the burying ground of the station seems to have been. Brand observed here several remarkable barrows, and was shewn some of the graves which had been opened. ‘They consisted,’ he tells us, ‘of side stones set down into the earth, and covered at top with other larger stones.’ He took them to be very early Christian sepulchres; this is more than doubtful. The progress of agricultural improvement has obliterated all traces of the cemetery; to one, however, of its sepulchral monuments reference will afterwards be made.

The Romans systematically avoided intra-mural interments. The following is one of the laws of the Twelve Tables:

HOMINEM MORTUUM IN URBE NE SEPELITO NEVE URITO.

It is remarkable that at so early a period of the history of the republic, attention should have been turned to this subject, and that in a digest of legislation so brief as that referred to, this should form one of the enactments.

COCK-MOUNT-HILL.