On the west side these remains are most distinct, being about six chains in length. And Severus’s Wall seems to have formed the north rampart of the station. I was assured by the person to whom the field belonged, that stones were often ploughed up in it, and lime with the stones. Urns have also frequently been found here. I saw, besides an imperfect inscription, two Roman altars lying at a door in the town, but neither sculptures nor inscriptions are now visible upon them. ...... If besides all this, we consider the distance from the last station at Stanwix, I think it can admit of no doubt but there must have been a station here, though most of its ramparts are now levelled, the field having been in tillage many years. I shall only further add, that it was very proper to have a station at each end of the marsh, which, if the water flowed as high as some believe, would make a kind of bay.
At present, little meets the eye of the inquirer, to inform him of the spot where the station stood, but when the surface of the ground is broken, the traces of a Roman city are still sufficiently distinct. The church-yard is filled with fragments of red sandstone blocks. At the depth of two feet, it contains several distinct lines of foundations. Entire ‘lachrymatory’ vessels and fragments of unglazed jars and urns have repeatedly been dug up. A small bronze figure was recently found. When the canal was cut, blocks of stone, blackened by smoke, were dug out of the soil to the south-east of the church.
A few inscribed stones have been found since Horsley’s day, but none of them name the cohort which was stationed in the camp. Hence we have no means of knowing whether Watch-cross has been rightly thrown out of the list of ‘stations along the line,’ and whether Burgh is, as Horsley states it to be, the Axelodunum of the Notitia, or Congavata, according to the opinion of Hodgson.
In the absence of more decided remains of the camp or Wall, an examination of the church of this long straggling town will reward the attention of the antiquary. It is a good specimen of the fortified Border churches. It has served the threefold purpose of a church, a fortress, and a prison.
In case of an inroad from the Scottish coast, the cattle appear to have been shut up in the body of the church, and the inhabitants to have had recourse to the large embattled tower at its western end. The only entrance to this tower is from the inside of the church, and it is secured by a ponderous iron door, fastening with two large bolts. The walls of the tower are seven feet thick. Its lowest apartment is a vaulted chamber, lighted by three arrow-slits. At the south angle is a spiral stone staircase, leading to two upper chambers.
Many of the stones of which the church is built, are Roman, and exhibit reticulated tooling.
KING EDWARD’S MONUMENT.
Near to Burgh is the site on which the castle of sir Hugh de Morville, one of the murderers of Thomas à Becket, formerly stood. The adjoining field is called—‘Hang-man-tree,’ doubtless because my lord had his gallows here, always ready for use. A neighbouring enclosure bears a designation not less ominous—‘Spill-blood-holm.’ But the most interesting historical memorial which the neighbourhood of Burgh affords, is the monument to king Edward I., which stands on the marsh.
Longshanks had marshalled his army: his numerous host lay encamped upon the sandy flat on the north of the town: the waters of the Solway alone separated him from the objects of his vengeance. Here the mighty Edward was called to enter into conflict with an enemy whom he had often braved on the battle-field, but who was now to approach him by a new method of assault. In this struggle, his valour availed him nothing, his chivalrous hosts could yield him no aid, and no devoted Eleanor was there to abstract from his veins the subtle poison which the king of terrors had infused. On Burgh-marsh the ‘ruthless king’ breathed his last. A monument, represented in the vignette at the close of this part, marks the spot.
TOWER OF REPENTANCE.