WALLIS’S ENTHUSIASM.
Wallis, the author of the Natural History and Antiquities of Northumberland, was born within the ramparts of this camp; the house is now removed. In the preface to his work he accounts for the antiquarian bias of his mind in the following strain:—
Northumberland being Roman ground, and receiving my first breath in one of their castra, I was led by a sort of enthusiasm to an inquiry and search after their towns, their cities, and temples, their baths, their altars, their tumuli, their military ways, and other remains of their splendour and magnificence; which will admit of a thousand views and reviews, and still give pleasure to such as have a gust for any thing Roman; every year almost presenting new discoveries of the wisdom, the contrivance, ingenuity, and elegance of that respectable people.
Although nearly a century has elapsed since Wallis wrote this, the field of Romano-British antiquities still retains much of the fertility he ascribes to it, and doubtless, has stores yet in reserve for the assiduous inquirer.
Before proceeding to the stations which supported the western extremity of the Wall, there are two camps, one to the east, and another to the west of the Maiden-way, which demand a little of our attention.
OLD TOWN.—Horsley entertained the idea that he had found the remains of a Roman camp at Old Town, near Catton Beacon, in Allendale. Hodgson treats the opinion with some degree of ridicule. I am disposed to think that Horsley is right, though the inquiries I made on the spot did not lead me to a decision of the question.
STATION NEAR BRAMPTON.
BRAMPTON.—About a mile west of the modern town of Brampton, upon a gentle eminence commanding a view in every direction of a most beautiful country, are the traces of a small Roman camp. The father of English topography, guided in some measure by the similarity of the names, fixed the ancient Bremetenracum at Brampton; but Horsley, in consequence of the absence of Roman remains, demurred to the correctness of the conclusion. It is not surprising that this camp escaped the attention of Horsley, as it is situated within the ancient park of Brampton, considerable portions of which were, a century ago, covered with tangled brushwood and venerable forest trees. Its trenches, though still visible, are fast disappearing; every time it is ploughed, the furrow is turned into the hollow of its fosse. Though hundreds of cart-loads of stones have been taken from it, the ground on which the camp stood is thickly strewed with stony fragments. On walking over the spot, I picked up a piece of dove-coloured pottery, part of a millstone, and several portions of Roman tile. Besides individual coins which have occasionally been found here, an earthen jar, containing a large hoard, was turned up by the plough in 1826. It contained not fewer than five thousand pieces, all of them of the lower empire.
If Whitley Castle be the Alionis of the Notitia, this, as coming next in order, may be, as Camden conjectured, Bremetenracum.[[131]]
ANCIENT TUMULI.