IMP. CAESARI TRAIAN. LEG. SECVND. AVG.
A piece of another, with the inscription—
LEG. XX. VICT.
The lamented author of this work says—
With the exception of a brass coin of Germanicus, and the inscription containing the name of Hadrian, the greater part, if not all the antiquities found at Birrens, may be ascribed perhaps to the third or fourth century. The striking similarity of style and execution which exists between them and the bulk of those discovered in the north of England, of which the dates can be ascertained, is sufficient to stamp them as the productions of a period subsequent to the reign of Septimius Severus.—Caledonia Romana, 130.
It did not belong to the author’s subject; to inquire, how the fact of so few of the memorials of the mural line being of the age of Severus, comported with the popular idea that he built the Wall!
BURNSWARK HILL.
BURNSWARK, or Birrenswork.—A solitary hill, nearly three miles to the north-west of Middleby, rises to the height of nearly seven hundred and forty feet above the level of the sea. 'On its top lies an unequal plain, about nine hundred feet long, by four hundred and fifty of mean width—almost inaccessible on two of its sides, and by no means of easy attainment on any.'[[132]] From this elevated summit, the mountain ridges which are scattered over not fewer than six of the Scottish counties can be descried; looking eastward, the Nine-nicks of Thirlwall are in sight; southward, the familiar forms of Skiddaw, Saddleback, and Cross-fell rise into view; to the south-west, the craggy peaks of the Isle of Man arrest the attention in favourable states of the atmosphere; and, not unfrequently a long, black streak, on the distant verge of the ocean, indicates the position of Ireland. According to the former political divisions of the British empire, four kingdoms were thus to be seen from Burnswark-hill.
So commanding a position was not neglected by the ancient Britons. 'Around the area of the summit may still be traced the remains of a wall, composed of earth and stones, which seems to have been raised at every spot where the precipitous rock did not of itself afford sufficient protection.' Unhappily most of the stones have been hurled into the valley below, to form a long boundary fence. The enclosure is divided into two compartments of nearly equal size; one of them contains a circular range of stones, the remains apparently of an ancient cairn or watch-tower.
CAMPS ON THE HILL.