[91]. The words printed in italics have been supplied from contemporaneous inscriptions; they can scarcely be said to be conjectural readings.
[92]. Soldiers who by their good conduct had earned a double allowance of corn or pay.
[93]. Hodgson learnedly explains this inscription—Arch. Æl. i. 128.
[94]. Preserved in the interesting collection at Chesters.
[95]. This peculiar term is probably derived from the Saxon Seuch, a furrow or fosse, and Shiel, a hut for those who have the care of cattle, and thus signifies, the cottage by the fosse.
[96]. It is reported in the neighbourhood, that Mrs. Spearman having dreamt that she found a rich hoard of treasure among the ruins of the castle, made diligent search for it, but without success. When the castle was removed, however, the farmer obtained a valuable deposit of mediæval manure.
[97]. Pliny’s Natural History, lib. vii. c. 2, q.
[98]. Hodgson’s Northumberland, II., iii., 287.
[99]. The country being depopulated, lands once in tillage, again became wastes. The forests being partially destroyed, either by fire or the axe, the streams which used to permeate the low-grounds were arrested in their course by prostrate trunks and branches, and gave rise to extensive morasses. In the bogs of the district we are now considering, immense quantities of large oak and birch timber, as well as of oak leaves and hazel nuts, are continually being found. The Dike would not, of course, originally, be drawn through swampy ground.
[100]. Many of them are preserved in the Museum of the Society of Antiquaries, Newcastle-upon-Tyne.