[121]. The owner of the ground was provoked to obliterate the remains of this ancient city, in consequence of the manner in which curiosity-mongers (not antiquaries) trespassed on his fields, in their way to the station, instead of taking the beaten track.
[122]. I have been strongly reminded of these circular pedestals by the figures of the columns of the Roman part of Reculver church, given (p. 198) in Mr. C. Roach Smith’s admirable work on Richborough and Reculver. The northern examples are, however, of coarser workmanship than the southern seem to have been; the moulding that encircles the Carvoran specimen resembles straw-ropes rather than carefully fabricated cables.
[123]. Thirl, from the Saxon thirlian, signifies to pierce, to bore. It is generally supposed, that this stronghold derived its name from the Scots having broken through the Wall here. It may, however, have taken it from the sluice or bridge where the river passed through the Wall; thirl, says Hutchinson, being frequently applied to the opening left in moor fences for sheep to pass through.
[124]. Can it have been derived from the Saxon bryddes wald or weald, the bird’s forest? The local pronunciation of the name of the place is peculiar and rather favours the proposed etymology.
[125]. The Wall is at too great a distance from the Vallum to be introduced into the section; it is beyond the extra fosse, on the right hand side of the wood-cut.
[126]. In this locality, the traveller is apt to lose his reckoning, in consequence of the number of cottages and villages which are denominated ‘Wall.’
[127]. Some antiquaries have conceived, that in the last two words of the inscription, a reference is made to the emperor Septimius Severus. This cannot be admitted, for—1. The emperor’s name would not be placed after that of the prefect: 2. The term instante implies the discharge of a subordinate duty; for, not to mention other examples, the temple of which the Cilurnum slab records the restoration (p. 186), was built by command of Marius Valerianus, under the superintendence of (instante) Septimius Nilus: 3. That princeps was the designation of a subordinate officer in the army, appears not only from a collation of other inscriptions, but from the following statement of Manutius—'In a legion there were three kinds of foot soldiers, hastati, principes, and triarii, and in each there were ten centurions, who were called the first hastatus, the second hastatus, the third, and so on, up to the tenth; the first princeps, the second, and so on; but the triarii, the bravest of all, were named in a different manner, for they did not call them first triarius, but primipilus, or primipili centurio.'—Arch. Æl., ii. 88.
Principi is doubtless intended for the more usual form of the ablative, principe.
[128]. An earthen encampment is cut in two by the Newcastle and Berwick railway, in the second field south of the Netherton station. In the space of three fields, lying east of this camp, three others may be distinctly discerned, varying in size from forty to seventy yards square. At Dove-cote, which is less than a mile west of Netherton station, is a large field covered with the ruins of stone buildings. Excavations in one portion at least of the ground yield large quantities of glazed pottery. The remains are apparently mediæval, but it is remarkable that no record of ruins so extensive is known to exist.
[129]. Hutchinson says (A.D. 1778), the altar to Hercules is in the possession of the duke of Northumberland; it is not now among those preserved at Alnwick-castle. The altar to Astarte is in the collection at Netherby.