GENERAL VIEW OF THE WORKS.
The Map of the Wall, the more detailed Plans of several parts of it in Plate II, and the Sections given in a subsequent page, will afford a pretty correct idea of the general arrangement of the works.
Most writers who have treated of the Roman remains in Britain, have considered that the two lines of fortification are the works of different periods. The earth-wall, or Vallum, has generally been ascribed to Hadrian, but the stone wall, or Murus, to Septimius Severus. This is the opinion of Horsley, whose judgment is always deserving of the highest consideration. Deferring to a subsequent period the discussion of this question, it will be convenient, meanwhile, to speak of the works as being but different parts of one great engineering scheme.
THE COURSE OF THE WALL.
The most striking feature in the plan, both of the Murus and the Vallum, is the determinate manner in which they pursue their straight-forward course. The Vallum makes fewer deviations from a right line than the stone Wall; but as the Wall traverses higher ground, this remarkable tendency is more easily detected in it than in the other. Shooting over the country, in its onward course, it only swerves from a straight line to take in its route the boldest elevations. So far from declining a hill, it uniformly selects it. For nineteen miles out of Newcastle, the road to Carlisle runs upon the foundation of the Wall, and during the summer months its dusty surface contrasts well with the surrounding verdure. Often will the traveller, after attaining some of the steep acclivities of his path, observe the road stretching for miles in an undeviating course to the east and the west of him, resembling, as Hutton expresses it, a white ribbon on a green ground. But if it never moves from a right line, except to occupy the highest points, it never fails to seize them, as they occur, no matter how often it is compelled, with this view, to change its direction. It never bends in a curve, but always at an angle. Hence, along the craggy precipices between Sewingshields and Thirlwall, it is obliged to pursue a remarkably zig-zag course; for it takes in its range, with the utmost pertinacity, every projecting rock.
This mode of proceeding involves another peculiarity. It is compelled to accommodate itself to the depressions of the mountainous region over which it passes. Without flinching, it sinks into the ‘gap,’ or pass, which ever and anon occurs, and, having crossed the narrow valley, ascends unfalteringly the steep acclivity on the other side. The antiquary, in following it into these ravines, is often compelled to step with the utmost caution, and in clambering up the opposite ascent, he is as frequently constrained to pause for breath. After crossing the river Irthing, in Cumberland, the Wall is opposed in its course westward by a precipice of upwards of one hundred feet in height. It cannot now be ascertained, whether or not the Wall was taken up the edge of this cliff, for the stratum is of a soft and yielding nature, and is continually being removed by the river below. Certain, however, it is, that the Wall, accompanied by its ditch, is still to be seen on the very brink of its summit. If it did not climb this steep, it is the only one which, in the course of the line from sea to sea, it refused—and if it did ascend it, it would more nearly resemble a leaning tower than a barrier wall.
THE HEIGHT OF THE WALL.
In no part of its course is the Wall entirely perfect, and therefore it is difficult to ascertain what its original height has been. Bede, whose cherished home was the monastery of Jarrow, anciently part of the parish of Wall’s-end, is the earliest author who gives its dimensions. He says—‘It is eight feet in breadth, and twelve in height, in a straight line from east to west, as is still visible to beholders.’ Subsequent writers assign to it a greater elevation. It is not unlikely that the venerable monk, who was no traveller, describes it as it existed in his own neighbourhood; and we can readily conceive that in a flat country, and upon the border of a navigable river, it would, even then, have suffered more from the hand of the spoiler than in the wilder regions of the West.
In a letter written by Sir Christopher Ridley, is an account of the Wall as it stood about the year 1572. The writer says—
Rycht worschipfull, where as you spake unto me for a certayn knowledge of one wall builded betwyxt the Brittons and Pightes (which we call the Kepe Wall) builded by the Pightes, sure theyr is one. The length whereof is about, I think, almost a C myles, bilded alwayis whar they cold upon the hyghtes, whereon about the greatest cragis was, and whare theyr was no cragis or hy placis theyr was a great stank cast of other syd, the bredth iij yardis, the hyght remanith in sum placis yet vij yardis, it goith from Bowlness in Cu'berland viij myles beyond Carlell upon the west sea cost till it comes to a town called the Wallis end besyd Tynemouth on the est sea.[[15]]