The turnpike road, keeping the line of the Wall, crosses the station from the site of the eastern to that of the western gateway. The section north of the road was brought under cultivation about twenty years ago, when immense quantities of stones were removed. It is now called the ‘Brunt-ha’penny field’ in consequence of the number of corroded copper coins which were found in it. The portion south of the road has a gentle slope and a fair exposure to the sun. It has not recently been ploughed, and consequently exhibits, with considerable distinctness, the lines of the outer entrenchments and ditches, as well as the contour of the ruined buildings and streets of the interior. The suburbs have covered a fine tract of pasture-ground to the south. The valley on the west side of the station would materially strengthen the position in this quarter.
The excavations made in the northern section, a few years ago, revealed several points of interest. The careful manner in which the stones, even of the foundation, were squared and chiselled, struck beholders with surprise. The thickness, of one part at least, of the west wall of the station I have been assured, by a person who superintended the work, was nine feet.[[78]] In the angle of the north-west portion of the station, just outside the Wall, was a large heap, containing numerous fragments of Roman pottery, the bones of animals, the horns of deer, and other refuse matter—it must, in short, have been the dung-hill of the camp. Even now, although the plough has passed repeatedly over it, its position is shewn by the darkness of the soil. On the same occasion, there was laid open an aqueduct of about three quarters of a mile in length, which seems to have conducted water from a spring or burn in the high ground north of the place where Stagshawbank fair is held. My informant, who traced it for between two and three hundred yards, says, that it was formed of stone, and was covered with flags.[[79]] In crossing the valley to the west of the fort, it must have been supported on pillars, or a mound. The most remarkable circumstance to be noticed respecting this water-course is, that it was on the north, or the enemy’s side of the Wall. It is scarcely probable that the Romans would depend for that portion of their daily supply, which was required for drinking and culinary purposes, on so precarious a source; but it is not unlikely that the water so introduced was meant to fill the fosse to the north of the station, and thus to give the additional security of a wet ditch to a portion of the camp, which, though much exposed, possessed no natural strength of situation.[[80]] Crossing the station diagonally from below the eastern gateway to the north-west angle, a sewer or drain was found, of considerable dimensions. My informant crept along it for about one hundred yards. The bottom of it was filled with hardened mud, imbedded in which, were found a lamp and many bone pins, such as those with which the Romans fastened their woollen garments.
The most interesting discovery made on this occasion, however, was a suite of apartments, which have been usually supposed to be ‘the Baths.’ The building was one hundred and thirty-two feet in length, and contained not fewer than eleven rooms. The first of these was forty-three feet long, and twenty wide, and was the place, it has been conjectured, ‘where the bathers waited, and employed themselves in walking and talking, till their turn came to bathe.’ The others beyond are supposed to have been set apart for the purposes of undressing, taking the cold, the tepid, and the hot-bath, sweating, anointing, and robing. If the Roman prefects allowed the most important buildings of their frontier camps to be devoted to the enjoyment of the bath in all its elaborate details, they were more indulgent than some modern generals would be. That one or two of the smaller rooms have been devoted to ablution is not unlikely, this range of buildings having contained two carefully constructed cisterns which may have been used as baths. Several of the rooms had hanging floors, with flues beneath; pipes of burnt clay, fixed to the walls by T-headed holdfasts, communicated with the flues below, and conveyed the hot air up the sides of the apartments. But no provision for heating large quantities of water was discovered, such as we might have expected to find, if the whole building had been used for bathing.
The whole of this interesting structure was removed as the process of exhumation proceeded. Our only consolation is, that a minute and able description of it has been left us by Mr. Hodgson.
Several inscribed and sculptured stones have been discovered here. Camden, in 1600, found a monumental slab, erected to the memory of a soldier of the Ala Sabiniana; the regiment which the Notitia represents as being quartered at Hunnum. A stone, bearing the inscription, LEG. II. AVG. F., Legio secunda Augusta fecit, is at Alnwick castle, and belongs, I think, to this station. Wallis says 'as some labourers were turning up the foundations here, for the sake of the stones to mend the road, they met with a centurial stone with the above inscription, within a civic garland, the crest of the imperial eagle at each end, and that it was taken into the custody of Sir Edward Blackett. The one here shewn, though not a centurial stone, must be the one in question.[[81]] It is one of the most elegantly carved stones that have been found upon the line, and closely resembles the style of those erected by the same legion in the Barrier of the Upper Isthmus. The ornament in the upper margin, and at the sides, has probably formed the type of one that prevailed in the Transition Norman and Early English styles.
Several busts of emperors and empresses, preserved about the house and grounds of Matfen, shew the attention which the ancient inhabitants of Hunnum have paid to the decoration of the camp.
A little to the west of the station, not far from the gateway, was recently found the slab which is here figured. Although the inscription is not deeply cut, it is very legible, and doubtless means—The lightning of the gods. When any spot was struck with lightning, it was immediately deemed sacred, and venerated as such by the Romans, being surrounded by a breastwork of masonry, similar to that put round the mouth of a well. Conscious guilt makes cowards of the most dauntless warriors! Perhaps some member of the Sabinian ala, hastening for shelter, and beseeching meanwhile the protection of Jupiter Tonans, was here arrested on life’s journey, and summoned to his great account.
Among the minor antiquities found at this station was a particularly massive finger ring of pure gold, set with an artificial stone, on which a full-length figure was engraved. It was stolen from lady Blackett, to whom it belonged, together with the rest of her jewellery.