THE GREAT MURAL RIDGE.

We must now, to adopt the language of Hutton, ‘quit the beautiful scenes of cultivation, and enter upon the rude of nature, and the wreck of antiquity.’ Four great mountain waves are before us, and seem to chase each other to the north, on which side their crests rise almost perpendicularly. To the highest of these, the second from the south, the Wall directs its course. It is a ridge of basalt, which crosses the island obliquely, from Cumberland to Holy Island. The Vallum here parts company with the Wall, and takes the ‘tail’ of the hill on the ‘crag’ of which the other runs. The accompanying drawing shews the nature of the country before us.

H. Burdon Richardson, Delt.John Storey, Lith.
APPROACH TO SEWINGSHIELDS.
Printed by W. Monkhouse, York

Before approaching Sewingshields[[95]] farm-house, which is on the line of Wall, an experienced eye will detect the Roman Military Way. It runs at first nearly parallel with the Wall, at about thirty-six paces from it, but, in its subsequent course, recedes from the Barrier, or approaches it, according to the position of the mile-castles, and the nature of the ground. With but few interruptions, it may be traced by the appearance of its herbage, by its slightly elevated, rounded form, and by the occasional protrusion of the stones composing it, all the way from Sewingshields to Thirlwall.

The north fosse, which we have had in view from the very commencement of our journey, accompanies the Wall for a short distance up the hill, as is seen in the lithograph, but when the ground becomes precipitous, it forsakes it until the high grounds are passed, only to appear when the Wall sinks into a gap or chasm between the crags.

THE WALL ON THE CRAGS.

A difficulty will here present itself to nearly every mind; why was the Wall drawn along the cliffs at all? Horsley cut the knot instead of untying it. ‘As such steep rocks,’ says he, ‘are a sufficient fence of themselves, I am inclined to think the Wall has not in those parts had either strength or thickness, equal to what it has had in other parts.’ Present appearances give us no reason to suppose that the Wall on the crags was in any respect inferior to what it was in the low grounds. A different method of accounting for the circumstance has been forced upon my attention. It was my fortune to traverse the heights near Sewingshields late in December last year, when the wind blew a violent gale from the north, and the thermometer, even in the valley, was ten degrees below the freezing point. In order to maintain the ordinary temperature of the body, very active exertion was necessary, and to make any progress on my way, I was constrained to get under the lee of the hill. The conclusion was irresistible; if the Romans were to keep watch and ward here during the winter, a Wall was necessary, even though only for the sake of sheltering them from the blast. The habits of the enemy demanded continual vigilance; for, as Tacitus tells us, before the time of Agricola they usually repaired the losses they had sustained in summer by the success of their winter expeditions. The loftier the mountain peak, the more necessary, in this view of it, was the friendly shelter of the Wall to the shivering soldiers of southern Europe.

SEWINGSHIELDS.