It was a perfect "Wall-day," and both Wall and Vallum were traceable to perfection in front of me, one on either side of the road, right up to the top of the steep Limestone Bank. At my feet were purple orchis growing in the young bracken, and the whole countryside was clothed in what Chaucer calls "the gladde brighte grene" of spring.
Following the line of the Wall, I soon came to the "bit dene" on Black Carts Farm, where there is a very fine piece of Wall standing, and also a considerable portion of a Wall turret. The facing-stones of the Wall are in position on both sides for a considerable distance, and to a height of 7 feet. In the turret were found coins of Constantine the Great, showing that it was not disused, as some of the recently examined turrets were, when the Wall was reconstructed by Severus, about A.D. 207-10.
The wild flowers in the "bit dene" were very lovely and varied: bluebells, cowslips, campion, wild garlic, cranesbill, herb bennet, sweet woodruff, the great stitchwort, and purple orchis were all growing in profusion.
Still following the Wall, I crossed a lane known as "Hen Gap," and began to climb the hill called Limestone Bank, where another fine piece of Wall is standing, overhung with gorse, now in full blossom.
The Vallum-ditch is very remarkable in this region; and hazel, hawthorn and mountain-ash trees grow on its steep sides.
Looking back from Limestone Bank, you can see the Wall and the Vallum very clearly, running one on either side of Wade's Road. The mile-castle mentioned on [page 102] lies close to the road on the left, just where it disappears over the hill.
I was first brought to this spot with my painting-things by friends in their car, and just as we reached it I saw on ahead, walking along the line of the Wall, a hatless, stockingless, shoeless figure, with a haversack on its back.
"Look!" I cried; "there's a real 'Pilgrim of the Wall.' Take me on another half-mile, and I'll walk back and meet her."
They did so, but the Pilgrim disappeared behind a stone fence before we passed her.
When I met her she was not at all the strong-minded female I had expected to see, but a gentle-looking young thing, a school teacher from Newcastle, and it was sheer timidity that had made her hide behind a wall when she saw us coming.