"I would enliven truth with the smile, with the anecdote; and while I travel the long and dreary Wall, would have you travel with me, though by your own fireside; would have you see and feel as I do; and make the journey influence your passions as mine are influenced."
There is no doubt that his enthusiasm is infectious, and that whoever follows the Wall in the same spirit as he did, will not find it a "long and dreary" journey.
For myself, I was fascinated by it; I enjoyed every step of the way; and the pictures of the Wall which are here reproduced are the fruit of many happy days spent in its company.
Owing to present conditions, the original idea of a colour-book was dropped, for something more portable and less costly, so the number of illustrations in colour is limited to six, instead of the twenty-five I had prepared; and of the remaining nineteen, only eight appear in monochrome.
In one sense I did not walk the Wall alone. I had two companions, William Hutton and Dr. Collingwood Bruce. The latter was represented by his Handbook on the Wall, which was first published in 1863, and which has proved its value by having appeared, in seven successive editions, as the standard work on the subject. Dr. Bruce and Mr. John Clayton will always be remembered as the great pioneers of practical research on the Wall.
I owe much to the kindness of Mr. F. Gerald Simpson, who hopes to return to active work on the Wall next year (at Birdoswald), and who is my authority on many points in the archæology of the Wall which his recent excavations have brought to light. Much is waiting to be done, but the adequate prosecution of the work in the future will depend entirely on how much financial help is forthcoming from those interested in historical research.
I was very fortunate in falling in with the Three Days' Pilgrimage of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and the Cumberland and Westmorland Archæological Society, and in being allowed to join it, in September 1920; and I have to thank the members for their kind welcome to a stranger, and for their readiness to help me. In this connection I must specially mention Mrs. T. H. Hodgson, Mr. Robert Blair, F.S.A., and Mr. W. G. Collingwood, F.S.A.
Archæologia Æliana, issued yearly by the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and the annual Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archæological Society have been of the greatest service as works of reference. To the former I am also indebted for the plans of the Roman Bridge and of Cilurnum and Borcovicium (Figs. 6, 8, and 12).
From the work entitled Romano-British Buildings and Earthworks, by the late Mr. John Ward, F.S.A., the author and the publishers (Messrs. Methuen & Co.) have kindly allowed me to take Figs. 9, 10, 11, 12, and 14.