At Coome Crag I turned off to the left to see the Roman quarrymen's marks. I knocked at the lodge-door to ask for a guide, but only a dog replied, and he was chained. So I followed the path, which runs through a beautiful wood, sloping down towards the Irthing; and I had no difficulty in finding the quarry, and the Roman names, cut rather near the bottom of a large mass of rock with a flat wall-like surface. How surprised "SECVRVS" and "IVSTVS" and "MATHRIANVS" would have been if they had been told that thousands would follow the path to the quarry, like pilgrims to a shrine, just to see the names they had cut in an idle moment during their lunch-hour! It may be that they were employed by Severus in repairing the Wall, for there is another inscription, "FAVST ET RVF COS," and Dr. Bruce tells us that Faustinus and Rufus were Consuls in 210 A.D., just when Severus was in Britain.
Near Leahill farm-house, on the right of the road, the Wall-ditch is in excellent condition.
It had been very hot and close in the Coome Crag woods, but now there was a cool exhilarating breeze. On the left the Lake-mountains had come clearly into view, Helvellyn, Blencathra and snow-capped Skiddaw. I passed a number of cottages which had been allowed to fall into disrepair and would soon disappear altogether.
In the village of Banks, or Banks Hill, I saw an Inn, called "The Traveller's Rest," and thought of tea, but, alas! there was no one at home. The Banks Burn crosses under the road at the foot of a little hill beyond the Inn, and in a field this side of the burn, there can be seen a great piece of the Wall with bushes growing out of it. Just after crossing the burn, the road ceases to run east and west, and instead cuts the line of the Wall at right-angles. I stood in the turn doubtfully, wondering how I could still continue to follow the Wall, as a private garden evidently lay beyond the hedge which faced me. Two children, and a man carrying a suit-case, were also waiting in the road—waiting, it appeared, for a motor-car, just coming into sight. Fortunately for me, this was the owner of the garden, with his two grandchildren, and he kindly sent one of them to ask if I was looking for the Roman Wall. Of course I said, "Yes"; and then he shouted: "Wait till I have packed the children into the car, and I'll take you to see it." So I waited, and then followed him along a side-road into the garden of Hare Hill, where suddenly, round a corner, we came full on a splendid piece of Wall. This is the piece of which Hutton says: "I viewed this relic with admiration. I saw no part higher." When he saw it, the facing-stones were all gone, but now fifteen courses have been restored on the north side by Lord Carlisle's architect. It stands 9 feet 10 inches high.
As we came away, I remembered there should be a mile-castle close to this piece of Wall, and I wanted to turn back to look for it. My guide was quite excited about it; he had no idea there was a Castle at Hare Hill! But we would ask his wife about it first. So we went to the house, and as we entered, he called: "Mrs. R——, here's a lady to see you." I said: "Mr. R—— has kindly been showing me the Roman Wall in your garden." He turned sharply on me and said: "Now how on earth did you know my name?" I explained that it had not required a wizard to guess it, under the circumstances!
Mrs. R—— could throw no light on the subject of the mile-castle, and her husband continued to murmur: "To think I should have had this place twenty years without knowing there was a castle in the garden!" I again suggested going back to the Wall to look for it; but no! he said we would go and ask some neighbours who lived in a long, low, whitewashed thatched cottage close by, and who "ought to know, for they have lived there over four hundred years."
I found this a very interesting visit. The family consisted of two brothers and a sister, all unmarried. They were the last remaining members of the Burtholme family, who have occupied this cottage since the sixteenth century. It had been the village smithy, and their father had been the last of a series of "Thomas Burtholmes, blacksmiths," who figure largely in the parish register. The cottage was full of tokens of antiquity. On the old dresser there was the most beautiful and complete set of pewter plates that I have ever seen, each plate marked "T. B.," and I understood that Lady Carlisle had more than once borrowed them for exhibition at Naworth Castle on some special occasion.
But as for the Roman mile-castle, they also had never heard of it; so we went back to the Wall, and there, quite clearly discernible, it lay, between the line of the Wall and the Hare Hill cottage; and though nothing but grassy mounds could be seen, still it was something to have a "castle" of any sort in one's garden, so the proud owner thought! He told me he was a Tynemouth man, and had come to stay at Lanercost Temperance Hotel many years ago, when paralyzed after a bad smash-up in a railway accident; and there, in the country peace and quiet, he had learned to walk again. No wonder that he loved the neighbourhood, and had been glad to secure this cottage for his permanent use.
Lanercost Temperance Hotel was my objective that evening, and he offered to show me the shortest way, continuing the line of the Wall from his garden. We went through a farm-yard and along the fields, seeing bits of the Wall in the hedge at frequent intervals, and the ditch in the next fields to the north. Below, on the left, ran the Vallum, sometimes clearly seen, and sometimes disappearing in the Priory Woods.
Up Craggle Hill the Wall-ditch is very strongly marked, and in one place is full of water.