19·2d.
Stukeley del.
E. Kirkall sculp:
Prospect of Caster Lincolnshr: July 26 1724. A Roman Town.
A. a piece of the Roman wall of the castle. B. the Spring. C. another piece of the Roman wall.
Hence we journeyed to Caster, upon another ridge of the downs, running north and south, slaunting off eastward to the sea, and steep all the way westward, reaching from the Humber to the Witham below Lincoln: a vein of sand again, and alike stocked with rabbets, answering to that on the other side the Ankham at Sandton, but a little more southward. From the hill just above Caster you have an admirable prospect both east and west; this way to the mouth of the Humber, the Spurnhead promontory, the Sunk island, and the whole country of Holderness in Yorkshire; that way, all the sea-coast of Lincoln stretched out in a long bow, jutting into the sea, full of creeks and harbours: south and west the whole county of Lincoln lies under the eye; but the height of Lincoln minster particularly pleases, which is here seen by the edge of the cliff south of Caster, and presents a very romantic landscape.
Caster. Ro. town.
The town of Caster is half way down this western steep; and in nothing more, that I have seen, did the Romans show their fine genius for choice of a station, than this:TAB. XIX. 2d Vol. there is a narrow promontory juts forward to the west, being a rock full of springs, level at top; and on this did they build their town. One may easily guess at the original Roman scheme upon which it was founded, and now in the main preserved: this whole town takes in three squares of full 300 feet each, two of which are allotted to the castle, the third is an area lying to the east before it, between it and the hill, which is still the market-place: the streets are all set upon these squares, and at right angles: at each end are two outlets, going obliquely at the corners to the country round about, two above, two descending the hill thus distributed: the north-east to the Humber mouth, south-east to Louth, north-west to Wintringham, south-west to Lincoln. What is the meaning of this place being called Thongcaster,[87] among some others in England, I know not; one in Kent: but it gave occasion to the same fanciful report of its original, as queen Dido’s founding Carthage upon as much ground as she could incompass with an ox’s hide cut into thongs; and a person in the town told me there was an history of the building Caster in Virgil, and offered to show it me. I should not have thought this worth mentioning, had not Mr. Camden spoke of it, as if he believed it to be true: but there can be no doubt that this castle was built long before Hengist’s time; for I saw enough of the old Roman wall to evince its founders: one great piece stands on the verge of the church-yard; another by a house: there are more behind the school-house in the pastures, and I have met with many men that have dug at its foundations in several other places: it is built of white rag-stone laid sometimes sideways, sometimes flat, in mortar exceedingly hard, full of pebbles and sand; nor is it mixed to any fineness: so that I conjecture it was the method of the Romans to pour the mortar on liquid, as soon as the lime was slaked: thus the heat and moisture, struggling together, created a most strict union or attraction between the lime and stone, the motion favouring their approximation; and the lime, no doubt, being made of the same stone, promoted a more intimate union between the cement and the hard materials by similitude of parts. I suppose this narrow tongue of land was thus encompassed with a wall quite to the market-place, objecting only its end to the plain before the hill, the rest standing upon the stoney precipice. From under theTAB. XX. 2d Vol. castle-walls almost quite round rise many quick springs; but Syfer spring is most famous, having now four fluxes of water from between the joints of great stones laid flat like a wall; and joined together with lead, probably first by the Romans, for it is under their wall; shaded over with trees very pleasantly: this is the morning and evening rendezvous of the servant-maids, where consequently intelligence is given of all domestic news: they say, within memory it ran much quicker, so that the water projected three or four foot from the wall; others say, that originally it ran in one stream like the sheet of a cascade. Syfer spring, no doubt, is the Saxon syfer, pure, clean, as the stream here deserves to be called. There is a place by the fold, south-west of the church, still called Castle-hill, where many bodies have been dug up. I am inclinable to think the meaning of Thong-castle to be fetched from Thane Degen, Saxonicè, miles, præfectus, analogous to the Latin comes.[88] Here it is likely our Saxon ancestors placed a garrison of troops to secure this country, as they conquered from the Roman Britons. In the church is a monumental effigies, in stone, of a knight of the name of Hundon; another, of a lady; another, of a knight of St. John of Jerusalem, cross-legged.
In Snarford church some fine monuments, in alabaster, of the family of St. Paul’s. Return we now to Lindum.
Sol medium cœli conscenderat igneus orbem