[TAB. LXXII.]There is another relievo of a lady sacrificing, which by the compartment of the inscription at bottom, though worn out, seems to have been fixed upon a temple by the founders. A most stately altar is placed in the middle of the garden, with a sun-dial on the discus. Some are somewhat more securely set up within the porch: many given away; as, one to the bishop of the Isle of Man; another, to Wm. Kirkby esq; at Ashlec in Kirkby, Lancashire: two altars lately found are placed upon a farm-house, which is now commonly known by the name of Volantium, falsely fixed upon this station: this is by the sea-side in Mr. Senhouse’s demesnes. It is much to be lamented that these fine remains should now be exposed to the weather.[2]
The castrum is just 400 foot square, two ditches about it, and three entrances: it had likewise a stone wall on the high vallum. On the north side of this castrum lay the city OLENACVM, of a great extent, as is plain from the ruins of it, but dug up all about. The family of the Senhouses, and the Eaglesfields whose heiress they married, have been continually digging here; and the ruins are still inexhaustible: the dwelling-house and all the out-houses are built from it, as from a quarry: hundreds of cart-loads of hewn stone now lie there.
One may trace many square plots of the houses, and of the streets, paved with broad flag-stones, that are visibly worn with use. All the walls that divide the pastures are made of these squared stones: I saw innumerable of them upon the spot, with mouldings on them of various sorts, gutter-stones, architraves, cornices, &c. The faces of the squared stones are generally not perfectly smoothed, but have the mark of the axe upon them; and I see many such sort of masonry in the old gates of London. Coins innumerable have been found formerly, now but seldom; urns, and other antiquities, which it is endless to particularise.
Mr. Senhouse told me there is a paved military way, besides the streets of the city, going hence northward along the sea-coast; another, to Papcastle by Cockermouth. Most of the inscriptions are found in the city and precincts; bits of altars, and fragments. In the castle are many vaults still left. The altar at Sir James Lowther’s was found in the north-west angle of the castle, on the vallum.
Here is a most magnificent prospect of the Scotch coast of Galway, and of the great sea between the two kingdoms. In the evening, when the sun shines, and it is clear weather, the lights and shadows of those lofty hills are extremely entertaining. The Isle of Man appears perfectly.
The river Elen did not empty itself, formerly, directly into the ocean, as at present, but went northward under the cliff, till it came under the castle: the old channel of it is visible: the sea has eaten away a large quantity of marsh and high ground between it and the castle. To this elbow of land, which made the mouth of the river, is the name OLENACVM owing. They talk likewise of anchors being found thereabouts: many Roman hand-mill stones found at Elenborough. I imagine this river is one of the Alaunas. Toward Cockermouth the western roots of the Cumbrian hills being very steep, exhibit a most curious spectacle; the declining sun shining on them from over the Irish sea; so that we need not travel to the Alps for magnificent views of this nature.
PAPCASTLE.
A mile off Cockermouth, on the north side of the river, lies this Roman station. The river water is very clear, according to its name, notwithstanding the floods here, owing to its running through rocky ground. The Roman castrum lies upon the top of the hill, above the village. I soon traced out its whole circumference, though the inhabitants had not the least notion of where it stood, supposing it to be lower down. I saw a bit of the Roman wall, which they wonder at, because it strikes fire when struck upon with a pick-axe, by reason of the hardness of the mortar: it lies by the road-side going to Wigton; and there the ditch is plainly visible, though half filled up with the rubbish of the wall. The whole town, and perhaps Cockermouth castle and town, are built out of it; likewise the walls of all the pastures and corn-fields adjoining. Free-stone cut is very common, which they say must have been fetched a good way off, because there is none such in the neighbourhood; and a great deal of ashler is still left in the ground. The field upon the top of the hill, the highest part of the castrum, is called the Boroughs. A man told me he found a hand mill-stone about the bulk of his hat, which he admired for its prettiness: he found a Roman coin too of Claudius, and others; but they are lost. Several other people told me they found coins upon the side of the hill; and the children pick them up after a shower of rain. Mr. Senhouse showed me a silver Geta, pont. reverse, princeps juventutis, among others found here. The famous font, now at Bridekirk, was taken up at this place, in the pasture south of the south-east angle of the city, by the lane called Moor-went. In the same place lately they found a subterraneous vault, floored with free-stone, of very large dimensions; the top of it made with the same sort of stone, all brought a distance off. The name of Boroughs includes both closes where the old city, or rather castrum, stood; for they find stones and slates with iron pins in them, coins, and all other matters of antiquity, upon the whole spot below the castrum, toward the water side. This was a beautiful and well-chosen place, a south-west side of a hill, a most noble river running under it, and a pretty good country about it, as one may judge by the churches; for that I find generally a good criterion of the goodness of a country, as Mr. Senhouse observed, who accompanied me hither. On the side of the hill are many pretty springs: at one of them we drank a bottle of wine, to the memory of the founders; then poured some of the red juice into the fountain-head, to the Nymph of the place. A person told us he had dug up, in the Boroughs, the foundation of a wall where the stones were laid slanting side by side, and liquid mortar poured upon them, as was often the Roman method; likewise several floors made of cement. The kind of slates dug up here, are brought too a good way off. Mr. Senhouse says he can trace the remains of the Roman road between this place and Elenborough in many places. This certainly was a town thoroughly peopled; and perhaps its name was Derventio, because standing upon this river Derwent. Fitz-house is on the south side of the river. Mr. Gilpin of Whitehaven has seen many Roman coins found at Papcastle, especially of Adrian.
WHITE-HAVEN.
This is a new sea-port town, standing in a little bay, sprung up from its conveniency for the coal-mines hard by. There are many salt-works upon this coast. Rock-samphire grows here. This western country, left beyond the monstrous hills, is sand and clay. Skidhaw is in view from hence, and with the rest deceives one exceedingly in its distance; for one of these hills, which we should be apt to compute a mile off, is seven; the eye judging according to the angle it makes from the horizon in such objects as it has been accustomed to. Here is but a small rivulet, which is a detriment to the haven, for want of scowering. They transport great quantities of coals to Ireland and other places. We walked two miles in these coal-works, the stratum of pure coal being all the way about ten foot thick, declining gradually, about one foot in five, till we got 300 foot below the surface; a rock of stone over head all along. Their method of digging is generally to run the grooves in a strait line, others going out on both sides at right angles; so that square pillars of coal are left to support the incumbent rock: hence some roads are made along the descent, the others parallel to its declivity. There are trappings now and then, but not very frequent, nor great; and those are both along the declivity, and sideways. Their methods of conveying the coal to the shafts where they are drawn up, and of conveying air from one passage to the other, to prevent damps and stagnations, and of drawing up the water from one height to another, are very dextrous, and worth seeing. At last the famous fire-engine discharges the water, which is a notable piece of machinery working itself intirely: it creates a vacuum by first rarifying the air with hot steam, then condenses it suddenly by cold water; whence a piston is drawn up and down alternately, at one end of a beam: this actuates a pump at the other end, which, let down into the works, draws the water out: it makes about 14 strokes in a minute; so that it empties 140 hogsheads in an hour, with moderate working. With this quantity of declivity it goes toward the sea, and below its level at present; and so, no doubt, proceeds under the sea as far as the outward shell of the globe reaches. From this it is most indisputable, that the convex thereof is formed into a spiral figure of layers of different materials; and it must be owing to the first rotation of the earth upon its own axis.