button to main menu  Camden's Britannia, edn 1789

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Page 195:-
[faith]ful a panegyrist in his intimate friend and successor. It is remarkable that Orton in Cumberland gave birth to Dr. Nicolson, and Orton in Westmorland to Dr. Burn.
  Rockcliff.
  Rockcliffe
"Rockclif, a pretty pile or castle of the lord Daker's over Edon on the farther ripe, about three miles from Caerluell [o]," It was sold by the duke of Norfolk 1682, and now belongs to Mr. Strong of Peterborough [p].
  Stanwick.
  Stanwix
Over the river Eden is Stanwick, where Horsley [q] places Congavata, on incontestible evidence. The Roman wall is very visible here [12]. The ditch distinct on the west of the village between it and the Eden, seems to have been Severus's, whose wall forms the north rampart of the station. The ruins of the wall are visible on the brink of the precipice. Henry I. gave the appropriation of the church to the church of Carlisle [13].
  Drawdikes.
  Drawdykes Castle
  roman inscription

At Drawdikes, a seat of the Aglionbys, near the former inscription is another [r],
  Pl.XI. fig.5.

COH IIII PR. POS.
[ ]I VK. VI TAKIS
Bishop Gibson gives the following also here:

I. O. M. ALA AVG. O .. B. VRI APPIA IVL. PVB PS. T. TB. CETBERI. ..
which Dr. Gale [s] corrects

Jovi Optimo Maximo Ala Augusta ob virtutem appellata Julius Publius & Tiberius Claud. Tiberii filius.
  Pl.XI. fig.6.
as in Horsley's Cumb. No LVI. [t] But Mr. Horsley could hear of no such altar, and inclined to suspect it to have been mistaken for one of those yet remaining at Drumburgh. He gives a 4th (XL.) which he thinks belongs here, and two more XLI. XLII. [u] The inscription in Camden is also now at Drawdikes, but the horseman armed with a lance which he mentions is gone, and never seems to have been part of this.
  Netherby.
  roman fort, Netherby
  roman inscription

"Netherby is seven miles north from Cairluel and Eske river runneth on the north side of it. There hath been mervelus buildings as appeer by ruinus walls, and men alive have seen rynges and staples in the walls, as it had been stayes or holds for ships. On the one side of it is the batable ground, so that it is a limes Angliae & Scotiae. The ruins be now three miles at least from the flowing water of Sulway sands. The grass groweth now on the ruins of the walls [x]." The antient border house at Kirk Andrews, opposite to Netherby, is a square tower of three stones, the windows small, the door of iron: the cattle lodged below, the owners above [y].
  Pl.XII.
There is a gradual descent from the principal and oblong fort on the north-west angle towards the Esk, in which several streets are very visible. In one running north and south, on the west side towards the river, by digging among the ruins for stones, were discovered two rooms parallel to the street. The southernmost is plainly a cold bath, marked F in the plan, from the cement and large thin flags laid at the bottom, and an earthen pipe at the north-west corner descending from a small watercourse that runs under the other room, and a partition wall, and so below the door into the street, where may have been a common sewer. The outward room has an entrance from the street as above: the door cheeks are two large flags about seven feet high, and 20 inches broad, with holes for fastening the door, which opened into the street. In this room, marked G in the plan, was found in the beginning of October, 1732, an altar with this inscription, removed into the castle.

DEAE SANCTAE
FORTVNAE
CONSERVATRICI
MARCVS. AVREL.
SALVIVS TRIBVN
US COH. I. AEL
HISPANORVM
∞ EQ.
V. S. L. M.
They continued to work, and Mr. Goodman sent the above account to Mr. Gale Nov. 9, 1732.
Mr. Cay, in a letter to Mr. Gale, Dec. 12, 1732, observes that "inscriptions of the Coh. I. Hisp. have been found at Airdoch and Elenborough, but in only one of them it is styled equestris, and the commander praefectus. In the Notitia is the tribunus cohortis I. Hisp. Axeloduno, which is now fixed at no great distance from Netherby or Elenborough. We have no former instances of Aelia given to this cohort. Horsley, p.95, conjectures that it might be part of the Ala Herculea, but had he seen this inscription he would have thought otherwise. He observes, p.95, that the Notitia does not often give Cohors Equitumbut, as in many places, it seems to point out the officer's residence. I know not whther we are always to suppose the whole body under his command was in the same place. I am the more surprized we have not met with trib. coh. Equit. Among the stations per lineam valli there is none said to be commanded by a praefectus alae, which appears to have been much larger than some of those where tribunes of cohorts are placed. I therefore suppose that an equestrian cohort consisted of two alae, though it might not be common to mention them as cohorts, and perhaps the Ala I Herculea and Ala Vettonum might compose this cohort. I cannot think it improbable that some of the forces that are not mentioned in the Notitia, but in inscriptions, might be removed to the borders of Wales, where that book seems deficient. I do not determine whether Scot. xxxi. and Cumb. lxii. lxiii. relate to this equestrian cohort."
Mr. Gale replies, Dec. 28, that "Mr. Horsley's reasons about the Ala Herculea and Coh. I. Hisp. are not conclusive. The cohort was frequently moved, and if the letters EQ. are not on the Ardoch and two of the Elenborough inscriptions, they are on a third at the last place. A cohort of the Ala Herculea might be at Netherby within distance of Old Carlisle, or the Ala itself might have been quartered more north; for the Netherby inscription appears of older and better letter than those at Elenborough. All these circumstances make it doubtful whether this cohort was part of that Ala. By its name and country it probably came over with Hadrian, and continued here till the Romans quitted the island, frequently changing its place. It might have come with the Legio VI. Victrix, and been part of one of its Alae, as that seems to have been always employed in the north and in headquarters at York. If the legionary Alae, consisting of several cohorts of foreign auxiliaries, were equal in
[o] Lel.VII. 69.
[p] Burn, II. 223.
[q] P. 108. 155. See hereafter, p.227
[12] G.
[13] G.
[r] Horsl. 265. Cumb. xxxviii.
[s] Ant. 38. MS. n.
[t] Horsl. 266.
[u] Burn, II. 452.
[x] Lel. VII. 69.
[y] Pennant, 68.
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gazetteer links
button -- Carlisle Cathedral
button -- "Batable Ground" -- Debatable Land
button -- "Drawdikes" -- Drawdykes Castle
button -- Hadrian's Wall
button -- Kirkandrews Tower
button -- "Rockclif Castle" -- Rockcliffe Castle
button -- (roman fort, Netherby)
button -- Uxelodunum
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