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start of The Wall |
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Page 214:-
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A pipe to convey the alarm.
Cornage.
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alarm pipes
horns
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"mile with a strong wall and stout towers, which
fortifications the attention and care of the owners of the
adjoining lands will erect without charge to the public,
keeping watch and ward of country people [y] in them, that
the repose of the provinces may remain secure within this
circuit as it were of garrisons." The inhabitants say a
brass pipe articially set in the the wall run all along
between each tower and castle (of which they have
occasionally found pieces), that whatever was spoken through
it at one tower was conveyed immediately to the next, to the
third, and so on to all without interruption, to give notice
where the enemy's attack was to be apprehended. Such a
wondeful story Xiphilin [z] tells from Dio in the life of
Severus about the towers of Byzantium. But the wall being
now ruined and no brass pipe left, many persons hold lands
and estates hereabouts of our kings by Cornage [a] as
out lawyers speak, viz. to give an alarm of invasion to the
neighbourhood by sounding a horn, which some suppose derived
from the antient Roman practice. "For they were bound to
march on the king's order with an army against Scotland," as
the records express it, "in the advance guard in going and
in the reregarde in returning."
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The track of the wall.
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The Wall, line
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But to follow the track of the wall more exactly. It begins
at BLATUM BULGIUM or Bulness on the Irish sea, and
proceeds along Eden frith by Burgh upon sands
to LUGUVALLUM or Carlisle, where it crosses the
Ituna or Eden. Thence it runs on above the
river Irthing, crossing the little meandering river
Cambecke where are great remains of a fort. After
crossing the rivers Irthing and Poltrosse it
enters Northumberland, and continuing among the chains of
mountains along the river called South Tine (except
where the river North Tine makes an interruption in it,
where was antiently a bridge), advances quite to the German
ocean, at (sic) will be shown when we come to
Northumberland.
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invasion
Scots
Picts
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This wonderful structure could not, however, keep off the
enemy. But upon the Romans quitting Britain, the Picts and
Scots suddenly assaulting the wall, pulled the garrisons out
with hooks, broke down the fortifications, and carried their
ravages far and wide over Britain, then torn to pieces by
intestine broils, and harrassed by a dreadful famine. But
let Gildas the Britan, who lived not long after, describe to
the reader the calamaties and miseries of those deplora-
times. "No sooner were the Romans returned, but there rose
up in curraughs [b], which conveyed them across the
Stitican [c] vale, black swarms of vermine, cursed troops of
Scots and Picts, different in manners, but agreeing in the
same thirst of blood, &c. as if the warm sunshine and
fine weather invited them out of their narrow holes: and
being informed of the departure of our benefactors, and
emboldened by their refusal to return, they made themselves
masters of all the northern extremity of the country quite
up to the wall. On this last was stationed an idle army
unfit for fighting, disabled by their fears, and never
stirring out of their places by night or day. Weapons armed
with hooks were incessantly employed to drag the msierable
townspeople off the wall, and dash them against the ground.
In this respect this sudden death was an advantage to them,
that by such an exit they escaped the approaching miserable
ends of their brethren and families. In short, the cities
and the high wall were abandoned, and they betook themselves
to flight and retreat, dispersed up and down in a more
desperate condition than ever. The enemy followed them close
with ravages, slaughter, and aggravated cruelties; and the
wretched natives were torn to pieces by their enemies as
lambs by butchers; their residence in the country was like
that of so many wild beasts. For they did not keep their
pillaging hands off the small stock of provision that would
have supported the miserable inhabitants for a short time,
and the calamaties from abroad were increased by discontents
at home, so that by these ravages the whole country was
deprived of the support of life, except the resource of
hunting."
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The prudent contrivance of the
wall by the Romans.
Medicinal plants.
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medicinal plants
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It is worthy observation, that as the Romans prudently
raised this wall in such a manner that it had within it like
a second defence two large rivers the Tine and the
Irthing, which are but a very little way asunder; so
the cunning of the barbarians first opened their principle
inlet between these two rivers, where they had free entrance
into this province without the obstruction of any river, as
will be presently shewn in Northumberland. I purposely omit
the vulgar reports about this wall, but cannot conceal from
the reader this circumstance, which I had from persons of
credit. A fixed tradition remains in the neighbours, that
the Roman garrisons on the borders planted here up and down
for their own use, many plants good for curing wounds. Hence
some pretenders to surgery [d] in Scotland resort here every
summer to collect plants, whose virtues they have learned by
some practice, and extoll them as of sovereign efficacy.
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[y]
vigiliae & agrariae.
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[z]
lxxiv. fin. Reimar understood it of an echo in these
particular seven towers.
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[a]
Drenge, Sax. a pipe. Hence Drenges and
Drengagium. Indices speculatores. Lib. Rub. Scaccar.
Gale MS. n. but the idea of Cornage here misleads him; for
the [Dreng - Saxon script] is miles, Lye; see
also Spelm. in v. See before, p.151.
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[b]
The highland Scots still call their boats caroches.
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[c]
The Paris edition has Scythicam, by which probably is
meant the Scottish sea. See Mr. Pegge's happy
restoration of this passage in Archaeologia, V. P.272.
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[d]
Empirici chirurgi.
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gazetteer links
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-- "Wall, The" -- Hadrian's Wall
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