button to main menu  Camden's Britannia, edn 1789

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Page 176:-
  AESICA. The Grahams.
  Aesica
  roman inscription

[re]mains of an antient city, that together with the name of the river which runs by it, lead one to suspect that here was AESICA, where the Tribune of the first cohort of Astures antiently kept guard against the barbarians. Here lives at present the head of the family of the Grayhams, distinguished by its valour among the borderers: and in the wall of the house may be read this inscription, erected in memory of the emperor Hadrian by the Legio II. Augusta:

IMP. CAES. TRA.
HADRIANO
AVG
LEG. II. AVVG. F.
  Liddel castle and barony. Lidesdal.
  1 R. II. Sollom moss. Battle of Sollom moss 1542. Batable ground. Leven r. Beucastle. Baron Strivelin.

  Liddel Strength
  Solway Moss
  Battle of Solway Moss
  Debatable Land
  Bew Castle
  roman inscription

Where the river Lidd falls into the Esk was formerly, as I have been told, Liddel, a castle and barony of the Estotevilles, who "held lands in Cornage which earl Ranulph gave to Turgis Brundas," as we find in an antient inquisition; but from Estoteville it came by inheritance to the Wakes, and by them to the earls of Kent [q]; but John earl of Kent, gave it to king Edward III. and king Richard II. to John of Gaunt duke of Lancaster. Beyond this river Esk the country for some miles is accounted part of England, in which is Sollom-mosse, famous for the number of Scottish nobles taken prisoners A.D. 1543, when the Scots intending to attack Thomas Wharton, lord warden of the Marches, no sooner found the king had transferred his command to Oliver Sincler, in preference to them, than they resented this affront as they supposed it, to their own disgrace and ruin, breaking their ranks, and throwing the whole army into confusion. The English seeing this from higher ground immediately attacked and routed them, made many prisoners, who flung down their arms and surrendered themselves to the English and moss troopers on the borders with an inconsiderable loss of men on either side; which threw king James V. of Scotland into such despondency that he broke his heart. The country hereabouts is called Batable ground, because in debate between the English and Scots. The people on both sides, like borderers, are an active, crafty, and light sort of soldiery, and expert in skirmishing. The Leven and other river before-mentioned, rising in the very border of two kingdoms, passes by nothing remarkable except Beucastle, as it is commonly called, a royal castle in a waste tract with a garrison. In the public records it is written Bueth-castle, whence its name should seem to be derived from that Bueth, who about the time of Henry I. was a sort of absolute lord in these parts. Certain it is that in the reign of Edward III. it was the property of John baron de Strivelin [r], who married the daughter and coheiress of Adam de Swinborn. In the church almost ruined lies this old inscription, brought from some other place, and serving as a grave-stone:

LEG. II. AVG.
FECIT.
  Bewcastle Cross
In the church-yard is a cross near 20 feet high, of one stone, neatly wrought, and having an inscription, but the letters too much consumed by time to be legible. But the cross itself being chequered like the arms of the family of Vaulx makes it probable that it was their work.
  Gillesland barony. Stanwicks. Scalby. Askerton. Irthington. Castlesteeds. Brampton. BREMETURACUM. Cohors I. Tungrori. Armaturae. Castle steeds.
  Gilsland
  Brampton
  Bremeteracum

More to the south and west inland lies the barony of Gillesland, a small tract, so full of rivulets, called Gilles, that I should suppose it to have taken its name from them, had I not read in the register of Lanercost church, that one Gill, son of Bueth, who in a charter of Henry II. is also called Gilbert, antiently held it, and probably left his name to it [s]. Through this the wall or rampart of Severus, that noblest monument in Britain, runs almost strait from Carlisle, east through the village of Stanwicks, Scalby, formerly a castle of the Tilliols, a family of renown in these parts, from whom it came to the Pickerings; and from thence the little river Cambec passes under the wall, on whose banks the barons Dacre built the little castle of Askerton, where the warden or land-sergeant of Gillesland has a garrison. Below the wall it falls into the river Irthing, where is Irthington, a capital manor as they call it of this barony of Gillesland, and here at Castle steed are to be seen great ruins. Near it is Brampton, a mean market-town, which I take for BREMETURACUM ad lineam valli, being scarce a mile from the wall, where antiently was stationed the 1st cohort of the Tungri from Germany, and in the decline of the Roman empire under the Dux Britanniarum a Cuneus Armaturarum. These were horse completely armed, but whether these Armaturae were duplares or simplares, Vegetius [t] leaves uncertain. The former, according to the style of that time, was so called from having a double, and other from having only single allowance of provision [u]. Nor must I omit that at Brampton is a high hill fortified at the top with a ditch and called The Mote, commanding an extensive prospect over the country below. Under this and at Castle steeds, q.d. Castle place, as also at Trederman were found these inscriptions, which the right hon. lord William Howard of Naworth, 3d son of the most noble Thomas duke of Norfolk, and an attentive and learned searcher into venerable antiquity, who possesses estates hereabouts in right of his wife, sister and coheir of the last baron Dacre, copied for me with his own hand: See Pl. VIII. fig.8 The following there also in an antient hypocaust, in which the name of the Legatus Augusti and Propraetor in Britain is unfortunately lost: See Pl. VIII. fig.9.
  Gelt r.
  Written Rock of Gelt
  roman inscription

Near Brampton runs the little river Gelt, on whose bank on a rock called Helbeck is this imperfect inscription, cut by the Vexillato of the Legio II. Augusta probably an Optio placed under the Propraetor Agricola with others which time has robbed us of: See Pl. VIII. fig.10. On the same rock are these words in a later character:

OFICIVM ROMANORVM. [x]
  Naworth c.
  Naworth Castle
Here the Gelt empties itself into the river Irthing which runs with rapidity and noise by Naworth castle, now belonging to William Howard before-mentioned, who is repairing it, lately the barons Dacre, the last of whom dying a few years ago under age, his uncle Leonard who chose rather to carry on a war with his sovereign than a suit about the estate with his nieces, seized this castle, and levied a body of rebels against his prince, which lord
[q] Of the royal blood. H.
[r] Sir John of Strivelin, a baron. Id.
[s] Of the owners of this see in Hurst Monceaux, v. I. 202.
[t] Veget. II. 7.
[u] annonas.
[x] Q. if not intended for opiscium Romanorum by some monk.
Hunsdon
gazetteer links
button -- "Askerton Castle" -- Askerton Castle
button -- "Gillesland" -- Barony of Gilsland
button -- Battle of Solway Moss
button -- "Beucastle" -- Bew Castle
button -- Bewcastle Cross
button -- "Bramptoon" -- Brampton
button -- "Batable Ground" -- Debatable Land
button -- Hadrian's Wall
button -- "Irthing, River" -- Irthing, River
button -- "Irthington" -- Irthington
button -- "Liddel Castle" -- Liddel Strength
button -- "Lidd" -- Liddel Water
button -- "Leven, River" -- Lyne, River
button -- "Mote, The" -- Mote, The
button -- "Naworth Castle" -- Naworth Castle (?)
button -- "Castle Steeds" -- Camboglanna
button -- "Aesica" -- (roman fort, Netherby)
button -- "Scalby Cstle" -- Scaleby Castle
button -- "Sollom Mosse" -- Solway Moss
button -- St Cuthbert's Church
button -- "Helbeck" -- Written Rock of Gelt
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