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Page 200:-
"[Har]venburne till it fall in Eske and through Eske to the
foot of Terras, and go up Terras to the foot of Reygill and
up the Reygill to the Tophous and so to the standing stone
and to the Mearburne head, and down Mearburne to it fall in
Lyddal at the Rutterford, and down Lyddal to it fall in Eske
and down Eske to it fall into the sea." It was in length
eight computed miles of the country and in breadth four
miles. The subjects of both kingdoms commonly depastured
their cattle on it in the day time, but were to remove them
before the sunset, on the peril that should ensue [a].
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Here was probably the Roman station APIATORIUM [c] mentioned
in an inscription found in Northumberland and now in the
library at Durham, Pl.VII. fig.8. the Maiden way leading to
it [d]. The inscription which Mr. Camden saw in the church
seems to be at Naworth [e]. There is another serving also as
a head-stone to a grave, at the bottom of which it was
found. See Pl.XI. fig.10.
... CAES TA ...
... ... ...
... G II AVG ET XXV ...
... II CNC IR ...
... V ... PR PR
Perhaps,
Imp. Caes. Trajan.
Hadriano Aug.
Leg. II. Aug. et XX V. V.
Sub Licinio Prisco
Leg. Aug. Pr. Pr.
or the last two lines,
Ob. Vic. No. Pr. Lic.
ML. Aug. PR. PR.
erected by the Legio 2da Aug. in honour of Adrian, whose
wall while building they might cover [f]. Mr. Horsley was
told of another, which had the word Templum distinct,
but was broken and lost [g]. Both the church and castle are
surrounded by a dike and foss.
The place has its name from Bueth its owner at the
Conquest. The castle was demolished 1641.
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No correct drawing has yet been made of the curious cross,
whose inscription is in Runic characters. George Vertue
shewed four to the Society of Antiquaries 1746, which I have
not been able to recover. It is one entire square freestone
about 15 feet high, washed over with a white oily cement:
each side two feet broad at bottom tapering up. On the west
side is a figure of a man with a hawk on his arm, and over
him a long inscription, of which bishop Nicolson could find
but six or seven lines, and only five letters visible; but
Mr. Smith [h] found nine lines with many well known Runic
letters, and many characters not so intelligible, but equall
perfect. On another side a figure of a saint or apostle with
a nimbus, and above him the Virgin and child, both their
heads in nimbi. On the north side is the chequer work,
alluded to by Mr. Camden, and common on early crosses [i],
and under it the fair characters engraved Pl.XIII. fig.1.
Bishop Nicolson read this Rynburn, and explained it
of the magical Runae or Ramruner, which Wormius and
Arngrim Jonas say differed totally from the common Runic
letters, and were much used as spells and charms, producing
either good or ill effects according to the will of the
parties who used them. Such charms appear to have obtained
among the borderers so late as the close of the last
century; a neighbouring gentleman having shewed the bishop a
book of them taken out of the pocket of a moss trooper,
containing, among other things, a certain remedy for the
ague, by applying certain barbarous charms to the body. His
lordship offers another explanation, making the 3d and 4th
letter [ - runes] instead of [ - runes] which will make the
reading Ryceburn in the old Danish,
Coemiterium or Cadaverum sepulchrum. For
though the true old Runic word for Cadaver be usually
written [ - runes] Hrae, the H may be easily omitted,
and then the difference of spelling the word here and on the
monuments in Denmark will not be material. As to what he
says of the "chequer work being a notable emblem of the
tumuli or burying-places of the antients," it is not easy to
understand him, and such an inscription on a cross in a
church-yard would be superfluous. On the east are only
flower-work, foliage, grapes and birds. On the south,
flourishes and the inscription in Pl.XIII. fig.2. out of
which, imperfect as it is, the bishop makes Gag Ubbo
Erlat i.e. Latrones Ubbo vicit, confessing at the
same time how little affinity this sense has with the
foregoing, however agreeable to the manners of the people
hereabouts both before and in his time. On the south side
was also the inscription in Pl.XIII. fig.3. An inscription
from this cross has been sent by Spelman from lord William
Howard to Wormius, who published it in his Mon. Dan.
p.162-168; see Pl.XIII. fig.4. which he reads thus, q.d.
Reno satu Runa stiuod. i.e. Rino lapides hos
Runicos fecit; but as he says, these were in
epistylio crucis. When bishop Nicolson was here again
on his visitation 1703, he tried to make out this on the
west side; but though it promised fair at a distance he
could not make out even this inscription. I take them to be
those given on the head of the cross 1615 [k], part of it
now a grave-stone, though bishop Nicolson considers them as
part of the ruins of the inscription over the head of the
figure on the west side, plainly confounding the
transverse piece of the cross with the upright of the
cross itself [l]. These make the 3d line fig.4 being
copied from a slip of paper inserted in Mr. Camden's copy of
his Britannia, ed.1607, in the Bodleian library before
referred to, accompanied with the following note:
"The imitation of the Pictishe stone taken out by impression
or printing the paper within the very letters of the stoane.
I receaved this morning a ston from my lord of Arundell,
sent him from my lord William. It was the head of a cross at
Bewcastle: all the letters legable ar ther on on line. And I
have sett to them such as I can gather out of my alphabetts:
that like an A I can find in non. But whither this may be
only lettres or words I somewhat doubt." See the third line
Pl.Xiii. fig.4.
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