Gents Mag 1851 part 1 p.148

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	Gentleman's Magazine 1851 part 1 p.148 of antiquities, and the consequent detection of errors by the accumulation of facts; unsound theories and deductions are corrected, a check is placed upon the wanderings of fancy, and archaeological pursuits are placed under the same wholesome laws which govern inquiries in other sciences. Another benefit which may be expected to arise is the preservation of the objects themselves, the materials upon which archaeologists work. If the government does not come forward speedily to stay the progress towards total annihilation to which may of our most valuable remains are hastening, the labours of the antiquary in certain fields of research will soon be rendered needless and futile. If the popular voice, which has been won in support of archaeology, should not be stenuously directed towards this important end, the vantage-ground will be lost, and lost never to be regained. Reflections such as these naturally arise when we contrast the archaeological advantages of the time present over the time past; when we survey the rapid spread of societies, the zealous labours of individuals, and the books we have recently reviewed, and which now demand our attention. The work before us will afford abundant illustrations in support of our opinions. The chief writers on the Roman wall, one of the most stupendous and least known of our ancient national monuments, are Horsley and Hodgson. But their works are expensive and scarce, and almost as little known as the remains of which they treat. Let the reader picture to himself a wall of stone from sixteen to twenty feet high and ten wide, carried over hills and plains, along precipices and through valleys, for a distance somewhat equal to that from London to Southampton, and he will form some notion of what the Roman wall was which extended from the Tyne to the Solway.* Let him accompany Mr. Bruce through his lucid and animated description, travel with him in imagination along its varied course, pausing here and there to examine the more remarkable points, its castles, towers, and ruined altars, and he will be able to judge of its present condition, and learn that down to the present day from the middle ages this wall has been used as a quarry for the building of farm-houses, churches, and villages, and by the government for the construction of a military road. By means of excellent illustrations he will be enabled by his own fireside to keep pace with his guide, to see the first fragment of the wall at East Denton, and to follow it on, stage by stage, to its termination at Bowness, examining the watch-towers and the stations which are attached to it, resting at intervals to ponder over the sculptures, altars, and inscriptions which have been found along its course, and which in many instances are still to be found lying about upon the ground, or worked up into the walls of houses, barns, cow-sheds, and pig-styes. There appears to be hardly a house along the wide range of the Roman wall in the walls of which may not be found inscriptions or mutilated sculptures, and no gentleman's garden and pleasure grounds unadorned with monuments which one cannot help thinking would be much safer and more useful in the museum of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle. At every step it will be felt how much of real historical value has been destroyed, and how much is still going fast to destruction. Mr. Bruce modestly observes, that his book may be regarded as introductory to the elaborate productions of Horsley and Hodgson. But the antiquarian world will assign a much higher standard to its merits; for, although it does not profess to give all the inscriptions contained in those elaborate works, it possesses requisites towards a full comprehension of the wall and its auxiliary buildings which are not to be found in any other treatise upon the subject. Among these may be mentioned numerous well executed lithographic views of the surrounding country at particular points along the line of the wall, as well as views of the details of the wall itself, and of the castra or stations. This we are enabled to show by the
	* Mr. Bruce calculates that the wall and the vallum must have occupied ten thousand men for two years in the construction, and that the cost, estimated at the present day value of labour and materials, would be 1,079,446l.
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