Gents Mag 1851 part 2 p.506
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Gentleman's Magazine 1851 part 2 p.506
[farm-]house are numerous fragments of architecture, altars, and mutilated inscribed stones, which have as yet escaped complete destruction. One of the altars is inscribed DeO . BELATUCADRO . VOTU. S.; another, in a wall, is dedicated to the god Veteres, probably the Vithris of the north; a third, much weather-worn, seems addressed to Jupiter, Helius and Rome. list, list, The traveller on leaving Carvoran will, from necessity, rest at Glenwhilt, a village at no great distance on the line of the Newcastle and Carlisle railway. He will then be prepared to encounter the somewhat difficult access to Birdoswald, (Amboglanna,) one of the noblest of the stations of the wall. To avoid a very circuitous route the river Irthing must be forded, and the steep banks of a ravine covered with thickets and underwood must be surmounted. Under the most favourable circumstances this is a serious task. With us it was rendered more formidable by the rain, and, had not our fearless guide animated us by example, we should possibly have remembered the warning precept of Hodgson, that "the attempt is very dangerous, and should never be tried by those whose life and existence are in any way useful." The site of the station is one of great natural strength, as on every side except the west it is protected by deep scars and inland cliffs, and by a detour of the Irthing. Amboglanna was the head qtrs of the first cohort of the Dacians, styled AElia, probably in compliment to Hadrian, and subsequently termed in addition, Gordiana, from the Emperor Gordian, and Tetriciana from Tetricus the successful usurper in Britain and Gaul in the time of Claudius Gothicus and Aurelian. Numerous inscriptions have been dug up in and about the station. One is built up in a wall of the farm-house within the area, and fragments of others are lying about the garden. Most of these are dedications to Jupiter. Others record the second and sixth legions. We were gratified with the sight of a fine piece of sculpture three feet high, in the farm-house, representing one of the Deae Matres. The goddess is repesented seated in a chair and covered with drapery, the folds of which are very elaborately worked; the hands, which probably held a basket of fruit, and the head, have been broken off. But since our return Mr. Bruce has found the head in the possession of a person at Newcastle, and a hope may now be entertained that head and body will be united in the museum of the antiquaries of Pons AElii. It is not creditable to private individuals to abstract solely for their own gratification that which by right and reason belongs to the public. But unfortunately there are hundreds of Roman monuments found along the line of the wall which have been carried away from the places where they were discovered and rendered totally inaccessible to the artsit and to the antiquary. It is also to be noticed that that persons who for a mere selfish object carry off antiquities are the last to communicate notices to the proper qtrs where records would be made of the discoveries for the use of those whose tastes and acquirements qualify them to appreciate the true value of works of antient art. The remains at Birdoswald are, comparatively, well preserved, and the arrangement of the camp, together with the position of the streets and buildings, can yet be well understood, encumbered as they are with earth and their own ruins. For some distance westward of Birdoswald the wall is in excellent condition, but as Carlisle and the western extremity are approached it becomes more and more indistinct, and is in many places entirely destroyed. The antiquary, however, will never find a dearth of materials. The great barrier itself has been pillaged by everybody, from the Government down to the humble tenant of a few acres, and its substance is now in high roads, churches, farm-houses, and cottages. But an extraordinary number of valuable monuments have escaped the hands of the plunderers, and are to be found in private collections along the site of the wall and its appendages. Some I have mentioned. The chief of those which belong to the western extremity of the wall are at Lanercost Priory and at Mr. Senhouse's near Maryport. Besides the great stations, to which, in this brief notice, I have referred, there are others both north and south of the wall not less interesting, and abounding in sculptures and inscriptions. We were only able to visit |
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