Old Cumbria Gazetteer - Hadrian's Wall: GentsMag 1851 part 1


included in:-	Hadrian's Wall
	Hadrian's Wall: GentsMag 1851 part 1
evidence:-	old text:- Gents Mag placename:- Roman Wall, The item:- Roman Wall, The; Historical Topographical, and Descriptive Account of the Barrier of the Lower Isthmus
source data:-	Magazine, The Gentleman's Magazine or Monthly Intelligencer or Historical Chronicle, published by Edward Cave under the pseudonym Sylvanus Urban, and by other publishers, London, monthly from 1731 to 1922. goto source Gentleman's Magazine 1851 part 1 p.147 book review "THE ROMAN WALL." "EVERY new year brings us fresh assurance that archaeology is being studied in a proper spirit, and is gaining some little hold on the sympathies of the public. The researches and discoveries which have been made during tha last few yaers have very properly been promptly published, and in a manner which has placed the acquisitions to antiquarian science within the reach of all. The advantages arising from the comparative accessibility of antiquarian publications are obvious. One of the most palpable is a more extended familiarity with the various branches of the study" "The Roman Wall: a Historical Topographical, and Descriptive Account of the Barrier of the Lower Isthmus, extending from the Tyne to the Solway. By the Rev. John Collingwood Bruce, M.A. London and Newcastle. 1851. 8vo."
source data:-	goto source 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."
source data:-	goto source Gentleman's Magazine 1851 part 1 p.149 "..." ""The stations," the author observes, "appear to have been built before the wall, and, as the necessity of the case required that they should be run up as quickly as possible, a smaller class of stone was allowed to pass muster here than was used in the wall. The workmanship is also of inferior quality. The front of the stones, both of the wall and stations, is roughly 'scrabbled' with the pick. In some parts of the line this tooling takes a definite form; when this is the case, the marking called diamond broaching is most common. Sometimes the stone is scored with wavy lines, or with small" click to enlarge G851E03.jpg "squares, or with nearly upright lines. ... It was not until I had become tolerably familiar with the wall, that my attention was called to this peculiar kind of tooling. ... Cuttings resembling mason's marks occasionally occur. Sometimes they consist" click to enlarge G851E04.jpg "of a single or double stroke, sometimes of a diagonal cross, sometimes a rectangular. The other marks which are here represented are less frequently met with."" click to enlarge G851E05.jpg "..."
source data:-	goto source Gentleman's Magazine 1851 part 1 p.150 "..." "In addition to these stations the wall was provided with castella, now called Mile Castles, quadrangular in form, and measuring usually from 60 to 70 feet in each direction; and subsidiary to these were turrets or watch-towers of about eight to ten feet square; the latter of these have in comparatively recent times, been destroyed, and the castella have not shared a much better fate. In all these buildings it is remarkable that no tiles, so common in the Roman structures in the south, have been used; they are only to be found in the foundations and hypocausts of the domestic edifices within the stations. By comparison, many other points of difference will also be noticed. The fortresses erected by the Romans on the line of the "Littus Saxonicum" are of more imposing appearance, of wider area, and possess higher architectural pretensions; but these two great chains of stone fortresses, the maritime to repel the Saxons and Franks, the inland to defend against the Picts and Scots, were both admirably adapted for those purposes. In the north, the wall itself was the main protection, and the number of the castra was requisite to sustain intercourse and rapid communication. In the south, the sea was to a certain extent a defence,"
source data:-	goto source Gentleman's Magazine 1851 part 1 p.151 "so long as the chief posts were well guarded." "But the great wall must not be viewed in detached pieces, and compared disparagingly with finer architectural examples which may easily be found. It must be viewed in its entire extent, with its vallum, castra, and outposts, to do justice to the bold conception and admirable completion of this stupendous barrier. The Pfahlgraben, in Germany, is a very similar work, twice the extent, we believe, of the Picts' wall, and probably of contemporaneous origin. And here we may direct attention to the advantage of studying continental antiquities simultaneously with those of our own country. One of the greatest achievements of the Society of Antiquaries was that of sending its draftsman, the late Mr. Charles Stothard, to Bayeux to copy the celebrated tapestry preserved there, and afterwards engraving and publishing it; and we think the Society might, profitably, depute some one or two of its members to make a careful survey of the Pfahlgraben with a view to illustrate the analogous monument of our own land." "Mr. Bruce having given a very full description of the wall as it exists at the present day, together with the stations in rotation, and the inscriptions and other antiquities found in and about them, proceeds to discuss the question of who was the builder of the wall. Popularly it is called the wall of Severus. Antiquaries have been divided in their opinions respecting its date, some assigning it to Hadrian, others to Severus, while the same conflicting theories prevail with regard to the date of the vallum or turf wall which runs parallel with the stone wall to the south. The testimony of ancient writers Mr. Bruce weighs with an impartial hand; but it is chiefly on the remains themselves, on the course of the vallum and its peculiar connexion with the wall, and, mainly, on inscriptions, that he forms his belief that both works are coeval, and are to be ascribed to the genius of Hadrian; to Severus he gives the credit of making the repairs which time and the enemy had rendered necessary." "..."
source data:-	goto source Gentleman's Magazine 1851 part 1 p.154 "..." "The volume closes with a descriptive account (illustrated by fifty cuts), of gold and silver consular and imperial coins found in 1837 near Thorngrafton. Of these one of the rarest is the aureus of Nero which bears on the reverse the head of Claudius. We believe the discovery of coins on the line of the Wall has in more than one instance led to the disastrous consequences of lawsuits,and thus the question of the treasure-trove* law and its pernicious tendency as regards the preservation of antiquities naturally suggests itself for consideration. Something was done at the Oxford meeting of the Archaeological Institute relative to this question, and it is to be hoped it did not end as matters mooted by public bodies often do, in passing a resolution." "In taking leave of Mr. Bruce's work we may express a hope that our brief notice of some of its attractions may promote its circulation. The author's style renders it highly readable, the facts he has collected will make it useful for reference, and its portability and clear arrangement of the subject-matter should introduce it as a companion to all who may desire to study fully one of the noblest monuments of our country." "..." "*Not only coins but other objects of value have been repeatedly secreted from the lord of the manor, who keeps a close watch on discoveries. The late Mr. Brumell's silver paterae were found in this district; they constituted only a small part of the hoard which was melted by the Newcastle silversmiths."

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