The Second Station: Pons Aelii; now Newcastle
Reconstruction of the wall at Wallsend looking towards Newcastle.
Here I must follow my predecessors, who all through this populous town groped their way in the dark. Busy life ruins antiquity. The faithful Warburton will lead me along this crowded place, where nothing of the Roman is seen; after which I shall be able to walk alone, and perhaps correct my leader.
Though we are arrived at Pandon-gate I apprehend we are not arrived at the Station, but a gate in the town wall, where a turret of the Roman Wall once stood. Pandon, in the time of the Romans, and for ages after, was a distinct village, and given to Newcastle by Edward the First. Warburton proves that Severus’s Wall lies a little to the North of St. Nicholas’s church; that the Wall, which passes through the church porch, was the Eastern wall of the Station itself, and that of Severus was the Northern; thus having found two walls of this great square, the other two will follow. He justly allows the medium of a station to be an area of one hundred and thirty six yards square; which, in this case, will reach near the present castle. This points out the Station.
“There are,” says my hostess, where I applied for a dinner, “some gentlemen to dine here: should you have any objection to dine with them?”
“Not the least, Madam. I am open to all kinds of company.” My landlord afterwards applied: “Perhaps, Sir, you would chuse to dine in this room alone, upon a dish of fish, and a beef steak?”
“No. I have agreed with my landlady to dine with some gentlemen.”
I waited longer than the promise; saw dinner taken in; but no notice taken of me. Disappointment is irksome. “Why am I not,” said I to the waiter, “summoned to dinner?” “I will inform you.” – The notice came.
I found seven gentlemen fully employed, and a niche left for an eighth.
I was treated with a distant respect; and a small degree of awe governed the whole board.
Dinner over; they requested me to return thanks. Which done; – “You seem, gentlemen, to take me for a clergyman; but 1 assure you I am in a far preferable state; for 1 am a freeman, which a great part of the Clergy are not. 1 have nothing to expect from any man but common civility, which 1 wish to return with interest; but he who is under promises, expectations, or even wishes, his sentiments perhaps may not be his own, and he cannot be deemed free. ”
Their countenances brightened.
“I have,” says one of the gentlemen, “seven relations in the Church.”
“Then, Sir, if you are an independent man, are not you the happiest of eight?”
It seemed, their apprehensions of my black dress, from which they were glad to be freed, had nearly deprived me of a dinner.
One of the gentlemen gave, “The King’s friends!” To this, though I am no votary for healths, I made no objection; for a friend will not lead a man wrong. But afterwards entering upon indelicate healths, which neither suited the prayer they had requested, nor my pursuits, I withdrew.
The Wall passes near the West gate, and proceeds on our right towards the turnpike. Not many yards before we reach the gate, it crosses the road, and passes through an inclosure, twenty yards on our left; and not through the Quarry-house, which is close to the turnpike road on our right.
The works of Agricola and Hadrian, forty yards more to the left, make their appearance for the first time; but in a faint degree. These works run twenty yards South of Elswick windmill, a little short of the first mile-stone; and Severus’s Wall is the very turnpike road on which we tread; it is the great, beautiful, and the famous Roman military way, first formed, 1 believe, by Agricola, improved by Severus, and brought into its present state by George the Second; and though it does not attend the whole line of the Wall, it communicates between Newcastle and Carlisle. I shall continue to walk for many miles upon the Wall as part of the turnpike road, with small variations, and Severus’s Ditch at my right elbow.
We leave, on the right, Fenham Lodge, the seat of William Orde, Esq.; and on the left, that of Robinson Bowes, Esq.
All our Historians have failed in two points: they have not given us the dimensions of the mile-castles, which always joined the Wall, and were from twenty-two to twenty-four yards square; nor distinguished the works of Agricola from those of Hadrian; but have confused both, under the name of the latter.
There were four different works in this grand barrier, performed by three personages, and at different periods. I will measure them from South to North, describe them distinctly, and appropriate each part to its proprietor; for, although every part is dreadfully mutilated, yet, by selecting the best of each, we easily form a whole; from what is we can nearly tell what was. We must take our dimensions from the original surface of the ground.
Let us suppose a ditch, like that at the foot of a quickset hedge, three or four feet deep, and as wide, A bank rising from it, ten feet high, and thirty wide in the base. This, with the ditch, will give us a rise of thirteen feet at least. The other side of this hank sinks into a ditch ten feet deep, and fifteen wide, which gives the North side of this bank a declivity of twenty feet. A small part of the soil thrown out on the North side of this fifteen feet ditch, forms a bank three feet high, and six wide, which gives an elevation from the bottom of the ditch, of thirteen feet. Thus our two ditches, and two mounds, sufficient to keep out every rogue but he who was determined not to be kept out, were the work of Agricola.
The works of Hadrian invariably join those of Agricola. They always correspond together, as beautiful parallel lines. Close to the North side of the little bank I last described, Hadrian sunk a ditch twenty-four feet wide, and twelve below the surface of the ground; which, added to Agricola’s three feet bank, forms a declivity of fifteen feet on the South, and on the North, twelve. Then follows a plain of level ground, twenty-four yards over, and a bank exactly the same as Agricola’s, ten feet high, and thirty in the base; and then he finishes, as his predecessor began, with a small ditch of three or four feet.
Thus the two works exactly coincide; and must, when complete, have been most grand and beautiful. Agricola’s works cover about fifty-two feet, and Hadrian’s about eighty-one; but this will admit of some variation.
The annexed Plate shows,
1. Agricola’s Work, with the number of feet. 2. Agricola and Hadrian united. 3. Severus’s Wall and Ditch in profile.
Severus’s works run nearly parallel with the other two; lie on the North, never far distant; but may be said always to keep them in view, running a course that best suited the judgement of the maker. The nearest distance is about twenty yards, and greatest near a mile, the medium forty or fifty yards.
They consist of a stone wall eight feet thick, twelve high, and four, the battlements; with a ditch to the North, as near as convenient, thirty-six feet wide and fifteen deep. To the Wall were added, at unequal distances, a number of Stations, or Cities, said to be eighteen, which is not perfectly true; eighty-one castles, and three hundred and thirty castelets, or turrets, which I believe is true: all joining the Wall.
Exclusive of this Wall and ditch, these Stations, castles, and turrets, Severus constituted a variety of roads yet called Roman Roads, twenty-four feet wide, and eighteen inches high in the centre, which led from turret to turret, from one castle to another, and still larger, and more distant roads from the Wall, which led from one Station to another, besides the grand military way before mentioned, which covered all the works, and no doubt was first formed by Agricola, improved by Hadrian, and, after lying dormant fifteen hundred years, was made complete in 1752.
I saw many of these smaller roads, all overgrown with turf: and, when on the side of a hill, they are supported on the lower side with edging stones.
Thus Agricola formed a small ditch, then a bank and ditch, both large, and then finished with a small bank.
Hadrian joined to this small bank a large ditch, then a plain, a large mound, and then finished with a small ditch.
Severus followed nearly in the same line, with a wall, a variety of stations, castles, turrets, a large ditch, and many roads. By much the most laborious task. This forms the whole works of our three renowned Chiefs.
Links:
Museum of Antiquities at Newcastle University
History of Newcastle at Newcastle Council
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