An earthen encampment is cut in two by the Newcastle and Berwick railway, in the second field south of the Netherton station. In the space of three fields, lying east of this camp, three others may be distinctly discerned, varying in size from forty to seventy yards square. At Dove-cote, which is less than a mile west of Netherton station, is a large field covered with the ruins of stone buildings. Excavations in one portion at least of the ground yield large quantities of glazed pottery. The remains are apparently mediæval, but it is remarkable that no record of ruins so extensive is known to exist.
Hutchinson says (A.D. 1778), the altar to Hercules is in the possession of the duke of Northumberland; it is not now among those preserved at Alnwick-castle. The altar to Astarte is in the collection at Netherby.
The last time I was in the crypt, I was impressed with the idea that some portions of it were actually of Roman workmanship; if so, St. Wilfrid has adapted to his own uses the vaults which he found on the spot. The crypt at Ripon, to which this bears a marked resemblance, is now understood to be Roman.
Horsley, near the close of his work, was less opposed to this view than at the beginning. In a note (_p._ 481), he says—‘I see no reason to change my sentiments concerning any one of these stations; except that I am more inclined to yield to the common opinion, that BREMETENRACUM is at Brampton, and to think that OLENACUM and VIROSIDUM are transposed; so that OLENACUM may be Ellenborough, on the river Ellen, and VIROSIDUM, Old Carlisle, on the Wiza. And if the military-way near the Wall, which goes by Watchcross, has led to Brampton, as the country people suppose, this might still make it more probable, that Brampton is BREMETENRACUM.’
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~The Roman Barrier of the Lower Isthmus.~
PART V. THE QUESTION—WHO BUILT THE WALL?—DISCUSSED.
Our course hitherto has been a detail of facts; now we enter upon the region of speculation. In the former Parts of this work, the history of the Roman occupation of Britain has been briefly told and an attempt made to depict the present condition of the Vallum and Wall, with their camps, castles, and outworks; now the question must be put—Is the Barrier the Work of one master-mind, or are its several parts the productions of different periods, and of different persons? Had the statements of the ancient historians upon the subject been explicit and consistent, the inquiry would involve simply an appeal to their authority; unhappily, the information which they afford is not only very meagre, but of a character so unsatisfactory, as to compel us to sift their evidence, and to compare it with the facts which we glean from an examination of the fortifications themselves.