there is page upon page of inflated rhodomontade. The following lines are the only ones, not printed, which can be well detached. L.B.-Words cannot teach thee, Anna, what I feel; Such are some of the particulars of the conception and elaboration of "Douglas." The result must be deEdinburgh. ferred to another paper, together with some interesting anecdotes of the author's subsequent life. A. B. G. THE ROMAN WALL. The Roman Wall; an Historical and Topographical Description of the Barrier of the Lower Isthmus, extending from the Tyne to the Solway. Deduced from numerous personal surveys. By the Rev. John Collingwood Bruce, M.A. one of the Council of the Society of Antiquaries, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Second and enlarged edition. London, J. R. Smith. 1852. 8vo. IT is rare to find a work of an exclusively antiquarian character reach ing a second edition after the lapse of so brief a space of time as two years. Our volume for 1851 contains a review of Mr. Bruce's first edition of his Roman Wall, and our Magazine of the same year also contains some notes on the same subject by Mr. Roach Smith, who, in company with Mr. Bruce and the late Mr. Price, passed a week in examining the remains of this remarkable structure, and the castra connected with it, from WallsEnd to Carlisle. On the present occasion we shall restrict our notices to some of the recent discoveries, and to the more remarkable portions of the novel matter introduced into this new and revised edition, premising that, although it appears a champion on the side of Severus has entered the lists against our author, who supports the claim of Hadrian as builder of the wall," we see no reason, from any new fact or from any new view of historical evidence, to change our opinion on this question, which is in favour of Mr. Bruce's theory. There are certain discrepancies in the statements made by ancient writers; but, when they are carefully weighed with conclusions drawn from the remains themselves, coupled with the powerful arguments drawn from inscriptions, we cannot resist believing that Hadrian constructed the wall and its attendant lines of earthworks, and that Severus made many reparations, and added, probably, some of the walled castra along the line of the great fortification. To inscriptions we cannot attach too much importance, and the careful manner in which Mr. Bruce has collected them, and authenticated their discovery, adds much to their value. The following, for instance, an unpublished one copied by Stukeley, seems to fix the heretofore undecided situation of Morbium at Moresby. Its preservation is fortunate, and its history is the more curious as Stukeley does not seem to have been aware of its peculiar value. Mr. Bruce, speaking of Moresby, remarks : Considerable uncertainty exists as to the ancient name of this place. Camden says, to encourage us to believe that this was "There has been no inscription yet found the MORBIUM where the Equites Cataphractarii quartered; though the present name seems to imply it." This difficulty no longer exists. Horsley saw an inscription (LXXV Cumb.) in a field, a little east * See our Review department, hereafter. I cannot but think, with Mr. Roach Smith, to whom I am indebted for the copy, that Stukeley's reading is the correct one, and that a prima facie case is made out for supposing Moresby to be the MORBIUM of the Notitia. Horsley, for reasons which have not been generally acquiesced in by antiquaries, places ARBEIA, which follows MORBIUM in the Notitia, at Moresby. An inscription very recently discovered at High Rochester confirms It may be read G[ENIO] D[OMINI] N[OSTRI] ET SIGNORVM COH [ORTIS] PRIME VARDVL [ORVM] ET N[VMERI] EXPLORA TOR [VM] BREM [ENII] COR [NELIVS] EGNATIVS LVCILI ANVS LEG [ATVS] AVG[VSTALIS] PR [0] PR[ETOR] CVRANTE CASSIO SABINIANO TRIB [VNO] aram posuit. Two inscriptions had been found at this station many years since. In one the first cohort of the Varduli is mentioned; in the other the duplares of a detachment of the Exploratores, and the fact of their being stationed at Bremenium. The former is of the time of Elagabalus (not of Caracalla as inferred by Horsley). From that recently found we learn that these two bodies of soldiers were quartered together at this station in the time of Gordian, for it is elsewhere shewn that Egnatius Lucilianus was legate of this emperor. The Varduli, as appears by the Sydenham rescript, were in Britain in the time of Trajan; the second cohort of them is mentioned in it as surnamed Fida, a title which is also To the genius of our Emperor and of the Standards of the first cohort of the Varduli and of a Numerus of Exploratores of Bremenium, Cornelius Egnatius Lucili anus, the imperial Legate, proprætor, under the superintendence of Cassius Sabinianus, the Tribune, erected this altar. shared by the first cohort, as is proved by another inscription also very recently excavated at Bremenium, and a copy of which we here introduce from Mr. Bruce's second edition of his volume. (See the next page.) We think with Mr. Bruce that the erased name is most probably that of Elagabalus. The word ballis we may read balneis, signifying that the public baths were restored from their foundations by the first cohort of the Varduli. Another inscription has been lately afforded by excavations. It is a votive tablet to Antoninus Pius, erected by the first cohort of the Lingones, under Lollius Urbicus, on the occasion apparently of the completion of some building. This is the Lollius Urbicus who, IMPERATORI] CE [SARI] C[o]H[ORS] I F[IDA] VARD [VLORVM] SVB C[AIO] CL[AVDIO] APELLINI [0] LEG[ATO] AVG[VSTALI] In honour of the Emperor Cæsar, The first Cohort of the Varduli, styled the Faithful, under Caius Claudius Apellinius, imperial legate; Capitolinus says, built the upper barrier or Antonine Wall. The station Bremenium, now High Rochester, where the precited inscriptions have been found, lies about twenty-two miles north of the wall, upon the Watling Street. As it is now being excavated a fuller account of the discoveries cannot be unacceptable to our readers, especially as many of them, on a late occasion, visited the site. Mr. Bruce thus describes it : It (the station) has evidently been placed here for the protection of the road. When viewed in relation to the ground in its immediate vicinity, the station seems to stand high, and to be very much exposed to the weather; but, if it be looked upon from the hills to the east of it, it will be seen to occupy a defile in the mountain chain, through which the Military Way is very skilfully taken in its progress to the north. Watling Street passes the station on its eastern side, and shoots boldly forward towards Chew Green. The pavement of the road may be traced in a very complete state for miles together, though there are portions of it which seem never to have been paved at all. South of the station the road may in most places be distinguished, until, on the southern rim of the basin of the Rede Water, the modern turnpike coalesces with it. Several pieces of black oak, perfectly sound, have been got out of the river near to the place where the road crossed it, and some portions are imbedded in the bank in such a way as to encourage the belief that the road was here supported upon timbers. In a military point of view the site of the station is very strong. On all sides, excepting near the south-east corner, the ground slopes from it; and on the north side, it sinks so rapidly as to give the The walls of the station are stronger than camp the protection of a bold breast-work. those of the forts on the line of the Wall; they are not only thicker, but are composed of larger stones. In one place the thickness; the interior of it seems to have station wall measures seventeen feet in been filled with clay. The wall, at the north-west corner, has been laid bare; seven courses of stones are standing in position. Here some repairs have evidently been effected after the original erection of the station, the newer part being composed of stones of a larger size than the rest of the wall. Between the walls of the station and the moat a space of ground, of twelve or fifteen feet in width, has been levelled and bedded over with clay and gravel, as if to form a platform for military operations. The position of the gateways in the north and south ramparts may easily be discerned; some portions of their masonry remain. There have probably been two gateways on the eastern and western sides of the station. One gate, on the western side, has recently been cleared. It stands upwards of six feet high. The entrance is a single one; it is wider on the outer than the inner margin, but exhibits an average width of about eleven feet. The north jamb of this gateway is crowned with a rudely-moulded capital, above which is the springer of an arch. Underneath the threshold is a regularly-built drain, which has brought the waste water from the station; several other sewers have been observed between the south-west and north-east angles of the station, the inclination of the ground being towards the north. A succession of grooved stones, covered with flags, lie in the threshold of the south gateway; by this channel clean water has probably been brought into the station from the mossy ground, on the south-east of it. This ground is above the level of the station, and, before being drained, yielded water in abundance. In those parts where the station is naturally strongest a single fosse has environed the walls; in those which are less strong the moat has been double; but at the south-east angle, which is the weakest point, it has been quadruple. A portion of this four-fold entrenchment has been levelled, for the purposes of cultivation. Last year (1851) the field was in wheat; after the crop had been cut it was pleasing to observe, in the comparative rankness and strength of the stubble on the "made ground," the pre cise lines of the ditches. The stations on the line of the Wall were for the most part abandoned after the Romans quitted Britain. Some of them, especially those to the north, were probably given up anterior to that event. In the course of time they fell into ruins, over which earth and herbage gradually accumulated, and up to the present day many of them have remained unmolested, with the exception of parts of the outer walls and the more exposed portions of the building within, which have served for building materials through many centuries. Still the foundations were untouched. In the south of England, on the contrary, where the population was denser, and the land of greater value for agricultural purposes, the interior of the Roman stations and castles have been almost denuded of the remains of buildings. It is therefore in those of the north that we may expect the more interesting results from well-directed excavations, such as those now being made at Bremenium and one or two other places. It is to be hoped that what has been brought to light will induce the Duke of Northumberland to proceed with the researches which form so in teresting a part of the new edition of Mr. Bruce's volume, as an abstract will demonstrate. is struck with the mass of buildings it On entering the station the spectator contains. They are not, Mr. Bruce decides, of the same character or age. Some, from their superior masonry, indicate that they belong to the original plan; others are referable to later periods. Two distinct layers of flagstones, both much worn, with a mass of rubbish between them, are to be noticed in some of the houses and streets. The chief street, twenty feet wide, runs through the station from east to west. Another street, to the south, runs in the direction of those points of the rampart where the second lateral gateways are supposed to be; this is eight feet wide. Precisely in the centre of the camp is a square plot of building (A, in the following plan), which subsequent investigation may prove to be the prætorium. The portal (E) leading into it from the via principalis has been crowned by an arch; many of the wedge-shaped stones which composed it were found upon the ground. Advancing a few feet inwards, we meet with what appears to be a second portal, the basement course of two strong square pillars of masonry (P. P.) remaining in position; these too may have been spanned by an arch, or they may have been surmounted by statues of Victory. The latter supposition is suggested by the discovery, already referred to, of a nearly complete figure of the favourite goddess of the Romans, and a small fragment of a second, within the eastern gateway of BORCOVIIn the chamber which is entered CUS. after passing these pediments the most striking object is an underground tank (F) The masonry of its walls bears the chaabout eight feet square, and six feet deep. racter of the second, rather than of the first period. Two narrow apertures on its south side near the top seem intended for the admission of water, and a shallow trough and gutter on the edge of one of the opposite corners, have apparently been intended to carry off the superfluous liquid. There is now lying at the bottom of it the stone lintel of a doorway, upwards of six feet long; before being precipitated into the tank, it would seem to have long lain upon the ground of the station, for it is much worn, as if by the sharpening of knives upon it. Proceeding in a straight line onwards, and at the southern extremity of this range of buildings, another underground receptacle (G) is seen. It |