By The Roman Wall - Notes On A Summer Holiday (Paperback)

by Maria A. Hoyer (Author)
Key Phrases: limestone bank, Kinmont Willie, Crag Lough, Hot Bank (more...)

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IN the still night when Time beats dull and slow, And all the mystic courses of the blood flow back To mingle with the dim mysterious past, I was not I or to some earlier life Returned, and knew the centuries long ago. Upon the Wall I stood, a sentinel. Where the great Barrier rises with that land Which heaves huge shoulders to the north, and falls In strange fantastic crag or precipice There stood I gazing oer the misty Fells. Near from the Camp upon the sloping hill, Came the rough murmur of the soldiers talk, Rough Tungrian words and harsh Batavian speech But I was Roman of the Flavian House, Sent here, alas to rid me of my sins. Sin What of sin The Gods who lie above Watch with calm eyes the foolish ways of men, And send sharp curses down to punish us. But they too pass are passed, old Caius saith, Who talks of One a Man-God crucified. His fathers father saw Him so he says, Hanging upon the cross in Palestine. And now they worship Him and prophesy That He will conquer all the Roman World, And kill the old Gods, send them fleeing fast, As we drive back the savage hordes that sweep, Against our Wall, and clamour at the Gates, And sometimes, when our men keep careless watch, Almost prevail to drive us from our post Thats why theyve built the second postern up But what is that A shadow creeping by far below. Along the misty valley Hark there a stone falls thats the tread of feet Crushing the bracken Ho Let trumpets blow It is the Foe the Foe Quick, Comrades,Man the Wall 1 INTRODUCTION How we came to visit the Wall HADRIAN built a Wall Such was the clear and definite statement that we had learnt in the remote past, and which had fixed in our youthful minds the fact that once a Roman Wall had extended from the mouth of the River Tyne to the Solway Firth. From what source we had acquired the information, whether from Magnalls Questions, or Mrs. Markhams History, or the Childs Guide to Knowledge memory has not recorded. For years our mental attitude towards the Wall somewhat resembled that of the Sunday School child towards places mentioned in the Bible, for on her teacher speaking of Mount Tabor in the present tense this scholar cried Why it aint there still, is it, teacher I thought it had gone up to eaven long ago We did not, perhaps, think that Hadrians work had taken that flight, but it was long before we realized that the Wall, or some part of it, still existed. But illumination coming, we decided some day to go and see it, and at last we changed the some day into this August The decision made, the next thing was to acquire definite information as to what was really left of the Wall, and how to approach it. This we found in Dr. Bruces book on the subject, which became in the end our Guide, Philosopher and Friend, and led us faithfully and wisely along all that is best and most interesting of the remains of that mighty Barrier. That mighty Barrier The words are used deliberately. Ones childish ideamay have pictured a magnified garden wall with, perhaps, broken glass or iron spikes at the top, but certainly ones most imaginative dreams fell short, far short, of the great reality. For study of the subject revealed it as one of the greatest works of that amazingRoman people. We found it to be not only a Wall, but a vast and complicated line of fortification extending nearly eighty miles across a wild and mountainous country, and consisting of three parts, i.e. first, the Stone Wall with a Fosse to the north of it second, the Earthwork, called the Vallum with its Agger and Fosse, to the south third, the series of military camps or stations connected with both Wall and Vallum, and the Military Road linking the whole together...

Product Details

• Paperback: 184 pages
• Publisher: Duey Press (October 9, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 140677989X
• ISBN-13: 978-1406779899
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
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