Page:History and characteristics of Bishop Auckland.djvu/209

 182 HISTORY OF BISHOP AUCKLAKD. the favour of his awful deities in the groves on its summit, at a period previous to the subjugation of his race, — When the Britiah warrior queen, Bleeding from the Roman rods, Sought, with an indignant mien — Oounsel from her country's gods — Sage, beneath an aged oai, Sat the Druid, hoary chief, Every burning word he spoke Fall of rage and full of grief." Leland, speaking of Binchester, says: — "Binchester, now a poore village, stondith on the south side of Were, and is but half a mile beneth Castelle Auckland It stondith on the brow of a hill, and there I saw, as I roode on the south side, a little fosse and indicia of old buildings. In the ploughid feeldes hard by thys village hath and be founde Romaine coynes, and other many tokens of antiquitie. Betwixt Akeland and Binchester is an exceeding fair bridg of one arch upon Wera" * Camden, who wrote about a century later, thus speaks of Binchester : — " From hence the Were goes northward, that it may continue longer in this county, and soon comes within sight of the reliques of an old city seated upon the top of a hill, which is not in being at this day, but dead and gone many years ago; called by Antoninus * Vinovium,' by Ptolemy 'Binovium;' in which author it is so missplaced, and, as it were, seated under another pole, that I could never have discovered it, but by Antoninus s direction. At present it is called by us Binchester, and consists of about one or two houses only ; yet much took notice of by the neighbours thereabouts upon the account of the rubbish and the ruins of walls yet extant, and also for the Roman coins often dug up in it, which they call Binchester pennies ; and for Roman inscriptions, one of which cut out thus in an altar there, I lately met with : — DEAB. MATRIB. Q. LO CL. (i,. VIN TIANVS COS. V. S. L. M. Another stone wns lately dug up here very much defaced, with gaps, which yet, upon a narrow view, shows this inscription : — TRIE. COHOR. I CARTOV MARTI VICTORI GENIO LOCI ET BONO EVENTVI." Burton supposes the first named altar to have been reared by Claudius Quintianus, consul under the Emperor Maximinus, about the year 236, upon performance of his vow made to the Deabus Matribus, or Mather Goddesses ; and the 'other to be a dedication to Mars the Conqueror, to the Genus Loci, or tutelar spirit of the place, and to an imaginary God of the Romans called Bonus Eventus, or Happy Events. In a letter from John Cade, Esq., the celebrated antiquarian (who was a native of Darlington), to Dr. Kaye, Dean of Lincoln, and given in the " Archseologia," he thus notices Binchester : — The Vinovium of Antoninus, and Binovium of Ptolemy, situated on the stratum called the Fosseway, was a celebrated mentioned i places in modern times, tbat the Dridge was of Koman constraction, and crossed the nver somewnere m zne vicmicy oi cne camp^ Wright says : " We have many proofs fiiat the rivers in this country were passed by an extensive system of bridges ; it is probable^ indrnd, that a military road selaom passed a river withoat one^" Digitized by Google j