Page:History and characteristics of Bishop Auckland.djvu/210

 HISTORY OF BISHOP AUCKLAND. 188 Boman city of the Brigantes, and was sacred, I apprehend, to Bacchus, and derived its name YinoTiiun from the festivals instituted there in honour of the deity. Altars and antiquities of various kinds have frequently been found there. Camden takes notice of an altar and inscription to the Dese Matres ; and of another to the genius of the place ; but the most singular is that of a Priapus, at present in the possession of Farrer Wren, Esq., the proprietor of the station. There has likewise been found another portable altar, exactly similar to that in the fifteenth plate of Gordon's Itinerarium SepteQtrionale, bat without any inscription; and also a small bronze image of that deity, which had probably been a symbol worn by the Bacchse, or female priestesses, as there is a perforation in its lower parts ; or perhaps it may be classed among the Lares, similar to those discovered at the Devizes, in Wiltshire, in the year 1714. This celebrated station contains about twenty-nine acres, and is at present an inexhaustible repository of antiquities. Mr. Wren has in his collection some elegant intagUos found there, with a variety of silver and copper coins, both of the upper and lower empire, to the time of Valentinian and Theodosius. Perhaps the Boman pottery at Yinovium has been equal, if not superior, to most in Britain ; I have seen some curious fragments of bowls and vases, enriched with vine branches, and others entire, which appear to have been used as sacrificing vessels ; together with a vast variety of speci- mens of different compositions, some resemble terra cotta, and others of glass. There has likewise been, lately dug up a large bass relief of a Faun, with an altar, but the inscription hitherto illegible. Dr. Spence, in his splendid edition of the Polymetis, stOes the Fauns and Satyres rural deities attendants on Bacchus ; and Calmet, in his learned Dictionary of the Bible, in a print of Heathen idols, gives a bust of the lascivious Pan for Priapus, which is further elucidated by that singular statue in the Ludovisian gardens at Bome, where he is teaching Apollo to play on the shepherd's reed« The ancients feign Priapus to be the son of Bacchus and Venus, and as such he had divine honours paid him at all the festivals of the Bacchanalia, where his image was presented to public view. Hutcliinsoii, in his " History of Durham/' further adds : " To what has been said of the Roman remains discovered here, we beg leave to add, that Mr. Wren has in his possession three seals found at Binchester, cut on coarse cornelians. The first was discovered many years ago, the second in 1767, and the third in 1770. Among the fragments of pottery, there is one impressed with a man on horseback, with a human figure prostrate, as if slain, the horse at full speed ; another with the fore parts of a greyhound in full speed, boldly relieved ; the vessels were certainly dedicated to other deities than Bacchus. The coins consist both of the higher and lower empire, among them one or more of Julius Csesar, but the chief part are of the lower empire. Some of the urns and lachrymatories are elegant pottery : in the hall is a rude head, like that preserved at Thirlwall, in Northumberland, several vases of a singular form, and one mutilated figure, with an urn in his arms, which perhaps was sepulchral" Another figure is mentioned by Cade, which he calls a Faun, but which Hutchinson thinks is one of the Fundatores or slingers of the Boman army, a cut of which he gives in his " History of Durham," taken from a sketch by Surtees. Hutchinson thinks it has been an ornament to some public edifice, carved in compliment to a chieftain under whom the light armed troops had gained singular honours. The figure Ilbs a bag suspended before him, and supported by the left hand, containing the balls or stones for his sling, and his right arm is elevated in the very action of using his sling. An animal which Hutchinson takes to be a hare is also carved on the same stone, which animal was held by the Bomans as a common emblem of circumspection and watchfulness. In Gyll's MSS. it is stated that, " On Thursday, the Sth of August, 1757, he saw at Binchester, by the side of the 'way leading up the hill towards Mr. Wren's house, a stone consisting of six sides nearly square, on one side a bold figure of a Priapus in basso-relievo, one of the sides slopes to a narrower square at the top, where a hole is cut, as a mortise to receive the foot or stem of some statue." This curious relic was lying at that time near the farm house on the top of the hill, and had been previously used for the weight of a cheese-press, but rejected by the housewife, with much aversion, from its extraordinary sculpture, not discovered by the dame till her cheese had been spoiled, as she alleged, by the unpropitious influence of the enormous deity. The most remarkable discovery, howevei', at Binchester was made about seventy years ago. A cart-load of hay was passing along, within the area of the camp, when the earth was observed to give Digitized by Google -