Page:History and characteristics of Bishop Auckland.djvu/211

 184 HISTORY OF BISHOP AUCKLANI). way under the load, and which led to the discovery of the hypocaust of a Soman batL* This antique remnant of the usages of the ancient Romans, who roamed the woods and wilds of this neighbourhood in those early days of semi-barbarism, and which remains to the present day, is said to be the most perfect to be foimd in this country. The floor of the superstructure, now covered with earth, is of strong mortar and gravel spread upon square tiles, about eighteen inches square and from two to three inches thick, which are supported by ranges of brick pillars in the apartment beneatL The pillars are nearly five feet high, eight inches square, with intersecting passages between them, fifteen or sixteen ruches wide, crossing each other at right angles. The large square tiles by which the roof of the hypocaust is supported bear the following inscription, " N. Con.," which would ahnost seem to imply that the bath was erected during the reign of Constantius, who died at York in the year 306, or his son Constantine the Great, who succeeded him, and who spent the first six years of his reign in Britain. Wright, iu his work already alluded to, says : " The ordinary building tiles often bear inscriptions indicating the troops or officials by whom, or under whose directions the buildings were erected." He further says: "One of the most remarkable characteristics of Roman buildings was the extensive use of brick, or, perhaps more properly speaking, tiles, for the latter word, as we now understand it, expresses more accurately the form of the Eoman building tiles. They were always flat, generally from half an iuch to an inch, or even two iuches in thickness, and the smaller tiles are generally about seven inches square. But others are found much longer than broad. The old writers, such as Pliny and Vitruvius, give exact directions for the making of tiles, and in those found m England the clay has evidently been prepared and tempered with great care ; they are most commonly of a dark red colour, but iu others the colour is much brighter, and tiles of the two colours are mixed together in a regular arrangement, no doubt for the purpose of ornament." The tiles used in the construction of the hypocaust at Binchester are of the light red kind, and are as hard and fine in texture as a piece of ordinary pottery. It is entered by a flight of steps composed of the ordinary Roman brick, and which leads into an arched vault running the whole length of the hypocaust To the right are two arches, about five feet high, which have evidently been used as fire holes. There are still some slight indications of the foundation of an upper room. The most recent discovery at Binchester, illustrative of its former history, was made during the month of March, 1871. Master Charlton Morgan, son of C. K Morgan, Esq., of Flatts Farm, and Master Thomas Nelson, son of Mr. Ralph Nelson, of Bishop Auckland, were fishing on the north side of the Wear, opposite the south-west comer of the vallum of the station, and in turning over a stone within the bed of the river, they found a beautiful silver coin, in excellent pre- servation, of the reign of Augustus, with the head of that Emperor in most perfect relief, and the word Augustus quite legible. The coin, however, bears no date. On the reverse side is a figure holding something resembling an olive brancL This old coin had, no doubt, lain in the bed of the river, and its waters had rolled over it, for perhaps eighteen hundred years. In all probability, it had been dropped from the hand or pocket of some Roman warrior, when Inznry. They went to great expense in bnilding their public baths with extreme magnificence^ It was customary with them in the first place to anoint the body with oil or perfumes, and then to exercise themselves in the sphoeristeriam or tennis-conrt After this they entered the adjoining cudarium or warm bath, where they sat and washed themselves. The seat was below the surface of the water, and upon it they used to scrape themselves with bronze or iron instruments called strigils, or this operation was performed by an attendant slave. They then rubbed Uiemselves with their hands, and were washed from head to foot by pails or vases of water being poured over them. Being carefully dried, they were covered with a light shasgy mantle called gausape, a kind of thick woollen doth. Effeminate persons had the hair of their bodies pulled out with tweezers, their nails cut, and their bodies anointed or perfumed, even to the soles of their feet. After resuming their clothes, they went into the tepidarium, and either passed very slowly through, or stayed some time in it, that they might not too suddenly expose their bodies to the atmosphere in the trigidanuuL On the discovery of the above-named place, an idea seems to have entered the heads of the more imaginative of the surrounding inhabitants that it was the entrance to a vast subterraneous passage between Binchester and the castle on the opposite hill— a notion which would have been easily dispelled by an examination of the positions of these respective places with the deep ravine between. The belief in vast subterraneous passages is not confined solely to this place. Our ancestors are believed to have excavated a passage from Durham to Finchale Abbey, from Babv Castle to the church of Staindrop, and from Richmond Castle to EasW, by way of the church of St. Martinis, crossing twice beneath the bed of the river Swale. When what was called the egress at £asby was flzplored, however, the hole waa discovered to be nothing more than the common moor of the Abb^. Digitized by Google
 * The ase of the bath was very common amongst the Romans, and was considered by them more in the light of a necessity than a