Page:History and characteristics of Bishop Auckland.djvu/212

 HISTORY OP BISHOP AUCKLAND. 185 fishing in this place for a dish of trout for his breakfast some fine spring morning perchance, years before ever Saxon invader or Norman conqueror set foot upon the soil of ancient Britain. The extensive and important collection of Roman altars and other sculptured stones which had been found within the camp, or in its precincts, firom time to time, and which had long been preserved with care in an outbuilding of the mansion-house, were, with one exception, destroyed by the owner of the estate, in the construction of the under-ground works of a coal pit, sunk in a field at the north-east end of Newton Cap Bridge, previous to the estate being sold to the Bishop. That exception was an altar, begged by James Kaine, author of " The History of North Durham," and now, by his gift, in the library of the Dean and Chapter of Durham. There were also two or three stands of old English armour, several charters, seals, and other curiosities, all of which were disposed of by public auction at the breaking up of th^ establishment. The station at Binchester stands on elevated ground nearly eighty feet perpendicular above the river Wear, which washes its western foot By the washing of the bank, which consists of strata of sand and loose soil, the south-west comer of the vallum or outer wall is gone ; the north- west wall terminates about half way up the plantain, near where formerly stood the summer house. The ground within the station is an inclining plane facing the east; but on account of old enclosures and long cultivation, it is very difficult to ascertain the dimensions and exact figure of the camps. In the break of the bank at the south-west comer, the foundations of the outer walls, consisting of very large blocks of stone laid transversely, are laid bare. Several pieces of stone aqueducts are on the sides of the hill, where they have shrunk down with the soil, and several fragments of detached masonry are still to be found in and about the station, though in a great measure hidden firom view by the trees and underwood. The elevated situation affords an extensive prospect, and the station must have been, in the hands of the Romans, a place of great strengtL To the south, Auckland Castle, the Park, and ornamental buildings, are in front; Coundon Orange crowns one eminence, Westerton another, and the Tower of Brusselton a third ; whilst the vale of the Wear is opened to the view for a considerable extent to the north and soutL The valley, too, would be most fertile and abundant, and in every way suitable for its dedication to Priapus, who was the god of gardens, under whose auspices, no doubt, agricultural operations to a consider- able extent would be carried on. Thomas Wright, of Byers Green, to whom we have already alluded, in his description of his residence, says : — " Near to this village is also a manifest Roman circus, all good ground, and two miles in compass ; which, as being in the neighbourhood of the camp, is supposed to be that of Albinus, his principal camp being at Aclunum, now Auckland, and the undoubted Binovium of Ptolemy. This [circus] I procured to be restored, in the year 1778, by a subscription of the neigh- bouring gentlemen, and it is judged to be the finest piece of race-ground in the north of England." According to " Horsley's Brittannia Romana," the great Roman road called Watling Street* commenced at the south-east part of the coast of Dover, and extended northward, passing through the counties of Durham and Northumberland into Scotland. At Thomborough it branched off in two directions, one going northward directly to Piercebridge, Binchester, Ebchester, and Cor- bridge, and thence through Northumberland into Scotland ; the other passed by Greta Bridge to Bowes, and thence through Westmoreland and Cumberland to Carlisle, and so into Scotland on that side. We have still many traces in our own neighbourhood of this gigantic undertaking of the great conquerors and civilizers of the world. The Watling Street road, crossing the Tees, enters the county of Durham at Piercebridge, and there joins the turnpike road to Auckland. the name of streets [itrata), a word no donbt derived from the Latin word ttrata^ by which probably they heard them designated among the Boman population. We may still trace their course by the oontinaed recorrenoe of names of l^jfom in which the Saxon word under such forms as $tr0t, Hrat^ ttr^at^ occurs in composition— as Stretton, Stratford, Streatham, kc llie Saxons, who planted their own local traditions wherever they setUocI, oonneoted this wonderful woriL with one of their own mythic t r adi t ions, and oall ' it Wntlinga-Stnst, the road of the WnUing^ or sons of Watla.'* Digitized by Google
 * Wright tayt : *' The Anglo-SuconB adopted the Roman roads and bridges in erery part of the ialand. To the former they gave