The Wall on Cockmount Hill. Lithographed by J. S. Kell. 5 1/2 x 7 9/16 inches. Source: Bruce, facing p. 239. Scanned image and text by George P. Landow from a copy in Rockefeller Library, Brown University. [This image may be used without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose.]
After passing Cockmount farm-house, we meet with a long and very encouraging tract of the Wall. Its north face exhibits six or seven courses of facing stones, and in some places as many as nine; the south face is broken. The lithographic drawing represents it. Before coming to Ollalee farm-house, the ruins of a mile-castle, very distinctly marked, are met with, at the distance of seven and a quarter furlongs from Æsica. Opposite the farm-house, the Wall is reduced to a pitiable condition, and it continues so until after passing Walltown. Two centurial stones have been built into the front wall of the farm-house; they are both much weathered.. . . About three furlongs beyond the mile-castle we reach Mucklebank Crag, the highest of the Nine Nicks of Thirlwall. It is eight-hundred and sixty feet above the sea. The view is very extensive. In addition to the objects formerly named, the viaduct of the Alston Railway forms a pleasing feature in the landscape. — John Collingwood Bruce, p. 239
Sources
Bruce, John Collingwood. The Roman Wall: A Description of the Mural Barrier of the North of England. 3rd ed. London: Longmans, Green, Reader, and Dyer, 1867.
Last modified 8 August 2006