120 ON ANCIENT REMAINS 



position to the skulls on the table, is a circnmstance out of which 

 a pretty little romance might be contrived. It only needs a 

 glance to see that the larger skull is that of a man, and a person 

 of a different race to its companion, No. 3. The smaller head is 

 evidently that of a young person, and almost certainly of a 

 woman. The un-united sutures, the smaller size, the slender 

 formation, the extreme smoothness of the surface (which presents 

 scarcely any points for muscular attachments), the low, straight, 

 perpendicular forehead, the small narrow palate, the absence of 

 the wisdom teeth, all seem to point out the fact as to the age and 

 gender, while the type of the Northern tribes is plainly imprinted 

 upon the general conformation of that great genealogist, the 

 human skull. It is not so easy to say how they came there, but 

 we may form another theory. 



A few hundred yards above the place where they were found, 

 is an ancient ford — the only |)oint, indeed, where, until recent 

 times, the river was passable for miles up and down, and this 

 issued upon an ancient road, still in use, which stretches away 

 directly northward towards the Pons ^lii and the great stations 

 of the Roman Wall. It is not ultra-hypothetical to imagine a 

 party of Roman soldiers, with their female slaves or camp- 

 followers, taking this route, and, in a boisterous winter flood, 

 being swept aw^ay and drowned. At all events, it is clear that 

 they did get there, that they were washed into the natural drift- 

 trap at the tail of Claxheugh sand-bank; and that they have 

 afforded us an example of the curious links by which history, 

 general and topogra23hical, is held together. 



Sunderland and its neighbourhood have been by no means pro- 

 ductive in Roman relics ; probably from the fact that the discipline 

 and genius of that warlike people made them keep strictly to the 

 great military roads and defences which took the middle route of 

 the country, and led them to avoid the rugged coast and forests 

 of North Diirham. Beyond sundry articles of j^ottery, found near 

 the mouth of the river, I am not aware that any Roman relics of 

 consequence have been disinterred at Sunderland. The suj^posed 

 neighbouring station of Condercum at Chestcr-le- Street, and 

 others in the direct line of the Watling Street, together with 



