666 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1702. 



Abstract of some Letters from Mr. Christopher Hunter to Dr. Martin Lister, 

 F. R. S. concerning several Roman Inscriptions, and other Antiquities in York- 

 shire. Dated from Stockton in April and May 1702. N° 278, p. 1 VIQ. 



There has been a Roman station at a village called Ebchester in the county 

 of Durham. It has been surrounded with a wall of hewn stone, and seems to 

 have been an exact square, of about 200 yards on every side ; there have been 

 suburbs towards the west, south, and perhaps east, of a considerable extent; 

 but towards the north the wall has stood upon the top of a steep bank, under 

 which runs the river Derwent, in which not long since was found a long altar, 

 but its inscription defaced ; as also a smaller stone, with this word, HAVE, on 

 one side. There is another, which is used as a grave-stone, that lies before the 

 church-door, which by the engraving of a man from the breast upwards in a 

 Roman dress, seems to have been Roman. These are all the stones I can meet 

 with that have ever had any Roman inscription. I inquired of the most under- 

 standing inhabitants concerning what has been found there whilst they dug up 

 the ruins of this place, all confess they have dug up many inscriptions, but 

 (because nobody there understood them) they always broke them ; and they 

 add, that in most places they plainly discern two different foundations of ruined 

 houses, and most stones thus dug up are tinged of a deep red colour, undoubt- 

 edly by fire. That part of the village which stands within the walls, is called 

 the Mains, and there are the most ruins ; here are many fragments of tiles dug 

 up, of a red clay, but not one entire. On undermining an old foundation, still 

 visible on a hill side, there was found a considerable quantity of pewter. 



Watling-street passes by this place, about J 00 yards to the west; for it 

 could not conveniently be brought through the town, by reason of a brook 2 

 or 300 yards to the south, whose banks are very uneven ; and the above-men- 

 tioned Sleep hill, towards the north, makes a passage that way next to impos- 

 sible. I can meet with no certainty whether the Romans have had a bridge over 

 Derwent, at Ebchester ; but it seems probable they had, both from the number 

 of soldiers who must needs have passed that way, and from the considerable 

 size of this river. 



Most of the words in the Roman inscriptions are so artificially crazed, that I 

 am apt to believe it has been thus defaced on some revolution in the Roman 

 government. These stones, beautified with inscriptions and sculpture, were 

 dug up some time ago in a field called the Bower, about half way between the 

 Roman wall and south Tine, and near 2 miles west from Busygap ; here has 

 been kept a Roman garrison ; it is square, surrounded with a single wall, but now 

 is nothing but heaps of stones, overgrown with bushes. Some years ago, on the 



