46 REV. G. R. HALL ON 



unfortunately passed into other hands and lost (it was not the 

 first History of Northumberland, by Wallis, the Curate of Simon- 

 burn, as I believed for a time), which told of a great battle having 

 been fought on and near to this terraced escarpment, one army 

 being stationed there, flanking and protecting Birtley (anciently 

 Birkley) Castle, the ruins of which are still visible, and the other 

 army occupying the British fort in Countess Park, beneath which 

 we then stood. He added the report that it was at the time when 

 Welsh soldiers garrisoned the castle, and Northumbrians were 

 transferred to the Welsh marches in their stead : — a local remi- 

 niscence, perhaps, of the rebellion of the valiant Hotspur, his al- 

 liance with the princes of Wales, and his possession of estates at 

 Walwick Grange, and elsewhere, in North Tynedale.* When 

 Lieut. Sitwell, E.E., came to make his final corrections for the 

 Ordnance Survey, I had the opportunity of consulting a compet- 

 ent authority. Though he, like others, decidedly inclined at first 

 to the supposition of their being lines of entrenchment, he soon 

 pointed out many objections to it from a military point of view ; 

 the chief of which were the trivial heights, comparatively, of the 

 western terrace-lines for one-third of their length, which would 

 make them useless as a defensive precaution, and especially the 

 broad inclined approach or descending slope at the angle of junc- 

 tion with the southern face, which would never have served as a 

 redan, or advanced position, either to aid in the defence or to 

 annoy besiegers in flank. If this supposition (held, too, by our 

 historian, Hodgson, f in regard to such terraces) of their being 



*See "Feudal and Military Antiquities," Chap. XIII., p. 261, by Rev. C. H. Hartshorne. 



t" History of Northumberland," Part II., Vol. III., p. 402. It may be remarked here 

 that terraces in direct connection with, and immediate proximity to, ancient camps are met 

 with in the valley ; but they are of quite a different character from those now imder dis- 

 cussion, occm-ring as part of the defences of British forts, and strengthening the ramparts 

 and ditches in such a manner as to prove they were an intentional portion of the original 

 castrametation, in the examples in which they are found. — See Mr. MacLauchlan's Notes, 

 &c., respecting several instances near Keilder, pp. 58, 61, 65, and 68. Dr. Bruce perhaps 

 refers to such a terrace partly encircling the camp on Wall Hill, beneath the rampart on the 

 west and south, which is very marked ; though the adjoining series of similar ledges, many 

 huncU'ed yards distant, seem also to be alluded to in the following passage: — "Lines of en- 

 trenchment may be seen near tlie summit of Warden HiU, which lies upon the fork of the 

 two rivers, and upon the hill behind the village of Wall, which is seated upon the left bank 

 of the North Tyne. These are probably ancient British Works." — "Roman Wall," 3rd 

 Edition, p. 166. 



