T u m u l u s .
N e t h e x - h a l l .
antient name; one ftyles it olenacum, another virojtdum, arid Camden,
volantium, from the wilh infcribed on a beautiful altar found
here, volentit vivas*. It had been a.confiderable place, and had
its military roads leading from it to Morejby, to old Car life, and
towards AmMeftde; and has been a perfect magazine of Roman anth
quities.
Not far from this-ftation is a ‘Tumulus, lingular in its- compoft-
tton ; it is. o f a rounded form,.and was found,, on the feCtion made
o f it by the late Mr. Senhoufe, to confifi: of,, ftrft the fcd or common
turf, then., a regular layer, of crumbly earthy which at the
heginning was thin,, encreaiing in thicknefs as it reached the top.
This was at firft brittle,, but foon after, being expofed to the ait
acquired a great hardnels,. and a ferruginous look. Beneath this
was a bed o f ftrong blue clay,, mixed, with fern roots, placed
on two or three layers of. turf,, with their graflfy fides together;
and under, thefe, as the-prelent Mr. Senhoufe informed me, were
found the hones o f a heifer, and of. a colt,. with fome. wood allies
near them-.
Took, the liberty of walking to Neth'er-hdlf, formerly Alneburgh-
hall: where.I foon difcovered Mr. Senhoufe to be poffefied of the
politenefs. hereditary * in his,family, towards travellers of curiofity;
He pointed out to me-the feveral. antiquities that-had been long
preferved in his houfe and gardens ; engraven by Camden, Mr;
Horfely, and Mr. Gordon:,, and permitted one o f my fervants to,
make.drawings of others that had been difcovered lince.
* Vide Camden to n , Horfdj p. 281, tab. No. Ixviii. Cumberland«
Vide Camden, p. 1012, and Gordon’s Itin. boreal 100.
Among
' Among the latter is the altar found in the rubbilh o f a quarry,
which feemed to have been worked by the Romans, in a very
extenfive manner : it has no infcription, and appears to have been
left unfiniihed; perhaps the workmen were prevented from executing
the whole by the upper part o f the hill flipping down
ever the lower: a circumftance that ftill frequently happens in
¡quarries worked beneath the cliffs. On one flde o f the altar is
a broad dagger, on another a "patera,
[- A fragment of a ftone, with, a boar rudely carved, and the
fetters o r d.
I- A large wooden pin, with a.curious polygonal head.,
i The fpout of a brazdn vefiel. Mr. Senhoufe alfo favored me
i with the fight of fome thin gold plate, found in the fame place:
land ihewed me, near his houfe, in Hall-clofe, an entrenchment o f
a rectangular form, forty-five yards by thirty-fiye: probably
[the defence of. fome antient manfion, fo neceifar.y in this border
[county-.
It gave me great pleafure to review the fculptures engraven in
Mr. Horfely’s antiquities, and preferved in the walls o f this place.
The following were fixed in the walls of the houfe, -by the an—
eeftor, of Mr., Senhoufe, coeval with Camden. On No. 65, an altar,
i appears //irra/« with.his club,, and in.one hand the Hefperian apples.,
ithat he had, conveyedab
infomni male cultodita dracone.
what is lingular, is an upright conic bonnet on his head, o f the
fame kind with, that, in which the goddefs,,on whom he beftowedi
the.