Under Another Sky

by Charlotte Higgins

  Chapter Nine: York

  • Page 161 epigraph: from Camden’s Britannia, on York. • Page 161 ‘No city or town’: Hargrove, p.17. • Page 162 When archaeologists were brought in to dig’: Ottaway, p.18. • Page 164 Let no one escape sheer destruction: epitome of Cassius Dio, History of Rome, 76.15. • Page 164 Julia Domna: ibid., 76.16. • Page 164 a gang of centurions: ibid., 77.2. • Page 165 ‘If anyone so much as wrote the name Geta’: ibid., 77.12. • Page 167 Corellia Optata inscription: RIB 684. • Page 167 She was a little over five feet tall: Leach et al., 2010, p.135. • Page 168 ‘In cosmopolitan Eboracum’: ibid., p.141. • Page 170 ‘Castle Douglas, our damp little town’, Yassin-Kassab. • Page 170 ‘DM REGINA LIBERTA’: RIB 1065. • Pages 171–172 ‘Britanniae sanctae’: RIB 643. • Page 172 Demetrius: RIB 662 and 663. • Page 173 ‘placed as so many bulwarks’: Gordon, p.138 • Page 174 ‘a great many things may be learned’, Horsley, p.iv. • Page 176 ‘Rome’s Afghanistan’: Mary Beard, writing in the Sunday Times, February 2012. • Pages 177–178 Conrad: Woolf, 2007, pp.18–19, brilliantly discusses Conrad’s Heart of Darkness in relation to Roman ideas about Britain – a passage on which these paragraphs are dependent. Chapter Ten: Cumbria and the Lakes • Page 179 epigraph: Collingwood, 1939, p.86. • Page 182 Collingwood and Kant: ibid., pp.3–4. • Page 183 ‘spoke and read French and German’: ibid., p.6. • Pages 183–184 Ransome and the Collingwoods: Ransome, p.80 ff. • Page 184 Ransome and Collingwood racing boats: ibid., p.130. • Page 184 Collingwood offers up his savings: ibid., p.147. • Page 184 Wilfred Owen and the Collingwoods: Hibberd, 1982, pp.286–7. The short description of the visit comes in a fragmentary draft of a letter, recipient unknown, written when Owen was recovering from shell-shock in Scotland. • Pages 185–186 ‘rapprochement’ between history and philosophy: Collingwood, 1939, pp.144–5. • Page 186 ‘the transmission by example and precept’: ibid., p.142. • Pages 186–187 ‘the history of Romano-British art’: Collingwood and Myres, Chapter 15. pp.247–8. • Page 187 ‘Roman antiquities … are very indifferent’: Walpole, p.246. The letter is quoted in Hingley, 2008. • Pages 187–191 the Crosby Garrett helmet: Guardian articles about its discovery and sale, Kennedy, 2010a, b, c. • Pages 189–190 Ralph Jackson’s remarks: personal communication. The account of its restoration is drawn from Worrell et al. • Page 191 Carausius milestone: RIB 2290–2. • Pages 192–197 The sources on Carausius, including the relevant passages from the panegyrics, Aurelius Victor’s Liber de Caesaribus, and Eutropius’s Breviarum, are collected in a translation by R. S. O. Tomlin in Casey, pp.191–8. • Page 194 ‘restitutor Brit(anniae)’: ibid., p.65. • Page 194 levels not seen since the reign of Nero: de la Bédoyère. This article lays out de la Bédoyère’s theory about the letters R.S.R. and I.N.P.C.D.A., and also contains the note about John Evelyn and ‘decus et tutamen’. I am grateful for the author’s generous response to my enquiry about how he made the Virgil connection. Some doubt has been cast on the authenticity of the three known I.N.P.C.D.A. medallions (Williams), none of which have long provenances. Williams’s argument depends on demoting the ‘expectate veni’ to a coincidental, rather than knowing, echo of Virgil, and to the inherent unlikeliness of legionaries’ and German mercenaries’ being familiar with Virgil. In de la Bédoyère’s defence, it may be noted that the literary origin of the phrase ‘decus et tutamen’ on our pound coins may not be recognised by the bulk of the modern British population. • Page 197 ‘the past lives on in the present’: Collingwood, 1939, p.100.

  Chapter Eleven: The Cotswolds and the South-West

  • Page 198 epigraph: from Camden’s Britannia, on Cirencester. • Pages 198–199 ‘The discovery of Roman villas in these woods’: J. Farrer. • Page 199 icy Italianate stucco plasterwork: the decorations are well-known, and attributed to Artari and Bagutti, according to Mander, p.124. • Page 202 ‘On the digging of a vault for the interment of the late John Wade esquire’: Lysons, 1797, p.2. • Page 205 found when gardeners were digging a kitchen garden at Horkstow Hall in Lincolnshire in 1797: D. J. Smith, p.34. • Page 205 the mosaic known as the Rudston Venus: for a discussion of the mosaic see Neal and Cosh, vol. 1, pp.353–6. • Page 206 the Brading mosaic is discussed by Neal and Cosh, vol. 3, pt. 1, pp.265–8. • Page 207 ‘mutilated remains of a noble capital, and shaft of a pillar’: Donovan, p.78.• Page 207 ‘containing the figures of an elephant and several birds’: Lysons, 1797, p.2. • Page 207 Pillerton Priors, Warwickshire: see ibid., vol. 4, p.396. • Page 208 John Hawkins: his obituary is in the Gentleman’s Magazine, September 1841, pp.322–3. • Page 208 ‘a man of very low education and manners’: letter from Hawkins to Lysons, 11 February 1812, in Steer, p. 1. • Page 209 there were 904 signatures: ibid., p. vi. • Page 209 ‘I have been so much troubled’: ibid., p.9. • Page 209 ‘irreparable’ loss: ibid., p.47. • Page 209 ‘for the accommodation of [the proprietor’s] visitors’: Lysons, 1815, advertisement. • Page 209 ‘in a good taste, and the figures are better executed’: ibid., pp.8–9. • Page 210 ‘And off he swept the Trojan lad’: Ovid, Metamorphoses 10.155–61. (trans. A. D. Melville, Oxford Classics). • Page 210 The mosaic is divided into five panels: for a detailed description, see Neal and Cosh, vol. 2, pp.253–7. • Page 211 ‘Ille dies primus’: Virgil, Aeneid, IV.169–70. • Pages 212–213 manuscript of the Aeneid in the Vatican: discussed by Neal and Cosh, vol. 2, p.257.

  Chapter Twelve: Norfolk, again, and Sussex

  • Page 214 epigraph: from Haverfield. • Page 218 ‘the barbarians beyond the Rhine’: Zosimus, 6.5 2–3. • Page 219 the Scots and the Picts arrived in their coracles – Gildas, 19 ff. • Page 219 ‘a modest man, who alone of the Romans had by chance survived’: ibid., 25. • Pages 219–220 country sinking into barbarism’; the last remnant of ‘Roman ideas’: Collingwood and Myres, p.324. • Page 220 the lines from ‘The Ruin’ are taken from Michael Alexander’s translation. • Page 221 The discovery of the Mildenhall Treasure: Hobbs, 2008, pp.376–420. This passage draws deeply on Hobbs’s patient detective work, described in a fascinating article in The Antiquaries Journal. • Page 223 ‘leapt up from my chair’: Dahl, p.5. • Page 224 piled high with apples, oranges, pears and nuts: Hobbs, 2008, p.410. • Page 225 a not infrequently expressed suspicion in archaeological circles: Ashbee. • Page 225 John Everett Millais, The Romans Leaving Britain: http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?intObjectID=4026906 (a reduced version of the original, which is in a private collection); http://www.victorianweb.org/painting/millais/drawings/33.html (a sketch towards the painting). • Page 227 ‘nothing much to regret & a great deal to rejoice in’: Hill, 2007, p.129. • Page 227 nineteen designs relating to Roman Britain: Robertson, p.62. • Page 228 ‘sunk in ignorance, heathen superstition and slavery’: ibid, p.334. • Page 230 ‘fair field full of folk’: the quote is from William Langland’s poem Piers Plowman.

  Places to Visit

  The essential resource for visiting the places mentioned in the book is R. J. A Wilson’s A Guide to the Roman Remains in Britain, which at the time of writing was out of print, but available from second-hand sellers, including Amazon and Abe. For Scotland, Lawrence Keppie’s The Legacy of Rome: Scotland’s Roman Remains is similarly indispensable.

  Many Roman remains are in the care of the national heritage organisations. Details of entry to sites can be found on the relevant websites: for English Heritage www.english-heritage.org.uk; for Cadw (Wales) cadw.wales.gov.uk; for Historic Scotland www.historic-scotland.gov.uk. Membership brings free entry to sites in their care, and is strongly recommended if several visits are planned. There are reciprocal arrangements between the national organisations, meaning you should have to join only one – check online for details.

  Depending on how many museums you visit in a year, membership of the Art Fund may be worthwhile – it gives free entry to over 200 museums and galleries in Britain: www.artfund.org.

  If you are within reach of London, a first port of call must be the British Museum (free) – www.britishmus
eum.org – whose Roman Britain gallery contains some of the most significant artefacts from the period.

  Please check opening dates and times for all sites and museums before setting out. They are liable to change, and some visiting regimes are eccentric; for example, not all local-authority-run museums open on a Sunday.

  Chapter One: Kent and Essex

  As described, there are no Roman remains to see at Deal, though it is a pleasant place (with a lovely Henrican clover-leaf castle, in the care of English Heritage). Nearby Richborough, however, is spectacular (entry charge, free for English Heritage members).

  Fishbourne Roman Palace (entry charge) on the outskirts of Chichester, in Sussex, is one of the most important Roman sites in Britain: sussexpast.co.uk. If you are in the area, it’s good to combine with a visit to Bignor Roman Villa (see Chapter Eleven).

  In Colchester, not to be missed are the walls and, particularly, the Balkerne Gate, near the Mercury Theatre. Colchester Castle Museum (entry charge) has a superb collection of Roman finds from the town, and is itself constructed on the base of the Claudian temple. Additional guided tours of the Roman ‘vaults’ are also available: www.cimuseums.org.uk. The following site, www.visitcolchester.com/Roman-Colchester.aspx, has plenty of information and links.

  Colchester town hall, with its statue of Boudica, is on the high street, while the preserved remains of the theatre can be seen any time on Maidenburgh Street, visible through the window of a building on the left if approaching from the high street. At the corner of Maidenburgh Street and St Helen’s Lane is St Helen’s Chapel, built on the line of the theatre. It is sometimes unlocked: orthodoxcolchester.org.uk.

  Work is in progress to develop the remains of the amphitheatre as a site for visitors. Latest developments on this and Colchester’s archaeology in general can be found at www.thecolchesterarchaeologist.co.uk.

  Chapter Two: Norfolk

  The Roman town at Caistor St Edmund (free) is in the care of Norfolk Archaeological Trust: www.norfarchtrust.org.uk/Caistor.html. More information about Roman Caistor, and news about the latest archaeology, can be found at caistorromanproject.com.

  Norwich Castle Museum (entry charge) has an excellent Iron Age and Roman collection, including part of the extraordinary Snettisham hoard of gold torques: www.museums.norfolk.gov.uk. The remainder is in the Roman Britain gallery of the British Museum (free). While you are in Norwich, do not fail to visit the cathedral with its spellbinding cloister: www.cathedral.org.uk. You can give the Iceni Village a miss.

  Chapter Three: London

  The first port of call for an investigation of Roman London is the Museum of London (free), at the Barbican. The galleries, with their excellent collection, set the scene; the map of Roman London, available to buy in the shop, is ideal for anyone wishing to set forth into the streets. The museum arranges tours of sites otherwise closed to the public, such as the fort gateway near London Wall car park, and the Lower Thames Street baths. It has also produced a Londinium app to guide users around Roman London: www.museumoflondon.org.uk. There are downloadable maps and leaflets at www.museumoflondon.org.uk/Collections-Research/Research/Your-Research/Londinium/Today/.

  The British Museum’s Roman Britain gallery holds important material relating to Roman London, including Fabius Alpinus Classicianus’s tombstone.

  Only fragments of the Roman city wall (often medieval above the foundations) remain. A tract of it can be seen in London Wall car park, bay 52, near to the Museum of London. Alphage Gardens, near the Barbican, is cared for by the Corporation of London. It is a pleasant place to stop, sit, and admire the wall. A decent length is visible on Noble Street, and there is a chunk right next to Tower Bridge tube. A walk can be made of the entire circuit, guided by the Museum of London map. Imagination is necessary.

  The remains of the Roman amphitheatre may be seen in the Guildhall Museum and Art Gallery (free): www.guildhallartgallery.cityoflondon.gov.uk. Don’t forget to look at the tiles in the courtyard that mark out the line of its perimeter.

  The Bank of England Museum (free) has a Roman mosaic by the ticket desk, and the other mosaic in the basement can be visited by arrangement: www.bankofengland.co.uk.

  A fragment of the basilica of the Roman bastion can be seen in the basement of Nicholson & Griffin hairdresser’s at 90 Leadenhall, during opening hours on request: www.nicholsonandgriffin.com.

  The Mithraeum and the London Stone were, at the time of writing, awaiting their new London home, and not on public view.

  Chapter Four: Silchester

  Silchester is an atmospheric place to visit (free), and a stroll around the town walls is especially pleasant. Don’t miss the amphitheatre. In addition, each year the excavators from the University of Reading hold an open day. For information, news and a blog on the site and current archaeology, go to www.silchester.rdg.ac.uk.

  Most of the finds from Silchester, including the bronze figure of Harpocrates and the eagle that inspired Rosemary Sutcliff, are in Reading Museum (free).

  Chapter Five: Wales and the West

  Wroxeter Roman City is in the care of English Heritage (entry charge; free for members), and has a small on-site museum. Do walk down to the village church, whose gate is supported on Roman pillars and whose font is a Roman column. It has a lovely Tudor tomb. There is also Roman masonry built into the walls.

  More finds are at the Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery (free), housed in two seventeenth-century buildings: www.shrewsburymuseums.com.

  Y Gaer: detailed directions and description of the site (free) can be found in Wilson’s Guide to the Roman Remains in Britain. The Brecknock Museum in Brecon, which houses the Maiden’s Stone and other Roman inscriptions and finds, was sadly closed to the public as this book went to press.

  Caerleon: there is much to see (and for free) here: the remains of the Roman barracks, perhaps the most spectacular amphitheatre in Britain, and the baths complex. They are jointly managed by the National Museum of Wales and Cadw: www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/roman/ruins.

  The National Roman Legion Museum based here (free) has an excellent collection: www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/roman.

  While in the area, also think of visiting Caerwent, twelve miles away (mentioned in Chapter Eleven, here). The village is encircled by the Roman walls of the town of Isca Silurum (the capital of the Silures tribe). You can wander freely through the remains of its basilica and temple, and see an important Roman inscription in the church porch. Carved Roman stone blocks are visible in the church walls.

  Lydney Park Gardens, including the temple of Nodens, open to the public each spring (entry charge) to coincide with the flowering of the azaleas and rhododendrons. They also open on further selected days under the National Gardens Scheme. Highly recommended: it is an enchanting spot, and the family museum, with Roman finds from the temple site, is charming. Good cake, too. For details and future opening dates, go to www.lydneyparkestate.co.uk.

  Maiden Castle: a walk up its windy heights is highly recommended. Hod Hill, nearby, is another Iron Age hill fort with Roman interventions and a beautiful view. Both can be visited at any reasonable time. (If you like an Iron Age hill fort, Hambledon Hill, opposite Hod Hill, is also lovely, with impressive earthworks, though nothing Roman.) Finds from Maiden Castle are housed in the Dorset County Museum (entry charge), Dorchester: www.dorsetcountymuseum.org.

  Chapter Six: Bath

  A wander round the streets of Bath is always a pleasure: seek out Wood’s masterpieces, the Royal Crescent and Circus. As one of Britain’s most significant Roman sites, the Roman Baths are a must (entry charge). They have been recently refurbished: www.roman-baths.co.uk. After all that, tea in the elegant Pump Room above the Roman remains is recommended, and it would be churlish not to try a glass of the Bath water. It tastes so awful it must be doing you good.

  For the full spa experience (entry charge), do visit the Thermae Baths Spa: www.thermaebathspa.com. Sessions of a minimum of two hours can be bought (no pre-booking, except for treatments a
nd special packages).

  Chapter Seven: Hadrian’s Wall

  Individual sites can be enjoyably visited along Hadrian’s Wall, but by far the most rewarding thing to do is to walk it end to end (about six days’ walking), or at least the bulk of it that lies between the train stations at Newcastle and Carlisle. Traditionally, walkers go east to west, following the direction of the first pilgrimage in 1849. We did it the other way around. At the Newcastle end, the trail veers away from the route of the wall and takes you along the banks of the Tyne, meaning, if you do it our way, a dramatic descent into the city beneath the beautiful bridges.

  The best information to help you plan a walk along all or part of the wall is found at www.nationaltrail.co.uk/hadrianswall. One of its features is an interactive map of accommodation, which we used to book B&Bs in advance. B&Bs we enjoyed included Greencarts Farm (the campsite is also good) and Matfen High House. The website also has details of bag-handling services, in case you don’t want to carry your own all the way. The B&B owners usually recommended pubs where we could get some supper. Sometimes they even gave us a lift to them. The website also provides details of various circular walks if you have only a day.

  The Great North Museum (free) at Newcastle has the most important collection of inscriptions and sculptures from the wall: www.twmuseums.org.uk/great-north-museum.html. Also in Newcastle is Segedunum Roman Fort, with its reconstruction of a bathhouse (entry charge): www.twmuseums.org.uk/segedunum. At the other end, Tullie House Museum (free) at Carlisle has recently refurbished its Roman gallery: www.tulliehouse.co.uk. Near the centre of the wall are the privately run archaeological site of Vindolanda, where the writing tablets were excavated, and the Roman Army Museum (entry charges): www.vindolanda.com.