Note 33 — PART II. A GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE LINE OF THE WALL.

A correspondent of the author writes 'Even in my own day it was the custom of the superstitious, on the line of the Wall, especially between Birdoswald and Cambeck Fort to pound the stones, bearing inscriptions, into sand for their kitchens, or bury them in the foundations of houses or walls, for the simple reason that they considered them unlucky—calling them 'witch stones’. When one was found, the old wives fearing that the butter might not form in the churn, took good care that it should never again make its appearance. Thus down went many a splendid Roman altar, a sacrifice to ignorance and superstition'!