Note 54 — PART III. LOCAL DESCRIPTION OF THE WORKS.

He who has the heart of a pilgrim ‘per lineam Valli,’ will not fail to accompany the author, while he attempts, at the very commencement of his local peregrination, to pay a tribute of respect to three departed worthies who made the Wall their especial study.

John Horsley was the first and mightiest of the three—is it too much to say that he was the father of the science of Archæology? Born in an unknown locality of this county, receiving his elementary education at Newcastle, his academical at Edinburgh, he spent the greater portion of his life as the pastor of a Presbyterian congregation in Morpeth. His tastes, and great familiarity with the classics, induced him to devote his leisure hours to the study of the antiquities of Northumberland. Had he conceived that the Britannia Romana would have cost him one-third of the time which its execution required, the world would never have seen it. Having embarked in the undertaking, he felt it his duty to make it as good as he could. How severe his toils, how great his pecuniary sacrifices, how ardent his aspirations after emancipation from his self-imposed task, in order that he might entirely devote himself to his sacred calling, who shall tell? The thought that his flock might eventually be no losers, that his family and his own fair fame might gain by the enterprise, buoyed him up in his course. On 2 Jan. 1731-2, he put the finishing stroke to his labours, the dedication of his work bearing that date. Now he might hope to reap the fruits of his toils—the enjoyment of rest, such as the wearied only know, the congratulations of friends, the approbation of the learned, the replenishment of his exhausted means. None of these fruits he enjoyed. He can scarcely have had the satisfaction of casting his eyes upon a completed copy of his work. The ink of his dedication was hardly dry when he was summoned to the unseen world. Respecting him who recorded the mighty doings of the Romans in Britain, the parish clerk of Morpeth made the following entry in the church-yard calendar:—Buried,

‘1731-2, Jan. 15, Mr. John Horsley.’

‘Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.’ As regards the honours or enjoyments of this world, he died an utterly unrequited man. Even of that bubble, posthumous fame, an attempt was made to rob him. Warburton, in his Vallum Romanum, transfers Horsley ‘in bulk’ to his pages—he even copies, without alteration, the opinions which Horsley expresses in the first person. The honest Hutton often quotes the ‘judicious Warburton,’ little knowing whose the feathers are which he so justly admires. The precise spot where his remains rest is unknown. He whose lot it was to interpret, after the lapse of many centuries, the throbbings of natural affection over departed relatives in the heathen breast, had no one to erect over him, though a Christian minister, a memorial that should outlive a single century. Even the parish clerk, in his attachment to the altar and the throne, denies him, in the sepulchral register, the title which courtesy, at least, would have accorded him. Requiescat in pace!

The Rev. Anthony Hedley, was also a native of Northumberland; he was a man of literary tastes, and considerable antiquarian acquirements. He entered public life as curate of Hexham, where his preaching was that of a Boanerges. He subsequently held some temporary appointments at Whelpington, Newcastle, and Whitfield. Having, however, actively espoused the cause of that political body, who, until lord Grey became premier, had no patronage to bestow, it was his lot to sigh in vain for a summons to active occupation in the work which he loved. When the party whom he had long and conscientiously served, came into office, neglect was his portion. One of the original members of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, he did much to promote the study of primæval archæology in the fruitful region traversed by the Wall. Biased by his taste for antiquities, he was led to select, as his abode for life’s evening, the beautiful valley of the Chineley Burn. The rural hall arose at his bidding, nearly every stone of which was chiseled by Roman hands. The milliary which told to Hadrian’s soldiers that another mile had been traversed, stood by his barn. The station of Vindolana was in his grounds—many beautiful altars and other important reliques had he dug out of it—he could tell where the prætorium stood, where the standards were deposited, where every soldier slept. Scarcely were all the arrangements for his comfortable residence at Chesterholm made, when death seized him as its victim. Imprudently superintending, whilst somewhat indisposed, the exhumation of an urn in the station, his mortal part was a few days afterwards deposited in the church-yard at Beltingham. He died in 1835, and his beautiful abode has since remained desolate.

Westmoreland has the honour of giving birth to the Rev. John Hodgson, but Northumberland enjoyed the advantage of his youthful and maturer labours. Successively curate of Sedgefield, Lanchester, and Heworth, and afterwards vicar of Kirkwhelpington, he was shortly before his death promoted to the living of Hartburn. He was the chief founder of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and the chief contributor to its transactions. His tastes led him to contemplate, and an honourable desire to make provision for the education and settlement of his family, induced him to begin, a history of Northumberland. Seldom have laudable designs been so signally defeated. He lived but to complete a part of his task; his health failed, and his mind gave way under his excessive labours. His fortunes were not bettered by them; ‘I have lived,’ said he, 'to see that works of this kind are not suited to the times I live in, perhaps to any time. It is not profitable to me—it is not suited to my profession—I ought to do my duty in my profession—to take up night and day to do it well. Well? no; but as well as good intentions, holy zeal, every thought and faculty of my mind fully exerted, could do it.' Hodgson paid great attention to the Wall, and its antiquities. The last published portion of his history contains a vast mass of learned information upon the subject. It is perhaps enough for the present author to say, that had not Horsley and Hodgson cleared the way before him, he would never have adventured to write a book upon the Barrier of the Lower Isthmus. Though he cannot be a Horsley or a Hodgson, he hopes he will never prove a Warburton.