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On this reach of the river are several places of considerable interest. Riding Mill, a pretty village in a well-wooded hollow, enclosed by steep hills which rise ever higher and higher to the moors by Minsteracres and Blanchland, stands where Watling Street, or Dere Street, leading down the long slope of the country from Whittonstall, on reaching the Tyne turned westward to Corstopitum.
He was sitting one August afternoon by the fountain in the Forum of Corstopitum, engaged upon improving a system of fire signals for use on the great wall, which Hadrian was building from the Tyne estuary to the Solway Firth.
By midday on the morrow the forum of Corstopitum was crowded; there was a throng of British country-folk come in to sell, and of Roman auxiliaries from diverse camps come in to purchase. Castus and Rufus were acting as interpreters between buyers and sellers when they saw their invited guest approaching in company with a handsome boy of some fifteen years, whose hand she held in hers.
The Watling Street or Dere Street, we have already noticed; and the chief station on it, which has also proved to be the largest in Northumberland, is Corstopitum, near Corbridge.
The great wall, continued the young Briton, 'will prove to her Rome's might, and Corstopitum with its stored granaries and streets of shops will show her its civilisation. I have bid her come in to-morrow with her small brother when the market is open and the country folk bring in their mead and honey and fowls, and any grouse and salmon they may have netted.
Many of the stones used by Wilfrid's builders were of Roman workmanship, and seem to have come from the Roman city of Corstopitum, at Corbridge. A very interesting feature of the building is the stone stairway in the South transept, by which the monks ascended to their dormitories above. Quite near to the Abbey, at the other side of the Market Place, the ancient Moot Hall claims attention.
Castus, enraptured by the thought that he had captured this proud beauty, could scarce contain himself for joy. Thus he rode out joyously next afternoon from Corstopitum, and as dusk drew on and the time for the moon's rising came near, he dismounted below the limestone crags and led his horse slowly up to the highest point of the limestone outcrop where a monolith stood dark and threatening.
On Winshields height Cæsar was met by the Prefect of Luguvallum and his guard, and here Castus and Rufus bade him farewell, and turned back towards Corstopitum. As they rode eastward, and had gained the edge of a fir wood beyond Boreovicus, a very beautiful girl stepped suddenly forward, and laid a hand on the rein of Rufus's pony.
The next day Hadrian set forth again to ride per lineam murus across moor and fell to Luguvallum and the western sea. Castus and Rufus accompanied him as guides, and the Prefect with his guard escorted the Emperor to the wall that was being swiftly built on the brow of the hill above Corstopitum.
The buildings in this town, for it is much more than a military station, have been large and imposing, as is shown by each successive revelation made by the excavators' spades. The portion of the Watling Street leading from Corstopitum to the river has also been laid bare.
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