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LINES
Suggested by the exhumation of a very ancient Urn from the Tumuli on Eston Nab, in Cleveland, November 9, 1843.
By all their Country's wishes blest!—
By Fairy hands their knell is rung,
By forms unseen their dirge is sung;
There Honour comes a Pilgrim gray,
To bless the turf that wraps their clay,
And Freedom shall a while repair,
And dwell a weeping hermit there.”
Collins.
Eston Nab is a celebrated rocky height in Cleveland, and a famous landmark for vessels navigating the Tees. During the late war, a Beacon was erected on it by the late Thomas Jackson, Esq., of Lackenby, and there yet remains a strong and durable castellated edifice, which may have been used for a similar purpose. The property on which the tumuli were opened, belongs to the ancient family of Stapylton, of Myton Hall, by whom the author was granted full liberty to excavate, for the purpose more particularly of illustrating his forthcoming work, “The History and Antiquities of Cleveland.”
The sun shone clear, the sky was fair,
When bath'd in morning's earliest light
We laid the dust of ages bare,
Whilst eager hearts and straining eyes
Unlock'd their kindred sympathies.
“This Camp occupies the highest part of an extensive insulated hill with an abrupt precipice on the North West; and the Camp is formed by a simicircular trench, each end of which terminates at the brink of the precipice, the edge of which is the diameter of the circle, and the only defence of the Camp on that side. As the form of the Camp has not been dictated by necessity, we may infer that it has been originally a British work; yet from the strength and beauty of the trench and gates, I am disposed to think that it has been subsequently occupied and improved by the Romans.” Young's History of Whitby Vol. II, p., 689. The tumuli were about a stone's-throw from this ancient encampment.
The trophies of Imperial Rome—
Her dearest heritage and home,—
Whose Patriots learnt to bleed and die
Beneath the Flag of Liberty!
The first tumulus opened consisted of an immense mass of stones, carpeted over with heath, whilst a few feet beneath the surface lay a huge slab of rude, unpolished freestone, 7ft. 4in, long, and about 4ft. broad, in the cavity beneath which, no doubt had reposed the colossal remains of some ancient British chieftain, this tumulus being essentially British, and perhaps long anterior to the Christian era.
(The wilder'd heath its sable shroud,)
Some conquering hero sleeps alone
Whom Death, not Victory, subdued:
Here all the mighty warriors stood
Lamenting o'er the great and good.
Were I to follow the Rev. Mr. Graves in his fanciful conjecture, that Eston Nab is the famous Badon Hill, I might by a small additional prurience of imagination, pronounce this tumulus to be the tomb of King Arthur. The late Sir John Stevenson Hall has however bestowed that honour on Freeborough Hill—
Boasted the tenant here inurn'd?
What Chieftain big with Patriot rage,
In whom the fires of Freedom burned?
What British Bruce, what Cleveland Tell
Who, fighting for his country, fell!
It is probable, indeed pretty certain, that this encampment was originally British, and part of an extensive line of defence established on the neighbouring hills. Afterwards the Romans would occupy these entrenchments, and appear to have added considerably to their beauty and strength. We are therefore justified in concluding that some “British Bruce, or Cleveland Tell” might here make a last struggle for expiring Liberty, and be interred in this place by his sorrowing countrymen.
Of wild-haired women wailing near
Some prophet Druid cold and pale,
Interr'd within this mountain bier?
Or, wept they o'er the sacred form
Of Bard whose Lyre could charm the storm?
Wielder of thunders o'er the Sea?
This supposition is not unreasonable, as the Romans certainly occupied the encampment near, and might bury their dead in the neighbourhood after the manner of the British. See Æneid, v. 371, and vi. 212 to 235. After Misenus had been buried, the calcined bones were collected in a vessel (cadus) and then the hero of the Æneid erected over him an immense tumulus,— “ingenti mole sepulcrum imposueri.”
Say, Tyrant, were these hills thy home,
To trample o'er the brave, the free—
Thy empire, and thy Realm divine!
The pulsing heart, th' aspiring brow,
Thoughts burning with tumultuous bliss,
And passions red with fury's glow—
Smell, hearing, taste, the eagle's eye,
And mind that rounds Eternity.
He saw old Ocean rolling near,
He view'd th' expansive mountain-bound,
Yon river flowing bright and clear:
Whilst Eston Nab, and Roseberry
Echoed the shouts of Victory!
“In front is the mouth of the River Tees, the winding course of which may be traced many miles towards its source in the West, beyond which the hills above Richmond, and some of the most elevated mountains in Lancashire, Westmoreland and Cumberland, with the Cheviot Hills in Scotland, are visible; while nearer at hand a great extent of Coast to the East and North, and the principal part of the County of Durham, with villages and farm-houses interposed may be distinctly seen. Roseberry Topping with the range of Cleveland hills and the heights of Blackamoor, appear in the south.” Graves' History of Cleveland, p. 448.
The proud, the ambitious, and the great;
Behold your ancient Fathers' home,
How simple, and how free from state:
Two thousand years the storms have beat,
And scarce these bones are crumbled yet.
On opening the urn in the presence of our party, consisting of the Rev. J. Charnock, Rev. J. Holme, T. C. Wilkinson, Esq., of Newall Hall, John Jackson, Esq., of Lackenby, John Jackson, Esq., Stokesley, and several gentlemen, from Stockton-on-Tees, we found the bones, consisting of three acetabuli, several patellœ, a large portion of the scapula, a zygomatic process, the upper part of the tibia, and numerous ribs, finger bones, pieces of skull, and teeth, in a remarkable state of preservation. There was a sufficient quantity to fill several large bottles, one of which the author presented to the Rev. Dr. Young, of Whitby, and the rest to different Museums.
How doleful, like a midnight bell!
Eternity of hopes and fears,
Who bravely fought, and nobly fell:
Danes, Britons, Romans, all are gone
Sole record now this Urn,—this stone!—
The urn, which is of baked clay, presents a fine specimen of antiquity, and is perfect except in one small portion broken off by the spade of a workman. Its largest circumference is 40 inches, and its height about 17 inches. It was completely filled with human bones, overlaid with a small deposit of earth, and the reason why the bones and urn were so complete, seems to have arisen from the circumstance of their being entirely protected from the rain and weather, by a large shield-formed stone, laid over the mouth of the urn. This stone was curiously carved inside, and will prove very interesting to the Antiquarian.
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