What to See in England
By Gordon Home

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Public Domain Books

Hexham and Hadrian’s Wall

=How to get there.=–Train from King’s Cross and St. Pancras via Newcastle-on-Tyne. Great Northern Railway. =Nearest Station.=–Hexham. =Distance from London.=–289 miles. =Average Time.=–Varies between 5-1/2 to 8 hours.

                     1st      2nd      3rd
=Fares.=–Single  40s. 10d.   ...   24s. 4d.
          Return  81s.  8d.   ...   48s. 8d.

=Accommodation Obtainable.=–"Tynedale Hydropathic Mansion,” etc. =Alternative Route.=–Train from Euston and St. Pancras via Carlisle. London and North-Western Railway.

Hexham has a beautiful position, surrounded with woods and hills on three sides, while the broad Tyne flows past the historic town. Above the surrounding roofs the hoary Abbey Church rises, with its one low central tower and flat roofs.

The history of Hexham begins with the granting of some land to St. Wilfrid in 674, on which he built a monastery and church. A few years later Hexham was made a See, and the “Frithstool” still remains from the time when its cathedral received the right of sanctuary.

This early cathedral was destroyed by the Danes, and the building left a battered ruin. When monasticism rose to its height, after the Norman Conquest, a priory of Canons of St. Augustine was founded there. Its wealth and numbers gradually increased until, at the end of the thirteenth century, an entirely new building replaced the Saxon one, and Hexham became exceedingly powerful.

Hadrian’s Wall.–Three miles north of Hexham, at Chollerford, one may see the remains of the piers of a Roman bridge over the North Tyne, and close at hand is one of the best preserved forts of Hadrian’s Wall. It was about 124 A.D. that Hadrian started Aulus Plautorius Nepos on the building of the line of continuous fortifications running from the mouth of the Tyne to the Solway, a distance of over seventy miles. This was built on the chain of hills overlooking the valley which runs from Newcastle to Carlisle. The massive and astonishing ruins to be seen to-day fill one with surprise, for they suggest to a considerable extent the Great Wall of China. The remains of the wall proper are, as a rule, 8 feet thick, and are composed of hewn stone (the total height of the wall was probably about 18 feet). Turrets and small forts are built into the wall at frequent intervals. The object of the wall was undoubtedly to act as a military defence against the unconquerable tribes of the north.

[Illustration: Photochrom Co., Ltd. A PORTION OF HADRIAN’S WALL.

The continuous line of fortifications built across England by Aulus Plautorius Nepos about 124 A.D.]

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Preface  •  Ham House and Petersham  •  Walton-On-Thames (scold’s Bridle)  •  Harrow  •  Holwood House, Keston  •  Chigwell, Essex  •  Waltham Abbey and Cross  •  Downe  •  Epsom: Its Races and Its Salts  •  Epping Forest  •  Hampton Court  •  Rye House, Broxbourne  •  Hatfield House, Herts  •  Runnymead, the Signing of Magna Charta  •  The Oldest Brass in England  •  St. Albans  •  Stoke Poges Church, Bucks  •  Windsor  •  Jordans and William Penn  •  Knole House and Sevenoaks  •  Greenstead Church  •  Chalfont St. Giles  •  Westerham  •  Guildford, Surrey  •  Gad’s Hill  •  Ightham Mote, Kent  •  Penshurst  •  St. Michael’s Mount and Marazion  •  Rochester Cathedral  •  Tunbridge Wells  •  The Quintain Post At Offham and Malling Abbey  •  Eversley  •  Farnham, Surrey  •  Hindhead, Surrey  •  Shottermill  •  Penn’s Chapel At Thakeham, Sussex  •  Chawton the Home of Jane Austen  •  Selborne  •  Elstow  •  Lewes, Sussex  •  Bodiam Castle, Sussex  •  Colchester, Essex  •  Layer Marney  •  Battle Abbey  •  Cambridge  •  Arundel Castle  •  Olney, Bucks  •  Wantage and the Country of Alfred the Great  •  Canterbury and Its Cathedral  •  Reculvers  •  Oxford  •  Midhurst  •  Pevensey Castle  •  Savernake Forest  •  Ely Cathedral  •  St. Ives, Huntingdonshire  •  Winchelsea and Rye  •  Blenheim Palace  •  Peterborough Cathedral and Crowland  •  Peterborough  •  Southampton  •  Helmingham Hall  •  Stonehenge, Wiltshire  •  Netley Abbey  •  Salisbury and Its Cathedral  •  Sandwich, Kent  •  New Forest, Hampshire  •  Osborne House  •  Carisbrooke Castle  •  Lutterworth  •  Compton Wynyates  •  Kenilworth Castle  •  Belvoir Castle  •  Bath  •  Boston and the Pilgrim Fathers  •  Warwick  •  Gloucester and Its Cathedral  •  Norfolk Broads  •  Norwich Cathedral  •  Lichfield  •  Sherborne and Its Abbey Church  •  Newark  •  Wells and Its Cathedral  •  Stratford-On-Avon  •  Burnham Thorpe, Norfolk  •  Lulworth Cove, Dorsetshire  •  Corfe Castle  •  Lincoln and Its Cathedral  •  Somerset, the Birthplace of Tennyson  •  Glastonbury Abbey  •  Walsingham, Norfolk  •  Cheddar Caves, Cheddar, Somerset  •  Newstead Abbey  •  The Wessex of Thomas Hardy’s Romances  •  Tintern Abbey  •  Chesterfield, Derbyshire  •  Dukeries  •  Haddon Hall, Derbyshire  •  The Isle of Athelney, and Sedgemoor  •  Raglan Castle  •  Dovedale  •  Wellington and the Wrekin, Shropshire  •  Wroxeter and the Roman City of Uriconium, Salop  •  Buildwas Abbey, Shropshire  •  Ludlow and Its Castle  •  Shrewsbury  •  Buxton and the Peak District  •  Tewkesbury  •  Exeter and Its Cathedral  •  Market Drayton, Salop  •  Chester  •  Exmoor  •  Knutsford  •  Torr Steps On the Barle, Somerset  •  Cleeve Abbey, Somerset  •  Hawarden  •  York Minster  •  Coxwold, Yorkshire  •  Llangollen and Valle Crucis Abbey  •  Knaresborough, Dripping Well  •  Fountains Abbey  •  Ripon Cathedral  •  Dartmoor  •  Haworth  •  Rievaulx Abbey  •  Brixham, Devon  •  Conway Castle  •  The Doone Valley, Exmoor  •  Llandovery, South Wales  •  Dartmouth, Devon  •  Richmond, Yorkshire  •  Tintagel  •  Whitby  •  Carnarvon Castle  •  Plymouth  •  Durham and Its Cathedral  •  Raby Castle, Durham  •  Snowdon  •  Harlech Castle  •  Grasmere and Rydal Mount  •  The Lake District  •  St. Davids Cathedral  •  Furness Abbey, Lancashire  •  Monkwearmouth, Near Jarrow  •  The Isle of Man  •  Brantwood  •  Fowey  •  Hexham and Hadrian’s Wall  •  The Lake District  •  Keswick  •  Alnwick Castle  •  Lanercost Priory, Cumberland  •  Lanercost Priory and Stepping-Stones.]  •  St. Ives, Cornwall  •  Bamborough Castle, Northumberland

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What to see in England;: A guide to places of historic interest, natural beauty or literary association,
By Gordon Home
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