9 - William Camden and the Settlement of Britain

Summary

Sometime in 1600, two men set out for the stark moors and uplands of Cumbria. Part of their long journey followed the coastline where the river Derwent emptied into the sea, an area famous for salmon fishing. Taking in the stately seat of the Curwens at Workington, the elder traveller hoped to be excused of vanity in noting his descent from the family on his mother's side. Crossing the Derwent, the two men followed the broken remains of a Roman wall for some six or seven miles to the mouth of the river Ellen. There they found the Roman fort of Alvana ‘situated on a pretty high hill, from whence is a large prospect into the Irish Sea’. Alvana was once garrisoned against sea-borne invaders, by command of the great Roman general Stilicho. Through the pen of the Alexandrian propagandist and court poet Claudian, Britannia herself thanked Stilicho for his watchfulness:

And I shall ever own his happy care,

Who sav’d me sinking in unequal war:

When the Scots came thundring from the Irish shores,

And th’Ocean trembled, struck with hostile oars.

Sheltered from nature's fury and the Irish-Scots, the fort's Dalmatian defenders and the small town that grew up around them left a lasting impression on the landscape. Their Cumbrian descendants had long since reclaimed the town for corn, but under a zealous plough those same fields yielded the remains of altars, inscribed stones, and statues. These artefacts seized the interest of our travellers, thanks to the diligent efforts of one local gentleman, John Senhouse, to protect and preserve them. The younger traveller took up his pencil to make a drawing of a very old and beautiful red stone altar in the middle of Senhouse's yard, capturing its inscriptions and figures. His older companion praised Senhouse, ‘not only because he entertain’d us with the utmost civility, but also because he has a great veneration of Antiquities’. Their host preserved a past that ‘by other ignorant people in those parts are broke to pieces, and turn’d to other uses, to the great damage of these studies’. For both travellers, Senhouse and his little Cumbrian trove stood out as an island of civility in a landscape of barren moors, howling winds, and harsh manners. These men depended on Senhouse and others like him in their ‘design to illustrate our Native Country’.