Dear Sir.

Netherhall Nov: 13. 1778

M^r. Senhouse is so kind to sit near me, and from his dictating, I make you the following Communication of such things as have been found in and near the Camps since you were in this Country.¹

1. VIRTVTI AVGVSTAE -------------- QVINTIFILIA HERMIONAE VSLLM

2 I O M ACILIANVS PRAEFECTVS P

3. VEXIL LEG II AV^G ET XX VV FECERVNT

No: 1, and 2, are Altars like those you saw here before; the first has only half the Cup, being but the section of the Altar, and the front face of it; the Second is remarkable for having no Cup at all. Note, there is a line lost in the first (as scratched) by the Fracture of ^the Stone, which was the name of the woman; the three last letters of the lost name, were clearly XANXA – without the stroke in the A –––––

No: 3. appears to have been a facing Stone in some building, and found in the Camp. In the Quarry near the Camp about 3 Years since was found a Stone bearded head – The Sculpture is bold, and you may suppose it Jupiter if you will. The neck is broken from the Body and it had fallen from the Campthe ––––– Brow near the Camp into the Quarry. You will note that the letters of the Inscriptions herein sent are not exactly in the Sittuation they are in on the Stone, that is, the the [sic] number of Letters in each line are preserved, but they do not unders, stand under one another, exactly as they do on the Stone. One compleat [sic] Pair of Millstones have been found; an odd one, which is extremely neat, to several Fragments their diameter (that is the Dia: of the Pair, are twenty Inches, the odd one is seventeen. They are supposed to have been worked by the hand. There has been a Stone female Image found, but the Limbs and head are gone; the Barbarians seem to have made a whetstone of the back. There is a Fragment of a broad Stone, which appears to have been a facing in a wall, on which the following Fragment is very fairly Inscribed in larger letters than com[m]on
C O H I
and by the tops of the letters in the next line M^r. Senhouse thinks it is Hispanoric [sic].

Several peices [sic] of unground Glass painted & plain, have been dug up [...] They are understood to be as well cast as Any of the same Kind now done: but neither ground of polished. With M^r. Senhouse's best Resp^cts to you,

I am Dear Sir Your very
Faithfull Friend

Ph: Yorke

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Editorial notes

1. Yorke refers to Pennant's visit to Senhouse at the town of Maryport and the latter's seat, Netherhall, Cumbria, on his journey to Scotland in 1772. Pennant observed the remains of a Roman station square, a tumulus, and 'several antiquities that had been long preserved in [the] house and gardens', and provided plates showing some of the latter. He also reported that Senhouse had since provided him with 'an account of other discoveries'. This letter suggests that yet further material was uncovered during the second half of the 1770s. A tour in Scotland 1772, part I (1774), pp. 59–64. Further on the discovery of Roman remains at Maryport from the sixteenth century to the present day, see Kirstie Kinghorn, 'Maryport Roman settlement: unearthing a Roman civilian's past', here [external link] [accessed 13 August 2017].