DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.22272#0119
THE ANTONINE WALL REPORT.
101
nature of the soil they wore digging. Whilst the same in
character as the reddish sandy earth just mentioned, it was more
compact and harder to dig. Other circumstances, besides, bear
out their belief that they had struck upon the original surface
line on which the soil forming the outer mound had been thrown.
The significance of the boulder-clay found above the reddish
sandy earth was not perceived until Mr. James Barclay Murdoch
pointed out that, the upper slopes of the sides of the ditch having
been cut out of reddish sandy earth and the bottom cut out
of boulder-clay, it was natural and necessary that the cuttings
of the bottom of the ditch should be found on the top of the
section of the mound with the reddish earth below. The relative
position of the soils before and after excavation could not fail to
be the reverse of each other; for the higher or reddish soil, being
first excavated in the making of the ditch, would be the first
deposited in the formation of the outer mound, whilst the lower
stratum of boulder-clay, being the last excavated, would be the last
deposited, and would consequently form the surface of the mound.
The military way, 66 feet south of the south kerb of the
vallum, and 17 feet 5 inches wide, is 2 feet higher in level than
the south kerb. It has a base of rough stones mostly of volcanic
origin—porphyry and trap. One of these is 2 feet by 1J feet,
and several are from 1 foot to 11- feet long. Over these is
a stratum of intermixed smaller stones, averaging perhaps a
pound in weight, with gravel and soil over it again, forming the
surface. There is no sign of lime or other binding substance in
the material of this road.
BONNYSIDE.
When Alexander Gordon was on that northern "Iter" of
his, which was the first scientific contribution to the study
of the wall, he "came to the place where, as tradition goes,
the valiant Grime, nephew to Eugenius, king of the Scots,
with his army broke down this wall: to the north of which,
upon a rising ground called the Broom Hill, is the place where
they say King Eugenius pitched his pavilion."1 He gives no
1 Itin. Sept., p. 172.
101
nature of the soil they wore digging. Whilst the same in
character as the reddish sandy earth just mentioned, it was more
compact and harder to dig. Other circumstances, besides, bear
out their belief that they had struck upon the original surface
line on which the soil forming the outer mound had been thrown.
The significance of the boulder-clay found above the reddish
sandy earth was not perceived until Mr. James Barclay Murdoch
pointed out that, the upper slopes of the sides of the ditch having
been cut out of reddish sandy earth and the bottom cut out
of boulder-clay, it was natural and necessary that the cuttings
of the bottom of the ditch should be found on the top of the
section of the mound with the reddish earth below. The relative
position of the soils before and after excavation could not fail to
be the reverse of each other; for the higher or reddish soil, being
first excavated in the making of the ditch, would be the first
deposited in the formation of the outer mound, whilst the lower
stratum of boulder-clay, being the last excavated, would be the last
deposited, and would consequently form the surface of the mound.
The military way, 66 feet south of the south kerb of the
vallum, and 17 feet 5 inches wide, is 2 feet higher in level than
the south kerb. It has a base of rough stones mostly of volcanic
origin—porphyry and trap. One of these is 2 feet by 1J feet,
and several are from 1 foot to 11- feet long. Over these is
a stratum of intermixed smaller stones, averaging perhaps a
pound in weight, with gravel and soil over it again, forming the
surface. There is no sign of lime or other binding substance in
the material of this road.
BONNYSIDE.
When Alexander Gordon was on that northern "Iter" of
his, which was the first scientific contribution to the study
of the wall, he "came to the place where, as tradition goes,
the valiant Grime, nephew to Eugenius, king of the Scots,
with his army broke down this wall: to the north of which,
upon a rising ground called the Broom Hill, is the place where
they say King Eugenius pitched his pavilion."1 He gives no
1 Itin. Sept., p. 172.