DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.22272#0020
2
GLASGOW ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY.
were provided for by the series of camps or stations, probably
about a dozen in number, situated at intervals alono- the line.1
The extant remains of the vallum, with its fosse, vary
extremely. In some places, especially towards the western and
eastern extremities, where the ground is of high agricultural
value, the indications of the work have absolutely ceased to
exist. In other places, and occasionally for long consecutive
distances, the mighty indent of the ditch survives, still
vindicating itself against the plough which has been diligently
at work for centuries to efface it. The hollow is distinctly
visible for miles through the cultivated fields and in the quick
curving dip and rise in the line of a hedgerow or a stone
dyke. In a few parts, such as on Ferguston Moor, on Croyhill,
at Westerwood, and last and best of all, in the woods of
Bonnyside, the remains of the whole structure are excellently
preserved, although of course the present external appearances
give small indication of the primitive shape of the work.
Usually about 30 or 40 yards south of the rampart is the
military way, connecting the stations or camps along the vallum.
It is a stony line from 18 to 20 feet broad, which occasionally
rises a very little above the normal present level of the ground
on each side of it. The vallum itself (meaning by that term
the vallum proper, or rampart, contradistinguished from the fosse),
where not worn down almost flat by agriculture, is a broad
convex mound, seldom very much over 4^- feet above the level of
the present surface of the adjacent ground. The fosse in front,
a few yards northward from the vallum, is always broad and
usually deep. Rising directly from its counterscarp or northern
edge is an outer mound, an irregular heap obvious enough to
antiquarian eyes. The work is thus in its entirety a quadruple
line, which, instinct with Roman greatness of design and
thoroughness of execution, undulates across the isthmus with
a course as direct as the strategic requirements of strength
1 The number is uncertain. In the mutilated lists of the so-called Ravenna
Geographer (a compilation containing materials of very various dates), we have
a list of ten names which apparently belong to the forts on the Wall of Antonine.
The names are, Velunia, Volitanio, Pexa, Begesse, Colanica, Medio Nemetum,
Subdobiadon, Litana, Oibra, Credigone. (Parthey and Pindar, p. 435; Mon.
Hist. Brit., I., xxvi.) Any attempt to identify the names would be ridiculous.
F. H.
GLASGOW ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY.
were provided for by the series of camps or stations, probably
about a dozen in number, situated at intervals alono- the line.1
The extant remains of the vallum, with its fosse, vary
extremely. In some places, especially towards the western and
eastern extremities, where the ground is of high agricultural
value, the indications of the work have absolutely ceased to
exist. In other places, and occasionally for long consecutive
distances, the mighty indent of the ditch survives, still
vindicating itself against the plough which has been diligently
at work for centuries to efface it. The hollow is distinctly
visible for miles through the cultivated fields and in the quick
curving dip and rise in the line of a hedgerow or a stone
dyke. In a few parts, such as on Ferguston Moor, on Croyhill,
at Westerwood, and last and best of all, in the woods of
Bonnyside, the remains of the whole structure are excellently
preserved, although of course the present external appearances
give small indication of the primitive shape of the work.
Usually about 30 or 40 yards south of the rampart is the
military way, connecting the stations or camps along the vallum.
It is a stony line from 18 to 20 feet broad, which occasionally
rises a very little above the normal present level of the ground
on each side of it. The vallum itself (meaning by that term
the vallum proper, or rampart, contradistinguished from the fosse),
where not worn down almost flat by agriculture, is a broad
convex mound, seldom very much over 4^- feet above the level of
the present surface of the adjacent ground. The fosse in front,
a few yards northward from the vallum, is always broad and
usually deep. Rising directly from its counterscarp or northern
edge is an outer mound, an irregular heap obvious enough to
antiquarian eyes. The work is thus in its entirety a quadruple
line, which, instinct with Roman greatness of design and
thoroughness of execution, undulates across the isthmus with
a course as direct as the strategic requirements of strength
1 The number is uncertain. In the mutilated lists of the so-called Ravenna
Geographer (a compilation containing materials of very various dates), we have
a list of ten names which apparently belong to the forts on the Wall of Antonine.
The names are, Velunia, Volitanio, Pexa, Begesse, Colanica, Medio Nemetum,
Subdobiadon, Litana, Oibra, Credigone. (Parthey and Pindar, p. 435; Mon.
Hist. Brit., I., xxvi.) Any attempt to identify the names would be ridiculous.
F. H.