24 THE EXCAVATIONS 



1772, when a letter referring to Melandra was read at the 

 December meeting of the Society of Antiquaries, from the 

 Rev. John Watson, of Stockport.^ The letter (which was 

 illustrated by a plan of the camp, and a drawing of the 

 Centurial Stone) reported the discovery of the site by Mr. 

 Watson in July, 1771. He says: "The plough has not 

 defaced it, so that the form of it cannot be mistaken." 

 The four gates and the foundations of a building within 

 the area he reports as "exceedingly visible." Of the 

 defences he says : " The ramparts, which have considerable 

 quantities of hewn stones in them, seem to be aboiit three 

 yards broad. On the southern and eastern sides were 

 ditches, of which part remains, the rest is filled up." 



Unfortunately, since Watson's time, much havoc has 

 been worked, not only by the plough, but also by the 

 cutting of drains and the deportation of great quantities 

 of stone for building purposes. No effort seems to have 

 been made to examine the site from an archaeological point 

 of view till August, 1899, when, after some preliminary 

 operations, inspired mainly by Mr. Robert Hamnett, Mr. 

 John Garstang was asked by a local committee to super- 

 intend the work of excavation. The only accounts of these 

 excavations (lasting from August 24th to October 5th) 

 which I have been able to find consist of a short interim 

 report dated September 14th, 1899, and a paper by Mr. 

 Garstang in the Proceedings of the Derbyshire Archaeo- 

 logical Society.* In the former he summarizes the results 

 of the excavations by saying that " they have so far de- 

 termined the nature and positions of the corner turrets of 

 the Roman fort, the eastern entrance with its guard 

 chambers, a greater part of the praetorium, or some group 



3. Archaeologia vol. iii., p. 236. 



4. Proc. Derb. Arch. Soc, vol. xxiii., p. 90. [The interim report 

 appeared in the Glossopdale Chronicle, September 22, 1899. Ed. 



