THE EXCAVATIONS 33 



and about 8 feet wide. "We should thus be left with about 

 5 feet for the central pier {i.e., not quite twice the width 

 of each of the side pilasters), and this is apparently the 

 width of the central pier at Aesica and Borcovicium. 



Assuming that we have here the standard width of the 

 Melandra gates (viz., about 8 ft.), this corresponds pretty 

 nearly with those of Chesters and Borcovicium.^i It is, 

 however, less than that of the Gellygaer gates, which 

 measure 9 ft. 6 in.22 The gates at Aesica were wider still. 

 As far as excavation can show, it would appear that there 

 was in these cases no central spina, but that there were 

 two central piers. The argument from analogy would 

 seem to point in the same direction. I can only find 

 proper spinae represented in two cases, viz., the west gate 

 at Silchester and the south-west gate at Grellygaer. They 

 are apparently wanting (to mention a few eases) at 

 Chesters, Borcovicium, Aesica and Lambessa. 



No trace has been found at Melandra of either the sills 

 or jambs of the doors, which have of course been discovered 

 at other forts. In several cases where they are present 

 the wheel ruts are clearly shown on the sills of the gates, 

 and their gauge is a matter of interest. The wheel 

 ruts still to be seen on the sill of the east gate 

 at Borcovicium are aboiit eight inches deep, and the gauge 

 is given by Bruce ^3 as " a little more than four feet six 

 inches and a half." The gauge shown by the ruts on 

 the Eoman road through Delamere Forest, according 

 to the careful measurements of Watkin,^* is " four feet 



21. As far as I can make out from the plans. I have not the figures 

 by me. I remember distinctly that the first thing that struck me on 

 looking at the gates at Borcovicium was the narrowness of the entrance. 



22. As mentioned below, the flanking turrets at Gellygaer were also 

 much larger than at Melandra. 



23. Handbook to Roman Wall, 1895, p. 142. 



24. Eoman Cheshire, p. 37. See also Proc. Lane. Chesh. Ant. Soc, 

 vol. iii., p. 187. 



