34 THE EXCAVATIONS 



six inclies, measuring from the centre of the bottom of 

 each rut." On the supposed Eoman road crossing 

 Blackstone Edge, "Watkin (and also Dr. March) made otit 

 no less than five parallel pairs of ruts, each giving a 

 gauge of " four and a half feet."25 Qn the sill of the 

 south-west gate at Gellygaer, "Ward found " two worn 

 hollows, about five feet from centre to centre, made by 

 the passage of wheels." ^s In the place already referred 

 to above, Bruce also mentions the similarity of the gauge 

 of the wheel ruts which anyone who has visited Pompeii 

 will remember as so clearly shown in its streets. I have 

 no measurement of this gauge, and the only other 

 reference to it that I have been able to find is in Baedeker's 

 Southern Italy (1900, p. 123), where mention is made of 

 " deep ruts in the causeways, not more than four and a 

 half feet apart." The correspondence of these measure- 

 ments, recorded independently, and at places so far apart, 

 is striking. It is worth while comparing them with the 

 gauge of our English railways and tramways, which is 

 regulated to four feet eight and a half inches, measuring 

 to the faces of the flanges. 



Another feature is wanting which is common at the 

 gates of the forts on Hadrian's wall. There it is usvial to 

 find distinct traces of at least two periods of occupation. 

 Unless in the fact that parts of columns, etc., seem to have 

 been used for making the road last constructed, we have so. 

 far no evidence of the kind in the stone remains at 

 Melandra. 



Finally, to return for a moment to a question raised 

 before — were the bases of the towers that flanked the 

 gateways used as guard chambers, or were they closed? 

 Here analogy would certainly suggest that they were so- 



25. Roman Lancashire, p. 61. 



26. The Roman Fort of Gellygaer, p. 40. 



