SOME FEATURES OF ROMAN FORTS 75 



stones are sometimes met with. These catapult stones 

 have also been found at Brough.*^ ijhe clay on which the 

 fort is built, however, abounds in small boulders, which 

 may easily have been used as missiles. Professor Boyd 

 Dawkins writes that if these were found in numbers to- 

 gether, they must have been collected. They have not, 

 however, been so found. 



Some idea of the position of the fort, and the way in 

 which it was protected by the natural features of the site, 

 may be obtained from the attempted restoration which is 

 appended, and which is here reproduced by permission of 

 the proprietors of the Manchester Guardian. The view is 

 taken in the direction in which the visitor of to-day ap- 

 proaches Melandra, that is, looking across the river 

 Etherow (which protects two sides of the fort), just below 

 the point where that stream is joined by the Glossop 

 Brook. Cown Edge and Coombs Rocks rise in the back- 

 ground to the south-east. 



As only the central building has so far been discovered, 

 no other is inserted. The restoration of the gateway,*'' 

 (in which, however, the arches should probably be equal), 

 is made possible by the completeness of the foundations 

 recently uncovered, and the finding of the actual voussoirs, 

 and chamfered and mortised imposts, as well as perfect 

 specimens of the imbrices and rimmed tegulae, and the 

 nails that fixed them. The second inset is an attempted 

 restoration of the colonnade which almost certainly sur- 

 rounded the courtyard of the central building, as evidenced 

 by the column bases recently found, and the remains of 

 foundations. It is based upon a restoration of the 



46. Jour. Derb. Arch. Soc, 1904, p. 20. "Balls of gritstone, of 

 diameters 1^, 3^, 4, and 6 inches respectively." 



47. As all doorsills and jambs have been stripped from the Melandra 

 gates, no attempt has been made to restore the doors themselves, in- 

 dications of which, of course, exist at other forts. 



