u 



they had originally stood. Such conduct may be fairly assumed 

 to infer that the intention was to disinter them. Why they were 

 not so disinterred we shall enquire shortly. 



Another point observed was that the altars had been buried with 

 /laste, a fact which might point to a diminished garrison. That 

 they were so buried is very evident, for several of them had had 

 pieces broken off whilst they were being put into the pits, this being 

 proved by the fact that the broken pieces were found in the pits 

 beside the altars. 



Now it is true that such hasty burial might have been only the 

 result of carelessness on the part of the persons engaged in the 

 operations, and that after all the cohort departed peaceably after 

 completing the burial. But even this does not seem compatible 

 with the facts elicited not only during the excavations made in 1870, 

 but also during those made in 1880. 



Several mutilated altars, sculptures, &c., were (in 1880,) found 

 lying scattered up and down the Camp, one even being rolled over 

 the face of the cliff to the seaward side of the Camp. Of course 

 it may be said that these altars, &c., may have represented a 

 different period than that represented by the altars found in 1870. 

 But, be this as it may, at least part of one altar represented in the 

 "find of 1870," viz., one by the Spaniards under C. C. Priscus, was 

 found in 1880 some 350 yards from the site where those of 1870 were 

 found, and in close proximity to the mutilated remains found in 1870. 

 It is difficult to see why this should not have been interred with the 

 others, if the cohort had left peaceably. It is broken, and others 

 are in the same condition ; surely only an enemy could be answer- 

 able for this state of things. Had the cohort left peaceably, it 

 would doubtless have followed the usual custom and have taken 

 its altars along with it. Clearly, in the face of a triumphant enemy, 

 this would have been an impossibility. Has this any bearing on the 

 case in point? Yet again, Lysoti^s Cumbeiiand, p. cxlii , and Wright, 

 Celt, Roman, and Saxon, p. 452, point out that the town showed 

 signs of having been " burnt down and then rebuilt." This clearly 

 testifies to troublous times at some period previous to A.D. 417. 

 Such burnittg may of course have been the result of accident, 



