6 Tkansactions. 



on active service entrenched its camp. When a lioman army was 

 in the field, and halted even for a single night, the unvarying 

 practice was to throw up an entrenchment in the form of a square, 

 large enough to contain the whole army Avith its baggage. The 

 defences consisted of a ditch twelve feet deep and twelve feet 

 wide. The soil dug out was thrown inward so as to form a ram- 

 part twelve feet high all round. On the summit of the rampart 

 was a palisade formed of sharp wooden stakes. In the Springfield 

 Hill Camp this style of circumvallation is departed from. On the 

 east, a ditch, fossa, gently curved, stretches along the whole side. 

 This ditch is backed by a rampart, agger, also curved, about fifty- 

 eight yards in length. Immediately behind this first rampart is a 

 second ditch, and on its inner edge rises a second rampart about 

 sixty-three yards in length. This second ditch and rampart, with 

 an interval at the north-east corner of the Camp for the entrance, 

 porta, are carried round the whole length of the northern and 

 western sides. A single ditch and rampart, with the deep declina- 

 tion of the ground beyond, appear, in the opinion of the garrison, 

 to have afforded sufficient protection to the Camp on these two 

 sides. Behind that part of the second rampart which defends the 

 eastern side of the Camp is a platform, nine yards broad at its 

 widest part. On this platform fifty men could be drawn up in 

 order of battle, according to the Roman method. Behind this 

 platform, and also running the whole length of the eastern side of 

 the Camp, but stopping at the entrance way, is a third ditch backed 

 by its corresponding rampart. From the inclination of the 

 ground this third rampart rises high above and overlooks 

 all the works in front of it. Each one of these ramparts 

 would be surmounted by its palisade, vallum, made of sharp 

 wooden stakes, sudes. On the southern side the rocks, 

 which stand out bare and jagged and grimly overlook the level 

 ground far below, would form an impassable barrier to any 

 assailant. As a post of observation, the Camp is admirably 

 situated. It overlooks the country to the west, to the north, 

 and to the east for many a league. Constructed about a.d. 

 82, at the close of Agricola's wars — certainly before A.D. 84, 

 in which year Agricola left the whole of England and the liow- 

 lands of Scotland pacified, in the enjoyment of settled laws and 

 the conveniences of life — it would be occupied till A.D. 120, when 

 the Emperor Hadrian, who visited Britain in person, wearied out 

 by the frequent incursions of the wild Caledonians into the 



