66 PAPERS, ETC. 
really was, is the object of this paper. But though it is 
the proper oflice of the archologist to clear away obscu- 
rities, I fear there is little doubt that when he has done 
his best with regard to a fabric which has most probably 
existed for more than two thousand years, there will be 
quite enough left to satisfy the most imaginative mind, 
that ever took the unknown for the wonderful. The 
military works of the Romans, as well as the roads which 
they laid down, wherever their dominion was established, 
were constructed on a scale of such grandeur and durabi- 
lity, that many of them have survived the lapse of sixteen 
or seventeen centuries, and still bear witness to the power 
and enterprise of that wonderful people; while the bloody 
ravages ofthe Danes hold so conspicuous a place in the early 
annals of this country as not only to be recorded in real 
history, but in many cases to have come down to us in the 
less certain form of local tradition. It is not, therefore, a 
subject of wonder, that these relics of bygone nations have 
usually been ascribed either to the conquerors of the 
world, or to those northern pirates whose incursions were 
for some centuries the terror of the civilized world. But 
in reality a very little knowledge of history and antiqui- 
ties will serve to convince us that probably the great 
majority of these mysterious structures could not have 
owed their origin to either of these people; though no 
doubt, when occasion required, they both made use of the 
fortifications they found ready made to their hands in the 
countries which they invaded. Therules of Roman castra- 
metation are so well understood, and the rectangular form, 
with the gates regularly placed in each side, so universally 
adhered to by that people, that it is hardly possible to 
mistake an originally Roman camp for one constructed by 
any of the other races who have held military possession 
