ROMAN WAREHAM AND THE CLAUDIAN INVASION. 117 



Great changes had been made iu the composition of the legion, and 

 of the several bodies into which it was divided, and these changes 

 left the nearly quadrate camp unsuited to the defence of its 

 garrison. Therefore in Britain a nearly square camp marks not 

 only a Roman origin, but an origin during the earlier Roman 

 occupation of the island. Now a comparison of the Pretorian 

 Camp with Roman Gloucester shows the same almost square outline 

 in both : while the length and breadth of Wareham are still more 

 nearly equal. 



A peculiarity in the Pretorian Camp is that the two quarters of 

 the area, which stand on the upper side of the Via Pretoria (E M), 

 are each composed of four blocks of building divided by three streets 

 (marked F G H and I K L), while the remaining two quarters, 

 on the lower side of the main street, consist respectively of three 

 Hocks divided by two streets. 



In the existing city of Gloucester we find exactly the same 

 arrangements, with the exception that passages I and L are 

 wanting, though shown in old maps. This is probably from the 

 building of the Abbey (now the Cathedral), having taken up most 

 of the quarter through which they ran. A portion of I is still 

 used, however, as a back way to houses. 



An examination of Wareham not only reveals the Roman 

 arrangement of the four main streets, which are named, like those 

 at Gloucester, from the cardinal points of the compass, but it shows 

 the north-west corner still preserving the sub-division into four 

 blocks intersected by three streets. Wareham has suffered much 

 more from sieges than Gloucester has ; yet while, as a whole, 

 the latter keeps more of the original plan than any other 

 town in Great Britain, if not in Europe, the part corresponding 

 to the north-west of Wareham is less distinct than in the 

 latter town. 



The destruction of the parts of Wareham on the southern side 

 has obliterated the original division into three blocks, as on either 

 hand of the Eastgate Street in Gloucester ; but we get an inkling 

 of this having formerly been the case in Wareham, from the 



