452 REPORT— 1902. 



The whole structure (passages and guard-chambers) was within the 

 width of the rampart, and the front pair of portals was set back nearly 

 6 feet behind the front line of the rampart. These portals had been 

 provided with two-leaved doors, which turned on pivots. These in closing 

 stopped against a rim or sill of stone which crossed the threshold, and 

 in opening fell back into the recesses made by the projection of the 

 pilasters. In one of the passages of the south-west gate the raised sill^ 

 pivot-holes, and bolt-holes were found intact, the former consisting of 

 two flag-stones end to end^ and set on edge in the gi-ound, the upper 

 edge being worn by traffic. 



From the presence of red roofing-tiles on the site of the north-east gate 

 it is probable that the gates were roofed with these tiles. 



The building (VII) designated by some the Pnvlorium, and by 

 others the Forum, was the most central and probably the most important 

 feature of the interior of the fort. It was oblong in plan, 80 by 68 feet, 

 and was of simple type, consisting of («) an interior courtyard entered 

 from the Via rrincipaliK, and surrounded on three sides by a narrow- 

 roofed ambulatory ; and (h) a posterior portion consisting of a space 

 which may be regarded as the enlarged ambulatory of the fourth or far 

 side of the courtyard witli a range of five rooms opening into it. The 

 middle room was distinguished from the rest by its external projection, 

 in this respect resembling the corresponding room in some of the German 

 p7'(Vtoria. 



On the north-west side of the Proitorium was a house-like structure 

 (VI), consisting of a series of rooms, which opened into a corridor sur- 

 rounding a small central court, entered from the Via Principalis. 



On the opposite side was an enclosed yard, which also had its chief 

 entrance from the above street. This yard was not fully explored, but 

 the trenches sufficiently showed that it was used for various purposes. 

 h t;^' Between these and the latei-al gates were two remarkable buttressed 

 buildings (V and VIII), each about 83 by 35 feet. Remains of similar 

 buildings have beeii found in most Roman forts, but nowhere else 

 have they supplied so many hints as to their original construc- 

 tion and arrangement. Each of the Gellygaer examples consisted of 

 a middle portion having a raised floor of wood or other perishable 

 material, supported upon a number of parallel sleeper-walls. In these 

 walls, and between the buttres.ses of the external walls, were openings, 

 evidently to allow of the free circulation of air between this raised floor 

 and the ground. The roof above had been tiled in the usual way. At 

 each end were the remains of a sort of portico, containing an entrance 

 into the middle portion, reached by several steps. Of the various con- 

 jectures as to the use of these buildings the most feasible is that they 

 were storehouses. 



The four buildings described above, formed a range along the south- 

 west side of the great cross street, the rest of the interior being occupied 

 by a number of narrow transverse buildings, which apparently had been 

 thatched, for no roofing tiles of any sort were found on their sites. 



8ix of these (I, II, XII, XIII, XIV, XV) were alike, L-shaped, and 

 their average length was 145 feet and width 36 feet. For about two- 

 thirds of their length (corresponding to the upright limb of the L); how- 

 ever, the actual wall on one side was recessed or set back about 6 feet, 

 the full width being maintained along this portion by a row of nine posts, 

 which evidently supported the overhanging roof, formiDg a veranda. 



