pkesident's address. ■ 279 



on arrival at ChoUerford, tlie E,ev. Dr. Bruce, a former Presi- 

 dent, very kindly undertook to conduct the party over the Eoman 

 station of Cilurnum, where, by the kind permission of the vener- 

 able owner, John Clayton, Esq., F.S.A., they were enabled to 

 see not only the well-preserved remains, the records of the E,oman 

 occupation of England, but also the excavations that were being 

 proceeded with. Dr. Bruce, with his usual care, directed atten- 

 tion to the relics, and explained their purpose. His remarks on 

 the gate-ways and the forum were particularly interesting, and 

 elicited the admiration of the party. The new discoveries, he 

 said, had been made while carrying a drain from the older excava- 

 tions to the river. He had been asked to explain the character 

 of the buildings which had been brought to light, but he said he 

 could not, as the purpose for which some parts of the structure 

 had been used had not been determined. There were seen the 

 remains of a large room with a stone floor, in which, at one end, 

 were seven recesses, like stalls in a church. "What these were 

 for has not as yet been ascertained. They stood, however, next 

 to a room beneath which had been a furnace or hot air chamber 

 for warming the building, and the hot air was brought through 

 pipes into the room, a process which is now being adopted as one 

 of the best methods and latest improvements in the mode of 

 heating houses. 



The outline of the station of Cilurnum is still distinctly visible. 

 It has the peculiarity of possessing two gateways, on the eastern 

 and western ramparts, in place of one, which is the usual plan 

 of Eoman stations. This exceptional circumstance seems to be 

 connected with the fact that the wall does not come up to the 

 northern ramparts, but to the southern point of its principal 

 eastern gateway, and takes its departure for its western, so that 

 about one-third of the station projects beyond the wall. It is 

 conjectured that it was originally one of Agricola's camps, formed 

 to protect the bridge, and that when Hadrian made use of it as 

 one of the stations of the wall, he brought up the wall to the 

 southern jamb of the two northern gateways, walled them up, 

 and made use of the smaller ones to the south of them. These 

 ruined walls are the favoured habitat of many wild plants, of 



