BY THE EEV. DR. HOOPPELL. 133 



Tery important one. The area within the ramparts was five and 

 a third acres. The exploration has yielded many discoveries of 

 very great interest, if not actually unique. As far as I am aware, 

 a table altar, in the forum, to be described presently, of an age 

 immediately subsequent to the Christian Eomano-Eritish epoch, 

 the sunken chamber with its stone steps, window sill and jambs, 

 and impluvium, and the prostrate wall of thirty feet original 

 height, are unique in Great Britain. If the whole is ultimately 

 destroyed, if the stones are carried away, (as they are being 

 daily carried away to furnish materials for the foundations of 

 new houses and for the erection of garden walls,) and if no steps 

 are taken to preserve relics so valuable to science, and which, 

 rightly considered, reflect such lustre on South Shields, the dis- 

 grace to the town will be indelible. The block I have been 

 describing, and which comprises the forum, prsetorium, etc., toge- 

 ther with all the interesting relics I have thus far particularised 

 is included in a space of thirty-five yards by twenty-seven 

 yards. Is the purchase, enclosure, laying out, and perpetual 

 preservation of that space of ground beyond the means of any of 

 the public - spirited inhabitants of South Shields? Are there 

 not many who could do it without feeling the expenditure re- 

 quired for the purpose in the least ; and, when this is the case, 

 shall the most precious heritage the town has within its borders 

 be thrown away, because a Committee is unenergetic, or a public 

 body, like the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, slow in answering 

 letters ? 



But the portion I have described is not the only deeply inte- 

 resting spot revealed by the excavation. The explorers were 

 determined to fix the position of each of the four ramparts and 

 to uncover each of the four gateways. In this they succeeded 

 perfectly. More than ninety yards of the eastern rampart are 

 laid bare, and in one place no fewer than six courses of facing 

 stones are in position, for many yards together, a splendid piece 

 of masonry. The rounded corner of the rampart is likewise 

 shown to great advantage, (Plate VIII.), great chamfered blocks 

 running round on the outside, a few courses from the founda- 

 tion, and giving a noble appearance to the wall. The ramparts 



