136 ox ROMAN REMAINS AT SOUTH SHTELDS, 



large buildings in this direction. In several cases the doorways 

 are plainly visible. It has been suggested that these edifices 

 were barracks. Their walls were probably those standing above 

 the ground in Leland's time, for the explorers found some of 

 them within a few inches of the surface of the soil. In the 

 neighbourhood of these buildings, and in other localities of the 

 Station, large well-made drains were found. This was particu- 

 larly the case along the bed of the street leading fi-om the south 

 gate to the north. Two di-ains, built of stone, sides and bottom, 

 and covered with large flags, ran down side by side, and passed 

 under double flags beneath the roadway of the north gate, and so 

 discharged down the river bank the drainage of the town. (Plate 

 IX.) In excavating the northern portion of the Station an in- 

 teresting fact was disclosed, which is probably true of other steep 

 hills besides the Lawe at South Shields. One effect of time 

 during the last fifteen hundred years has e^4dently been to flatten, 

 so to speak, the hill. The accumulation of soil has been very 

 considerably gi-eater on the slopes than on the summit. 



There remains to notice a fine building situated near the west- 

 em rampart, abutting on the main street leading from the west 

 gate to the east. This building is about seventy-seven feet long 

 ])y fifty-one feet broad, outside measurement. The walls are 

 flanked by a great number of buttresses placed very close. It 

 therefore most likely had an open roof. It is paved with flags 

 throughout. In one comer, the south-west, it has a deep sunken 

 chamber, wliich was arched and stepped over. (Plate XI.) What 

 was the use of this chamber, the construction of which and its 

 surroundings is somewhat complicated, has not yet been cleai'ly 

 discovered. Many of the stones used in building it show by 

 their markings that they had belonged to earlier edifices. On 

 the south side this building had apparently a noble portico, for 

 the bases of three or four columns were found in their original 

 place. (Plate X.) Some call the building a temple. I do not see 

 why it may not have been a Cliristian church. Christianity 

 was the religion of the Roman Empire long before the Romans 

 abandoned ]Jritain, and there is strong reason to think that the 



