142 Hadrian's Wall. [Sess. 



of Roman construction, but had been sunk by a previous 

 tenant of the farm. 



Within the gateway was the guard chamber. Just inside 

 the north gate is a stone trough which was probably used for 

 watering animals coming in from or going out to the north. 

 One side and an end of the trough are scooped out in a 

 curious semicircular fashion, almost certainly by the soldiers 

 of the guard sharpening their knives and weapons as they 

 idled around the gateway. When the excavators were specu- 

 lating as to its probable use, one gruff old Northumbrian 

 voiced the local prejudice, which still lingers about the dis- 

 trict against our countrymen, by suggesting that the Romans 

 used the trough for washing their Scotch prisoners in. 



In the east gate of Amboglanna the springer of the arch 

 is still in position, and shows approximately the height of 

 the arched gateway. The same gate shows the full breadth 

 of the double gateway, with the jambs on each side and 

 the central partition still in position. Each of the portals 

 was eleven feet wide. The gates were of wood, probably 

 studded with iron, and all trace of them has of course long 

 since disappeared, but the pivot-holes in which the hinges of 

 the gates turned can still be seen, many of them still retain- 

 ing traces of the iron pivot of the gate. After all these 

 centuries we can still see evidence of the wear and tear of 

 Roman traffic through these gateways. In the middle of the 

 east gateway at Borcovicus is the sill, the raised central block 

 of stone against which the two halves of the gates closed, and 

 on one side is a deep rut worn by the Roman cart and chariot 

 wheels. There was a corresponding rut on the other side, but 

 that unfortunately has been broken and lost. A stone like these 

 sills would be a serious obstacle in a gateway to our one-horsed 

 carts, but the Roman vehicle had two horses, rather loosely 

 harnessed to the conveyance, and so one passed on either side 

 of it. The breadth between the wheels of the Roman chariot, 

 4£ feet, is exactly the distance between the ruts in this gate- 

 way. I have already mentioned the guard chambers on either 

 side of the entrance, which were an invariable feature of these 

 gateways. It is in the clearing out of these chambers that 

 much of the unwritten history of the Roman occupation has 

 been read by the antiquary. Out of one of these at Bor- 



