he Eden valley, reached Hadrian's wall near Carlisle (Luguvallium), and
passed on to Birrens. The third route, starting from Chester and passing up
the western coast, is more complex, and exists in duplicate, the result
perhaps of two different schemes of road-making. Forts in plenty can be
detected along it, notably Manchester (Mancunium or Mamucium), Ribchester
(Bremetennacum), Brougham Castle (Brocavum), Old Penrith (Voreda), and on a
western branch, Watercrook near Kendal, Waterhead near the hotel of that
name on Ambleside, Hardknott above Eskdale, Maryport (Uxellod[=u]num), and
Old Carlisle (possibly Petriana). In addition, two or three cross roads,
not yet sufficiently explored, maintained communication between the troops
in Yorkshire and those in Cheshire and Lancashire. This road system bears
plain marks of having been made at different times, and with different
objectives, but we have no evidence that any one part was abandoned when
any other was built. There are signs, however, that various forts were
dismantled as the country grew quieter. Thus, Gellygaer in South Wales and
Hardknott in Cumberland have yielded nothing later than the opening of the
2nd century.

[Illustration: FIG. 2.--Hadrian's Wall.

From _Social England_, by permission of Cassell & Co., Ltd.]

Besides these detached forts and their connecting roads, the north of
Britain was defended by Hadrian's wall (figs. 2 and 3). The history of this
wall has been given above. The actual works are threefold. First, there is
that which to-day forms the most striking feature in the whole, the wall of
stone 6-8 ft. thick, and originally perhaps 14 ft. high, with a deep ditch
in front, and forts and "mile castles" and turrets and a connecting road
behind it. On the high moors between Chollerford and Gilsland its traces
are still plain, as it climbs from hill to hill and winds along perilous
precipices. Secondly, there is the so-called "Vallum," in reality no
_vallum_ at all, but a broad flat-bottomed ditch out of which the earth has
been cast up on either side into regular and continuous mounds that
resemble ramparts. Thirdly, nowhere very clear on the surface and as yet
detected only at a few points, there are the remains of the "turf wall,"
constructed of sods laid in regular courses, with a ditch in front. This
turf wall is certainly older than the stone wall, and, as our ancient
writers mention two wall-builders, Hadrian and Septimius Severus, the
natur