tation is situated on hilly ground, which slopes gently to the
south, and is nearly five acres in extent. On entering the eastern
gateway one cannot but experience a sudden thrill on seeing the deep
grooves worn in the stone by the passing and repassing of Roman cart and
chariot wheels. That mute witness of the daily traffic of the soldiery
in those long-past centuries speaks with a most intimate note to us who
eighteen hundred years afterwards come to look upon the place of their
habitation. The station itself is of the usual shape of the Roman towns
on the course of the Wall--oblong, with rounded corners. The greatest
length lies east and west, in a line with the Wall; and two broad
streets crossing each other at right angles lead from the north to the
south, and from the east to the western gateways. Each of the four was
originally a double gateway; but in every case one half of it has been
closed up, no doubt when the garrison was declining in numbers, and the
attacks of the enemy were increasing in severity.

[Illustration: NORTH GATEWAY, HOUSESTEADS AND ROMAN WALL.]

Considerable portions of the guard-chambers, one at each side of each
gateway, still remain; and near one of them was found a huge stone
trough, its edges deeply worn by, apparently, the frequent
sharpening of knives upon it. Its use has not been determined; Dr. Bruce
tells us that one of the men engaged in the work of excavation gave it
as his firm opinion that the Romans used it to wash their Scotch
prisoners in! The buildings of the little town--a row of houses against
the western wall, two large buildings near the centre of the camp, with
smaller chambers to the east of them--in which the garrison lived,
worked, and stored their supplies, are still quite plainly to be traced,
although the walls are only three or four courses high in most places,
and of the pillars the broken bases are almost all that remain.

A considerable number of people dwelt outside the walls of this, as of
all the stations, sheltering under its walls, and relying on the
protection of its garrison; the slope to the southward of Borcovicus
shows many traces of buildings scattered all over it. On the northern
side, the steep hill, massive masonry, and deep fosse would seem to have
offered well-nigh insuperable difficulties to an attacking force such as
then could be brought against the camp; yet not only here, but in all
the stations whose remains yet survive, there is unmista