Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 6.djvu/352

 214 ROMAN ROADS, CAMPS, AND EARTHWORKS, The district, which has been ah'eady described as situate between the Tees and the Swale, is traversed throughout this whole space by a vast dike, or line of earthworks, w^hich extends, with more or less of continuity, from Easby on the Swale to Barforth on the Tees, passing in its course some entrenchments of a singular kind, at Stanwick and Forcett. It is proposed in this memoir, to give some account of the whole of these early remains ; commencing with the Roman roads and camps. We shall then proceed to trace the course of the dike, offering some conjectures as to its origin and purpose. A notice of some other camps and earthworks in the district, of uncertain period, will conclude the memoir. The shape of the whole district is that of an irregular triangle, containing between sixty and seventy square miles ; the south-west boundary of which, as will be seen by the accompanying General Map, may be defined by a line drawn from the junction of the Greta and the Tees to Barn- ingham, passing over the elevated moorlands of Crumma and Feldorn to Richmond, and continued from this spot to Catterick along the course of the Swale. The River Tees itself may be taken as the north-west limit ; and the east side of the triangle is formed by the Roman Way from Catterick Bridge to Pierse Bridge. The valley of Gilling, which runs up from Catterick in a north and west direction, appears to have been taken advan- tage of by the Romans as a line of defence on the south of their road to Greta Bridge, to which it forms an enormous ditch ; and, at the same time that this road overlooks the Gilling Valley, it forms a triangle with the other Roman Way, on the eastward, and the course of the Tees ; within this smaller triangle lie the entrenchments at Stanmck and Forcett, to which we have already alluded. The whole of this area from the moorlands on the south to the Tees on the north is completely commanded by 'Two posts of observation ; the elevated and rounded hill of Diderston, situated on the north side of the Roman Way to Greta Bi'idge, and nearly in the centre of the whole district, and the Camp at Cauldwell, which is placed about the centre of the smaller triangle formed by the Roman Roads and River Tees. We shall now proceed to trace the Roman Road which