Page:Roman Manchester (1900) by Charles Roeder.djvu/133

 (4) A fine pinkish cement, mixed with washed sand, perhaps used for mosaic work.

The presence of limestone quarries so close to the station offered a great advantage for the solid construction of their walls and buildings, it made them practically indestructible. No lime was used at Veratinum (Wilderspool); at Ribchester a little was used in one of the foundation walls for grouting; at Melandra I found some mortar, made of lime and gravel, adhering yet to some blocks of millstone grit, none in the foundations or walls; while, on the other hand, I picked up pieces of mortar, composed of pounded brick and lime, in Castle Hill, Northwich, Cheshire.

The white, compact, coarse millstone grit was employed in the station, in dressed blocks for the causeway, at the bottom of the first ditch in the northern wall, at the base of the northern gateway, for the rude steps to the ditch at the new Police Station (unhewn); and Whitaker speaks especially of the large square blocks of dressed millstone grit, with the mortar still adhering, found scattered over the area of the northern suburb. These, of course, must have come from the upper portions and the larger official buildings. Millstone grit was also used for the pilae in the hypocaust, and for the manufacture of the millstones and querns. The stone was most likely obtained from the western slopes of the Pennine chain, at Blackstone Edge, or Castleshaw. The employment of the millstone grit in the foundation walls argues, as already mentioned, an earlier intercourse, and a closer penetration into West Yorkshire; and it is clear that it must already have been