Page:Roman Manchester (1900) by Charles Roeder.djvu/17

 situation in which they occurred. He suggests they might have reference to a time when the wall may have undergone a repair. We shall see later on, when speaking of the hypocaust, that such a hypothesis is not improbable. The wall at the south-east angle in Whitaker's time still stood 10 feet high.

The southern wall. The gateway was exhibited 65 yards away from its south-west angle and afforded a ready passage from the station to the Medlock. The walls were still 7 feet high.

The western wall was still rising 7 feet from the ground and 40 yards from its north-west angle the Porta Decumana was placed.

The northern wall had its gate 48 yards from the east side, it still stood 4 feet to 6 feet high. Whitaker took occasion to examine its internal structure. It consisted of rough undressed stones (new red sandstone), angular pieces of rock, smooth round boulders, all bedded in strong white-brown mortar. He found the walls raised from the breadth of 7 feet to 8 feet at the base. Sir Henry Dryden, who also measured a remnant of the wall in 1843-4 on the east side, states its thickness to be 7 feet, the old base was almost entirely gone, the old joints at the base were about ½ inch wide, the joint inside 2 inches or 3 inches wide, the stones 12 inches and 15 inches long, and 5 inches to 8 inches thick. The probable height of the wall was 12 feet.

We see then from the position of the gates that they were not uniformly placed. The northern gate stood at a distance of 48 yards from the east angle, the southern 65 yards from the west angle, the eastern 80 yards from the north angle, and the western gate 40 yards from the north angle, contrary to the usual rule, and the principal streets, as Whitaker remarks, must therefore