MASONRY OF THE STATIONS.
In Cumberland, the stones are rather larger than in the eastern portion of the line, a thickness of twelve inches not being uncommon, with a corresponding breadth. The blocks in the north face of the Wall, also, are not unfrequently larger than those in the south. The stones of which the walls of the stations are composed are smaller than those of the main Wall. Their average thickness is from five to seven inches, and their breadth from six to eight. The woodcut which is here introduced, depicts the junction of the west wall of the station of Amboglanna with the Wall, and well displays the different character of the stones used in two erections. As already observed, the stations appear to have been built before the Wall, and as the necessity of the case required that they should be run up as quickly as possible, a smaller class of stone was allowed to pass muster here than was used in the Wall. The workmanship also is of inferior quality.
THE TOOLING OF THE STONES.
The front of the stones, both of the Wall and stations, is roughly ‘scabbled’ with the pick. In some parts of the line, this tooling takes a definite form; when this is the case, the marking called the diamond broaching is most common. Sometimes the
stone is scored with waved lines, or with small squares, or with nearly upright lines. The woodcuts illustrative of the masonry at Chester Holm, and of the Crypt at Hexham, to be introduced along with
the account of these places, will exemplify some of these kinds of broaching. It was not until I had become tolerably familiar with the Wall, that my attention was called to this peculiar kind of tooling. A visit to Habitancum and Bremenium, where the stones are nearly all broached in the diamond fashion, induced me to inspect the Wall more narrowly in this respect. I have since frequently detected it, especially in Cumberland. It is rare in the Northumbrian portion. Is this broaching peculiar to a particular legion, or to a certain period? The station of Habitancum is understood to have been rebuilt by Caracalla—can the other stations, and those parts of the Wall where this kind of marking appears, have also undergone repair at the same time, or is it the work of some particular legion? The same kind of broaching may be noticed in some of the stones at Chester, the Deva Icenorum of the Romans, which was for a long time the head quarters of the 20th legion. Though unable to resolve the doubt, I think that the prosecution of the inquiry may lead to some worthy result.