PLATE VI.
REMAINS OF ROMAN BRIDGE
OVER THE
NORTH TYNE.
Reid Lith.
PLATE VII.
Miscellaneous Antiquities, Chesters, Cilurnum
The remains of this bridge may yet be seen when the water is low, and the surface smooth. There seem to have been three piers of considerable size and solidity, set diagonally to the stream. The stones composing them are large, regularly squared, and fastened with metallic cramps.[[84]] Luis-holes, indicating the mode in which they have been lowered into their bed, appear in several of them. The firmness with which these foundation courses still retain the position assigned to them by the soldiers of Hadrian is very remarkable; the rolling floods of sixteen hundred winters seem to have spent their rage upon them almost in vain. As the eastern side of the river is frequently overflowed, the Vallum is here obliterated, but probably both works approached the bridge in close companionship. On the western side, appearances still bear out Horsley’s statement, that the 'Wall falls upon the middle of the fort, and Hadrian’s Vallum, as usual, falls in with the south side of it.'
A plan of Cilurnum, and adjoining works, as figured by Warburton, is given in [Plate II]. Probably, few who examine it attentively will question the justness of the conclusion to which he has arrived, that the Wall, Vallum, stations, castles, and turrets, ‘by their mutual relation to one another, must have been one entire, united defence, or fortification.’