Fig. 13.—Cross-section of Fort-wall, showing how it was reinforced on the inner side with earth.
The Wall abuts on the rounded north-west angle of the fort. The tower at this angle appears to belong to the Wall and not to the fort. It was evidently rebuilt when the Wall was built, like the one at Housesteads.
The Wall-ditch is very clearly marked to the west of Æsica.
The remains at Æsica have been fenced round to protect them from cattle, but the fences are broken, so when I was there, sheep and lambs were disporting themselves on the very walls of the guard-chambers.
After passing Cockmount Hill farm-house, where, in spite of the bleak situation, white lilacs were blooming in the garden, and the regulation farm-house sycamore was firmly established, I entered a dense little wood, and here the Wall was in very satisfactory condition. Under the pine-trees it ran, its lower courses hidden by beautiful ferns and foxgloves, but I could see the projecting foundation stones in places. In the wood I met an old lady, with two pretty children, from the farm, gathering sticks. The children made just the right patches of colour there amongst the pine-needles, a patch of purple and a patch of emerald green.
South of Cockmount Hill many of the newly discovered causeways, referred to on [page 34], can be seen crossing the ditch of the Vallum.
The rain now began to come down in earnest, and I hurried past the next site of a mile-castle without even looking at it. As I reached Allolee farm-house, I decided I must take shelter. Two huge specimens of the pig-tribe saw me coming, and charged down the hill at me at full speed, grunting loudly. It needed all my determination to keep on in a straight line! But they faded away, with a disappointed look, just before they reached me.
I was most hospitably received at Allolee, hung out to dry, and fed, and entertained, to my heart's content. Two children, a boy and a girl, were with their mother in the farm-house kitchen. I told them the pig-incident, and all the sympathy I got was: "Poor dears! they were hungry!"