The picture facing this page represents the view from Amboglanna referred to by the late Lord Carlisle, in his Diary in Turkish and Greek Waters. He says:
"Strikingly, and to any one who has coasted the uniform shore of the Hellespont, and crossed the tame low plain of the Troad, unexpectedly lovely is this site of Troy, if Troy it was. I could give any Cumberland borderer the best notion of it, by telling him that it wonderfully resembles the view from the point just outside the Roman camp at Birdoswald: both have that series of steep conical hills, with rock enough for wildness, and verdure enough for softness; both have that bright trail of a river creeping in and out with the most continuous indentations: the Simois has, in summer at least, more silvery shades of sand."
VIEW FROM THE FORT OF AMBOGLANNA, LOOKING SOUTH, ACROSS THE IRTHING
While busy over this book, I came across a photograph of the Greek view at a friend's house, and though I recognized the resemblance, I felt that Cumberland could well hold its own with Greece.
From Amboglanna the Wall and the road follow the same line as far as the village of Banks. For 500 yards west of Birdoswald, the Wall is the south boundary of the road. From that point onwards to Banks the Wall is the foundation of the road. This was ascertained by excavations made by the late Mr. J. P. Gibson and Mr. F. G. Simpson, who found that two Wall turrets (known as High House and Apple-tree turrets) come within the road-boundary, as also does a quarter of the mile-castle known as High House mile-castle. In these turrets and the mile-castle four floors were traceable, the dates of which are roughly as follows, beginning with the highest:
1. About 300 A.D.
2. 210 A.D. under Severus.
3. 158 A.D. " Antoninus Pius.
4. 120-125 A.D. " Hadrian.
The Vallum on the left and the Wall-ditch on the right call for notice all along this stretch of road; and here also is something unique, the turf-wall, running to meet the Great Wall at Wallbowers. As has been mentioned, it starts from near Harrow's Scar mile-castle, and is like the string of a bow, the Great Wall being the bow.
On the "Pilgrimage" in September 1920, sections of the turf-wall were cut to show the black and white lines marking the limits of the turves. The vegetable-matter turns black, and bleaches the soil that comes next to it.