button to main menu  Gents Mag 1851 part 1 p.149

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Gentleman's Magazine 1851 part 1 p.149
intoduction of a few of the cuts. The first is a view of the junction of the west wall of the station Amboglanna with the great wall, to show the different character of the stones used in the two structures. (See the Plate.)
"The stations," the author observes, "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 is also of inferior quality. The front of the stones, both of the wall and stations, is roughly 'scrabbled' with the pick. In some parts of the line this tooling takes a definite form; when this is the case, the marking called diamond broaching is most common. Sometimes the stone is scored with wavy lines, or with small

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squares, or with nearly upright lines. ... It was not until I had become tolerably familiar with the wall, that my attention was called to this peculiar kind of tooling. ... Cuttings resembling mason's marks occasionally occur. Sometimes they consist

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of a single or double stroke, sometimes of a diagonal cross, sometimes a rectangular. The other marks which are here represented are less frequently met with."

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We shall not attempt in this notice to follow the author pari passu, and therefore, to convey some faint notion of the architectural peculiarities of this vast building and its adjuncts, shall proceed to Borcovicus, the midway station, now called Housesteads. Gordon calls this the most remarkable and magnifient station in the whole island, and he speaks of "the marks of streets and temples in ruins, inscriptions, broken pillars, statues, and other pieces of sculpture, all scattered along the ground." Stukeley calls it "the Tadmor of Britain." Mr. Bruce, who examined it in 1849 and 1850, observes
"Let not the visitor, however, approach it with expectations too greatly excited. There is very much to admire, but not a great deal to strike the eye at first sight. The altars and sculptured figures which lay in profusion on the ground when Gordon and Stukeley were there, have been removed, but the ruins of the place remain as complete and vast as ever. The city is, in a great measure, covered with its own debris, but the excavations which have recently been made show us that, when they are continued throughout the entire station, the ancient Borcovicus will be the Pompeii of Britain."
The area is about five acres, half lying on a slope, the other on a flat; on the north it is bounded by the wall. The west wall of the station instead of coming up to the great wall in a straight line as is usual, makes a curve such as is common in the corners of castra built independent of the wall, as is shown by the annexed woodcut (see Plate):
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