Outside the vallum on the south-western side is a fosse (or dyke), of which the outer limit is about 43 feet from the vallum.
In the second cutting near the western angle the vallum was found to be 6 feet wide, and below the base there was a layer of imported clay; below this was a layer of red sand 2 feet thick, and under that a quantity of gravel.
On the north-eastern side of the vallum was a strong oak post found standing upright, which appeared to have been a gate-post.
The construction of the vallum was at the same time exposed, and showed that it was formed of boulder stones put together with cement.
But now there seems little doubt that the vallum was the ancient Roman road running inside the wall.
The doorway, which is some twelve feet from the ground, was on the level of the vallum or wall of fortification, and gave access to the first floor.
Wareham is a town fortified by an earthen vallumand ditch, and is one of the boroughs of the Burghal Hidage.
The main entrance is defended by a separate mount with its own ditch, which is conjectured to be of later date than the vallum itself.
The vallum is expressed in Welsh by caer or dinas, the same with the Gaelic dun.
A Lindo adVallum usque, sic: | From Lincoln to the Wall.
Footnote 405: The wall or vallum erected by Severus between the Solway Frith and the mouth of the Tyne.
The similar fosse and palisaded vallum surrounding the castle meadow afforded additional protection to the eastern extremity of the causeway; the portion of the semicircle to the south-west being most open to attack.
The vallum makes fewer deviations from a right line than the stone wall; but as the wall traverses higher ground, this remarkable tendency is more easily detected in it than in the other.
Arguments have been brought forward by some antiquaries to show that the wall and the vallum by which it is accompanied belong to two different periods; but Dr.
The vallum is likewise rather the shorter, terminating at Newcastle on the east, and at Drumburgh, about three miles from Bowness, the western extremity of the wall.
Of these we have the circumscribed mote-hill or earthen-mound, steeply escarped, and with the remains of its little vallum of earth surmounted originally by the stronger palisades for which the neighbouring forest supplied abundant material.
The fosse, which is still traceable along a great part of the wall, is on its north side, from whence we are justified in inferring that the vallum was reared by the natives of the southern districts.
The carse of Falkirk is still indented with the vallum of the Antonine wall.
This singular British vallumhas excited much less attention than its magnitude and great extent seem to demand.
The former were doubtless the contemporaries of the Twentieth Legion who, located at Duntocher, reared there the Roman fort, and constructed the vallum eastward till it joined the work of the Second Legion at Castlehill.
The south-west corner of the station forms the pretorium, raised by the earth taken out of a vallum which surrounds and secures it, and which is sunk eight feet lower than the common surface of the area.
The vallum is lined by the velites, who are on guard all along it from day to day.
He walks through the posts assigned, which are not only those along the vallum and gates, but also the pickets set by the several maniples and squadrons.
These selected are punished with the fustuarium without mercy; the rest are put on rations of barley instead of wheat, and are ordered to take up their quarters outside the vallum and the protection of the camp.
The churchyard forms the site of a Roman camp, the vallum of which may still be seen.
The Vallum Antonini was a work of man's hands, and its name is of less value than those of natural objects, such as mountains, rivers, or lakes.
This is the head of the wall, or caput vall, being the eastern extremity (there or thereabouts) of the Vallum of Antoninus.
To these formidable defences a third vallum has been added, surrounding it upon every side except the east where it was deemed unnecessary.
Around villages and farmsteads the defences probably consisted of a ditch, a vallum surmounted by a turf wall, a palisading of thick stakes, or even a hedge.
Double valla, and their accompanying fosses, surround the whole camp, the crest of the inner vallum averaging from 50 to 60 feet above the bed of its fosse.
England took place, and the vallum at Verulamium was crowned by the Romans with a massive wall of masonry, great portions of which still remain, supplanting the former wooden obstructions.
It is almost square, and consists of a simple vallum and external fosse.
It is a camp of the plateau type with an inner vallum rising nearly 50 feet above the fosse and 20 above the inner area.
The circumference of this vast work measures one and a half miles, and three enormous valla and fosses stretch this distance; in many places the crest of a vallum above the fosse beneath it amounts to 60 feet.
The Vallumhere parts company with the Wall, and takes the 'tail' of the hill on the 'crag' of which the other runs.
From this point to the water's edge, the Wall and Vallum have probably gone in close companionship; but this is a matter which cannot now be ascertained.
At the first view of the subject, therefore, we should be disposed to question the accuracy of the opinion which gives to these works distinct dates, and ascribes the Vallum to Hadrian, and the stone Wall to Severus.
The Vallum is about seventy yards to the south of the Wall.
Upon the same assumption, it may be added that the ramparts of the Vallum are probably indebted for some portion of the stone which they contain, to the chippings of the Wall.
The claims of Agricola to the authorship of any part of the Vallummay therefore at once be set aside, and the inquiry be confined to the relative claims of Hadrian and Severus.
At the distance of a field to the south of it, the Vallum is seen in greater distinctness than before.
After this the Vallum and Murus accompany each other for the rest of their journey, with but little intermission.
