The colonnade of the Principia at Cilurnum consisted of neat piers made of specially small stones, instead of the circular columns that are found elsewhere. The paving is beautiful; but there are indications that it covers an earlier floor. The chamfered bases of the piers go below the level of the present paving-stones, which may some day be removed, and the original floor-level reached and dated. It would be interesting to see in what state of preservation that floor would be found. In this outer court there is a round well, still half full of water; the stones are all the original Roman work except the top row. There are "set-backs" at intervals down the sides of the well, to form footholds when it was necessary to descend it. Its workmanship is beautiful. Another necessary and constant feature in the inner arrangement of a Roman fort was the pair of granaries, often set close together, side by side. These granaries were the strongest of the inner buildings. Their walls were thick and heavily buttressed, and their floors supported either on dwarf walls, or on pillars, to provide for the circulation of air underneath them and so prevent damp. The remains of the granaries at Cilurnum have {92} unfortunately been removed; they stood to the south-west of the Principia. A very important find in a guard-chamber at Cilurnum was what is known as the "Chesters Diploma," a bronze tablet, conferring the privileges of Roman citizenship on certain soldiers who had earned it by faithful service. It is now in the British Museum. Dr. Bruce gives a full description of it in his _Handbook to the Roman Wall_. The barracks are another essential feature of a Roman fort. At Cilurnum these were situated to the north of the Principia, and important remains are to be seen in the north-eastern section of the fort area. There was probably accommodation for six companies of one hundred men, ten men in a room. The Asturians who formed the garrison came from a mountainous district in the north of Spain, where it is quite as cold as the valley of the North Tyne. The hardy mountain ponies they brought with them were known as _Asturco_ by the Romans. The stables have not been identified. The barrack-rooms had a covered way or verandah running in front, with a series of columns, some of whose bases remain. A massive stone gutter runs down the middle of the street between the barracks. They probably had little pent-house roofs. When the rooms were excavated they were full of pottery, bones, oyster-shells, and rubbish of all kinds, giving {93} a very bad impression of the standard of refinement and comfort of the last occupiers. To the east of the Principia is what is most probably the residence of the commandant, with private baths, as well as dwelling-rooms, elaborately heated by means of hypocausts. The building was finely designed and finished. A beautiful moulding runs round the base, and also round the buttress.