The works of the Vallum are splendid, as seen from the top of Winshields; the eye can follow them for a great distance. The best developed section is at Cawfields. And the view is wide and beautiful, especially on such a changeable day as this, with all round a tumble of brilliant white clouds on a blue sky, but with heavy masses of black appearing in the east, and gradually blotting out the hills. Presently {138} there is a change; the clouds break, and patches of sunlight begin to dance on the hills, which but a moment before were obscured. The rays of the sun are like a moving finger, tracing out the form of distant farm, and tree, and wall, on the hillside, and then passing on. Then another change: heavy clouds appear to the north-west, and the rain comes down and blots out the Solway; which yet again gleams out in a long line of silver light before another half-hour has passed. From the top of Winshields at midday I have more than once seen a huge red flare, like an evening sun, spring up and disappear again almost immediately. I am told this has been the destruction of ammunition dumps near Gretna Green. It must be a fearsome sight (and sound) at close quarters. The Wall varies very much on Winshields; sometimes in tolerably good condition; sometimes a mere ruin. The gaps here are called "slacks," a curious word, which I heard the people use for any depression or shallow dell. Green Slack is a depression in the hill where there are traces of British dwellings; and then there is Lodham Slack, a deep heathery valley, where for some distance the Wall-ditch again becomes necessary, and runs, filled with rushes, on our right. There is very little heather along the line of the Wall. {139} Next comes Shield on the Wall, where there was a mile-castle, and where patches of rhubarb still mark the garden of the cottage which was built of the mile-castle stones. Now Cawfields and the Nine Nicks of Thirlwall come into view ahead. The next gap is Bogle Hole, with very steep sides; and Winshields comes to an end at Caw Gap, where a road runs through to the north. As I descended Winshields, and came down into the road, it was raining fast on the Nine Nicks, though still sunny where I stood. The two gaps which follow are Bloody Gap and Thorny Doors--names significant of the many struggles they have witnessed. No doubt they were very "thorny" doors to the Picts, who tried to pass through them from the north! The picture facing page 152 shows this gap. The Wall is in a very ruinous condition just at the gap, but much better preserved on the heights. The way in which it was made to bend to the south, to enable the Romans to enfilade the approaching enemy, is very clearly seen here. Cawfields mile-castle can almost be discerned from this point, lying on the southern slope, just before the next gap, Pilgrims' Gap. In the distance are seen the Nine Nicks of Thirlwall, over which the Wall takes its farther course.