It was a refined piece of management, and great knowledge of things, the Romans showed in the method of this wall; and a matter worthy of remark, that they chose all along to raise this work on the north side of the two rivers, that partly cross the island hereabouts, the Eden and Tyne. Many are apt to wonder at it, and think it was injudicious, imagining the rivers, with a very slender work on the south side of them, would have been sufficient security, and saved them much labour: but, if we consider this matter, we must confess it was not done without great consideration, and a master-stroke of military policy; for by this means the Romans took in all the fine rich ground lying upon the rivers for the sustentation of their troops, encouraged thereby to cultivate it, and build towns near, and make possessions to themselves and families, that they might live easy, and think themselves at home in these distant regions: here too trade and navigation might be carried on, and supplies of corn, wood, and other materials, conveyed from garrison to garrison; and in the times of the perfection of this work it must be looked upon as the best planted spot of ground in the island: and we may imagine the glorious show of towns, cities, castles, temples, and the like, on the south side of this Wall, by contemplating the prodigious quantities of their ruins and memorials beyond that of any other part of Europe, scarce excepting imperial Rome: and we have reason to think _this_ will continue to be a source of entertainment for the curious and learned, when _that_ is exhausted. Hither let the young noblemen and gentry travel, to admire the wonders of their native country, thick sown by that great, wise and industrious people, and learn with them how to value it. Cæsar tells us the warlike nation of the Germans, the _Suevi_, gloried most in laying waste all the bordering countries around them, in destroying every thing that might administer sustenance to an enemy in approaching to their quarters. It was certainly equally political in the Romans to leave on the north side of the Wall that huge tract of waterless and dismal moor, a great barren solitude, where in some places you may walk sixty miles endwise without meeting with a house, or a tree: to ride it is impracticable. Thus, as much as in them lay, without the horror of barbarity did they remove the barbarians from their territories; whilst within the Wall, either naturally or by their industry, all things smiled like the garden of Eden: and indeed, toward both sea-coasts, about Carlisle and Newcastle, it is a very desirable and delightful country: and even in the midland moory tracts, by their great roads made every where, it was very good travelling; and in the worst parts, where their _castra_ stood, and upon the valleys, it is now tolerably good, and was much better in their days, in the hands of those who could almost conquer Nature herself.