Ascending the hill from West Denton, the fosse of the Murus is very distinctly seen. The road is elevated two or three feet above the natural level of the ground, the Wall, probably some courses high, forming its nucleus. On the left hand, the lines of the Vallum are feebly indicated, but by extending our glance some distance backwards and forwards, we can, with tolerable certainty, distinguish the artificial mounds from the natural heavings of the surface. [Sidenote: CHAPEL-HOUSE.] Passing the fourth mile-stone, we arrive at Chapel-houses. This name is of sufficiently frequent occurrence along the line to suggest a momentary inquiry into its origin. In the early ages of Christianity, a mile-castle may have occasionally been the resort of the worshippers of the true God; or in the ‘troublesome times’ of border warfare, when the church not unfrequently shared in the general devastation, it may have been set apart as a place for the confirmation of matrimonial vows, and for the performance of religious rites. From the crown of this hill we have one of the finest views which Northumberland can afford. The Tyne, in all its glittering beauty, stretches far before us. Its southern bank is crowned by the pretty village of Ryton, its left is variegated with the once beautiful, but now furnace-fuming, Wylam. An amphitheatre of hills shuts in the distant scene.[71] Horsley describes some ruined ramparts, called the Castle-steads near Chapel-houses, to the south of both Vallum and Wall. They were probably temporary encampments and have now disappeared. [Sidenote: WALBOTTLE-DEAN.] Before crossing Walbottle[72]-dean, the Vallum, which is very distinct, and the Wall (_i. e._ the road) approach each other, apparently for mutual support. There are no traces of a bridge across the ravine. As we ascend the next hill, and pass Throckley,[73] we have, for the most part, the fosse on the right hand, and the mounds of the Vallum on the left, very boldly developed. By the time the traveller has advanced thus far, he will have learnt the necessity of bearing in mind that he is in a mining district. If he overlook this circumstance, he will be in danger of mistaking the track of some old ‘waggon way’ for the terraced lines of Roman cultivation, or an old ‘pit-heap’ for an indubitable British barrow. [Illustration: Cha^s Richardson, Delt. John Storey. Lith. THE WORKS AT HEDDON-ON-THE WALL ] After passing Throckley, just where a gate on the left hand enters the field from the road, a mound covered, in winter at least, with greener herbage than the contiguous ground indicates the site of a mile-castle. A little further on, a range of houses of peculiar appearance, called the Frenchman’s-row, attracts the eye. It was the residence, after the first French revolution, of a number of refugees. The dial which ornaments the Row is of their fabrication. The building is now used as a poor-house. [Sidenote: HEDDON-ON-THE-WALL.]