Although the position of Housesteads clearly indicates that this fort was erected for the accommodation of a mural garrison, it would seem to have been built independently of the Wall. The first anxiety of the soldiers engaged in that great work would be to erect a secure habitation for themselves. The west wall of the station, instead of coming up to the great Wall in a straight line, makes the curve which is usual in those corners of a camp that are independent of the Wall; as is shewn in the wood-cut at the top of the next page. [Illustration: Junction of West Wall of Housesteads with the Wall] [Illustration: Ground Plan of Gateway, Housesteads] [Sidenote: BORCOVICUS.] All the gateways, except the north, have been explored, and present very interesting subjects of study to the antiquary. The western[Sidenote: WEST GATEWAY OF BORCOVICUS.] is in the best condition, and is specially worthy of attention. Its arrangements will readily be understood by an inspection of the ground plan which is here introduced, together with the views of it as seen from the outside and inside of the station, on the next page. This gateway, as well as the others which have been explored, is, in every sense of the word, double. Two walls must be passed before the camp can be entered; each is provided with two portals, and each portal has been closed with two-leaved gates. The southern entrance of the outside wall has alone, as yet, been entirely cleared of the masonry that closed it. The jambs and pillars are formed of massive stones of rustic masonry. The doors, if we may judge from the fragments of corroded iron which have been lately picked up, were of wood, strengthened with iron plates and studs; they moved, as is apparent from the pivot-holes, upon pivots of iron. In the centre of each portal stands a strong upright stone, against which the gates have shut. Some of the large projecting stones of the exterior wall are worn as if by the sharpening of knives upon them; this has probably been done by the occupants of the suburban buildings after the closing of the gateway. The guard-chambers on each side are in a state of choice preservation, one of the walls standing fourteen courses high. Were a roof put on them, the antiquary might here stand guard, as the Tungrians did of old, and, for a while, forget that the world is sixteen centuries older than it was when these chambers were reared. At least two of the chambers in this part of the camp have been warmed by U shaped flues running round three of their sides beneath the floor.[102] These chambers, when recently excavated, were found to be filled with rubbish so highly charged with animal matter as painfully to affect the sensibilities of the labourers. The teeth and bones of oxen, horns resembling those of the red-deer, but larger, and boars’ tusks were very abundant; there was the usual quantity of all the kinds of pottery used by the Romans. It is not improbable that this rubbish may have been