[Sidenote: PONS ÆLII.] PONS ÆLII.—Having tracked the Wall in its passage through the modern town, the site of the ancient station of PONS ÆLII next demands attention. Horsley is the only writer who has attempted to define its limits, and he had but slender evidence to guide him. He takes, as his data, the three following facts:—1. The course of the Wall westward, which he conceives, and no doubt correctly, would form the northern boundary of the station; 2. The direction of the Vallum, some portions of which remained, in his day, just outside the West-gate; 3. 'A traditionary account of the Wall having passed through St. George’s porch, near the north-west corner of St. Nicholas’-church.' As this porch stands a little to the south of the line of the great Wall, as laid down by him, he conceives that this traditionary wall must have been the east wall of the station, and draws it upon his plan accordingly.[60] The western wall now only remained to be determined, and this point was easily settled, by supposing the station to have been square. According to the line assigned by him to the Vallum, six chains is the distance which would intervene between it and the Wall; he therefore places the western rampart of the station at the corresponding distance of six chains from the eastern, and encloses altogether an area of little more than three acres. It may well be doubted whether the important station of PONS ÆLII would be subjected to the ordinary rules of castrametation. I am strongly disposed to think, that it would partake of the features of a commercial as well as of a military capital, and that its walls would not only embrace a wider range than ordinary camps, but would be allowed to adapt themselves more freely to the nature of the ground. The wants of the immense body of troops required to garrison the Wall, and man its out-posts, would create a considerable amount of commerce. The inhabitants of Italy, Gaul, and Spain, would be unwilling all at once to forego the comforts and luxuries of their sunny climes, and to be entirely cut off from intercourse with the land of their nativity. The fragments of amphoræ, which are so abundantly met with on the line of the Wall, shew that the soldiers sometimes gladdened their hearts with the wine of their native hills; and the innumerable sherds of Samian ware, which usually bestrew the camps of Roman occupation, prove that a continual intercourse was kept up with the continent. To the sea, as a means of communication between many of the stations of Roman Britain, frequent recourse would be had.