And that is the Wall ! ' ` Ah ! ' said the children , taking breath . ` You may well , ' said Parnesius . ` Old men who have followed the Eagles since boyhood say nothing in the Empire is more wonderful than first sight of the Wall ! ' ` Is it just a Wall ? Like the one round the kitchen-garden ? ' said Dan . ` No , no ! It is the Wall . Along the top are towers with guard-houses , small towers , between . Even on the narrowest part of it three men with shields can walk abreast , from guard-house to guard-house . A little curtain wall , no higher than a man 's neck , runs along the top of the thick wall , so that from a distance you see the helmets of the sentries sliding back and forth like beads . Thirty feet high is the Wall , and on the Picts ' side , the North , is a ditch , strewn with blades of old swords and spear-heads set in wood , and tyres of wheels joined by chains . The Little People come there to steal iron for their arrow-heads . ` But the Wall itself is not more wonderful than the town behind it . Long ago there were great ramparts and ditches on the South side , and no one was allowed to build there . Now the ramparts are partly pulled down and built over , from end to end of the Wall ; making a thin town eighty miles long . Think of it ! One roaring , rioting , cock-fighting , wolf-baiting , horse-racing town , from Ituna on the West to Segedunum on the cold eastern beach !
On one side heather , woods and ruins where XXXXX hide , and on the other , a vast town -- long like a snake , and wicked like a snake .
! Dan Eagles North Parnesius Picts guard-house kitchen-garden ramparts sentries