Now their forty years are spent at last the rotten tower blocks are being torn down, they leave squared off ditches and pits and the fields lie fallow for years till they’re built on again or instead just lie empty forever. Leaving the town and heading down the ancient defile to the little village, the road leads to identical traces, the ruins of the Roman wall that marked the edge of the Imperium. It ran from one end of the country to the other and was manned for only nine years, so it was less than a quarter as successful as the 60’s flats.