And which it yielded in such plenty,  as to receive from that circumstance the name.

 So great was the intercourse that foreign nations had with the inhabitants bordering on Belerium , as to give them a greater sgavoir vivre,  and more extensive hospitality, than was to be found in other parts of the island.

They were equally expert in working the mines, and preparing the ore, which lay in earthy veins within the rocky strata.

They melted and purified it, then cast it into rows of cubes ,  and moved it to Ictis ,tut tut ,well whose sure Ictissome learned scholars say  be Mountbatten ,  Plymouth devon  the modern Mount St. Michael: from thence it was transported into Gaul ; conveyed from the place it was landed at, on horses’ backs, a journey of thirty days, to the mouth of the Illume, and also to the Massyl 'utns, and the town of Narhonne".

 

Did not Caesar and Strabo agree in their account, I should never have believed it possible that the Britons could have neglected their rich mines of copper, and have been obliged at first to import that metal. Perhaps the ore was less accessible, and the art of fusion unknown; for islands, from their very situation, must remain

” Diodorus Siculus, od. Wechcl, 1C04, pp. 209, 218.

 TIN. COPPER and was not, as some writers imagine, limited by the western parts of Somersetshire.

 It is not to be imagined, that they could neglect a corner of our island, productive of a metal so useful in mechanics as tin, and which it yielded in such plenty, as to receive from that circumstance the name. So great was the intercourse that foreign nations had with the inhabitants bordering on Belerium, as to give them a greater sgavoir vivre, and more extensive hospitality, than was to be found in other parts of the island. They were equally expert in working the mines, and preparing the ore, which lay in earthy veins within the rocky strata. They melted and purified it, then cast it into rows of cubes, and carried it to let is, the modern Mount St. Michael: from thence it was transported into Gaul; conveyed from the place it was landed at, on horses’ backs, a journey of thirty days, to the mouth of the Rhone, and also to the Massylians, and the town of Narbonne".

Copper.Did not Caisar and Strabo agree in their account, I should never have believed it possible that the Britons could have neglected their rich mines of copper, and have been obliged at first to import that metal. Perhaps the ore was less accessible, and the art of fusion unknown; for islands, from their very situation, must remain no longer ignorant of arts than continents; especially ours, which lay far to the west of the origin of all science.

Strabo says, that the Britons imported works of brass; but it is as certain, that they afterwards did themselves fabricate that metal into instruments. The Celts, a British, instrument, was made in this island. Numbers have been found in Yorkshire, and Essex", together with cinders, and lumps of melted metal; which evince the place of a forge. The Homans had then- founder- ios of copper in our island; and cast the metal into regular forms. A mass was found at Caer hen, the antient Conovium, four miles above Comvy, which probably was smelted from the ore of the Snowdon hills; where of late years much has been raised. This mass is in shape of a cake of beeswax; and on the upper part is a deep concave impression, with the words Socio Rom^e; across these is impressed obliquely, in lesser letters, Natsol. I cannot explain it, unless Nat. stands for Natio, the people who paid this species of tribute; and sol. for solvit, that being the stamp- miutter’s mark. These cakes might be bought up hy a merchant resident in Britain, and consigned Sooio RomtE, to his partner at Rome. The weight of this antiquity is forty-two pounds; the period in which the civil commotions would permit them to be carried on. That the Saxons worked the British mines as well as the Romans, appears from the frequent use made of lead in all works of ecclesiastical magnificence. The cathedral of Lin- disfarnh was roofed with lead by its bishop Ead- herct, about the year 652; that of York was covered with the same metal by its great prelate Wilfrid1

 in G69; and after that, Egelric, who was elected abbot of Crowland in 975, roofed the infirmary and chapel of that famous abbwy in a similar manner*. I mention these circumstances merely to shew, that the Saxons continued the business of smelting in the different parts of our island. We are assured that there have been, at different times, smelting-works for a century or two past in the parishes of Flint and I[ award,en; and at present there is one in use in each of them.I shall take this opportunity of mentioning incidentally the other minerals of Great Britain, taken notice of by the ancients , either as articles of trade or matters of curiosity.Tin was not only the first metal in these islands which we read of; but also the greatest object of commerce; and which originally led to the discovery of Great Britain by the Romans. The mercantile Phoenicians traded to the Scilly islands, the Cassiterides, or land of tin, from the port of Cadiz, four hundred years before Christ. The Romans, for a considerable time, could not discover the place from whence the former procured the precious metal. They attempted to detect the trade, by following the course of a Phoenician vessel; but the master, faithful to the interest of his country, voluntarily run his ship ashore in another place; preferring the loss of all, rather than sillier n. foreign nation to become partakers of so profitable a secret. The public immediately compensated Iris loss out of its treasury. This did but make the Romans more eager for the discovery; and after many trials they succeeded. Publius Crassus (father of Marcus Crassus the Triumvir) who was praetor, and governed Spain for several years, landed in the Cassiterides, and found the report of their riches verified1. As soon as the Romans made a conquest of the country, they formed in the tin province camps and roads, still visible; and left behind vases, urns, sepulchres, and money, that exhibit daily proofs of their having been a stationary people in I hose parts”1; and that Dunmonium extended even to the lielerian promontory, or the Land’s-end

islands roman road ipplepen tin sea fairing  bronze period