MINES WORKED BY THE SAXONS.
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 Lindisfarnh was roofed with lead by its bishop Eadberct, about the year 652;
that of York was covered with the same metal by its great prelate Wilfrid1 in 669;
and after that, Egelric, who was elected abbot of Crowland in 975, roofed the infirmary and chapel of that famous abby in a similar mannerk.
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-
I shall take this opportunity of mentioning incidentally the other minerals of Great Britain, taken notice of by the antients, 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
TIN.
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 suffer a foreign nation to become partakers of so profitable a secret. The public immediately compensated his 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.
81
As soon as the Romans made a conquest of the country, they formed in the tin province camps mid roads, still visible; and left behind vases, urns, sepulchres, and money, that exhibit daily proofs of their having been a stationary people in those parts"1; and that Dunmonium extended even to the Belerian promontory, or the Land’s-
1 Strabo, lib. iii. p. 240.
1,1 Borlase, Antiq. Cornwall, p. 278 to 309.
VOI,. I. G
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 scavoir 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 Narhonne".
Copper. 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
n Diodorus Siculus, ed. Wechel, 1004, pp. 209, 218.
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 Essex0, together with cinders, and lumps of melted metal; which evince the place of a forge. The Romans had thei-
0 Borlase, Antiq. 256, 266.
diameter of the upper part eleven inches; the thickness in the middle two and three quartersp.
Calamine, the Cadmia of Plinyq, and the stone-
Calamine.
Caesar and Strabo" allow that wo had iron. The first says it was rare; for bits of it passed for money by weight. In Strabo’s days it appears to have been in greater plenty; for he mentions it among the articles of exportation. Immense beds of iron-
Iron.
p Tab. VI. This curious antiquity is preserved at Mostyn. i Lib. xxxiv. c. 10. r Lib. iii. 224.
s Ccesar Com. Bell. Gall. Lib. v. c. xii. Strabo, lib. iv. p. 279.
Monmouthshire; another was discovered near Miskin, the seat of William Basset, Esq. beneath which were found a coin of Antoninus Pius, and a piece of earthen-
which evince the frequency of iron-
Gold and silver are enumerated3" among the products of Great Britain. The Romans were acquainted with this; and our precious metals I iroved another incentive to their ambition to effect our conquest. Agricola, in his oration to his soldiers before the battle of the Grampian mountain, excites them to victory, by reminding them of our riches, the reward of valor. Fert Britan-
Gold.
1 Archaeolog. ii. 14.
1 Yarranton’s Improvements, 57.—Leland, Itin. i. 144, vi. 102.
Camden ii. 722.
i1; Pennant makes no allusion, it will be noticed, to the Wealds of Sussex and Kent, the only district where Caesar seems to have known of iron in Britain, and where it was worked to comparatively late times. j.r.
' Strabo, lib. iv, p. 279.N° 9. is a brazen bodkin.
N° 10. is a Jibula or brotche, gilt, and enameled with deep blue in front.
N° 11. is a brotche, not unlike some used at
present by the common Highlanders; whose dress, in its genuine simplicity, seems to have been borrowed from the Romans.
N° 12. is also a species of button; but differs from the modern (as do all I have seen) by having
no shank: instead, was a tongue, similar to those of the common jibulce. The front of this is enameled with deep blue.
N° 13. is another, of a very different form. This
has also lost its fibula*; but the defect is very apparent.
N° 14. is a forceps; an instrument much in
vogue among the Itomams, for extirpating hairs. This was used far the same purpose as the Turkish
fair do the Rusma. The pincers here engraven are of great size and strength; perhaps employed
by some robust coxcomb, such as Persius rallies so severely, in his fourth satire, for his unbecoming effeminacy.
N° 15. 15. seem to have been instruments of sacrifice. One end of each is round, and of the form of an olive; and was intended for the use of the aruspices, to insinuate under the entrails of the victim, and to lift them up for the better inspection of the parts. The other extremity of the
GOLD AND SILVER.
nca aurum et argentum, et alia metalla pretium victories7.
These metals have, in later times, been got in
qualities sufficient to prove, that they might, at an earlier period, have been an object worthy of conquest. In the reigns of James IV. and Y. vast wealth was procured in the Lead Hills, from
the gold collected from the sand washed from the mountain. In the reign of the latter, not less than to the value of three hundred thousand pounds
sterling. In another place, a piece of thirty ounces weight was found. Much also was ob
tained in the time of the Regent Morton7,. The search is now given over; but bits are still found accidentally. Lord Ilopton, owner of the Lead, Hills, is in possession of a specimen that weighs
an ounce and a half^).
Gold is to this day found in Cornwall, mixed with tin and other substances*. The largest piece that has been yet discovered, is equal in weight to
three guineas. It is probable that it was the
Cornish gold which proved the lure to the Romans; for it was impossible they or the Phceni
y Vita Agr. ’■ Tour in Scotland, ii. 130, iii. 414. (!) One of the most productive gold mines in old times may be supposed to have been Ogofau near DolauCothi in Carmarthenshire, where extensive traces of tho mining are still well known; and gold mining has been carried on lately in the neighbourhood of Dolgelley.
J.B. “ Borlase, Nat. Hist. Cornwall, 213, 214.
GOLD AND SILVER. 87
cians could be ignorant of it, who had such long commerce with the country, and who were acquainted with the manner of obtaining it in other
places. Pliny, speaking of tin, says, that there is found in the gold mines of Spain and Portugal, a sort called Elutiah (which a Cornish man would call stream tin), being washed from the vein by
water, and gathered up in baskets along with the
gold0.
Strabo and Tacitus agree, that we had mines s i l v e r .
of silver. In the reigns of Edward I. and III. there were very considerable works at Comhmar-
ployed in them; and the produce was so great as to assist Edward the Third to carry on the war with France. In the beginning of this century,
much native silver was found on the estate of Sir John Ershine, in the county of Stirling; but the
vein was soon exhausted.
The Britons were acquainted with the uses of
gold and the art of coining before the arrival of the Romans; witness the golden sickles of the I triads, the coins found at Carnbre in Cornwall,
b Alluvial. Ed.
" liili. xxxiv. c. 16. To prevent antiquaries being further misled about tlio A mpthill gold mine, I must inform them, that it proved only a bod of mica aurea; or, to speak like a punster, turned out nothing but tale. A Camden, i. 47.
ANTIENT COINS.
and the coins of Cassivelaunus(l). They made use of different sorts of metals for the purpose of coining; but chiefly gold, as being the easiest fused, and most
capable of an impression. Doctor Borlase has
preserved a series of these very early coins, from
the rudest and most unintelligible impressions, to the period when the Britons made an attempt to
form a face on their coins. All these are unlettered; a proof of their antiquity, and of their having been struck before their intercourse with the
Romans. The first we know of, which is inscribed, is that of Caissvelaunus, cotemporary with
CcBsar. The next is of Cuvobeline, who had even
been at Rome. As soon as the Britons became acquainted with the Romans, they made an essay to imitate their manner of coining; they put letters on them, elephants, and gryphons; things
they were before unacquainted with. They were not suffered to make any progress in the art; for as soon as their conquest was effected, their coin was suppressed. The learned have endeavoured
<•
(*) The gold sickles do not seem to have had anything to do with coins, and they belonged to the Druids of Caul, not Britain; and as to Cassivollaunus, his name is not known on any coin. The coins of the Britons, like those of the Gauls, wore imitations of money current among the Greeks of Marseilles, and moro especially the gold stater of Philip II. of Macedon. It is remarkable that the Dumnonii and the people of the tin country had no coins of their own minting. The work to be consulted on tho subjoct is Evans’s ‘ Coins of the Ancient Britons.’ j .r .
ANTIQUITIES. 89
to trace these antient monies from the Phoenicians; but the comparison would not hold. The Gauls
alone had some pieces similar: nor is this to be
wondered at, since they and the Britons had a common origin, were neighbors, and might as well agree in the few arts they had, as in religion and
language6. I now return to the subjects which occasioned this digression; and to give some account of the various antique instruments and coins found near
Flint; and accompany the same by the more expressive description, a print. N° 1. tab. v. is a rich ornament of gold, in form of a button with a shank. It is composed elegantly with twisted wire, and studded with
little globular bits of solid gold. This seems to have belonged to the bracelet or necklace (it is uncertain which), whose fragment is represented at N" 2. This is also composed of gold links, with round beads of a rich blue glass placed between every second link. Something similar to this is preserved by count Caylus, which is entire, and iippears to have been a necklace'. N" ;i. is a cylindric fragment of glass, probably
pari of some ornament, being of a rich blue color, and perforated as if it was designed to be strung. Willi i! was found a thick piece of sea-
* Horlase's Antiq. Cornwall, 242. tab. xix. 1 Tom. iii. 312, tab. lxxxv.
ANTIQUITIES.
part of a vase. Glass was among the earlier im
ports into Britaing, when the wild natives were as much captivated with toys as the Indians of
new-
they received these, and all their other vitreous
commodities, by means of the Phoenicians, whose capital, Tyre, was pre-
ture. The glain nadroedd, or snake-
Hugh Davies, found in Anglesea. The traders
soon learned to imitate what was prized so highly in our island, in a more elegant material; and
imported them as a most captivating article of
commerce; in the same manner as circumnavigators often mimic, in shewy brass, the utensils and weapons of Indian nations, in order to engage their friendship.
N° 4. is a small brazen head, with the back pstrt affixed to iron. Perhaps this was one of the Sigillaria, or little images sold at the fairs,
and presented usually to children11: the fairs where these toys were sold went by the same name. A learned friend also supposes these to
g Strabo, lib. iv. p. 281. h Non cognoscis me? ego sum Felicio, cui solebas sigillaria afferre. S e n e c a , Epist. 12.
ANTIQUITIES. 91
I >e miniature likenesses, which friends presented to
each other as memorials.
N° 5. is a Stylus, or instrument for writing on the ceratce tabellce, or waxen tablets; which were
made of thin leaves of lead, brass, or ivory, and
covered with a thin coat of wax. The pen, if I may call it so, was usually of brass; one end pointed, in order to write; the other flat, in order to efface what was wrong, by smoothing or closing
the wax. Horace gives every writer most excel
lent advice, in alluding to this practice:
Ssepe Stylurn vertas, iterum quse digna legi sint, Scripturus.
Oft turn your style, when you intend to write Things worthy to be read.
N° G. is an instrument of very singular use: a
narrow species of spoon, destined to collect, at funerals, the tears of the relations of the deceased, in order to deposit them in the little phials which
were placed with the ashes in the urn, memorials
of I heir grief. Such are very frequently found: bnl the custom is far higher than that of classical antiquity,; for the Psalmist, in expressing his h o i i o w h , alludes to it; Thou tellest my flittings ; fin/ my tears into tliy bottle.
N" 7. is an instrument seemingly designed for I lie purpose of dressing the wicks of lamps.
N" 8. may possibly be destined for the same
UHOH.