100 OKANIA BRITANNICA. [CHAP. V.
lie states even more positively as to silver*. Strabo, however, asserts the production of both
gold and silver, and that they were even exported from the island; and Tacitus, at a later period,
names both, as if in such quantities as to reeompense for the cost of conquestt- Objects of
silver have never been found in barrows of the British period; and the only form ia which the
Britons seem to have been aequainted mth this metal, before the Roman conquest under
Claudius, was that of a silver coinage J. Mines of silver, so rare even now in Britain, were
scarcely then known; but, between the times when Caesar and Strabo wrote, the natives may
have acquired the art of separating from then- lead, that silver in which it is so rich. It is
clear, from the inscription LUTUM EX ARGENT, on various British pigs of lead, of the date
of Claudius and his successors, that the silver was separated from the lead, exported from
Britain at this early period §. That gold veins were known to, and worked by the early
Britons, can hardly be doubted. In the last centm-y even, native gold was found with streamtin
in Cornwall, and the auriferous clay of Devon is said to be still worked for its gold;
traces of which metal are also foimd in Lanark and other parts of Scotland. The very old
workings of the Gogofau gold mine in Caermarthenshire stiU remain, and are with probability
assigned to the Roman or even pre-Eoman period. The gold diggings of Wicklow, discovered
in 1795, show the richness of some parts of Ireland in the precious metal ||. The rudeness of
many of the gold ornaments from the barrows, abeady described, renders it probable that
they were the work of native smiths, working chiefly with hammers and anvils of stone. The
same is probable of many of the tores, armlets and rings of gold found under other circumstances
; though it is not necessary to regard aU such as of native manufacture. Some at least
of the tores found in this country and in Gaul may really have been of foreign fabrication, it
being the Roman custom to present gifts, and with these tores of gold of great size, to their
auxiliaries and to foreign chiefs, among whom those of the Gauls are particularly named If.
Lead was brought from "Western Britain in very early, and as regards this country
prehistoric, times; as appears from what Strabo and Avienus state of the trade carried on by the
Phoenicians of Gades and Carthage, several centmies before om- ®ra. The lead exported at tliis
early date may have been procm-ed in Cornwall or Devonshire; but the lead mines of this
district are poor, and it is more probable that it was obtained from those of the Mendip,
where rich veins occur very near the surface**. PHny was aware of the abundance of this
* Ad Trebat. lib. ra. Ep. 7. Ad Atticum, lib, iv. Ep. 16.
" Neque argenti scripulum esse uUum iu ilia insula." These
letters, written at the time of Ciesar's invasion, are in a tone of
pleasant banter, and the "id si ita est " in the former expresses
a doubt as to the strict accuracy of the statement.
t Strabo, lib. ÍT. C. 5. § 2. Tacitus, loc. eit. " Pert Britannia
aurum, et argentum, et alia metalla, pretium Tictorite."
t It is not probable that the silver for this coinage, which
seems to have been later than that of gold, was imported from
the continent. Strabo, indeed (lib. iv. c. 4. § 2), names silver
mines in Gaul, but these were among the Aquitanian Gabales,
south of the Garonne. Diodorus (lib. v. c. 27) says expressly
there were no silver mines in all Gaul, but abundance of gold,
easily collected from the mountain streams; whence he explains
the number and variety of the gold ornaments, which are
clearlyimplied to be of native manufacture. See alsowhatStrabo
says of the rich gold diggings of the Tarbelli,lib.iv.c.2. § 1.
§ The small ingot of silver found with coins of Honoriua
and Arcadius, at the Tower of London in 1777, aud bearing
the impress E x OFFIC. HONORINI, is probably of the close of
the Roman period in Britain. Archseologia, vol. v. p. 291.
II Borlase, Cornwall, p. 214. Gentleman's Magazine,
1857, vol. i. p. 516. Camden, vol. i. p. 11, vol. iii. p. 422,
vol. iv. pp. 77, 330. Smith, Collect. Antiq., vol. iii. p. 246.
Pennant, Tour in Scotland, vol. iii. App. X. Memoirs of the
Geological Survey of Great Britain, 1846, vol. i. p. 480. Various
gold ornaments, including a chain (tore ?), in the possession
of Mrs. Johnes of Abercorthi, were found close by the
workings at Gogofau.
^ Livy, lib. xliii. c. 5 ; lib. xliv. c. 14. Pliny, lib. xxxiii.
§ 10.
* * Phny, lib. xxxiv. § 49. The facility of working it had
led to a law prohibiting more than a limited production,—
whether a native or Roman law does not appear.
CHAP. V. ] HISTORICAL ETHNOLOGY OF BRITAIN. 101
metal and the facility of working it in Britain, and contrasts this with the laborious mining
processes, requisite for its production in Gaul and Spain. That lead was smelted as well as
mined by the Britons before the Roman conquest is not to be doubted, after the frequent
discovery of pigs of lead marked with the names and even years of the emperors in whose reigns
they were made. Some are of Claudius, some of Nero, and other emperors earlier far than the
subjugation of the south of the island by Agricola, and therefore of a period when the Romans
were probably too insecure to have engaged in new mining enterprises *. These early
Roman pigs of lead are to be regarded as the product of native industry, in the mines which
the Romans may have seized in their character of conquerors—-preCium mctorice, as Tacitus
expresses it—^or from which they received a rent in kind.
The metal, however, for which Britain was especially famous was tin, so important in very
early times for its use in the formation of bronze, the chief, many think the sole, supply of
which was brought from the west of Britain, and the famous isles of the Cassiteridesi'.
Posidonius corrected the general belief that the ore was found on the surface, and stated that it
was obtained, by digging, though, as Strabo adds, at no great depth J. The account of Diodorus
refers to Britain long prior to its subjugation by the Romans, but appears to be derived from
much later sources than those followed by Posidonius and Strabo, and yields clear evidence of the
smelting of tin by the native inhabitants of the Belerian promontory. According to this writer,
we may suppose the workings in his time were not strictly superficial. " They obtain," says he,
" the tin by skilfully working the soil which produces it. This is rocky, but has earthy veins,
from which they extract the ore, and purify it by melting, and oast it into cubical blocks§." The
ore, separated by washing, must have been mixed with fuel, and burnt on an open hearth or in a
simple furnace, constructed of a few stones sunk a little in the ground,—a primitive " blooniery,"
differing Uttle from such as until a late period were the only furnaces for the lead and iron of
Derbyshu'e. As tin melts at 440°, no great draught of an", natural or by some primitive form of
bellows, would be required to reduce it to the metallic state ||; in which form, the merchants
purchased it and carried it into Gaul.
Copper is by no ancient writer named among the metallic products of Britain; and Csesar
expressly says that the bronze or copper used by the natives in his day was imported agreeing
* The earliest of these pigs is probably that found on the
Mendip Hills, Somerset, in 1853, and inscribed with the name
of Britannicns the son of Claudius; and which can hardly be
later than 49 A.D., when that prince was set aside from the
succession. This was only six years after the first successes of
the Romaus iu South Britain. Another object of lead, often
described as a pig, but really an oblong plate, " oblonga plumbi
tabula," and part probably of a trophy, was also found on the
Meudips in the sixteenth century. The inscription clearly
identifies it with the year 49 of our era, and precisely accords
with that on well-known coins of Claudius, on the obverse of
which is a triumphal arch bearing au equestrian statue between
two trophies, aud inscribed, like the lead plate, Tl.
CLAUDIUS CJESAR. AUG. P. M. TRIE. P. viiii. IMP. xvi. DE
BRITAN. A pig of lead, found near Matlock in 1787, also
bearing the name of Claudius, has the important addition of
E.X ARG., showing the separation of the silver in Britain in this
reign. Archaeological Journal, vol. xi. p. 278. Leland, Collect.
Assert. Arthur, vol. v. p. 45. Camden, vol. i. p. 82,
104. Archaeologia, vol. ix. p. 45 ; vol. xiii. p. 405. Journal
of the British Archaeological Association, vol. v. p. 225. Mon.
Hist. Brit. p. cxix. plate 2. fig. 2.
t The history of the trade in tin has been sketched in preceding
pages (p. 59 et seq.).
^ Posidonius a^Mi/Strab., Hb. iii. c. 2. § 9; lib. iii. c. 5. § 11.
Pliny's account (lib. xxxiv. § 47) appears to refer chiefly to
the tin mines of the Iberian peninsula, but may be also applicable
to Britain. His description of the elutia or " streamworks"
corresponds with such iu Cornwall, in which gold is
also sometimes found. Murchison, Siluria, c. 17.
§ Diodorus, lib. v. c. 22. The form of these blocks of tin
is, by Diodorus, said to have been that of the astragalus or
knuckle-bone.
II As to the probable method of smelting tin, we follow
Professor John Phillips, in a very valuable and suggestive
paper on the Mining and Metallurgy of the Britons. Proceedings
of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society, vol. i. p. 88.
If B. G. lib. iv. c. 22. Whether by ms, Caesar intended
P
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