(2646 grs., exactly divisible by six). Of the same description, probably, were the "gold instruments, resembling a fetterlock or staple," formerly discovered at the Roman station at Chesterford, Essex. One, weighing 8 lbs., is stated to have been found under a rude thick piece of bronze, about the year 1786, by a miller, who immediately sold it. (Gough's Additions to Camden, Vol. ii., p. 141.) This last must have been a collar or torc, but of enormous weight. It is much to be regretted that no representations of these relics had been preserved. I am not aware whether the gold armlet found in 1761, in the same neighbourhood, at Shortgrove, composed of chain-work, and exhibited to the Society of Antiquaries by Walpole, is now in the possession of the Marquis of Thomond. Neither does any memorial appear of the form of the "large gold ring" found with Anglo-Saxon remains at Sutton, near Ely. (Gough, ibid., pp. 141, 234.)
It may be conjectured, with much probability, that these massive ornaments were occasionally, if not usually, worn as anklets, and they were not dissimilar to those worn at the present day in Egypt, and Eastern countries. Gold rings of this description are frequently found in Ireland, some perfectly plain, of equal thickness throughout; others with the ends slightly dilated;—or with the ends slightly concave;—others again with these cavities assuming the form of a cup, and at length the singular cups so expanded as to present the appearance of the mouth of a trumpet, or the calix of a large flower. Sometimes the dilated extremities are flat and thin plates, like cymbals, and the connecting neck diminutive in proportion to their exaggerated size.[1] A few of these remarkable relics of unknown origin and antiquity have been found in Britain: an unique example, terminating in club-shaped extremities, found in Dumfries-shire, deserves especial notice, as bearing the name HELENVS F., and the letters, MB.—Archaeologia, Vol. ii., Pl. III.
Of the intermediate type, with dilated ends slightly hollowed, no example has hitherto been noticed, to my knowledge, in England or North Britain: one, of singular value, admirably exemplifying the progressive variation of type, has been sent from the sister island by our obliging correspondent at Cork, Mr. Edward Hoare, (No. 17.) Of the
- ↑ Archaeologia, vol. ii., Pl. I. See also various forms in Gough's edit, of Camden, vol. iv., p. 231; the works of Col. Vallancey; the Dublin Penny Journal, vol. i., p. 413; and Sir W. Betham's Memoir on the Ring Money of the Celts, Trans. R. I. Acad., vol. xvii.
