that field, and disclosed a large cavity. Nothing, however, was found in it, according to the account of the labourers. The ornament is a very curious example of the large ring-fibulæ, of which several examples have been found in Ireland. The acus has been broken off: there appears to have been a third knob, now lost, and which should have corresponded with the knob B, the acus passing between the two. The upper knob A is very loose, and moves freely around the ring; the knob B turns, but much less freely, and does not pass over C, having merely a lateral motion of one-fourth of an inch. It was particularly noticed, that even with considerable force it could not be made to pass over to the arm D, although there is an aperture, seen in the representation, in the axis of the ball. The ring, or bow, slightly increases in thickness towards the central part, where the knob A is seen. The diameter of the widest part is nearly 512 inches; the globular ornaments measure 114 inch in diameter. The under side of each of the balls presents a flat face, on which are engraved segments of circles, with small impressed ornaments. In the woodcut, the reverse of each knob is shown separately, with two other views of the one to which the acus is attached.
Col. Vallancey, in his "Collectanea de Rebus Hibernicis," Vol. iv., p. 459, gives an extraordinary silver fibula of this type, with an acus of great length, and balls cut on one side so as to resemble a crystallised surface. He compares them to the fruit of the mulberry, or arbor sapiens, and observes, that the Irish antiquaries call them prickly apples; such fibulæ, according to his theory, were worn by priests, as shown in the account given by Silius Italicus of the Phœnician priests, who wore a mantle without a girdle, but fastened, when they offered sacrifice, with a large nail or fibula. This singular ornament was in the Museum of Trinity College, Dublin; and the ring precisely coincided in dimensions with the fibula found in Westmoreland. Mr. Collings sent also drawings of other similar objects: of one of these, of silver, found in a bog at Ballymoney, Co. Antrim, and now preserved in the Museum of the Society of Antiquaries, a representation is here given, illustrating the arrangement when complete.[1] Another specimen, almost precisely similar in form, was found in 1785 in harrowing corn at Newbiggin, near Penrith, Cumberland; or, as one account states, at Huskew Pike, an eminence about three miles from that town. It is of extraordinary size, the ring measuring about 814 inches in diameter, the acus nearly 21 inches long, and formed nearly square as it tapers towards the point. The balls are hollow, resembling the "prickly apple" on one side, like that found in Antrim, but the points rounded. On the under side are traced intersecting curves, like those rudely marked on Mr. Carus Wilsom's fibula (see Woodcuts). This specimen weighed 25 oz. av.[2] Three other examples may be cited.; one found about 1774, near Cashel Cathedral, Tipperary, weight 18 oz., length of the acus 14 inches; the three globular ornaments solid, and covered with sharp points: another, dug up under a rock at Ballinrobe, as described in Exshaw's Magazine, Feb. 1774; and a third, with massive globular ornaments, resembling the fibulæ from Antrim and Newbiggin, recently published by Mr. Fairholt, with an interesting Memoir on Irish
