In England and Wales several such have been found. One was in the Meyrick Collection[1340] at Goodrich Court, and is now in the British Museum. It is about 26½ inches in diameter, with twenty concentric circles of knobs and ribs between, and is in all respects like those just described. It was found about 1804 in a turbary near Aberystwith, Cardiganshire. It has had the usual buttons, one of which remains.
Another example[1341] of the kind (25¼ inches), with twenty-seven concentric rings, was also in the Meyrick Collection, and is now in the British Museum. It was found in a peat moss at Moel Sinbod, near Capel Curig, Carnarvonshire. It has one of the usual loops and the rivet of the other. Sir Samuel Meyrick had heard of another shield, dug up near Newcastle-on-Tyne, which the owner, wishing to gratify all his friends, cut up like a cake, and sent to each a slice. This may be the shield found at Broomyholme, Chester-le-Street, Durham, of which a fragment is in the Museum of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle-on-Tyne.
Another now in the possession of Sir Edward Blackett, Bart., was found near Corbridge, Northumberland.
Fragments[1342] of two other shields of the same character were also found in Northumberland, at Ingoe, in the parish of Stamfordham, about two miles north of the Roman wall. They were originally about 20 inches in diameter, and like so many others were discovered during draining operations.
Another buckler of the same character was found in the Thames[1343] at London, and passed into the British Museum with the Roach Smith Collection. This specimen is 21¼ inches in diameter, and has eleven rings of the small bosses upon it separated by concentric ribs. A curious feature in this shield is that the places to which the usual little buttons were attached have been neatly cut out, leaving triangular holes. There is also a third hole of the same kind. In one place also there is a hole through the shield, such as might have been produced by the thrust of a bronze spear. Close by this hole is a clean cut, such as might have been made by a sword. The plate of bronze has been turned over on to the face, so as to form the outer rim.
A circular shield,[1344] with twenty-six concentric rings of studs, was dredged up, together with a leaf-shaped bronze sword, from the bed of the Thames off Woolwich in 1830.
A thin bronze plate from the Thames, 19 inches in diameter, convex, and with small knobs round the margin, is in the Mayer Collection at Liverpool. It has been marked with the hammer, possibly in imitation of basket-work, and has been mended in one place in ancient times. It may be the bottom of a caldron, and not a shield.
Another buckler, 26 inches in diameter, having twelve concentric raised rings with the usual knobs between them, is also said to have been found in the Thames[1345] between Hampton and Walton, in September, 1864.
In draining a meadow at Bagley,[1346] about five miles from Ellesmere, in Shropshire, another of these circular bucklers was found. This is 23 inches in diameter, with an umbo of 4 inches, and has twenty-six concentric circles, with the same rings of knobs between them as on the other examples. It has the usual holes for the rivets of the small buttons.
Another, found on Burringham Common,[1347] Lincolnshire, in 1843, is 26 inches in diameter, with an umbo of 4½ inches, and only nineteen concentric circles with intermediate rings of knobs. The boss of this shield is conical rather than hemispherical. It is now in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy. A shield of this kind 20½ inches in diameter, having thirteen concentric circles of small bosses and raised rings between, was found at Sutton St. Michael’s, Norfolk.[1348]