Some of these Dowris trumpets are engraved in the “Horæ Ferales,”[1385] and one of them belonging to the Earl of Rosse is peculiar as having two loops opposite each other above and below. A detached portion of another consists of a nearly straight tube, 9 inches long, expanding at each end.
Fig. 444.—Portglenone.
Another slightly differing example with the opening at the side is also figured by Mr. R. Day, and here with his permission reproduced. It was found at Portglenone, Co. Derry, and measures 24½ inches along the convex margin.
The other finds of trumpets have been for the most part isolated. Most of those I am about to cite have already been mentioned by Wilde. A fine specimen, like Fig. 444, is figured by Vallancey[1386] and in Gough’s “Camden’s Britannia.”[1387] Three others and a portion of a straight tube were found in the county of Limerick[1388] in 1787. Others have been found near Killarney;[1389] Cornaconway, Co. Cavan; Kilraughts, Co. Antrim; Diamond Hill, Killeshandra; Crookstown and Dunmanway, Co. Cork.
Fig. 445—The Caprington Horn. 1/5
As the riveted variety of trumpet appears from its ornamentation to belong to the Late Celtic Period, a short mention of it will suffice. One[1390] found near Armagh, and now in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy, has at the end a disc 7½ inches in diameter, embossed with the peculiar scroll patterns characteristic of that period.
Another is no less than 8 feet 5 inches along the convex margin, and consists of two portions made of sheet bronze, each turned over to form a tube, and having the abutting edges riveted to a long strip of metal extending along the interior of the tube. This strip of bronze is only half an inch in width, and has two rows of minute rivet-holes in it, the rivets being placed alternately. Their circular heads are on the inside of the tube, and so minute are the rivets, that there are no less than 638 of them along the seam. It is, indeed, not unlike a modern riveted hose pipe of leather. In what manner such an ingenious and complicated piece of riveting could have been effected is, as Sir W. Wilde remarks, a subject for speculation.