These riveted trumpets appear to be unknown in Britain, and the cast-bronze variety is extremely scarce. A fine and perfect specimen found at Caprington, Ayrshire, has been engraved for the Ayrshire and Wigtonshire Archæological Association,[1391] and is here, by the kindness of the Council of the Association, reproduced as Fig. 445. It was found some time before 1654, on the estate of Coilsfield, in the parish of Tarbolton, in Kyle, but is known as the Caprington horn. According to Mr. R. W. Cochran-Patrick, F.S.A., it has been described by Sir Robert Gordon in Blaeuw’s Atlas[1392] and by Defoe.[1393] This horn is 25 inches in length, and is the only specimen recorded to have been found in Scotland. The metal of which it is formed has been analyzed by Professor Stevenson Macadam, and consists of—
| Copper | 90·26 |
| Tin | 9·61 |
| Loss | ·13 |
| ——— | |
| 100·00 |
English trumpets of bronze are of extremely rare occurrence. One found in the river Witham, Lincolnshire, has been figured in the Philosophical Transactions,[1394] and is nearly straight for the greater part of its length (about 28 inches), curving upwards near the end into an irregularly-shaped expanding mouth. It has an ornament or crest like a mane along the exterior curve. In form it is not unlike the carnyx which is brandished by the horseman on the coins of the British princes Eppillus and Tasciovanus,[1395] and which also appears on some Roman coins and monuments commemorative of Gallic and British victories. The metal on analysis gave copper 88, tin 12, and the tube was formed from a hammered sheet and soldered with tin. It not improbably belongs to a period not far removed from that of the Roman invasion of this country.
Another, with two joints and a perfect mouth-piece, is said to have been found at Battle, Sussex, and has been engraved by Grose.[1396] A bronze horn about 3 feet 7 inches long, found in Mecklenburg,[1397] is not unlike the Scotch horn in character, though smaller at the wide end. The curved bronze horns or “lurer,” found in Denmark,[1398] have usually broad bossed flanges at the wide end, and most resemble the Irish Late Celtic trumpets.
The use of war trumpets among the Celtic population of Western Europe has been more than once mentioned by classical writers, and passages from them have been cited by Mr. Franks and others. Polybius[1399] speaks of the innumerable trumpeters in the army of the Celts, and Diodorus Siculus[1400] says of the Gauls that they have barbaric trumpets of a special nature which emit a hoarse sound well suited to the din of battle. The Roman lituus in use for cavalry seems to have been of much the same shape as the carnyx, the end of which latter was in some cases made to resemble a fanciful head of an animal. The continuance of the same character of instrument into the Early Iron Age, and the advanced art shown in producing such castings as the trumpets from Dowris and elsewhere, go to prove that they must belong to the close of the Bronze Period, if, indeed, some may not more probably be placed in a period of transition from Bronze to Iron.
Fig. 446.—Dowris.
Another form of instrument intended for producing sound, if not indeed deserving to be classed as a musical instrument, is the bell, or rattle, formed of a hollow egg-shaped or pear-shaped piece of bronze, with a pebble or piece of metal inside by way of clapper.
The only examples which I am able to adduce are those which formed part of the Dowris hoard, one of which is represented in Fig. 446.[1401] There are three such in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy, and four in the British Museum. With the latter is a smaller plain bell of the same character and two unfinished castings. Sir W. Wilde observes that in casting, the metal appears to have been poured into the mould by an aperture at the side, through which the core of clay that contained the metal clapper was broken up. The mould was in two halves, and the rings and staples at the ends were cast together. In the perfect examples at the British Museum, the sides of the holes by which the core was extracted have been hammered together so as in some cases to be almost closed. In one instance there is some appearance of the sides having been brazed together.
The sound emitted by these bells is dull and feeble. Like the modern horse bells, a number of them may have been hung together, and not improbably employed in a similar manner to attract the attention both of the eye and ear.