There is, indeed, numismatic evidence that among the Ancient Britons, shortly after the time of Julius Cæsar, rings were employed as connecting links between the different straps forming the harness of war-horses. On a gold coin of Verica,[1557] engraved on the title-page of Akerman’s “Ancient Coins of Cities and Princes,” and now in my own collection, there is on the reverse a warrior on horseback. The engraving of the die is exquisitely minute, and the warrior’s saddle is shown to be secured by four girths, and by straps running from it round the chest and the hind-quarters to keep it in position. On the shoulder and the haunches there are rings to which these straps are joined, and from each of these rings another strap runs down to pass below the body of the horse. Each ring, therefore, has three straps secured to it, one running forwards, another backwards, and the third downwards. Rings with three loops for straps attached occur among Etruscan Antiquities.[1558]
Fig. 498.—Cowlam. 1/1
Of brooches proper, with a pin attached by a spring or hinge, and secured by a hasp or catch, none are, I think, known in Britain which can with safety be assigned to an earlier period than the Late Celtic.
That shown in Fig. 498 was found by Canon Greenwell, F.R.S., in a barrow in the parish of Cowlam,[1559] Yorkshire, together with an armlet (Fig. 486) and a necklace of glass beads, on the body of an aged woman. The pin was of iron, which had replaced the original of bronze. I have a somewhat similar brooch from Redmore, near St. Austell, Cornwall, as well as one of longer form and with a larger disc, which was found in a barrow near Bridlington, together with two remarkable buckles formed of penannular rings. These were described by the late Mr. Thomas Wright[1560] (who has figured them) as undoubtedly Roman, but their character is decidedly “Late Celtic.” Other brooches of the same character as the figure, found in the Thames, London, and near Avebury, Wilts, are in the British Museum.
Fig. 499.
Reach Fen. 1/1
Another article in use for fastening or attaching parts of the dress is the button, which claims a high antiquity. I have elsewhere[1561] described some made of stone and jet, in which a V-shaped perforation in the body of the button afforded the means of fastening it to the dress. In the bronze buttons a legitimate loop or shank is found, which is cast in one piece with the button itself.
In Fig. 499 are shown three full-size views of one of two bronze buttons from the Reach Fen hoard in my own collection. There is a sharpness and smoothness about their faces which suggests their having been finished by some process of turning or rotary grinding. The centre and raised bands, though similar, are not identical in the two, or it might have been thought that they were cast in a metal mould. Four others were found at the same time.
A button of almost the same size and pattern was found with a razor and other objects at Llangwyllog, Anglesea.[1562] One of the same character, but of larger size (1¾ inch), was found with a gouge, socketed celts, &c., at Kensington.[1563] It has a central boss and two raised ridges. Both these buttons are now in the British Museum.