Fig. 146.—Blandford. ½
Another (4 inches), also in the British Museum, has two ribs on each margin, parallel to the sides, as seen in Fig. 146. It was found near Blandford, Dorsetshire, in company with unfinished gouges, and is remarkable on account of its having been cast so thin that it seems incapable of standing any hard work.
It seems probable that the instruments from Blandford, now in the British Museum, formed part of a large hoard, for in the collection of the late Mr. Medhurst, of Weymouth, were a dozen or more of much the same outline and character. The section at the neck is a flattened hexagon. Some have a straight rib on each of the sloping sides, as well as two curved lines on the flat face. Others have three lines, one straight and two curved, on the flat face, each ending in a pellet; and others again have merely a central line on the flat face.
A celt of nearly the same outline as Fig. 146 (4¼ inches), found at Gembling, Yorkshire, E. R., has slight flutings down the angles for about two-thirds of its length. It is in the collection of Canon Greenwell, F.R.S.
Another of these instruments, ornamented in the same manner, but having a curved edge, is shown in Fig. 147, from an original in the British Museum. It formed part of the Cooke Collection from Parsonstown, King’s County, but I doubt its being really Irish.
A rare form of socketed celt is shown in Fig. 148. The original was found in the Fens, near Barrington, Cambridge, and is in my own collection. It has at the top of the blade, below the moulding, a shield-shaped ornament, of much the same character as that on the palstaves, like Fig. 60, but in this case formed by indented lines cast in the metal.
| Fig. 147. Ireland? ½ | Fig. 148. Barrington. ½ | Fig. 149. Hounslow. ½ | Fig. 150. Wallingford. ½ |
Another, of unusually narrow form, found at Thames Ditton,[456] is in the Museum of the Society of Antiquaries.
A broader celt, ornamented with a reversed chevron, formed of three raised ribs, and with short single ribs on each side, is shown in Fig. 149. It was found at Hounslow, with a flat celt, a palstave, and a socketed celt like Fig. 112, and is now in the British Museum.