Somewhat analogous to the dilated penannular rings are another class of gold ornaments, which, so far as I am aware, have never yet been discovered except in the British Isles. They consist of a solid cylindrical gold bar, bent into a semicircle or segmental arc, most frequently tapering from the centre, and terminated at both ends with hollow cups, resembling the mouth of a trumpet, or the expanded calix of a flower. One remarkable example of these curious native relics, which is engraved in the Archæological Journal, presents the characteristics of an intermediate type between the simpler forms of the relics last described, and these Calicinated Rings.[375] The cups are formed merely by hollows in the slightly dilated ends; but it is further interesting from being decorated with the style of incised ornaments of most frequent occurrence on the primitive British pottery. It was dug up at Brahalish, near Bantry, county Cork, and weighs 3 oz. 5 dwts. 6 grs. In contrast to this, another is engraved in the same Journal, found near the entrance lodge at Swinton Park, Yorkshire, scarcely two feet below the surface. In this beautiful specimen the terminal cups are so unusually large, that the solid bar of gold dwindles into a mere connecting link between them. The annexed figure of a very fine example found by a labourer while cutting peats in the parish of Cromdale, Inverness-shire, somewhat resembles that of Swinton Park in the size of its cups. It is from a drawing by the late Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, and represents it about two-thirds the size of the original. Similar relics of more ordinary proportions have been brought to light, at different times, in various Scottish districts. One found in an urn in the north of Scotland, in the year 1731, is described in a letter from Sir John Clerk to Mr. Gale, written shortly after its discovery; and is further illustrated in the Reliquiæ Galeanæ, by an engraved figure the size of the original.[376] Shortly afterwards, Sir John Clerk writes to his correspondent announcing the discovery of several valuable gold relics, including two other calicinated rings, brought to light in consequence of the partial draining of a loch on an estate belonging to the Earl of Stair. "I begin to think," exclaims the astonished antiquary, "that there are treasures of all kinds in Britain; for lately in a loch in Galloway there have been found three very curious pieces of gold: one a bracelet, consisting of two circles, very artificially folding or twisting into one another; now in the hands of the Countess of Stair." The other relics are described as corresponding to an example of the calicinated ring found in Galway, and engraved in the Archæologia. (Vol. ii. Plate III. fig. 1.) One of these must have been an unusually massive and valuable example, as its weight is stated to have been 15 oz. Another smaller one found along with it, and weighing only 1 oz. 4 dwts., more nearly approaches to the type of the dilated penannular ring, the cup or bulb being covered with a flat oval plate of gold. A bronze relic, of the latter shape, formerly in the collection of Dr. Samuel Hibbert, is now in the Museum of the Scottish Antiquaries. Bronze calicinated rings have occasionally, though very rarely, been found in Ireland. The only example I know of is in the collection of Councillor Waller of Dublin.
The most recent discovery in Scotland of gold relics of this singular type, was made in the year 1838, on the estate of the late Walter Campbell, Esq. of Sunderland, on the Island of Islay, Argyleshire. At the period referred to, a large standing stone, which had long been overthrown, and lay prostrate at a little distance from Sunderland House, was blasted with gunpowder, and removed, in the process of levelling and draining the ground for agricultural purposes. The soil immediately underneath the stone consisted of a rich black mould, in which were found a broad fluted gold armilla, and a fine specimen of the calicinated ring, both lying alongside of a stone cist, within which were several rude cinerary urns. The armilla was of a peculiar type, being a broad band of gold beaten out so as to form a convex centre, on each side of which was a fluted ornamental border, and a raised rim returned at the edge. Unfortunately, this interesting relic was carried off by a dishonest servant, but through the kindness of Mrs. Campbell, I am able to give the annexed representation (about one-fourth the size of the original) of the calicinated ring, which is now in that lady's possession. Mrs. Campbell remarks, in a letter with which I have been favoured,—"The bracelet was large enough to encircle a woman's arm above the elbow. Of many specimens which I examined at the British Museum, chiefly Irish, there was none like mine, which makes me the more regret its loss." Various tumuli exist in the neighbourhood of Sunderland House, several of which have been opened, and found to cover cists of the usual limited size, none of them exceeding three feet in greatest internal dimensions. In some of them were found cinerary urns, while others contained the entire skeleton.
Some antiquaries have sought to assign a sacred significance to these singular relics, and to associate them with the mysterious rites of Druidical worship. Vallancey, in particular, supposes them to have been sacrificial pateræ. There is fully as much probability, however, in the simple conjecture that they served as clasps or fastenings for the mantle. The cups, which appear to possess such a mystic significance, were not probably left void in their original state. In the example first referred to, in the Reliquiæ Galeanæ, Sir John Clerk remarks,—"The parts at the extremities are hollow, like little cups or sockets, and the sides are very thin. There is a small circle within the verge, which has had a red substance adhering to it like cement, as if it had served to fix some kind of body within the sockets." A similar appearance is still more markedly observable in an example in the possession of Thomas Brown, Esq. of Lanfine, Ayrshire. Upon showing it to an experienced jeweller, he assured me it cannot admit of a doubt that the sockets have originally contained pebbles or jewels. If it be indeed the case that in this curious gold relic we have the clasp of the ancient British chlamys, worn by the native chief or by the arch-priest when robed in his most stately pontificals, then we see in it a British personal ornament which may stand comparison with the most costly and elegant Roman fibulæ, while its essential dissimilarity from every known classic type adds to the probability of its belonging to an earlier era than the Anglo-Roman period.
Of the commoner British gold ornaments, the torc and armilla, numerous examples have been discovered, though of these the few which have escaped destruction are mostly in private hands, and not very readily accessible. Three beautiful gold torcs, found at Cairnmure, Peeblesshire, in 1806, are figured in the Archæologia Scotica.[377] They were found, along with various other relics, by a herd-boy, who going early in the morning to his sheep, observed something glitter in the sun, and on scraping with his feet, brought the whole valuable treasure to light. It consisted of three gold torcs or collars for the neck; the beautiful gold ornament, supposed to have been the head of a staff or sceptre, engraved here about one-half the size of the original; and a number of flattened circular gold pellets, each marked with a cross in relief. The value of the articles discovered in mere bullion exceeded £100, and it is doubtful if the treasure-finder did not privately dispose of more before his good fortune was known. The staff-head and two of the gold beads or pellets are now in the Museum of the Scottish Antiquaries. The latter are elsewhere referred to, along with other examples, as the primitive type of native minted currency. The defined character, however, of the ornamentation on the sceptre-head adds, along with the presence of these indications of increasing civilisation, to the probability that this valuable hoard belongs to the later transition-period, in which the age of bronze drew to a close. Simple indeed as is the usual style of ornament and workmanship of the funicular torc, it appears to have been retained in use for a very long period, and is reproduced in silver and bronze along with the latest relics of the succeeding iron age. The annexed woodcut represents a remarkably fine example, greatly reduced, of what may be designated the knotted funicular torc. It was found about sixty years ago by a labourer trenching within the area of a circular camp on the summit of a hill in the parish of Penicuick, Mid-Lothian, known by the name of Braidwood Castle. It was of gold, and met with the usual fate of relics of the precious metals, having been sold by the discoverer to a jeweller in Edinburgh for the sum of twenty-eight guineas, as a Roman girdle of brass. It was doubtless worth a much larger sum as mere bullion. A drawing of it, however, had been taken, it is not now apparent by whom, and is preserved in the Library of the Scottish Antiquaries.[378] The history indeed of Scottish gold relics is only a sad commentary on the miserable fruits resulting chiefly from the operation of the law of treasure-trove. A short way to the east of Chesterlees Station, in the parish of Dolphinton, Lanarkshire, an ornament of pure gold was found, which is said to have resembled the snaffle-bit of a horse's bridle.[379] As this is usually a twisted iron rod, there can be little doubt that the Chesterlees relic was a funicular torc. A "gold chain" ploughed up on the glebe lands of Mortlach parish, Banffshire, and described in the Old Statistical Account of the parish, as "like an ornament for the neck of one of the chiefs;" and another "golden chain" found at Thrumster, in the parish of Wick, Caithness, "which in a year of famine the discoverer sold to a bailie in Wick for a boll of oatmeal," may both be assumed, with little hesitation, to have been golden torcs. The term, indeed, has been used by experienced antiquaries. Gale describes a torc found near Old Verulam in 1748, as "a wreathed or vermicular ornament, being a solid chain of gold." One example, however, is on record of a gold linked chain found in an early Scottish sepulchral deposit. Nearly a mile to the east of Newton of Tillicairn, Aberdeenshire, on the top of a ridge on which are several cairns, there is one of unusually large size, appropriately designated Cairnmore. In 1818 this was partially opened to obtain a supply of stones for building materials, when a quantity of bones were found, among which lay "a small gold chain of four links, attached to a pin of such size as might have been used in a brooch for fastening the Celtic plaid."[380] A relic found towards the close of last century on the farm of Balmae, Kirkcudbrightshire, and sold by the discoverer for about £20, may also be classed among the lost examples of Scottish gold torcs. It is described as "a straight plate of gold, which was somewhat thick at each end and at the middle. It bent easily at the centre, so as to admit the two extremities to meet."[381] It must either have been a solid torc, or an unusually large dilated penannular ring. Amongst the native personal ornaments in the Scottish Museum, is a massive but plain penannular ring of the class to which the name of solid torc is now applied. It appears to be composed of nearly pure copper, and weighs twenty-five and a quarter ounces. It is rudely finished, retaining the rough marks of the hammer.