816 PROCEEDINGS OP PROVINCIAL SOCIETIES. 



ter, by the Rev. William Vaughan. Sixty skins of Birds, from 

 Australia, presented by Major Wakefield, of Minworth, near Coles- 

 hill, Warwickshire ; and various Books by Dr. Goldie, Mr. John 

 Da vies, Mr. T. C. Eyton, and Mr. W. A. Leighton. 



Mai/ 3. — Dr. Du Gard, V. P., in the chair. — A letter from the 

 Rev. Mr. Huntley, of Alberbury, was read, explanatory of the 

 engines used in ancient warfare for propelling stone balls and other 

 missiles, and illustrated with drawings of the three in most general 

 use — the mangonel, the tricolle, and the ribandequin. 



Some brief remarks, by Mr. Henry Pidgeon, were next read, on 

 the opening of a tumulus, called the Round Low, near Swinnerton, 

 Staffordshire. The mound consisted of various kinds of stones, 

 collected from the neighbourhood and promiscuously thrown toge- 

 ther. Some of these, which were of sandstone, appeared to have 

 been subjected to the action of fire, and on their tops, as well as on 

 all sides of the tumulus, lay bones, intermixed with charcoal. In 

 the centre of the mound, large irregular sandstones, of from thirty 

 inches to three feet in size, occurred, in an upright position, forming 

 an octagon of about twenty feet in diameter. The soil within the 

 stones, to the depth of three feet, consisted of mixed sands of diffe- 

 rent colours, below which were other large stones. As the investi- 

 gation, which was undertaken by the occupier of the land for the 

 mere purpose of rendering the mound available for cultivation, was 

 not further prosecuted, it is quite evident that the proper deposit of 

 the tumulus, which in most, if not in all, cases occurs at some depth 

 below the level of the adjacent surface, remains yet unexplored. 

 Similar tumuli, called the Saxon Low, Blake Low, White Low, and 

 Barrow Bank, exist in the immediate vicinity. 



An admirable Paper was next read by Mr. Thomas Blunt, of 

 Shrewsbury, on the Iron Mines and Works of Shropshire. The 

 author prefaced his observations with some concise historical notices, 

 tracing the rise and progress of the manufacture of iron in England, 

 from the earlier days of the ancient Britons— when this metal bore 

 a comparatively high value, in consequence of the difficulty of 

 reducing the ore — through the Saxon and chivalric ages — when its 

 manufacture into arms and armour attained to a high degree of 

 perfection — down to the 16th century, when not fewer than 300 

 smelting furnaces were in operation, yielding annually 180,000 

 tons of metal. The fuel employed until 1615, when coke was first 

 made from pit-coal, was charcoal, of which nearly a ton was requi- 

 site to reduce the same quantity of iron: and hence, doubtless, the 

 scarcity of timber trees around our Shropshire iron-works ; the loca- 

 lities of which still preserve in their names the remembrances of 

 extensive woods and forests long since swept away : for instance — 

 IMadeley Wood, Donnington Wood, Dawley Wood, &c. From the 

 period of this important discovery, little improvement occurred until 

 the introduction of steam-engines enabled our English iron-masters 

 to manufacture the present amazing quantity of 700,000 tons of 

 iron annually. 



