194 ON THE BRITISH ANTIQUITIES OF WARWICKSHIRE. 



buckle, and other articles ; and, judgins? from the style of decora- 

 tion which these relics exhibit, and which approximate to the early- 

 Saxon style, as well as from the circumstance of the buckle being 

 similar, in shape and make, to some found in the tomb at Tournay, 

 said to be that of Childeric, king of the Franks, who died about 

 the middle of the fifth century, I am inclined to think that the 

 bones so found were the remains of some Saxon female of rank, of 

 an early period in that dynasty. 



I have thus far attempted to give a sketch, though a slight and 

 imperfect one, of the sepulchral antiquities of the early inhabitants 

 of this island, both before and after their subjugation by the Ro- 

 mans, and also those of their conquerors ; and I have endeavoured to 

 illustrate my subject by adducing some of the antiquities found In 

 this county, discriminating, as far as I have been able, between 

 each people and era. Whilst, then, we look upon the most ancient 

 of these relics, and contrast them with the modern productions of 

 skill and science around us, we can scarcely fail to be struck at the 

 vast and immeasureable distance we have advanced in the arts 

 which tend to civilize mankind, and contribute to their happiness 

 and comfort. 



Little did the mourners assembled round the tomb of their Celtic 

 chieftain imagine, when they deposited the most valued article he^ 

 possessed, his brazen dagger, beside his remains, that his ashes^ 

 would, after the lapse of, perhaps, two thousand years, be disturbed 

 from their long and unbroken sleep by a pardonable curiosity, and 

 that when that period should arrive, and they should again be dis- 

 closed to view, the interior of Britain — into which, in the absence 

 of native manufactures, the brazen wares of Phoenician workman- 

 ship, for of such I conceive this dagger to have been, had tardily 

 found their way — should, from its own internal resources, and the 

 skill, industry, and talent, employed thereon, be able to supply — not 

 merely one or many nations, but—every portion of the habitable 

 globe with arms and manufactures, and more than compete with 

 the once famed emporiums of the east. Tyre and Sidon, in the en. 

 terprizing spirit of its merchants. 



