216 Sir Thomas Dick Laiider (yii a Bronze Relic^ c^r. 



spiral from the one extremity to the other. The whole seems 

 to have been formed at length, and then twisted up into the 

 coil ; a circumstance which indicates the fineness and ductility 

 of the metal. 



The snake seems to have been the model for the construc- 

 tion of this very interesting antique ; but it has not been ser- 

 vilely and awkwardly copied, as one might expect a workman 

 in an infant state of society would have done. The snake"'s 

 form has been employed only in assisting the tasteful inven- 

 tion of the artist. The serpent's heads at the two extremities 

 are only to be recognized from the carving of the hoods, the 

 faces, and the eyes, in which last are inserted prominent eye- 

 balls of a deep blue enamel or glass. About 3J inches from 

 each extremity, there are somewhat similar indications of snakes 

 heads, with eyes also filled with similar globules of the same 

 blue glass. On the other side of each extremity there is a 

 perfect circle of nearly an inch in diameter, surrounding and 

 enclosing a flat hollow space of about a sixth part of an inch 

 in depth, having a deeper and minute hole in the centre of 

 each ; and from the appearance of the metal there, I have 

 not the least doubt that the circular cavity was filled with 

 some gem, or artificial stone, perhaps of the same nature as 

 those now forming the eyes. 



From the sacred serpent being introduced into it, thisantique 

 has all the characters of being a druidical relic. The very 

 small diameter of the interior forbids the possibility of its hav- 

 ing been a bracelet ; and from its form, which renders it in- 

 capable of being placed on a table so as to stand without in- 

 clining to one side, it could not have been employed, as might 

 have otherwise been fancied, as a prop or support to some of 

 the sacred appendages of the Druidical altar. I am indebted 

 to the joint work of Dr Meyrick and Charles Hamilton Smith, 

 Esq. for the only clue to my explanation of it, which I 

 find in the sixth plate of that splendid and learned book, 

 where we have depicted the costume of the Druids, taken from 

 a bas relief found at Autun. On the left shoulder of the fi- 

 gure crowned with oak leaves, we see the robe fastened, by 

 having its folds gathered together, and drawn through an or- 

 nament of precisely similar form to that of the antique which 



