89 



cautious roasting, its excess of sulphur may be removed, and 

 the subsequent melting with charcoal, or a flux, be facilitated. 

 Indeed without roasting, and without flux in many cases, the 

 lead will flow out of the ore, if placed among flaming wood or 

 peat, and subjected to a sufficient stream of air. 



But the use of fluxes could not long remain unknown in the 

 limestone districts of Northumbria, or amid the fluoric veins of 

 Derbyshire — limestone and fluor being to this day valuable 

 aids in the furnace. Peat was the fuel in Cornwall, and still is 

 in Yorkshire, and perhaps the Roman smelters did really erect 

 their furnaces on waste ground and heaths at Dacre and Matlock, 

 far from the mines of Greenhow and Youlgreave, even as is 

 done at present with the cupolas of Lee and Langley mills. 



The uses of crucibles (xoavo;,) bellows, cavities of some peculiar 

 sort (xapvo*) perhaps chimneys, great variety of carbonaceous fuel, 

 the power of purifying and alloying, and knowledge of the proper- 

 ties of alloys, appear quite conspicuous among the antient arts. 



The inscriptions* on these masses of lead, are in the same 



• The following inscriptions have been recorded on pigs of lead obtained from 

 British mines during the Roman sway in Britain. It will be remarked that they 

 belong to early imperial times. 



IMP. CAES. DOMITIANO. AVG. C. C. S-VII. Found at Hagshaw Moor, 

 Dacre Pasture, near Pately Bridge, Yorkshire, in 1734. 



A Boman pig of lead, weighing 126 lbs., was found on Cromford Moor, near 

 Matlock, in the year 1777, having the following inscription in raised letters on 

 the top: 



IMP. CAES. HADEIANI. AVG. MET. LVT. 



A second was discovered near Matlock, in 1783. It weighed 84 lbs., and was 

 19 inches long at the top, and 22 at the bottom. Its width at the top was 8J 

 inches, and at the bottom 4J. The inscription appears to contain these letters : 



L. ABVCONI. VERECVND. METAL. LVTVD. 

 A third with the inscription also in raised letters on the top was found on Matlock 

 Moor, in the year 1787. It weighs 173 lbs., and was 17§ inches in length, and at 

 bottom 20^. 



TI. CL. TR. LVT. BR. EX. ARG. 



Glover's Derbyshire, vol. i. p. 71, 72. 

 A fourth is stated to have been found at Castleton, on which only the letters IMP 

 could be read distinctly. It was said by Mr. Mawe to be preserved in the Museum 

 of Mr. Green, at Lichfield. 



Sir R. I. Murchison records a Roman pig of lead (from the Shelve mines in 

 Shropshire probabJy), beariug the inscription, IMP. ADRIANI. AVG. Sil. Sj/st. 

 p. 279. This pig is said to be imlikc the modem pig. 



