87 



which occur in so many parts of England ; nor is any other 

 proof given that the direct union of tin and copper was effected 

 by the natives of Britain. Copper is so abundant in Cornwall 

 that it might tempt to the other hypothesis, but this copper is a 

 sulphuret ; it is found united to the sulphuret of iron, in deep 

 veins, and in a matrix of quartz; and these are things which 

 render the production of pure copper one of the most refined 

 operations in smelting. Csesar tells us the brass used by the 

 natives of Britain was imported. Probably Cyprus, — colonized 

 by the Phoenicians, to which old authors refer as the original 

 source of brass — Cyprus with its antient copper mines (Tamas- 

 sus), which has given its name to the metal, might be one of 

 the points from which bronze radiated over the Grecian, Roman, 

 and Barbarian world. It was from Cinyras, the king of Cyprus, 

 that Agamemnon received his splendid breastplate with twenty 

 plates of tin, and its liberal additions of Turquoise, Lazulite, or 

 rather Malachite, obtained perhaps from the soil of the Island. 

 (Plin. xxxiii. p. 633, Hard.) 



The works of 'H(/»a«o-To?, the Crawshay of antiquity, may have 

 been fixed on Lemnos on account of some volcanic appearances 

 there, but the tradition shows at least that the various opera- 

 tions of refined metallurgy were not strangers to the Islands of 

 the Mediterranean ; and the uniformity of design and composi- 

 tion in the antient celts, chisels, /AaxfXXa, and instruments of 

 war, implies a common and that not a barbarous origin. The 

 perfection, and variety, and great proportions of the brass work 

 executed in the Grecian states and colonies, may also be 

 regarded as indicating the local seat of the early as well as the 

 later art of working in bronze. 



Lead was obtained in Spain and Gaul, from deep and laborious 

 mines, (xxxiv. p. 669, Hard.) but so abundantly near the 

 surface in Britain as to suggest a law for preventing more than 

 a limited production — a Brigantian law of vend. The Romans 

 employed lead in pipes (fistulse) and sheets, which were sol- 

 dered with alloys, as already mentioned. This lead was pre- 

 viously refined, and its silver removed ; the silver indeed being 

 often the object of the enterprise. How earnestly silver was 



