94 Transactions. 



now remains. The double spiral and trumpet pattern cliaracter- 

 istic of " Late-Celtic " ornament occurs on the open work of 

 one loop. Enamelling- appears to have been an art peculiar 

 to the Celtic tribes of Britain prior to and after the period 

 of the Roman invasion of Britain. The only classical author 

 who mentions the art of enamelling is Philostratus, a (rreek 

 sophist, and a member of the circle of literary men which 

 Julia Domma, wife of the Emperor Severus, drew around 

 her. In his work on Imagines., in describing- a picture of a boar 

 hunt, he mentions the harness of the horses as being enriched 

 with various colours, and adds (lib. i. xxviii) — "It is said that 

 the barbarians who live in the ocean pour these colours on heated 

 brass, and that they adhere, become as hard as stone, and so pre- 

 serve the forms that are made in them." Some writers have 

 supposed that by the " barbarians who live in the ocean " Philo- 

 stratus meant the Gauls, but there is no doubt the passag(! refers 

 to Britain. The bridle-bit is shown in figure 2, and has also been 

 figured elsewhere.' 



ANCIENT BKITISH GOLD COIN. 



On the 27th November, 1861, the gold coin here described 

 was found in a garden at Birkhill, near Dumfries. It has been 

 figured and described in the Numismatic Chronicle (Vol. ii., New 

 Series, pp. 153-150) by Dr fnow Sir) John Evans, and in the 

 Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries (f Scotland (^oX. iv., pp. 

 432-436) by the late Mr George Sim. Sir John Evans, in his 

 description of the coin, says* :— " The type is already well known, 

 but this specimen, though not in fine preservation, is remarkable as 

 g-iving the whole of the legend — either the initial B or the final C 

 lieing usually wanting on these coins, on account of the flan being 

 generally smaller than the dies, as is so commonly the case with 

 the coins of tliis series. On the obverse is bodvoc in large letters 

 across the field, and on the reverse is a disjointed three-tailed 

 horse to the right ; above two ring ornaments and a crescent ; 

 below a wheel, behuid a pellet. P'rom some specimens the whole 

 appears to have been surrounded by a circle of pellets set at a 



' Prehixfoi-ic Ainia/t of Srotlaiid, Vol. ii., pi. xi. ; Proceed, of Hociefy of 

 Antiqnariex of Scotland, Vol. iii., New Series, p. 320; Scotland in Pagan 

 Thnex : Iron Age, p. 124 ; Catolo<jue of Xational Muiseum, 1892, p. 198. 

 ^ XumUmatic Chronicle, Vol. ii., New Series, pp. 153-154. 



