By William Long, Esq. 1^1 



By the kindness of the Council of the Society of Antiquaries the 

 writer is able to give the cuts which illustrate Dr. Thurnam's account 

 of the quadrangular tablets of amber found in a barrow of the Lake 

 group, and which appears to have formed a collar. " They occur, 

 says Dr.Thurnam, "in sets of three, six, and eight. These plates, found 

 with seven interments, five of them burnt, are about a quarter-inch 

 thick, rounded at the upper and lower margins, and vary in size from 

 one to three inches in length, and from three-quarters to one-and-a 

 half-inch in width. In the vertical edges are a series of equidistant 

 perforations, which, according to the size, are four, six, or even ten 

 in number. The perforations mostly pass through from edge to 

 edge, and are bored with great accuracy, propably with a metallic 

 borer, worked most likely with a bow-drill. The plates were always 

 accompanied by beads of the same material, and there can be no 

 doubt that the two have been strung together so as to form sym- 

 metrical ornaments analogous to those of jet found in the barrows of 

 Derbyshire and North Britain. This combination was not realized 

 by Sir Richard Hoare, who was of opinion that the plates were 

 strung together and worn lengthwise on the breast. The MS. 

 notes of the late Rev. E. Duke, kindly lent me by his sou, describing 

 the barrow which yielded the set of plates of largest size, eight in 

 number, do not expressly name these tablets, but merely say ' the 

 skeleton was found with rows of red amber beads around the neck.' 

 In another of the Lake barrows also about two miles from Stone- 

 henge, opened by Mr, Duke, was ' a skeleton having on a necklace 

 of amber beads,' to which, no doubt, belongs the set of three small 

 plates, with Ibur-fold perforations, still to be seen at Lake House. 

 Through the kind aid of the present owner I have succeeded in 

 constructing models of these two complex collars, in a style which 

 must closely approximate to that of the original ornaments. (See 

 woodcut.) 



" The perforations in the three plates of the lesser collars, as well 

 as in the four outer plates of the large, run straight through 

 from edge to edge ; but in the four larger and more central plates of 

 the latter only the upper and lower perforations run through the 

 plates, whilst the eight which are intermediate go a little way in 



