By William Long, Esq. 183 



XXV., figs. 7 and 8) . The same may be said of the thirteen " beads " 

 from the Upton Lovel barrow. Each is in the shape of a drum 

 and formed of three pieces of gold, two being circular lid-shaped 

 ends. In each are two holes at one side, supposed to be "for 

 the purpose of stringing," but quite as likely for sewing them as 

 buttons to the front of some vestment. Six or seven " beads " very 

 similar to those from Normanton, near Stonehenge, some globular 

 and some of a double-cone shape, were found in one of the barrows 

 at Bircham, Norfolk. (See wood-cut.) 



Small cii'cular discs of gold, of the size of florins, are supposed to 

 have been pendants for the ears. Quadrangular golden plates, of 

 considerable size, occurred with two interments. These are or- 

 namented in parallel lines, zigzags and chequers, and were found in 

 conneetion with thin plates of wood, on which the pattern had been 

 engraved, and over the edges of which the gold was lapped. The 

 gold of the smaller plate, measuring 6 inches by 3, is mere foil, not 

 thicker than writing paper; it is perforated at each of the four 

 angles. The other, much larger (from Bush barrow, half-a-mile 

 south of Stonehenge, the richest of all in gold objects), is a solid 

 and substantial ornament, of lozenge form, 7 by 6 inches in its 

 longest diameters, and perforated at the two angles most distant 

 from each other. It is of fine gold, weighing 1 oz., 5 dwts., and 

 lay immediately over the breast of the skeleton. Both these plates 

 had no doubt been attached to the dress, and worn as breast orna- 

 ments.^ (See wood-cut.) " In addition to this plate and the large 



* Dr. Thurnam was of opinion that it was from the gold of Britain that these 

 ornaments were fabricated. Caesar is usually made to say of the Britons " Ut- 

 untur aut sere, aut taleis ferreis ad certum pondus exarainatis pro nummo ; " but 

 a beautiful MS. of about the tenth century in the British Museum, reads the 

 passage thus: " utuntur aut sere aut nummo aureo, &c." They use either 

 brass money, or gold money, or instead of money, iron rings adjusted to a 

 certain weight. "It maybe therefore safely asserted" says Mr. Hawkins, 

 " that previous to the invasion of Julius Caesar, in the year 55 A.C., and before 

 the lloman dominion was generally established in this island, the Britons had 

 a metallic currency of struck coin, formed on a Grecian model. Julius Caesar 

 himself, when correctly read and rightly interpreted, asserts the fact, and 

 the actual discovery of coins in various parts of the island unequivocally 

 confiims it." The Upton Lovel or " Golden " Barrow was opened for the 



