389 



^ote$ on ttiecte of "§^iite Celtic" ft|aracter 

 founi ill Miltdrire. 



By the Rev. E. H. Goddard.'. 



The publication of the excellent British Museum Guide to the 

 Antiquities of' the Early Iron Age has, for the first time, placed a 

 convenient text-book of the objects of that period in the hands of 

 curators and others interested in the collections of the various 

 provincial museums. Only a very few years ago many of these 

 objects were, even in the British Museum itself, only to be found 

 scattered about amongst the general Eomano-British collections, 

 and in provincial museums no attempt was made, as a rule, to dis- 

 tinguish them from Eoman remains. At the present time, how- 

 ever, the example set by the authorities of the National collection 

 is being gradually followed by the curators of other n)useums, and 

 a considerable amount of interest has been aroused in objects of 

 " Late Celtic " character. 



It is not, however, possible in the case of very many " casual 

 finds " to say for certain that any given object actually dates from 

 before the Roman invasion of Britain, as, doubtless, objects of 

 native manufacture, made wholly in the native style, continued in 

 use among the British population — more especially in parts of the 

 country remote from the great Roman centres, side by side with 

 objects made under Roman influence during a considerable portion 

 of the Roman period in Britain. Except in the north, in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Cirencester and Marlborough, and in the west, near 

 Bath, a great part of Wiltshire, particularly the downs of the 

 southern half of the county— which seem to have carried a large 

 population throughout both the Bronze Age and the Roman period 



' The substance of these notes in a shorter form, together with the majority 

 of the illustrations here given, appeared in The Reliquary for April, 1908. 



