50 



period ; precisely as the site of a modem habitation in a 

 rural district, would be likely to show us some of the metal 

 buttons that had glanced on 

 farmer John's coat. That 

 the buckle was not only fa- 

 miliar to our ancestors, but 

 that it occupied a prominent 

 position, is evident from its 

 frequent occurrence in the 

 representations of heraldry. 

 The "Pelham Buckle" is an 

 expression common as a 

 household word in the south 

 of Englaud, especially in the 

 east of Sussex ; and the buckle 

 of the Cases — a very ancient 

 Lancashire family — is borne 

 both in the charge of the 

 shield and as a portion of the 

 crest. 



That domestic articles, such 

 as the key, or the needles and 

 needle-case, should have 

 reached us at all is curious, 

 as we could not here obtain 

 an entrance to inner chambers, 

 as at Pompeii ; and the num- 

 ber of such articles, among 

 the early inhabitants of this 

 country, could never have been 

 very great. 

 Arms of Case. 



The Pelham Buckle. 



IV. STRUCTURE, USES, &C. 



It is a fact somewhat singular, connected with the 

 various articles under examination, that they exhibit almost 

 every kind of workmanship — almost every stage of artistic 

 skill. Some are so primitive in their structure as almost 

 to cast into the shade the extraordinary knives of Mr. 

 Catlin's exhibition — made by simply rubbing the one side 

 of apiece of hoop iron. Others are so skilfully constructed 

 that artisans of our own day might take a lesson with 

 advantage from some of the specimens. I shall notice the 

 principal of them in order, examining not the whole, but 

 those that may be regarded as types of classes. 



