Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 95 



Celts and other inhabitants of Gaul, whose chief strength 

 lay in their horsemen (equites). It will presently be shown 

 that this change in the method of using the horse on the 

 Continent was due not solely to the development in size of the 

 indigenous animal, but to the fact that by the middle of the 

 second century B.C. the Gauls had procured from southern 

 Europe horses of a size fa,r superior to their own and better 

 adapted for riding. 



Dio Cassius, when speaking of the Caledonians and Maeatae, 

 two chief tribes of northern Britain, says that they "went to 

 war on chariots, as their horses were small and fleet 1 ." Since 

 the countiy which these tribes inhabited would have been 

 much more easily traversed by men on horseback than by 

 wheeled vehicles, it is clear that they used chariots because 

 their ponies, which, in part at least, may be represented by the 

 ' Celtic' ponies of to-day, were too small to carry a full-grown 

 man for any considerable time or distance. 



The statement of Dio Cassius concerning the practice of 

 the tribes of northern Britain is completely confirmed by the 

 discovery of the remains of a considerable number of chariots in 

 Yorkshire barrows. 



In one (Fig. 44) of the sixteen tumuli known as Danes' 

 Graves, situated in the parish of Driffield, Mr J. R. Mortimer 2 

 and Canon Green well, in 1897, discovered the remains of two 

 adult bodies (Fig. 44), the iron tires of two wheels and other 

 pieces of iron belonging to a chariot, two iron snaffle-bits, and 

 several rings and ornaments of bronze belonging to the horse- 

 trappings, though not a single bone of a horse was found. The 

 wheels had apparently been taken from the axle. The tires 

 measure respectively 2 ft. 6f in. and 2 ft. 5J in. in diameter, 

 both being If in. broad and $ in. in thickness. The iron 

 hoops for the naves likewise survived, being 5 in. in diameter 

 (inside), | in. wide, and nearly a quarter of an inch thick 3 . 



1 Dio Cassius, LXXVI. 12 (ex Xiphilini epit.), Sr/aareuoiTcu 5e eiri re d/3/tdrwj', 

 'ITTTTOVS ^xoires /ZIK/)OI)S KO.I raxe?s, xai irefroi 5 eivi KT\. 



2 Ann. Report of the Yorkshire Philosophical Soc. for 1897, pp. 3-4. 



3 Ibid., p. 10. The Yorkshire Philosophical Society have most kindly lent 

 me the block for Fig. 44. 



