56 THE BRITISH PUGNACES. 



the Phoenicians, we learn from Sir Wm. Betham's work " The 

 Gael and Cymbri." It is however the reverse side of the coin 

 that Mr. Whitaker concluded bore the impression of the 

 mastiff. I am inclined to think however, it is one of the 

 earliest representations of Brittania, or else Cybele seated on 

 the lion. I advance this, as the figure instead of being a child, 

 as Whitaker concluded, evidently merely from the animal 

 bearing it, being represented as large, is however plainly 

 intended to represent a full-grown woman, the paps being 

 plainly depicted, and largely developed, and the wide hips, so 

 distinctive of the female figure, and rightly considered by the 

 ancients a perfection, and early marked by the sculptors of 

 Venus. 



The idea of a woman seated on a beast is entirely Eastern, 

 we read of Venus Aphrodite riding on the foam of the sea on 

 the figure of a half horse, half fish ; also St. John's vision of 

 the whore of Babylon seated on the beast. Revelations 

 xvii.-3. 



But to return to the coin, the animal is much more faulty 

 in delineation, the head might certainly lead anyone to think 

 it was intended for a mastifi, but the legs on the other hand 

 would best represent those of a horse, however from the 

 marked fleclive curve of the tail, in which I can trace I fancy, 

 the intended representation of the ending leonine tuft, I think 

 there is little doubt but that the animal was designed to 

 represent a lion. That the coin was one undoubtedly struck 

 by Cunobline is conclusively shown by the letters TAS. CNO. 



I have suggested that the reverse side the coin may be a 

 representation of Cybele or Ceres, the Goddess of Plenty, for 

 there is an antique gem figured in the Encyclopaedia Londin- 

 ensis, published 1811, Plate ii. No. 25, taken from the 



