NOTE. 455 



found, nor indeed do I know of any previous case in Britain, beyond tliat 

 mentioned in the note, where a mirror of any kind has been associated 

 with an interment \ Behind the back of the body were placed two 

 wheels laid slightly overlapping each other. They have been about 

 2ft. Sin. in diameter, and the tires, of iron, 1^ in. wide, are slightly 

 bent over at the edge. The naves, of wood, 5| in. in diameter, have 

 been bound in each case with two bronze hoops, which have a raised rib 

 at the middle, and are If in. wide ; the hoops are rivetted by two bronze 

 pins 1 in. long, which have also served to fasten them on to the wood. 

 The metal is so thin that the hoops can only have been ornamental. 

 The wheels without doubt had been once attached to a chariot, but of it 

 no other portion was found, or indeed appeared to have been ever 

 deposited in the grave. In ft-ont of the chest of the woman were two 

 snaffle-bits made of bronze. They differ somewhat in size, the one 

 measuring 9^ in., the other a little more. They are exceedingly well 

 manufactured, and consist each of two rings (2^ in. wide in the inner 

 diameter) to which the reins were attached, passing through a pear- 

 shaped bar 2^ in. long, the smaller end of which forms a loop. Two small 

 round knobs are fixed on each ring (about 1 in. apart), apparently to 

 prevent them from moving through the bar. It is probable that the 

 rings are made of iron plated Avith bronze, at least the similarly shaped bit 

 now in the York Museum is so constructed. The central part of the bit 

 consists of a piece of bronze (2 in. long) with a raised grooved rib at the 

 middle, and a loop at each end in which the corresponding loops of the 

 bars work -. Two other articles of bronze were discovered, one of them 

 by the workmen (who subsequently lost it), the other by myself in causing 

 the material thrown out of the grave to be again tunied over and care- 

 fully examined. This latter is an ornamented ring of bronze and iron, 

 through which the reins had probably passed. Similar rings were found 

 abundantly in the large hoards of 'Late Keltic' objects discovered at Polden 

 Hill, Somerset, Westhall, Suffollc, and Stanwick, Yorkshire, as well as in 

 other places^. The ring is 2^ in. in diameter, the flat and unornamented 



^ Mr. Stlllingfleet found a very similar mirror in one of the bari'ows at Arras, 

 opened in 1816, but which seems to have been made entirely of iron. In some MS. 

 notes of his, now in the Library of the Philosophical Society of York, is a slight 

 sketch of it, from which it appears to have had two perforations, one at the end of 

 the handle, the other where the handle joins the mirror itself. He says : — ' It is like 

 a modern hand-screen. The diameter of the circular part is about 7| in., the length 

 of the handle, including the perforations, 5^ in. ; the outer diameter of the two 

 perforations 1| in., the iimer diameter | in.' 



^ The bit is identical in form with one also foimd at Arras, and engraved in Crania 

 Britannica, fig. 10 on the plate of ' Objects from Barrows at Ai-ras.' 



3 Some are engraved in Hora3 Ferales, pi. xx, and one, precisely similar in form to 

 that under notice, and also fomid at Arras, is figured in Crania Britaimica, plate of 

 ' Objects found in BaiTOws at Arras,' fig. 13. 



