MANUFACTURE OP CLASS. 155 



though Petronius Arbiter and some others assure us, that the em. 

 peroi ordered the artist to be beheaded for his invention. 



it appears, however, that before th*> conquest of Britain by the 

 Romans, glass-houses had been erected in this island, as well as in 

 Gaul, >|j;iin, and Italy. Hence in many parts of the country 

 are to be found annulets of glass, having a narrow perforation 

 and thick rim, denominated by the remaining Britons gleineu nai- 

 s.reedh, or jilass adders, and which were probably iu former times 

 used as annulets by the druids. It can scarcely be questioned 

 that the Britons were sufficiently well versed in the manufacture 

 of glass, to form out of it many more useful instruments than the 

 glass beads. History indeed assures us, that they did manufac. 

 ture a considerable quantity of glass vessels. These, like their 

 annulvts, were most probably green, blue, yellow, or black, and 

 many of them curiously streaked with other colours. The process 

 in the manufacture would be nearly the same with that of the 

 GauKs and Spaniards. The sand of their shores, being reduced 

 to a sufficient degree of fineness by art, was mixed with three, 

 fourths of its weight of their nitre (much the same with our kelp), 

 and both were melted together. The metal was then poured into 

 other vessels, where it was left to harden into a mass, and after, 

 wards replaced in the furnace, where it became transparent in the 

 boiling, and was afterwards figured by blowing or modelling in 

 the lathe into such vessels as they wanted. 



It is not probable that the arrival of the Romans would improve 

 the glass manufacture among the Britons. The taste of the Romans 

 at that time was just the reverse of that of the inhabitants of thii 

 island. The former preferred silver and gold to glass for the com- 

 position of their drinking-vessels. They made, indeed, great im. 

 provements in their own at Rome, during the government of Nero. 

 The vessels then formed of this metal rivalled the bowls of porce- 

 lain in their dearness, and equalled the cups of crystal in their 

 clearness. But these were by far too costly for common use ; and 

 therefore, in all probability, were never attempted in Britain. 

 The glass commonly made use of by the Romans was of a quality 

 greatly inferior ; and from the fragments which have been disco- 

 vered, at the stations or towns of either, appear to have consisted 

 of a thick, sometimes white, but mostly blue green metal. 



According to th venerable Bede, artificers skilled in making 

 glass for windows were brought over into England in the year 674, 



