'Of ORES AND COALS. 



: tions; he but juft fhewed it to the Romans. After its reduction 

 and fubmiiTion to their victorious legions under Claudian, it paid 

 tribute in its richefl and moft valuable ores ; particularly of lead, 

 of which feveral pigs have been found in different parts with 

 the emperors names upon them (a)-; and Pliny allures us, that 

 the mines were fo rich, that by an imperial edict a certain quan- 

 tity was only to be worked, the veins, in the language of the 

 minemen, appearing at the very day, whilft the mines of lead 

 in their province of Spain were few and poor (bj. Tacitus ac- 

 quaints us, that our ores, our metalla, were the lures of the Ro~ 

 man Eagle, and rejn-unerated them for their .toils, for their 

 victories (c). 



Our iron-mines were as well known to them as thofe of lead, 

 as appears from an altar difcovered at one of their walled towns, 

 Condercum, or Btunvell, infcribed to Jupiter Dtlichemts, the Deity 

 who prefided over this metal, now in the curious library of Ro- 

 bert Shafto, Efq; 



There is reafon to believe, that they had alfo copper-works. 

 For by their famous military way of Watling-flreet, near a hamlet* 

 called Ridleys, belonging to Thomas Selby, Efq; of Bittlefden, there 

 are conic heaps of copper-Scoria, or flag, ftill remaining. Some 

 of it was lately eflayed by an ingenious mineraliil of my ac- 

 quaintance, from which he extracted feveral grains of fine cop- 



(a) Stuk. Caraus. Vol. i. p. 176. 



Itin. Curiof. p. 173. 

 Ph. Tr. No. 459. Camd. Britan. Edit. Opt. p. 679. 



'(b) In Britannia fummo Terrae Curio adeo largi, ut Lex ultra dicatur, ne plus certo 

 'modo fiat. Plin. Na't. Hift. 1. 34. c. 17. 



(c) Vita jgricola. 



per. 



