512 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. (^ANNO I7O9. 



spears, yet he is silent as to their make. Nor indeed have we any where a good 

 account of the miHtary arms of the Britons. The authors transmitted to 

 posterity by them are modern in comparison of the Roman writers, and are 

 also romantic, and not to be relied on. And as for the bards, they took no 

 care to transmit to posterity these weapons, nor to give us exact relations of 

 their countrymen. It is true, there have been, and still are found several 

 instruments made of flint, which the best judges esteem to be British. The 

 flint heads of their arrows are commonly called in Scotland elf-arrows, as being 

 supposed to have an extraordinary virtue against the elves, and to drop from 

 the clouds. There are other flints, somewhat resembling axes, and these Dr. 

 Plot calls British axes ; but Dr. Leigh, in his Nat. Hist, of Lancashire, thinks 

 they are Indian. Sir William Dugdale inclines to Dr. Plot's opinions, and he 

 acquaints us with several, of about 4 inches and a half in length, curiously 

 wrought by grinding. But they might as well have been Roman ; the Romans 

 having used flint weapons, as well as the Britons, and it was from the Romans 

 that the Britons learned the art of working them. What seems to convince 

 us that they might be Roman, is, that those mentioned by Sir William, were 

 found at Oldbury, Aldbury, or Ealdbury, which was a Roman fort, and is the 

 same in signification with Alchester in Oxfordshire, Alchester being nothing 

 else but Galb-ceaj-ceji, so called by the Saxons, to show that it was a place ot' 

 antiquity, even in their time. And though the anonymous author of the an- 

 tiquities of Alchester, at the end of the parochial antiquities of Ambrosden, 

 derives it from AUectus, as if he were the founder ; yet there is no authority, 

 either from coins, inscriptions, or books, to countenance the conjecture. 



Now since there are no authentic authors, by which we may learn what arms 

 were used by the Britons in their wars, I can think of no method for finding 

 this out more proper, than by seeing what arms were in use among those 

 people from whom they immediately had their original. Mr. Sheringham 

 inclines to the story of G-eofFry of Monmouth, who deduces the Britons from 

 the Trojans; and this is also the opinion of several other learned men. But 

 whatever their abilities and authority might be in other respects, yet in this 

 they must be reckoned partial, and I rather strike in with those other writers of 

 more authority, who derive the Britons from the Gauls ; among whom Mr. 

 Cambden is the chief. He has diligently and accurately proved, that the Gauls 

 and Britons had the same religion; that they both had their bards and druids, 

 enjoyed the same form of government, used the same method of fighting, had 

 the same natural genius, were equally candid and innocent, were addicted to 

 change when provoked, were compassionate to their relations, and always 

 ready to engage in their vindication. He has also shown, that they both 



