260 Mr. J. Phillips on Ancient Metallurgy and Mining 



Derbyshire — limestone and fluor being to this day valuable aids 

 in the furnace. Peat was the fuel in Cornwall, and still is in 

 Yorkshire ; and perhaps the Roman smelters did really erect their 

 furnaces on waste ground and heaths at Dacre and Matlock, far 

 from the mines of Greenhow and Youlgreave, even as is done at 

 present with the cupolas of Lee and Langley mills. 



The use of crucibles (/(Wo*), bellows, cavities of some peculiar 

 sort (xd.cimu), perhaps chimneys, great variety of carbonaceous 

 fuel, the power of purifying and alloying, and knowledge of the 

 properties of alloys, appear quite conspicuous among the ancient 

 arts. 



The inscriptions* on these masses of lead are in the same gen- 

 eral form as the 'marks' of the different mines now in work, and 

 which, no doubt, are their literal and lineal descendants. Thus 

 the Aid or Auld Gang mine of Swaledale, old in the days of the 

 Saxons; the mines of Greenhow Hill, which supplied sheet and 

 pipe lead for our baths and coffins at York, as well as tribute to 

 the imperial treasury : the mines of Middleton and Youlgreave 

 (Aldgroove), from which the Lutudae sent not only lead, but { ex- 

 argentate 1 (that is to say refined) lead from which the silver had 

 been removed, use to this day the pig of the same weight of 1 J 

 cwt., of similar shape and similar mark to that of 1800 years an- 

 tiquity.! And just as at the present day, the countryman whose 

 galloway is tired drops the leaden load by the way side, for an- 

 other day's work, so in the days of Rome, the Brigantian lead 



* The following inscriptions have been recorded on pigs of lead obtained from 

 British mines during the lioman sway in Britain. It will be remarked that they be- 

 long to early imperial times. 



IMP. CAES. DOJI ITIANO. AVG. C. C. S-V II. Found at HagshftW Moor, Dacre 

 Pasture, near Pately Bridge, Yorkshire, in If M. 



A Roman pig of lead, weighing 126 lbs., was found on Cromford Moor, near Mat- 

 lock, in the year 1777, having the following inscription in raised letters on the top : 



IMP. CAES. HADRIAN! AVG. MET. LYT. 



A second was discovered near Matlock in 1783. It weighed 84 lbs., and was 19 

 inches long at top, and 22 at bottom. Its width at top was 3|- inches, and at bot 

 torn 4-J-. The inscription appears to contain these letters : 



L. ARVCONL VERECYND. METAL. LVTVD. 



A third, with the inscription also in raised letters on the top, was found in Matlock 

 Moor in the year 1787. It weighs 173 lbs., and was 17| inches in length, and at 

 bottom 20*. 



TL CL. TR. LYT. BR. EX. ARG. 



Glover"-- Derbyshire, vol. i, p. 71. 72. 



A fourth is stated to have been found at Castleton, on which onlv the letters IMP 

 could be read distinctly. It was said by Mr. Mawe to be preserved in the museum 



of Mr. Green at Litdbfield 



Sir R. I. Murehwon records a Roman pig of lead (from the Shelve min* in Shrop- 

 shire probably), bearing the inscription, IMP. ADRIAN L AVG. (SiL Syst., p. 279.) 

 This pig is said to be unlike the modern pig. 



t The modern pig is made near to ^f f a of a fodder or 176£ lbs. Three Roman 

 P p found near H , c k in 1777, 1783, 1787, weighed 173, 126, and 84 lbs., these be- 

 uig as 1, J, and 4 of the modem nkr. 



