32 NOTES ON LATIN INSCRIPTIONS 



illustration the remnrlcs of Mr. Pennant, Tour in Wales, i. p. 58, 

 but notic- the difficulty that ex argento rather implies the extraction 

 of lead from silver than of silver from lead. Dr. Gifford proposed 

 ex argent[aria] and Sir Henry Ellis, Townley Gallery, ii. p. 291, 

 suggests ex argent\ariis\ the sense intended by each being, I pre- 

 sume, the same, although the number is different, scil. from the silver 

 mine or mines. Sir Henry Ellis remarks — "The known richness of 

 the English lead, with which silver has been sometimes found mixed 

 in large quantities, may serve to explain the word ex Argentariis" 



Mr. Roach Smith, Journal of Arch. Assoc, v. p. 228, remarks — 

 " Hx argent, refers to the separation of the silver from the ore." 



Mr. "Wright, Celt, Roman, and Saxon, p. 238, observes : 



"EX ARGr- or EX ARGENT . is explained by a passage of Pliny, who in- 

 forms us that lead ores are found under two different forms, either in veins by 

 itself or mixed with silver. The latter had to go through a more complicated 

 process of extraction, which is referred to by the words of the inscription — 

 Lutum ex argento — and which it seems the Romano-British Metallurgist con- 

 sidered it necessary to specify." 



In Prof. Phillips' paper, "Ancient Metallurgy in Britain,'^' -pip. 

 17, 19, we find the following statement on this point : 



" The Romans employed lead in pipes (fistulcB) and sheets, which were soldered 

 with alloy, as already mentioned. The lead was previously refined and its 

 silver removed ; the silver, indeed, being often the object of the enterprise." 



" The mines of Middleton and Youlgreave (Aldgroove) in Derbyshire, from 

 which the Lutudse sent not only lead but ' exargentate ' (that is to say refined) 

 lead from which the silver had been removed, use to this day the pig of the 

 same weight of Ij cwt. of similar shape and similar mark to that of eighteen 

 hundred years' antiquity." 



Mr. Yates, Mining Operations, p. 19, remarks : 



" The letters are supposed to stand for ex argento, and to intimate that the 

 lead was extracted from silver. This seems to be the true explanation, although, 

 I think, we might read EX ARGENT[IFODINIS]. Even in the present day, 

 we find that where the galena contains a large proportion of silver, as is fre- 

 quently the case in the British Isles, the mines are not called lead mines, but 

 silver mines. Also the litharge, which is an impure oxide of lead, formed on 

 the surface of the melted mass during the process of refining, is called argenti 

 spuma, ' froth of silver,' not froth of lead. It would seem consistent with 

 these ideas to regard the lead as extracted from silver, rather than the silver as 

 extracted from lead, although the ore really contains a far greater proportion 

 of lead than silver." 



