ROMANO-BRITISH REMAINS AT TRELAN. 271 
an inch ; one is of the deep blue paste similar to that of which the 
celebrated Portland Vase is made; the other striated, black and 
grey. 
2. Rings of Brass.—Two of these remain entire, and are of 
1,7; and 244 inches external diameter respectively ; the latter is 
made of metal of the uniform thickness of 3 inch on the plane of 
its diameter ; the other rather stouter, and of unequal thickness, 
Fragments of similar rings were also discovered. 
3. Various bronze articles of personal use or ornament, of 
which nothing remains but two portions of fibulee. 
4. Stone Implements.—These have unfortunately been lost, 
but Mr. Edwards remembers that several were found, and he had 
more than one of them in his possession for some years. His re- 
collection of them is that they were of the form of the wedge and 
hammer; the former of these may have been mutilated stone axes, 
such as frequently occur in West Cornwall. 
It may be asked what bearing have these Trelan relics upon 
the argument lately raised by Mr. W. C. Borlase, in his Nenia 
Cornubie, in favour of the Roman date of many of our early Corn- 
ish interments. It seems impossible to conceive that specimens 
so skilfully and artistically wrought and finished as these from 
Trelan could have been produced at a period anterior in date to 
that of the usual stone and bronze implements, or of the rude 
pottery found at Morvah Hill. The most recent date, however, 
which the best authorities assign to these late Celtic relics, corre- 
sponds with the establishment of the Roman occupation of Eng- 
land ; whilst therefore there is abundant evidence of Roman and 
even Saxon interments within tumuli and other burial-places of 
acknowledged earlier British date, affording frequent opportunity 
for the mingling of Roman and Saxon coins and other relics with 
those of undoubted earlier periods, it seems to be quite contrary 
to all archeological experience that the art manufacture of a nation 
should suddenly and within the limits of historical records be 
found to become so deteriorated as the change from the quality 
and beauty of the Trelan relics to the rude simplicity of the most 
perfect palstave or funeral urn. Yet nothing less than this seems 
to be involved in the argument referred to. 
G3 
