12 BRONZE AND IRON ARMS NEVER FOUND TOGETHER. 



that of Richborough in Kent. The town of Rutupiae seems 

 to have capitulated with the Saxon invaders, and to have 

 continued until its inhabitants, in consequence of the retreat 

 of the sea, gradually abandoned it to establish themselves at 

 Sandwich. Now the coins found at Richborough do not end 

 with those of the Roman emperors, but we find, first, a great 

 quantity of those singular little coins which are . generally 

 known by the name of minimi, and which, presenting very 

 bad imitations of the Roman coinage, are considered as be- 

 longing to the age immediately following the Roman period, 

 and preceding that of the Saxon coinage/' 



We may assume, then, on the authority of Mr. Wright 

 himself, that if all these bronze arms were really of Roman 

 origin, many of them would have been found from time to time 

 in conjunction with other Roman remains. Yet Mr. Wright 

 himself has only been able to give me one doubtful instance 

 of this kind.* 



I may also add that the Romans used " ferrum " either to 

 mean "iron," or a sword, showing that their swords were 

 made of that metal; and that bronze weapons are particu- 

 larly numerous in some countries to which the Roman armies 

 never penetrated ; such, for instance, as Ireland and Denmark. 



Nor does there appear to be any subsequent period, to 

 which we can refer the weapons of bronze. Great numbers 

 of Saxon interments have been examined both in this country 

 and on the Continent, and we know that the swords, lances, 

 knives, and other weapons of that time, were all of iron. 

 Besides this, if the bronze implements and weapons had be- 

 longed to post- Roman times, we should certainly, I think, 

 have found some of them in the ruined towns, and with the 

 pottery and coins of that period. Moreover, the similarity 



* In Stuart's Caledonia Romana, 2nd near the Roman station of Ardoch. 

 ed. pi. v., is a figure of a leaf-shaped The particulars of its discovery, how- 

 sword, said to have been found in or ever, are not given. 



