532 



On the Ferrule of the Shaft of a Spear of the Bronze 

 Period, found at Leetside, Whitsome, Berwickshire. 





Dr Stuart at the Peebles Meeting of the Club 

 communicated a notice of the occurrence of a 

 bronze tube found at Leetside, in the parish of 

 Whitsome, in a blue marl with fresh water shells. 

 At the time it was taken to be the socket of a 

 bronze spear head, detached from the blade. 

 The substance of Dr Stuart's remarks is that " on 

 20th July 1 886, the shepherd at Leetside, in form- 

 ing a road to the water for his flock, came upon 

 this object embedded in a shell-bearing marl, 

 five feet below the surface of the soil. It appears 

 to have been cast in a mould, and its composition 

 an alloj^ of copper and tin. Although hard and 

 close in the grain, it is of a brittle nature, as the 

 shepherd's spade divided it into two portions. 

 However, the fracture was united ; and a draw- 

 ing was obtained," from which a reduced figure 

 is here given. It is 7$ inches long ; 1} inches in 

 the diameter of the mouth of the socket ; J inch 

 of space between the rim of the socket and the 

 rivet holes. " There are traces of a camp in the 

 field, but the plough has obliterated to some 

 extent the shape and configuration of the earth- 

 work." 



By the aid of Dr Evans' ' ' Bronze Im- 

 plements of Great Britain and Ireland," pp. 

 338-341, this tubular bronze object is seen to 

 have been the ferrule of the shaft of a spear. Dr 

 Evans says, that "ferrules have been frequently 

 discovered in company with ordinary [bronze] 

 spear heads : and from this fact, and the size and 

 character of the ferrules, the inference has, with 

 much probability, been drawn that they served to 

 tip the lower ends of spears and lances." He gives 

 two illustrations of two sub-cylindi'ical-shaped examples, tapering 

 to a blunt apex. "They vary in length from about 16 inches 

 down to 8 inches, and are about f inch each or less in diameter. 

 They are not made from a flat piece of metal turned over, but 



