373 
Thus the period at which the use of metals was comparatively 
unknown in Britain may have been at a much less remote 
date before the Roman period than some of our antiquaries 
seem to think. 
The supposed bronze manufacture of the ancient Britons is 
represented chiefly by the leaf- shaped swords, the daggers 
which are in a manner cognate with them, and the imple- 
ments of somewhat varied forms, which are commonly called 
celts. It is a name which means nothing, and would be 
better abandoned. I believe that all these objects belong 
generally to the Roman period, with the exception, perhaps, 
of the dagger, which has something more barbaric in its 
character, and may have been in use among the Britons of 
the Southern districts a short time before the Roman period. 
In the paper to which I have already alluded, and which will 
be found printed in the Essays on Archaeological Subjects, I 
have explained in some measure the history of these bronze 
weapons and implements. No doubt, as I have before 
remarked, in the outskirts of the empire, commercial inter- 
course was slow and uncertain ; so that individuals in out- 
lying parts, who were of somewhat better quality than those 
who would be satisfied with stone, when they wanted imple- 
ments of metal, would find great difficulty in obtaining them, 
if they were not supplied in a manner which was peculiar to 
the state of society in which they lived. We have certain 
evidence that there existed a class of travelling manufacturers, 
who made their courses through the distant provinces, and 
probably beyond their limits, to manufacture new weapons 
or implements, and who, in so doing, used up the metal 
of the old ones which had been worn out or broken. 
Bronze was the only metal available for this purpose, because 
it could be easily melted, and the implements required could 
be cast in moulds. The only luggage which these pedlars 
would have to carry about with them would be an earthen 
