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JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
so familiar that their citation almost needs apology, the process of 
tin mining, shows that a settled foreign trade in that metal with 
the Mediterranean had long been in existence, and states that the 
inhabitants of Bolerium — strictly the Land's End district, but 
probably including the entire tin-bearing region — excelled in hospi- 
tality, and by reason of their intercourse with foreigners were 
civilized in their mode of life. Here we have direct assertion that 
there was some civilization in the West in pre-Eoman times, dif- 
ferentiating, if we are to accept the hearsay 1 of Julius Caesar as 
correct, this region from the island generally. He, you will re- 
member, speaks of the Belgrc invaders from Gaul as more civilized 
than the natives whom they had displaced, and indicates beyond 
the sphere of their influence a low state of barbarism. 2 If, how- 
ever, we are to place any reliance upon Diodorus Siculus and the 
reports of the merchants whence he drew his information, the 
probable barbarism of the remoter parts of the country was not re- 
presented in the West. Nor is Diodorus unsupported. The use 
of coins by a nation is a distinct mark, not only of civilization, but 
of a large advance in culture. Mr. J. Evans, f.r.s., 3 has conclu- 
sively shown that there was a British coinage at least 150 years 
B.C., that of the Gauls having preceded it about a century and a 
half. In this locality such coins have been found at Carn Brea, 
Mount Batten (gold and silver), Exeter, and Cotley, near Ax- 
minster 2 — imitations, like their Gaulish prototypes, but at a 
greater distance, of the stater of Philip of Macedon. 
1 Hearsay, because Caesar's personal acquaintance with Britain did not 
extend beyond the sea-coast at his first landing-place, and an inland march of 
some seventy miles on his second unsuccessful invasion. 
2 So indeed other Latin writers : Pomponius Mela, Strabo, Tacitus, 
Xiphilius (cited by Dio Nicseas), Herodian. " The picture presented to us of 
the dwellers in Britain immediately antecedent to Roman intercourse is that 
of a collection of savage tribes, resembling in many particulars the North 
American Indians ere they were brought under European influence, and in 
others existing tribes of a far lower type." Here in the "West, the trade in- 
fluence of which Diodorus speaks had unquestionably ameliorated the general 
character, though when and to what extent it is difficult to say. In my paper 
on " Were there Druids in Devon V I accept the suggestion of Tacitus, that 
the long-headed people were Iberic, and place them lower down in the scale 
than the Kelt ; but foreign influence may have done much for them, and it is 
doubtful how far they had been absorbed in this locality by the superior 
Round Heads, or indeed what their relations to the district were. See ante. 
3 Coins of the Ancient Britons. 4 Trans. Devon. Assoc. vol. iii. p. 500. 
