308 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
gold and silver ornaments of great value and of exceeding interest 
have suffered the same fate. 
It was not until a systematic examination of ee and other 
places of sepulture had commenced, that the careful records of 
finds and the preservation of the implements would have taken 
place. 
The earliest record that I can trace of the discovery of bronze 
implements in the West is that given by Leland, as referred to by 
Dr. Borlase. He says, “There was found of late Yeres syns Spere 
Heddes, Axis for Warre, and Swerdes of Coper, wrapped up in lynid 
scant perished nere the Mount in S. Hilaries Paroch, in Tynne 
Works.”! And Camden makes mention of the same find in the 
following words: ‘“ At the foote of this mountaine, St. Michael’s 
Mount, within the memorie of our Fathers, whiles men were 
digging up of tin, they found Spear heads, axes, and swordes of 
brasse, wrapped in linnen, such as were sometimes found in the 
forrest of Hercinia, in Germanie, and not long since in our Wales, 
For evident it is by the monuments of ancient Writers, that the 
Greeks, the Cimbrians, and the Britans used brazen weapons, 
although the wounds given with brasse bee lesse hurtfull, as in 
which mettall there is a medicinable vertue to heale, according as 
Macrobius reporteth out of Aristotle. But happily that age was 
not so cunning in devising means to mischiefe and murthers as 
ours is,” 
In 1802 fragments of bronze swords, lumps of copper, some 
celts, and some small bars of gold, about the size of quills, were 
found at Lanant, in Cornwall.*? The bronze implements, for fear 
of dispute with the lord of the manor, were at once despatched 
to St. Ives, and melted down, excepting two celts; one of which 
measured 43 inches long, and the other 33 inches long. Inside 
the latter was one small bar of bright gold. These celts and gold 
bar were sent to Sir Joseph Banks by Mr. Malachy Hitchins, into 
whose hands they came, 5th June, 1802. 
In the same year (1802)4 there were found at St. Hilary, Corn- 
1 Antiquities of Cornwall, Borlase, edition 1754. Ancient Bronze Imple- 
ments, pp. 80, 31. Lysons’ Mag. Brit. vol. iii. ecxx. edition 1814. 
2 Ancient Bronze Implements, pp. 30, 31. Camden, edition 1637, p. 181 ; 
edition 1806, vol. i. p. 17. 
3 Archeologia, vol. xv. p. 118. 
4 Ibid, vol. xv. p. 120. 
