British costume : a complete history of the dress of the inhabitants of the British Islands / by J.R. Planché.

  • James Planché
Date:
[1855?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: British costume : a complete history of the dress of the inhabitants of the British Islands / by J.R. Planché. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ment, as may be seen by a comparison of the brazen weapons here engraved with those of bone and flint at the head of the chapter. The greater part of the originals are preserved in the armoury at Goodrich Court, Herefordshire. For the sword they were probably indebted to the Phoenicians, or perhaps to the Gauls, who also wore them of brass, and of a similar form. The hilt was cased on each side with horn, whence the British adage: “A gavas y earn gavas y llavyn.” “ He who has the horn has the blade8.” The flat circular shields too of the Britons, which were of wicker (like their quivers, their boats, and their idols*), were soon either imitated in the same metal or covered with a thin plate of it, and then, from their sonorous quality, they were called tarians or dashers3 4 5. The metal coatings of two of these shields are preserved in a perfect state in the Meyrick collec- tion. They are ornamented with concentric circles, between which are raised as many little knobs as the space will admit. They are rather more than two feet in diameter, with a hollow boss in the centre to admit the hand, as they were' held at arm’s length in action. “ On comparing it with the Highland target, Sir Samuel Meyrick remarks, “ we shall find that, al- though the Roman mode of putting it on the arm has been adopted by those mountaineers, the boss, 3 Meyrick, Engraved Illustrations of Ancient Arms and Armour, vol. i., text to plate 47. 4 The ingenuity of the Britons in this species of manufacture was much admired by the Romans, who, when they introduced into Italy the British buscawd (basket-work), adopted also its name, terming it batcauda. The British name for a quiver is cawell saethan, i. e. a basket-work case for arrows. The ancient British wicker boat, called enrvy// or coracle, formed of osier twigs, covered with hide, is still in use upon the \Aye and other rivers both of Wales and Ireland. * Archacclogia, vol. xxiii. p. 94; Herodian and Xiphilin.
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