The helmet here represented was found with the skeleton of the sentinel, who perished at his post in a small recess near the gate: his arms lay with the remains, and the sword was in remarkable preservation; its length was thirty inches; the sheath had been of leather studded with metal; the rings by which it was fastened to the belt remained; the precise form of the blade could not be ascertained, Mr. Trollope has given a representation of another Roman sword, showing the shape of the blade, and the adjustment, which occurs in some mediæval weapons, of a ring at the end of the handle, through which, obviously, a thong or lace was passed for secure attachment. (Plate iv. figs. 1, 2.)
The fashion of other examples of helmets is most eccentric, and the chasings in high relief, with which they are mostly enriched, are of admirable workmanship; these helmets formed with cheek-pieces (bucculæ), the projectura in front, and the cudo, or defence for the neck behind, were worn by the Roman officers. It is interesting to the English antiquary to compare these curious types with the bronze head-piece discovered at Tring in Hertfordshire, of much more simple fashion, and unfortunately in imperfect condition[1]. No other specimen, as we believe, has been found in this country. There are many objects of other classes which claim attention as illustrative of relics of the Roman age disinterred in England. Such, for example, is the example of scale-armour (see woodcut), which recalls the curious fragment of bronze found at Cataractonium by Sir . Lawson, and figured in this Journal (volume viii., p. 296). The armour here represented is of bone with ligatures of bronze. Many forms of the 3 fictile and other vases are such as are already familiar to us amongst the vestiges of Roman occupation in our own country; one of the glass drinking vessels, with singular ornaments like drops on its surface, may be noticed on account of the resemblance in form to some discovered with Anglo-Saxon remains in England. (Plate xxx., fig. 6.)
In reviewing the instructive results of Mr. Trollope's observations and researches amongst the rich stores of these well-arranged museums, we cannot refrain from an expression of surprise and regret that our own national depository, so rich in some departments of classical antiquity, should not present for public instruction and gratification a more suitable and attractive display of those objects of daily use amongst the Romans, which excite our admiration in continental museums. This deficiency, however, is even less to be deplored than the contempt with which objects essential to a series of National Antiquities have long been viewed, as it would appear, by the Trustees of the British Museum. A hope had at length arisen, through the tardy appropriation of a "British room" in that establishment, that the English Archæologist, and the scientific foreigner, desirous of the opportunity of comparing our antiquities with those of continental countries, might find some collections in the British Museum illustrative of the ancient condition or Britain. This welcome anticipation has been sadly frustrated; the sympathy and interest in such an object evinced by a few generous donors of antiquities, whose liberality has been met for the most part with cold indifference, has apparently done nothing to lessen the apathy of the
- ↑ Engraved in the "Vetusta Monumenta," vol. v. plates 26, 27.
