the sacrificial flames, they ransomed me with gold, iron, and steel.
The Britons made swords and other weapons of iron; their chariot-wheels were shod with iron, and these wheels are, perhaps, the most characteristic memorials of this ancient race. Their remains have been discovered not only in France, but in many English barrows, with iron snaffles for horses' bridles. York Museum contains a good specimen of both. The impressions upon the coins of Cunobelin and others testify that they were proficients in the construction of carriages and wheels.
Archæological researches, so far as they refer to the subject of horse-shoes, have been much less successful in this country than in France. From what we have just noticed of the dexterity of these Celtic horsemen and charioteers, and of the manner in which they used the horse, it is scarcely possible to believe that the hoofs of that animal could have been unshod. The daily practice of their warlike manœuvres, particularly in our climate, must have entailed an amount of strain and wear upon the feet which they could not have withstood, unless protected in some substantial manner; and as the art of shoeing with iron plates and nails was, as there appears to be abundance of archæological evidence to prove, practised by the same race in Gaul at this period, it can hardly be doubted that such was also the case in Britain. The discoveries of iron shoes, however, have here been comparatively few and. far between, though for what reason it would be difficult to say; but perhaps the little attention given to such an apparently trifling matter may be the cause.
