being adorned with inwrought triangular ornaments. It may be remarked in general, that these triangles are peculiar to the majority of the ornaments of silver.
With regard to dress at this period we know little more of a decided nature than -we do of that of the bronze-period. From the testimony of extant manuscripts it appears that it usually consisted, in addition to the coverings of the head and feet, of bræcan or breeches, a coat or robe, with its accompanying girdle, a mantle, and upper clothing of various kinds. That these were formed sometimes of skins and sometimes of woollen cloth[1] is established by discoveries which have been
- ↑ Such was the case too in the British islands."In 1786 there was found, seventeen feet below the surface of a bog in the county of Longford," says Mr. Richard Lovell Edgeworth, in his Report to the Commissioners for improving the Bogs in Ireland, (Appendix to Report II. p. 174), "a woollen coat of coarse but even net-work, exactly in the form of what is now called a spencer. It fitted me as well as if it had been made by a modern tailor. A razor(?) with a
ly hammered and rolled together for convenience of transport, and in order that they might be used as money.' This description (remarks M. Worsaae) would exactly apply to the silver ornaments found at Cuerdale. ' There can be no doubt,' continues Hildebrand, 'that those ornaments, ingots, and lumps of silver have accompanied the coins from rich Asia, where they could much more easily obtain silver than in the northern parts of Europe, even if we suppose that the little silver which is to be found in the mines in the Scandinavian mountains, was known and used at the time in question. This view is confirmed by the circumstance that similar ornaments are still used in some parts of Asia.' "—T.
