Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 8.djvu/234

 168 .ADDITIONAL OBSERATIOyS ON embossed plate as it would appear, if it were detached, and unbent. In all these specimens the gold plates are very thin. Mr. Rogers's is formed of much thicker plates than the other two, but is nevertheless extremely delicate. Their compara- tive strength will appear from their weights, which are as follows : — British Museum, including the wire, 271 grains. Lady Fellows's, including the wire, 271 grains. Mr. Kogers's .... 363 grains. From their tenderness and fragility, as well as from the absence of any method of fastening the edges of the circular plates together, it appears evident that these four bulks were never intended to be worn, but were probably made as sepulchral ornaments, to be buried with the burnt bones of the deceased children, and indicative of their high birth. Those, which were worn b}^ them, must have been much stronger, and were in many cases of a less precious material. The two Lancashire bullas were probably intended to be worn. They are of gold. One of them was found by a lady Bulla, found at Overborough. Golden bulla, found at Manchester. Orig. size. Orig. size. (Miss Fen wick) near the Praetorium at Overborough,^ and shows the bulla in its simplest form, small and without the bent plate. (See the annexed woodcut.) The other was found A.D. 1772, in gravel on the banks of the river Irwell at Manchester. It has the form of a crescent (see woodcuts), and, instead of the bent plate, a pipe, which corresponds to the concave of the crescent, and through which the suspend-
 * See Rauthmeli's Aniiquitatea Bremetonacemes, London, 1746., p. 99. PlaU V. Fig. 6.