Page:British costume (IA britishcostumeco00planuoft).djvu/28

 rendered useless, is still retained, and the little knobs imitated with brass nails "

Several brazen swords and spear-blades, found in the bed of the Thames near Kingston, have been engraved for a frontispiece to Mr. Jesse's interesting work, entitled 'Gleanings of Natural History;' but they are there erroneously called Roman. Whoever will take the trouble to compare them with the numberless acknowledged British weapons in various English collections, and with many similar relics found in Ireland, where the Romans never set foot, will scarcely need the additional argument, that the Romans, at the period of the invasion of Britain, used weapons of steel only, to convince themselves of the Celtic origin of those curious military antiquities