Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/31

 ** THE HISTORY V 3ook I; and no hollow; Of the latter Jort is Qur Mancunian Celt. tt» blade, which is fluted a little at tbp upper end, is. thre* inches in length, three quarter* of an inch i* breadth* and h^aa inch in thicknefs at tha fluted end*, and thence widens to. the breadth of one inch and a quarter at the edge. And the brazert loop at its fide is nearly half an inch in breadth and three quar- ters in length. But the focket, which i§ of the fame metal, U two inches and a half in length, nearly one inch in. breadth at; its conjun&ion with the blade, and more than three quarters -at the other extremity.- * And it has a fmall hollow on bpth fides for its whole extent, which is channelled in the middle, and r% bordered by a flight molding fqr more than one inch and threq quarters from the blade, Such is thejuiV de&ripfran pf thU brazen inftnjment, ky which it undeniably appeals to; be wh# icarcely any of the antiquarians have fuppofed it to he. Not an axe-head for the cutting of trees, not a chiflel for the working of ftones, as is plainly evinced by the too gre#t iurrownefs of its edge and the too great foftftefc of its metal ; : not a drvudieal hook for the cutting of miiletoe r as is evident from ther fmall- nefs of the blade and the ohtufenefs of its edge; not the head of an halbert, as is evident from its fmall fize and its too great levity; and not the point of an arrow, a ipear, or a javelin, as is clear from the rOundnefs of its edge and its too ' great fize ; it was plainly the head of a light battle-axe l The hollow of the focket and the raifed molding on either fide aire plainly calculated for the reception of a wooden handle in the tame line with the blade ; and in a brafs Celt which was lately difcovered among the hills of Saddle worth, and which is now m my own poflbflibn, the remains of a wooden handle were found actually in&rted in the cavity of the hollow blade '*.;' The termination of the molding three quarters of an ioch from the end evinces that part to have beep inferted into the flock of the handle and in a rigltt angle with the blade. This infertion. united firmly the head and the handle #f the battle-axe ; and the unioa was ftrengthened by a* pin ia the focket* That did no* pafs through the fubftance of the focket, bat was received into* .5 a fmall