As this costly work, presented to the Bannatyne Club, is in very limited circulation, and will not be generally accessible, it has seemed desirable to give representations in this Journal,by which the attention of archaeologists may be drawn to the singular character of these remains, which we now proceed to describe.
1. The two ornaments designated by Mr. Buist as "circles or armlets," appear to be portions of the large ring-fibulæ, of common occurrence in Ireland, the acus being in both instances lost. There can scarcely, however, be a question, when we compare with this the numerous Irish brooches of this type, some of them having the acus of very extravagant length, some enriched with the most elaborate ornament, that these also are fibulæ. One measures 558 in. in diameter, and is nearly circular; the other had lost a part of the hoop, and been clumsily repaired, so that the diameter measures, in one direction, only 5 in., in the other 512 in. The flat part, where the hoop is disunited to admit of the acus passing through, measures in breadth 118 in. Compare the beautiful ring-brooches represented in Walker's Dress of the Irish, p. 15; Dublin Penny Journal, vol. iv., p. 45; Vallancey's Collect. Hib., vol. vii., and the splendid examples given by Mr. Fairholt in his interesting Memoir on Irish Fibulæ, published in the Transactions of the Archaeological Association at Gloucester, p. 89. It may deserve observation, that none of these have the hoop twisted, as in the examples under consideration, but they are ornamented occasionally in a manner which would appear, like the deep spiral groove, ill suited to the free movement of the acus. A ring-fibula, with singular twisted hoop, however, but the ends not dilated, found in Livonia, is given in the Annals of the Antiquaries of the North, 1836. Mr. Fairholt seems to regard this type of fibula as exclusively Irish; fibulæ of analogous form have been found in England, such as the specimens from Westmoreland, figured in a previous page of this volume, where a notice of another English example will be found.[1] A single English fibula of the type, with dilated ends, resembling those from Largo, is figured by Pennant. It is a fragment, found in a pond in Brayton Park, Cumberland, of silver; diam. 4 in., and much ornamented; the acus lost. A large silver hook, weight 2 oz., was found with it.[2]
