and less
artistic taste. The character of the two nations may thus be clearly
traced in so insignificant an article as a breast-pin.

Figs. 205 and 206 represent two of the most ordinary forms of the bronze
bow-shaped fibulae, as worn by the ordinary classes. Fig. 205 was found
at Strood, in Kent, in a brick-field opposite Rochester Castle, on the
other side of the Medway, which field had been the cemetery of the city
when the Romans ruled it.

[Illustration: Fig. 205.]

[Illustration: Fig. 206.]

The reader will notice, in both the latter instances, the pin is a
continuation of a coil of strong metal, of which it is formed, and which
gives it great strength and elasticity. When the latter was passed
through the several folds of the dress, and the end secured in the
strong metal catch below, it would not be easy to unfasten the garment
or lose the pin. The second example is less stiff in contour, and from
it the reader may more clearly comprehend the arrangement for securing
the pin. Here, again, the pin proceeds from spirals at the upper part of
the brooch.

These common articles were sometimes made more attractive to the eye by
decorating the upper portion with coarse enamel colours; a specimen is
given in Fig. 207; it is of clumsy form, and cheap construction; it was
found, with many other minor antiquities, among heaps of bones, in the
well-known caves at King's Scarr, about two miles north-east of Settle,
in Yorkshire--caves that are conjectured to have been the homes of the
old Britons who once lived a semi-savage life in them.

In the excellent museum at Boulogne are preserved many articles found in
the immediate neighbourhood, and belonging to the Gallo-Roman period.
Among them is the bronze fibula Fig. 208, which shows the very decided
arc formed by the upper part, and the mode by which the point of the pin
was secured in the sheath below.

[Illustration: Fig. 207.]

[Illustration: Fig. 208.]

Sometimes these bow-shaped fibulae were made with an extremely large and
ugly bow, as in Fig. 209, which hung over the dress. They are
occasionally met with six inches in width, with a pin an inch or two
longer: being used for the heavier winter cloaks. The gore-shaped
pendant is made hollow, and is often decorated with incised lines and
zigzag patterns. They appear to have been in most favour among the Roman
provincials in Gaul and Britain, particularly as the nature of the
winters obliged them to seek in th