This conclusion as to the date, derived from the coins, is confirmed in a remarkable degree by the examination of the articles of luxury. Besides two bronze brooches of the Roman pattern, known by archæologists as harp-shaped (Coloured Plate, fig. 5), was one of the split-ring type, with a moveable pin, which is generally assigned to the later period of the Roman occupation of this country. One type of brooch was composed of two circular plates of bronze, soldered together, the front being very thin and bearing flamboyant and spiral patterns in relief (Fig. 25), of admirable design and execution. The original of the figure was discovered by Mr. Jackson, and is more perfect than any of those which we obtained in our excavations. It is altogether unlike any Roman brooch properly so called, both in its composite make and style of ornament. A similar brooch has been discovered at Brough Castle, in Westmoreland, and was figured in the Proceedings of the Antiquarian Society (vol. iv. 129), by Sir James Musgrave, and a second is preserved in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy (492). The style corresponds with that of a medallion on a Runic casket of silver-bronze, figured by Prof. Stevens, and stated to have been obtained from Northumbrian Britain, as well as that of a brooch in the Museum at Mainz, assigned by the same authority to the third or fourth century. It is also to be met with in the illuminations of one of the Anglo-Saxon Gospels at Stockholm, as well as in those of the Gospels of S. Columban, preserved in the library of Trinity College, Dublin, and in the “Book of Kells” (8-900).[52] In all these cases it cannot be affirmed to be Roman, and it is not presented by ornaments of either purely English or Teutonic origin. It is most closely allied to that work which is termed by Mr. Franks “late Celtic.” From its localization in Britain and Ireland, it seems to be probable that it is of Celtic derivation; and if this view be accepted, there is nothing at all extraordinary in its being recognized in the illuminated Irish Gospels. Ireland, in the sixth and seventh centuries, was the great centre of art, civilization, and literature; and it is only reasonable to suppose that there would be intercourse between the Irish Christians and those of the west of Britain during the time that the Romano-Celts, or Brit-Welsh, were being slowly pushed to the westward by the heathen English invader. Proof of such an intercourse we find in the brief notice in the “Annales Cambriæ,” in which Gildas, the Brit-Welsh historian, is stated to have sailed over to Ireland in the year A.D. 565. It is by no means improbable that about this time there was a Brit-Welsh migration into Ireland, as well as into Brittany. [Illustration: FIG. 25.--Bronze Brooch (natural size).] Nor is it at all strange that the same style of ornament should occur in some few cases in North Germany.