The shields first in use in Britain were probably formed of perishable materials, such as wicker-work, wood, or hide, like those of many savage tribes of the present day; and it can only have been after a long acquaintance with the use of bronze that plates could have been produced of such size as those with which some of the ancient shields and bucklers found in this country were covered. They would appear, therefore, to belong to quite the close of the Bronze Age, if not to the transitional period when iron was coming into use. There are, indeed, several bronze coverings of shields of elongated form, such as those from the river Witham[1325] and from the Thames,[1326] with decorations upon them, in which red enamel plays a part, that have been found associated with the iron swords of what Mr. Franks has termed the Late Celtic Period. Those, however, which appear to have a better claim to a place in these pages are of a circular form. That which I have shown in Fig. 428 is now in the British Museum, and has already been figured in the _Archæologia_[1327], and described by Mr. Gage. It was dredged up from what appears to have been the ancient bed of the river Isis, near Little Wittenham, Berks, not far from the Dyke Hills, near Dorchester, Oxon. It is about 13½ inches diameter, not quite circular in form, though probably intended so to be. The raised bosses have all been wrought in the metal with the exception of four, two of which form the rivets for the handle across the umbo, and two others serve as the rivets or pivots for two small straps or buttons of bronze on the inner side of the buckler. Such buttons occur on several other examples, but it is difficult to determine the exact purpose which they served. From the pains taken in this instance to conceal the heads of these pivots on the outside, by making them take the form and place of bosses, it would appear that they were necessary adjuncts of the shield, and possibly in some way connected with a lining for it. [Illustration: Fig. 428.—Little Wittenham.] Such a lining can hardly have been of wood, or many rivet or pin holes would have been necessary for securing the metal to it. It may be that a lining of hide was moulded while wet to the form of the shield, and that these buttons served to keep it in place when dry. In one case[1328] it is said that some fibrous particles resembling leather still remain attached to the inside of the shield. In general the metal is so thin that without some lining these bucklers would have afforded but a poor defence against the stroke of a sword, spear, or arrow. In this Little Wittenham example, and possibly in some others, it is probable that the shield itself was larger than the bronze plate. Another view is that these buttons fastened a strap for carrying the shield when either in or out of use.