Mr. John Latham declares:[232] ‘Copper is a metal of which, in its unalloyed state, no relics have been found throughout England. Stone and bone first, then bronze or copper and tin combined, but no copper alone. I cannot get over this hiatus, cannot imagine a metallurgic industry beginning with the use of alloys.’ But this is a negative argument. The simple mineral would soon disappear to make bronze, and we have some pure specimens. Sir David Brewster[233] describes a large battle-axe of pure copper found on the blue clay, twenty feet deep below the Ratho Bog. Philips[234] gives the analysis of eight so-called ‘bronzes,’ including three Swords, one from the Thames and two from Ireland: the spear-head was of impure but unalloyed copper, 99·71 to 0·28 sulphur. Dr. Daniel Wilson[235] analysed in 1850 seven British ‘bronzes,’ and found one Scottish axe-head, rudely sand-cast, of almost pure copper, the natural alloy of gold and silver not reaching to one per cent. Moreover, the Romans certainly smelted copper in England, where lumps of pure metal, more or less rounded, have been found, but always in association with bronze articles. Pennant describes a relic discovered at Caerhun (or Caerhen), the old Conovium, near Conway and Llandudno, which still works copper: it was shaped like a cake of beeswax, measuring eleven inches by three and three-quarter inches in thickness; it weighed forty-two pounds, and the upper surface bore in deep impression, ‘Socio Romæ’ (to the partner at Rome). Obliquely across the legend ran in smaller letters, ‘Natsoc.’ It had evidently been smelted upon the spot. In later days our country imported her copper from Sweden and Hungary: this appears in the specification of patent to George Danby, Jan. 21, 1636. Calamine was shipped as ballast. Our great works began during the last century and culminated in Swansea. [Illustration: FIG. 76.—THE WINGED CELTS, OR PALSTAVE. 1. Semilunar blade; the rounded side edges are ornamented in the casting with a raised hexagon pattern; they project somewhat above the level of the flat surface of the implement. The curved stops, which are rudimentary, have their concavities facing the handle. 2. In the Palstave celt the loop is usually placed beneath the stock, and in the socketed ones it is always close to the top. The cut, drawn one-third of the actual size, represents the usual position of the loop. The lunette cutting edge, with marked recurved points, presents the appearance of having been ground.[236] These implements were cast in moulds of bronze, examples of which have been brought to light at various times. The third illustration represents the upper part of one of these celt moulds and the method of casting: they were for a long time a source of confusion to the discoverers, although Colonel Vallancy assigns them to their true use.]