Arthur Evans remarks:—[318] [317] _Jour. R. Hist. and A. A. of Ireland_, ser. 4, vol. vi., pp. 384-90. The decoration of a wooden tub found at the Glastonbury Marsh Village affords another very good instance of a Late-Celtic pattern derived from foliage. [318] _Archæologia_, vol. lv., p. 404. [Illustration: UPPER PART OF BRONZE SWORD-SHEATH, FROM LISNACROGHERA, CO. ANTRIM; NOW IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM] [Illustration: LOWER PART OF BRONZE SWORD-SHEATH, FROM LISNACROGHERA, CO. ANTRIM; NOW IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM] “The tendency of all Late-Celtic art was to reduce all naturalistic motives borrowed by it from the classical world to geometrical schemes.... Yet the whole history of Late-Celtic art instructs us that this geometrical scheme, elaborate as it is, was originally based on ornaments of a naturalistic kind.” Once the foliageous origin of the flamboyant patterns was lost sight of or disregarded, it became easy to elaborate fresh designs by placing the forms derived from the leaves and stems of plants in all sorts of unnatural positions relatively to each other, as, for instance, on the pair of bronze spoon-like objects from Weston, near Bath, which are now in the Edinburgh Museum of Antiquities, and in a particular class of pierced ornaments, several of which are illustrated in L. Lindenschmit’s _Die Alterthümer unserer heidnischen Vorzeit_.[319] [319] Vol. i., pt. x., pl. 6; vol. ii., pt. viii., pl. 5; vol. iii., pt. vii., pl. 6. Compare these with the ornament found at Silchester, illustrated in the _Archæologia_, vol. liv., p. 470. A still further transformation resulted from the practice of drawing the various curves by means of a pair of compasses, and once this mechanical method had been adopted the temptation to introduce complete circles of different sizes into the designs would follow as a matter of course. This is very clearly seen on the ornamented bone spatulæ from Slieve-na-Caillighe, Co. Meath, already referred to as having been found with a pair of iron compasses; and also on backs of the bronze mirrors, of which a list is given on p. 115. It is most remarkable that the Late-Celtic artists should have succeeded in doing what has baffled everyone else before or since, namely, in producing “sweet” curves by means of a combination of circular arcs. [Illustration: Engraved Bone object from Slieve-na-Caillighe, Co. Meath] [Illustration: HANDLE OF LATE-CELTIC BRONZE TANKARD FROM TRAWSFYNYDD, MERIONETHSHIRE; NOW IN THE MAYER MUSEUM, LIVERPOOL] [Illustration: BRIDLE-BIT OF BRONZE ENAMELLED FROM RISE, NEAR HULL, NOW IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM SCALE ½ LINEAR]