Amongst the British Curiosities, I had formerly placed the Securis Lapidea, or rather Marmorea, sent me by Stephen Tempest, of Broughton, Esq; but the ingenious Mr. Hearne of Oxford hath bestowed a learned Dissertation upon it (premised to the 4th Vol. of Leland's Itinerary) to prove it rather Danish. It was found, An 1675, in an Urn ten Inches Diameter, and therewith a Brass Lance, and a Hone to sharpen it. The Mallet's Head is the most curious and entire that ever I beheld; it is of a speckled Marble polished, six Inches in Length, 3½ broad, and seven in Circumference, even in the Middle, where what is wanting in Breadth is made up in the Thickness, and is very artificially done, as if it had been a Roman Improvement of the British Work. It is wrought to an Edge at one End, though each of them is blunted with Use, and a sloping at the Side, in the Forms expressed in the Table adjoining, whereof one represents the full Side of it, the other the Edge, that the Eye for the Manubrium to pass thro' (which is near an Inch and Quarter Diameter) may be better discerned. I suppose it to have been a Mallet wherewith the Priests slew the Sacrifices, and fancied it to be the ancient British, rather than any later Inhabitants of this Island. It being reasonable to suppose, that the Aborigines in each Country, before the use of Metals was common, would make Use of Stones, Flints, Shells, Bones, &c. formed in the best Manner they could, to the various Uses they designed them. And it is usual for such Instruments or Utensils gratefully to retain even in different Languages, the Memory of the first Matter they were made of, as Cochleare a Spoon (though of Metal) because Cockle-shells were first used to the Purpose. So Candle-stick, or Staff, (for it is canδŗτæꝻ in the Saxon Monuments;) so likewise Hookes (Amos IV. 2.) in the Original is Thorns, with which they used to pierce Fish, before they had the Skill of applying Iron to that Use. And to give but one Instance more, the Sharp Knives (Joshua V. 2.) used in Circumcision, are by our Saxon Ancestors (who received their very Names from their Weapon Sex or Seax, culter, gladius) called ŗτœnene ŗæx (Mr. Thwait's Saxon Hept.) which in the Original is Knives of Flint, which is more agreeable both to those Parts of the World, where there was but little Iron, and to that Operation, wherein the Jewish Doctors say that sharp Flints or Stones were used. So, as to the Matter in Hand, the ancient Britains (with whom Iron was so rare, that Cæsar tells us, they used it for Money) made their Arrow Heads of Flint, and probably their Mallets for Sacrifice of Stone or Marble. But because I cannot easily allow my self to dissent from the learned Mr. Hearne, who argues that the Position of the Urn with the Mouth downwards is peculiarly used by the Danes, and that a Mallet instead of a Scepter was put into the Hand of their famous God Thor, "who was supposed to be a God of much greater Power than the rest, and therefore he was most esteemed, and the Honours paid him were more considerable than those paid to any besides. His Dominion was believed to be Universal, and the other Gods were look'd upon as subject to him. Nothing of Moment was undertaken or transacted without Addresses and Supplications first made to him. And it was reckoned a very great Honour to have Instruments made in such a Form as put them in Mind of him." Thus far I heartily concur with that learned and ingenious Author, and believe that their Sacrificing Mallets might be made in that Form, rather than any other Instruments, with respect to that great reputed Deity; and I do suppose this to be one of them, rather than a Battle-Axe belonging to a Soldier of inferiour Quality; for seeing their other Military Instruments in Metal are frequently met with, why should not also their Battle-Axes of Stone, the common Soldiers being the most numerous Part of an Army, it is therefore much more probable in my slender Opinion that it belonged to their Sacrifices before their Conversion to the Christian Faith. The Lance found in the same Urn is of Brass, scarce an Inch broad, but seems by its Tendency to a Point to have been three in Length. It is sharp enough to shave a Sabine Priest. The Cos Olearia is of a blewish Grey Hone, only half an Inch in Thickness, though three long, and near one broad, in all its Parts equal. There were also certain Instruments of Bone, but mostly reduced to Ashes, though not by the Force of Fire, but Effect of Time; the Ends of those that remained, were bored through with the same Instrument (as it seems by the Size) wherewith the Lance and Hone are, but for what Use they were originally designed I cannot divine, only an Inch in Length remaining; it tapers like a Bodkin, is but a Quarter of an Inch at the broader End. In the next Field was found near thirty Years afterwards an Iron Instrument half a Yard in Length, whether one of the Secespitæ of the Romans, who had several Stations in these Parts, or a Danish Weapon, I cannot determine. And of the same Metal an old Spur four Inches long; it was found 2½ Yards deep in digging for the Foundations of a Bridge. And in the Year 1700, a Brass Buckle or Fibula, with this peculiar, that the Acus is a fifth Part longer than the Diameter it is made for. All these Antiquities were sent me by the said worthy Gent. Ste. Tempest Esq;. Of a very curious Danish Spur, see the Description before, p. 482.