he bridle like the large balls shown
on the horses' bridles in the bronze scabbard from Hallstatt, dated La
Tene I. See Dechelette, "Manuel d'Archeologie," vol. ii, p. 770. The
Golden Peytrell found at Mold, Flintshire, may be instanced to show
that gold was sometimes used to decorate horses; and if the gold balls
were really used for this purpose, we may well endorse what the author
of the "British Museum Bronze-Age Guide" says when he writes: "A
discovery of this kind demonstrates in a striking manner the abundance
of gold at the end of our Bronze period."[22]

[21] Proc. Royal Irish Academy, vol. xxx, Sec. C, p. 450.

[22] "British Museum Bronze-Age Guide," p. 150.

CLARE FIND

Another type of neck-ornaments are the thin gold gorgets with
funnel-shaped ends, many of which were found in the great Clare find.
These gorgets are quite plain, except for a little ornamentation at
the extreme ends near the funnel-shaped extremities. There are five of
these objects in the National Collection, and all were found together
in the celebrated Clare find. This find--the largest collective one of
gold objects ever made in Western Europe--was discovered in making a
railway-cutting for the Limerick and Ennis Railway in 1854. A gang of
labourers were digging near an old hawthorn-bush, a little distance to
the south of the railway bridge in Moghaun north, on the west side of
the line of the great fort, and opposite the lough, when they
undermined a kind of cist. The fall of one of the containing-stones
disclosed a mass of gold ornaments--gorgets, bracelets of all sizes
with cup-shaped ends, and a few ingots of gold. The find, from a
numerical point of view, far surpassed anything ever made, but none
of the objects were highly ornamented or of a special type.

The fact of this immense number of gold ornaments being hidden in
a cist in this way has given rise to many conjectures; but in the
absence of any other explanation, it may be suggested that the objects
had been collected together, and hidden purposely, with the idea of
returning and regaining possession of them later. The value of the
find has been estimated at at least L3,000. Unfortunately, most of the
objects were sold to jewellers and melted down, but a large number
were exhibited at the Archaeological Institute by Dr. Todd and Lord
Talbot de Malahide in 1854, and casts of these were taken, and a set
is now in the National Collection. There are also a small number of