[Illustration: THE TARA BROOCH]

At a great Exhibition at Ironmonger's Hall in 1861
there was shown a leaden fibula, quite a dainty piece of personal
ornament, in Anglo-Saxon taste, decorated with a moulded spiral
meander. It was found in the Thames in 1855, and there are only
three other similar brooches of lead known to exist.

Of the Celtic brooches Scott speaks:

"...the brooch of burning gold
That clasps the chieftain's mantle fold,
Wrought and chased with rare device,
Studded fair with gems of price."

One of the most remarkable pieces of Celtic jewelled work is the
bell of St. Patrick, which measures over ten inches in height.
This saint is associated with several bells: one, called the Broken
Bell of St. Brigid, he used on his last crusade against the demons
of Ireland; it is said that when he found his adversaries specially
unyielding, he flung the bell with all his might into the thickest
of their ranks, so that they fled precipitately into the sea, leaving
the island free from their aggressions for seven years, seven months,
and seven days.

One of St. Patrick's bells is known, in Celtic, as the "white toned,"
while another is called the "black sounding." This is an early and
curious instance of the sub-conscious association of the qualities
of sound with those of colour. Viollet le Duc tells how a blind man
was asked if he knew what the colour red was. He replied, "Yes: