the remains of Roman pottery so numerous that scarcely a barrow-load
of cinders was removed that did not contain several fragments,
together with coins of the reigns of Nero, Vespasian, and
Dioclesian.*
[footnote...
M. A. LOWER, Contributions to Literature, Historical, Antiquarian,
and Metrical. London, 1854, pp. 88-9.
...]
In the turbulent infancy of nations it is to be expected that we
should hear more of the Smith, or worker in iron, in connexion with
war, than with more peaceful pursuits. Although he was a nail-maker
and a horse-shoer--made axes, chisels, saws, and hammers for the
artificer -- spades and hoes for the farmer--bolts and fastenings for
the lord's castle-gates, and chains for his draw-bridge--it was
principally because of his skill in armour-work that he was esteemed.
He made and mended the weapons used in the chase and in war--the
gavelocs, bills, and battle-axes; he tipped the bowmen's arrows, and
furnished spear-heads for the men-at-arms; but, above all, he forged
the mail-coats and cuirasses of the chiefs, and welded their swords,
on the temper and quality of which, life, honour, and victory in
battle depended. Hence the great estimation in which the smith was
held in the Anglo-Saxon times. His person was protected by a double
penalty. He was treated as an officer of the highest rank, and
awarded the first place in precedency. After him ranked the maker of
mead, and then the physician. In the royal court of Wales he sat in
the great hall with the king and queen, next to the domestic
chaplain; and even at that early day there seems to have been a hot
spark in the smith's throat which needed much quenching; for he was
"entitled to a draught of every kind of liquor that was brought into
the hall."