Drummond, Esq. The fragments of another were found in the same moss in 1831: and, somewhere near it, a mortar or hand-mill, fashioned from the section of an oak; “there were also some flint arrow heads.” Fortunately for comparison, a perfect specimen has been found since in Ireland, in the parish of Kiltubride, county Leitrim; it is 26½ inches long by 21 inches broad, and half an inch thick. Besides the boss, which is perfect and 3 inches high, there are seven slightly raised concentric circles, the whole carved out of one piece of wood, in this respect differing from the Blair-Drummond one, which is composed of three pieces most ingeniously put together by two mortises through the whole breadth, into which are put two pieces of wood about 2 inches broad and half an inch thick, these not only holding it together but preventing warping, while the centre is a solid piece of wood hollowed out for the hand, and is 7½ inches in diameter, the two edges gradually bevelled up to make them join firmly. The shield is 2 feet long, 1 foot 7 inches broad, and at the thickest part 1¾ inch, and gradually thinning towards the outer edge, where it is about 1 inch. From this it will be seen that such a weapon in the hands of a powerful man who could use it would be an admirable defence, as in the case of the king of the Goths. Certainly shields of wood, half an inch thick, such as those found in Jutland and England (and the same may be said of the Irish one), would have been quite useless against the Roman javelins; and even Mr Engelhardt was puzzled how they could have been kept together to be effective, seeing he only found in one piece out of the hundreds any trace of dowelling.

Section of Wooden Shield.

There can be no doubt that the Highland target is the traditional continuation of these early bronze and wooden shields, which evidently were the successors of the Cetra, or small round shield made from the skin of some animal, and mentioned by Tacitus as having been used by the Britons and also by the Mauritanians, who, he says, made it of elephants’ skin. These must have resembled the shields used by some of the African tribes and North American Indians at the present day. They are almost invariably made of wood and covered with leather, the instances to the contrary, when they have been made of iron or steel, being the mere whims of individuals. One such is represented in the portrait of the Hon. James Campbell, son of John Lord Glenorchy (1708); another, having a formidable spike, is in my own possession,[4] and resembles one I have seen, said to have been used by an Earl of Marr, but there is nothing whatever of Highland character about them, being simply the iron or steel target formerly used in other European countries, which were occasionally embossed and engraved in a most elaborate manner. One of these, of Italian workmanship, is preserved in our Museum, having on it a classical subject in high relief, of the best style of this art during the 16th century. A curious Dutch shield of iron, belonging to Mr Charles Lees, R.S.A.,[4] is convex and covered with large bosses, some round and some of triangular form. It looks like a pageant shield.

The leather of the Highland shield is very generally embossed with Celtic ornamentation,—a sort of repoussé work, in the form of the twisted interlacing ribbon pattern, with scroll leafage filling up odd corners of the design, and now