On a Bronze Ligula found at Dartford

( 206 ) BRONZE LIGULA FOUND AT DARTFORD. BY GEORGE RAYNE, E.S.A. DURING the Meeting of the Kent Archseological Society, at Dartford (July 81 and August 1, 1889), Mr. Ernest 0. Youens, of that town, placed at the writer's disposal an excellent drawing, by his brother, Mr. C. T. Youens, of a Roman ligula, or spoon-shaped instrument, for ointment probably, 9| inches long, of unusual form, which is in his possession. The handle is T| inches long, and the blade 2^. It was discovered, in company with bones, in 1887, near the "Walnut Tree Tavern, on the western side of Highfield Road, Dartford. The blade, or broadest portion, is over half an inch (o) wide; and the stem is over a quarter of an inch {£%) thick at its stoutest part. This specimen is of bronze, richly inlaid with silver, an,d banded with jet, or a similar black material, It may be compared with one, somewhat similar, that was found in a Saxon grave, at the foot of Star Hill, Rochester,* which Mr. Roach Smith considered to be of Roman workmanship. Colleotanea AnMq.ua, vol, iii,, pi, xxxiv, fig, 8,