_Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot._, vol. v. p. 111.
They have been figured by Dr. Daniel Wilson in _The Prehistoric Annals of Scotland_, vol. ii. p. 156.
A mounting in cast bronze (Fig. 100), 2 inches diameter, the sunk spaces of which had probably been filled with enamels, was recently found in the dry bed of the loch of Dowalton, which was drained about eighteen years ago. It is formed of a combination of segmental spaces, the curves of which are those of the divergent spiral, each space being surrounded by a raised border, and the sunk surfaces roughened with a tool.
[Illustration: Fig. 101.—Bridle-bit found in a Moss at Birrenswark, Dumfriesshire (6¾ inches in length).]
A bridle-bit (Fig. 101), found in a moss at Birrenswark, in Annandale, before 1785, and now in the National Museum, exhibits the characteristics of this peculiar phase of art in a very striking manner. It is no less peculiar in its design and construction than in the character of its ornamentation. It is a single casting of bronze. The loops of the cheek-rings have been cast within the loops of the centre-piece, an operation implying technical skill and experience of complicated processes of moulding and casting. The design, however, is the most remarkable feature of the object. It is designed as carefully as if it were a piece of jewellery. The rings, though cast in one piece with the loops, are penannular in form, grasping the neck of the loop between their expanded ends. The two rings differ slightly in size, and the loops differ greatly in form. The one is treated as a loop formed of a cylindrical rod bent to the shape of a loop, and carrying the ornamented open-work of its terminal part as between its extended ends. The other loop is treated as a solid form, and in its ornamental termination there is no open work. The two rings are similar, but not identical. The idea of openness suggested by the modelling of the one loop is carried into the construction of the terminal portions as open work, and the idea of solidity is similarly carried out in the other loop. The surface decoration of the terminal portions of the loops is of the same character in the parts of both that are similar, and is partly carried also into the parts of the one which are wanting in the other. It consists of red and yellow enamel _champléve_, the colours alternating in alternate rows of triangular and oval spaces. A double spiral and trumpet pattern appears in the open work of the one loop. The loops and rings are greatly the worse for wear, and have been strengthened by thin pieces riveted on.