GEOGRAPHY AND ANTIQUITIES. 383 







are covered with the Phrygian tiara, and who represent, perhaps, the 

 various kingdoms of Asia offering to an eminent personage their rich 

 tributes to support that bloody war. Ail the principal figures have their 

 corresponding appellations affixed. 



MEMORIALS OF THE ANCIENT ANGLO-SAXONS. 



The most valuable collection that has ever been formed of pagan Sax- 

 ondorn is that of the late Rev. Bryan Faussctt, now in the possession of 

 Mr. Mayer, of Liverpool. It imbodies the contents of from seven to 

 eight hundred graves, and they throw a remarkable light upon the history 

 of that age. At the close of the late meeting of the British Association at 

 Liverpool, Mr. Mayer exhibited the Faussett Anglo- Saxon relics at a very 

 crowded soiree given to the members of the Association ; and a descriptive 

 lecture explanatory of this collection, which of late years has attracted 

 great attention in England, was given by Mr. Thomas Wright. 



The Rev. Bryan Faussett, of Heppington, near Canterbury, to whom 

 we owe the formation of this collection, had passed the greater part of his 

 life in a district peculiarly rich in Saxon remains ; for the succession of 

 chalk downs stretching out from Canterbury towards the east and south 

 are remarkable for the numerous groups of Saxon barrows, or rather the 

 Saxon cemeteries, which are found on their slopes and summits. His at- 

 tention having been somewhat accidentally drawn to the subject, he com- 

 menced their investigation, and pursued it unremittingly from the year 

 1757 to 1773, during which time the articles were collected from the differ- 

 ent tombs or barrows. 



In describing the collection, Mr. Wright expressed his entire belief in the 

 pagan character of the relics, and gives the following interesting description 

 of their particulars and mode of arrangement in the graves : 



" The body was usually laid on its back in the middle of the floor of the 

 grave. In the MS. account of his diggings, Faussett frequently mentioned 

 traces of the existence of a coffin ; but, as far as my own experience goes, 

 I am led to think that the use of a coffin was not common. "Where the 

 body was that of a man, we almost always find above the right shoulder 

 the iron head of a spear ; and in general we may trace by the color of the 

 earth the^decayed wood of the shaft, until near the foot of the skeleton lies 

 the iron- spiked ferrule which terminated it at the other end. We some- 

 times also meet with one or more smaller heads of javelins, or arrows ; for 

 I disagree entirely with a statement which has been made lately and ad- 

 hered to, that the bow was in discredit among the Anglo-Saxons as a 

 weapon. Closer to the side of the skeleton lies usually (though not al- 

 ways) a long iron broad-sword, not much unlike the claymore of the 

 Scottish Highlander, of which it is probably the prototype. The sheath 

 and handle appear in most cases to have been made of perishable materials, 

 and we seldom find more than the blade with the spike by which it was 



