152 



DUFFIELD CASTLE. 



a young woman. In confirmation 

 of this a good-sized amber bead* 

 was found close at hand, and also 

 the lower portion of a large bronze 

 Anglo-Saxon brooch. Of this por- 

 tion of a brooch a full-sized drawing 

 is here given. When perfect, it 

 would be about 7 inches in length, 

 and would spread out into side 

 wings so as to assume somewhat the 

 shape of a cross. In fact these 

 brooches are known as cruciform 

 fibulae, to distinguish them from 

 the smaller and commoner circular 

 fibulae. They have been found 

 varying in dimension from four to ten inches in length. 

 They denote the burial of women of wealth and position, and are 

 usually found in pairs, in undisturbed interments. It appears that 

 these brooches were worn on each shoulder, and were used to 

 fasten up the drapery of the outer gown or mantle.t There can 

 be little doubt that in levelling the summit of the mound for the 

 purpose of erecting the keep, the Norman workmen dug down to 

 and somewhat disturbed the interment of an Anglo-Saxon lady of 

 position, probably the wife or daughter of the lord of this burh, 

 who had been buried there two or three centuries before the 

 Conquest. 



Another incidental " find," which also tends to prove that this 

 hill was the centre of a settlement and not merely held for offen- 

 sive or defensive purposes, is the discovery of one of those inter- 

 esting mementoes of early textile art, a spindle whorl. When the 



* This bead was unfortunately crushed to powder in its transit through the 

 Post. 



t Several of these cruciform fibute were found in the Anglo-Saxon cemetery 

 at Little - Wilbraham, Cambridgeshire. See Saxon Obsequies, by Hon. R. 

 Neville, 1850, and the excellent plates I., II., and IV. to X. There are 

 several good and varied examples of these fibulae in the cases of the British 

 Museum, but not one exactly corresponding to the pattern of the Duffield 

 example. 



