226 On a Sepulchral Vessel found near Marlborough. 
the fibres of the wood, and even minute fragments of it, are so 
distinctly preserved on the rust of the iron bar that the arrange- 
ment of the strips can be easily ascertained. 
There were two well-wrought iron handles, one on either side, 
fixed by loops of the same metal passing through the staves, and 
bent over, or rivetted, on the inside. The appearance of ornament 
on these handles, which the engraving would suggest, is due to a 
covering of small pebbles derived from the gravel in which they 
were found, agglutinated by the oxide of iron; underneath they are 
quite smooth. 
The ornamentation consists of three broad bands formed of plates 
of bronze fastened to the wood; one on each side the middle hoop, 
and a third covering the space above the upper hoop, just over- 
lapping the edge of the vessel, and continued upward so as to 
enclose the two projecting staves. On these bands there are 
wrought, in repoussé, various strange and grotesque figures, some 
of them more or less resembling horses. These are generally in 
pairs, having a mask of a human face between each. On the lowest 
band there are two horse-like monsters, having their noses pro- 
longed in a fantastic manner, so as to resemble elephants’ trunks. 
The figures of the upper band have heads apparently of birds or 
griffins ; and the bronze on each of the projecting parts of the staves 
is decorated with a pair of quaint faces, in profile. The plates of 
bronze here bend round the edge, so that the thickness of the wood 
is exactly shown as it was in the original, viz., rather more than 
half an inch. 
The bronze knobs, or rather the bronze-headed nails with which 
these decorations were fastened to the wood were very numerous, as 
may be seen in the engraving. They were formed by soldering 
small iron nails into the centre of half-spheres of bronze—very 
much in the same manner as brass-headed nails were, until lately, 
made.! A fragment of the wood is preserved, in which one of these 
nails is still fixed. 
Having been buried: in a bed of the old river-drift gravel of the 
1 We hope to give an analysis of the solder used in making the nails of the 
Marlborough bucket further on. 
