: 
: 
By Mr. Cunnington, F.G.S8. 227 
Kennet, which is still subject to a considerable influx of water, both 
the bronze and the iron fittings have been much oxidized. To such 
an extent has this been the case with the iron that there is not 
any of it left in the metallic state. Some of the oxide has run 
together in a somewhat stalactitie condition, very hard and brittle. 
Judging from the present condition of the remains of some of the 
old wood, it seems probable that the vessel might have been 
preserved entire, had suitable precautions been taken at the time. 
Hot solution of gelatine for wood (or bone), and melted paraffin for 
metals, are excellent preservatives. 
There is considerable doubt as to the age of this relic. It has 
‘been ascribed to the Saxons, but it differs so materially from the 
buckets—situle—of that period that we hesitate to adopt the 
opinion. (1) Cremation was practised to a certain extent by the 
Saxons, but their buckets were in no case used to contain the ashes 
of thedead.? (2) The capacity of the Marlborough specimen is about 
three times as much as that of the largest known Saxon bucket. (3) 
The ornamentation is more profuse, elaborate, and costly than in 
any other example and no similar designs are known, except on a 
Jn) A ie Si ieee ee eee 
1Tt has been suggested (see Wright’s ‘*Celt, Roman, and Saxon,” p. 434) 
that the situle were for containing the ale, mead, or wine which was to be: 
served in the Saxon hall; that they are probably alluded to by Beowulf, where 
he describes how 
“Cup bearers gave 
The wine from wondrous vats.’ 
An objection to this is their small size, as many of them are only 4in. in height 
—few are so high as 10in. In addition to this we venture to suggest that, on 
account of their peculiar mechanical construction, they were never intended to 
contain fluids. The sides being quite straight “ it is impossible,’’ as a cooper 
would say, “to make the hoops bind.” It is necessary to have a certain amount 
of “splay ” in the staves in order that the hoops may hold them together water- 
tight. 
Of the situZe in the British Museum only one is conical in shape, the rest 
are cylindrical, The specimen from the Anglo-Saxon barrow on Roundway 
Hill, now in the Devizes Museum, is also cylindrical. The middle hoops are 
kept up by means of rivets passing into upright strips of bronze provided for 
the purpose. Most of them are very small, capable of holding little more than 
a pint; the largest is 16in. in diameter. The references in Beowulf’s poem (an 
Anglo-Saxon poem translated and published by Mr. Kemble in 1837) cannot 
bear on the question, for the peculiar use to which the Marlborough vessel was 
applied, as a receptacle for the ashes of the dead, removes it altogether from the 
category. 
