Some Un-Besenbecl Articles in the Stourheacl Collection. 257 



The articles found are engraved in Plate II. of the same size as 

 the orig-inals, and may now be seen in the Museum at Devizes. 

 The cup, however, was broken, and only one fragment of it was 

 engraved. When the Stourhead Collection was removed to Devizes 

 it included many loose pieces of ancient pottery : among these five 

 more fragments of this same cup were fortunately found, and it has 

 now been succesfully restored and forms an interesting addition to 

 the collection. It differs materially from the ordinary type of 

 Ancient British drinking cup (so called). It is much more elegant 

 in outline, and the ornamentation is gracefully disposed so as to 

 suit the shape. A similar though larger vase was found by Mr. 

 Cunnington in a barrow at Boyton, in 1804.' Of this he remarks : — ■ 

 " The wide brim and large size rather militate against appropriating 

 these vessels to the purpose of drinking." 



A smaller vase of the same type, but not so boldly moulded at 

 the rim, was found in a barrow on Roundway Hill, in 1855, described 

 in Wiltshire Magazine, vol. iii., p. 185, and figured in "Crania 

 Britannica, vol. ii., with Plate XXXII.^ 



The design and ornamentation are so similar in these three cups 

 as to suggest that they may have been made by the same person. 



The general similarity of the barrow on Roundway Hill to that 

 opened by Mr. Fenton at Mere, is quite remarkable. Allowing 

 that the gold ornaments and bone netting-mesh belonged to the 

 second skeleton (presumably a female), the other articles found — 

 the small well shaped urn, the bronze dagger, and the tablet of 

 chlorite slate — are similar in both interments. 



It may be well here to note that the purpose for which these 

 plates of slate were anciently used has since been satisfactorily de- 

 termined by Canon Ingram and other authorities.' There can be 

 little doubt that they were used as wrist-guards, to protect the left 

 arm of the wearer against the rap of the string in shooting with 

 the bow. 



' See " Archfeologia," vol. xv„ p. xvii. 

 ^ Also ia Waring's " Ceramic Art," PL XIX. 

 ' See " Wiltshire Magazine," vol. x., p. 109. 



