Anglo-Saxon Cemetery at Harnham. 197 
Fortunately for that study it happens that the contents of Anglo- 
Saxon graves are particularly abundant and interesting, and that 
we are enabled from the various articles found in them, to form a 
tolerable estimate of the civilization of our ancestors. 
Anglo-Saxon graves occur generally in extensive groups and on 
high ground. They are found thickly scattered over the downs of 
Kent, Sussex, and the Isle of Wight. Extensive cemeteries have 
also been found in Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire, as well as in 
the counties of Leicester, Derby, Nottingham, Northampton, 
Lincoln, Cambridge, York, Suffolk and Norfolk. Collections of 
Anglo-Saxon antiquities, taken from Kentish barrows, have been 
formed by Lord Londesborough, Dr. Faussett, and Dr. Rolfe. 
Wiltshire is one of those counties which have contributed largely 
to our stock of knowledge derived from subterranean depositories. 
The late Sir R. C. Hoare and Mr. Cunnington carried on for many 
years, as is well known, a very vigorous attack upon the barrows 
and tumuli with which the surface of a large part of the county is 
covered. The collection formed out of their contents, and now 
deposited at Stourhead House, is a considerable Museum of itself. 
But the greater part of it relates to ante-Saxon times. Anglo- 
Saxon interments have been occasionally laid open;! but we are 
W. M. Wylie’s book on the Cemeteries in Gloucestershire, called ‘‘ Fairford 
Graves,” Mr. Roach Smith’s ‘‘ Collectanea,” and the ‘‘ Archeologia,” also 
contain extensive materials for the illustration of this period. For the general 
reader, however, who may not have the opportunity of purchasing or consulting 
expensive publications, the little book above referred to, will be found to contain 
a sufficient compendium of information. 
1 In a tumulus on Roundway Down, near Devizes, a curious interment of a 
lady of the VI. or VII. century was brought to light, about 1843, on the pro- 
perty of Mr. Colston. The corpse lay north and south, in a wooden chest bound 
with iron. Near the neck were several ornaments composing a necklace ; 
garnets set in gold, in the fashion of the Roman bulla, seemed to have been 
arranged alternately with barrel shaped beads of gold wire. There were, also, 
two gold pins, set with garnets, united by a chain, in the centre of which was 
a circular ornament bearing a cruciform device engraved upon the setting. At 
the feet lay the remains of a bronze bound box or cabinet. It fell to pieces on 
the admission of the air, and the remains consisted of carved plates of thin 
