198 Anglo-Saxon Cemetery at Harnham. 
not aware that of a Cemetery of that period we have had any 
instance in Wiltshire before that which Mr. J. Y. Akerman, the 
Secretary of the Society of Antiquaries, has lately brought to light 
at Harnham, near Salisbury. 
Harnham is so close to Salisbury that it is almost a suburb of 
the city. There is a tradition (mentioned in 1540 by Leland) 
that a village stood there long before Salisbury itself: but we have 
not been able to meet with any mention of the name in any record 
of those early days to which such tradition would carry us. On 
the south side of Harnham rises a high chalk hill, and at the foot 
of this hill near the village is a field known by the name of 
“The Low Field.” It is so called not from the lowness of its 
situation, but from having been once covered with small conical 
sepulchral mounds that have now long disappeared under the 
plough. The word “Low” is a corruption of the Saxon “ hloew” 
or “helow,” a tumulus: an etymology which it may be useful to 
recollect, as the word often occurs in the composition of English 
names of places, particularly of elevated sites; by which apparent 
contradiction, some perplexity is caused to the uninitiated. This 
is frequently the case in Derbyshire, Staffordshire, and elsewhere ; 
as Caldon Low, a high hill near Cheadle, &. Wherever the word 
is found, there is reason to suspect the vicinity of some ancient 
burial place.1 
bronze which had formed the hoops, and about 20 triangular plates, which 
appeared to have been attached by rivets over one of the hoops, forming a 
‘* Vandyked” ornament. These thin plates were ornamented with rows of dots, 
hammered up in the metal. Some minor objects of bronze were also noticed, 
apparently parts of a fastening or padlock; and remains of two earthen cups. 
The box had probably been the receptacle of the lady’s ornaments. [See 
Archeol. Journal, July 1851, p. 176). 
1 It may be observed in passing, that the derivation of the name EJlows in 
Staffordshire is explained by Mr. G. W. Collen in his Britannia Saxonica, p. 12, 
to be from ‘‘ Lew,” a place of meeting for the men of contiguous hundreds for 
purposes of appeal and settlement of causes. Whether such derivation applies 
to the present instance or not, it is at all events a curious coincidence, that the 
ancient village of Harnham would be conveniently situated in that respect, 
being nearly at the very point of contact of three, if not of four, Wiltshire 
hundreds. 
