ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS 



found resembling those from Marston Hill ; and several circular speci- 

 mens, including a pair with applied plates (fig. 14) bearing an embossed 

 design like one from Kettering already described. An object generally 

 known as a girdle-hanger was among the finds, and had probably served 

 as a framework at the mouth of a reticule attached to the waist of 

 Anglian women. The exact use of these bronze attachments has always 

 been rather uncertain, but the question was virtually settled by the 

 discovery of a specimen at Sporle, Norfolk, to which some textile had 

 evidently been attached by metal rings.' The small clasps (figs. 13, 15) 

 mentioned in the account of the Holdenby excavations resemble some 

 already noticed from Marston and were no doubt used like them to 

 fasten the bracelet. Several of the brooches were silvered, and one had 

 traces of gilding. Some iron rings of various sizes were found with the 

 female skeletons, and in one grave were found a number of broken pieces 

 of ivory, apparently the remains of a bracelet. Ivory is very exceptional 

 in such finds, but there are in the British Museum similar bracelets from 

 Sleaford in Lincolnshire, and Long Wittenham in Berkshire, and also a 

 large brooch of ivory and bronze from Kempston near Bedford. 



All the interments discovered on this occasion were as before near 

 the surface, in no case at a greater depth than twenty inches ; and many 

 have doubtless been disturbed and destroyed in the past on this account. 



In digging for the foundations of the Lunatic Asylum (St. 

 Andrew's Hospital) at Northampton in 1836, several skeletons were 

 found. The accompanying brooches, including one large specimen 

 with the hollow parts gilt, resembled those from the Marston cemetery, 

 but the find was not fully recorded.^ Cinerary urns of various sizes 

 have also been found in the town, associated with coins of the Lower 

 Empire, while in 1837 on the same site signs of cremation were met 

 with, also portions of two large square-headed brooches which are 

 peculiar in having raised ornaments at the top corners as though in 

 imitation of the garnet settings sometimes found on the better speci- 

 mens of this class. They resemble in this respect specimens from 

 Kenninghall, Norfolk, now in the British Museum, and others from 

 Cambridgeshire.^ One has also studs projecting from the wings of the 

 stem, and a similar stud occurs in the centre of a saucer-shaped brooch 

 from the same site. 



Seven years later in a tumulus now partly levelled but still to be 

 recognized in Cow Meadow were discovered two small urns evidently not 

 intended to hold ashes, with a pierced circular brooch having a fylfot in 

 the centre and belonging to a type common in this county and in East 

 Anglia. 



Different opinions have been expressed as to the date of the earthwork 

 at Northampton Castle, the difficulty being to decide how much earlier 

 the mound was than the Norman structure.* During some excavations 



' C. R. Smith, Collectanea Antique, vol. ii. p. 235 ; cf. Archteologia, vol. 50, p. 387. 



* Archrsologia, vol. xlviii. p. 337. ' Neville, Saxon Obsequies, pll. I, 5, 6. 



* Associated Architectural Societies (i88i), Northants, p. 71 : 1880, p. 204, and 1882, p. 246. 



247 



