ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS 



Lord Londesborough. It consists of a leaden tablet bearing an Anglo-Saxon 

 inscription with three holes along one edge, in one of which is a leaden loop 

 as if for binding several such leaves together. The title is in runes which 

 may represent ' The book of Alfred says,' and the remainder is in Anglo-Saxon 

 minuscules, as follows : Ic iElfric munc et maesse-preost wear}? asend on 

 iEj)ilredes dasge cyninges fram yElfeage biscope, iEjjelwolde asfter-gengan, 

 to sumum mynstre ]>z is Cernl'. ]?a beam me on mode, ic treowege J>urh 

 Godes gife, J»^t ic Jjas . . . This represents in modern English : ' I, ^Elfric, 

 monk and mass-priest, was sent in King iEthelred's time from Alfeah the 

 bishop, the successor of ^Ethelwold, to a certain minster (or monastery) 

 which is called Cernel. Then it came into my mind I would this . . .' 

 These are the opening lines of ^Ifric's preface to his first collection of 

 Anglo-Saxon homilies, and express his intention to translate the Latin text 

 into English. Thomas Wright, from whose account ^°* the above is taken, 

 considered it the front cover of a manuscript volume of the Homilies, the 

 English introduction being continued on the first vellum page, as the back of 

 this cover has no inscription. The runes were used at this date only excep- 

 tionally, as a piece of archaism, and from a comparison of the texts it is clear 

 that this is an abbreviated version. iEthelwold and Alfeah were successive 

 bishops of Winchester, and Mlinc (subsequently Archbishop of Canterbury) 

 was sent as abbot to the newly-founded abbey of Cerne in 988 or 989, where 

 he translated his first volume of homilies in 990. 



Discoveries of isolated coins add little to our knowledge of this later 

 Saxon period, but may be noted as suggesting pre-Norman occupation of 

 their sites. A silver penny of Cuthred, King of Kent (797-805), was found 

 at Lavenham,'"^ bearing the name of the moneyer Sigeberht on the reverse ; 

 and a number of pennies of Edward the Confessor are recorded from Campsey 

 Ash.'*" Sir John Evans has described coins of ^thelred II (978-1016) 

 found at Ipswich,"^ where at the depth of about 5 ft. from the modern 

 surface is a continuous band of black earth about i ft. thick, in which 

 Roman and Saxon antiquities are found.™ Three coins of Canute have also 

 come to light in the churchyard at Rougham ; ^"^ and a number of ^thelred's 

 coins, now at Bury, were found fused together in Sir Henry Bunbury's 

 garden at Great Barton. 



As might naturally be expected, a survey of the Anglo-Saxon remains 

 of Suffolk suggests the same conclusions as in Norfolk. In both counties 

 two distinct rites of burial were practised in what must be called the pagan 

 period, that is from the end of the Roman occupation to the time when 

 arms, ornaments, and utensils ceased to be buried with the dead. To explain 

 this duality in a sphere most congenial to conservatism is one of the main 

 problems of archaeology ; and the advent of Christianity does not fully 

 explain so radical a change as that from cremation to inhumation. The 

 former may be considered frankly pagan, the latter perhaps as a step towards 

 the Christian orientation of the grave, but unburnt burials in East Anglia 

 and elsewhere are by no means uniformly east and west ; nor, indeed, if they 



'"* y4ni. xxxiv, 438, pi. xxxvi ; Proc. Soc. Jntiq. (ist Ser.), ii, 105 ; Miscellanea Graphica, 12. 



"" Burj and W. Suff. Proc. ii, 211. '»« Akerman, Pagan Saxondom, 43. 



"" Numis. Chnn. iv, 1864, p. 28 ; one from St. Matthew's churchyard. Bury and W. Suff. Proc. ii, 214. 



"» Antij. iv (1881), 272. '<" E. Anglian N. and Q. i, 437. 



I 353 45 



