ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS 



The scarcity of Suffolk place-names with the Danish termination —by is 

 remarkable in view of their abundance beyond the Wash ; and there is, 

 moreover, physical evidence that the population is of English rather than of 

 Danish descent. According to Dr. Beddoe,"' ' the southern part of Cam- 

 bridgeshire is anthropologically more like Norfolk and Suffolk than the 

 northern, and East Anglia is more Anglian than either Danish or British. 

 The British element is perhaps stronger in Suffolk than in Norfolk. . . . 

 The people of Brandon, a small town where flint-working is thought to have 

 been carried on since prehistoric times, seem to be comparatively dark.' 

 Danish remains, which are so numerous in York and other centres appropri- 

 ated in the Viking period, are remarkably scarce in Suffolk and East Anglia 

 generally ; and a continuous coinage after the establishment of Guthrum's 

 kingdom points to a measure of peace and prosperity that was not commonly 

 enjoyed during the Danish wars. The whole question of the East Anglian 

 mints has been discussed by Daniel Haigh,"* who arrived at some interesting 

 ethnological results. The names of the moneyers (or persons responsible to 

 the king for the weight and purity of the coinage) show that in the Danish 

 hosts there must have been a large proportion not of pure Scandinavian 

 descent. In the lists are two varieties of un-English names, some apparently 

 Prankish and others certainly Scandinavian. Under Eadwig (955-9) the 

 former diminish in number, and almost disappear by the time of vEthelred II 

 (978—1016), while the Scandinavians naturally continue in large numbers. 

 Three alternative explanations are offered, which may be given in the words 

 of Messrs. Grueber and Keary"°: 'perhaps there were a great many Prankish 

 soldiers in that portion of the great army which, under Guthrum, settled in 

 East Anglia and Mercia ; or the army brought over a certain number of 

 Prankish thralls who, having some skill in metal work, were employed to 

 engrave dies and were authorized to place their names upon them ; or finally, 

 the coins were issued by traders, and the majority of these in East Anglia at 

 this time were men of Prankish descent.' 



"' Races of Britain, 254. '" Numismatic Chronicle, iv (1841), 34, 195. 



"' Cat. 0/ Engl. Coins (Brit. Mus.), ii, p. xliv ; see also p. ciii. 



355 



