EARLY MAN 



handle. Generally speaking the forms are elegant and rather more elongated 

 than one usually finds in articles of this period found in England. It is 

 possible, of course, that the drawing may be somewhat inaccurate. There is 

 little known about these bronze objects beyond the fact that they were dis- 

 covered on 23 December, 1801, by Matthew Grocock and James Allam, of 

 Husbands Bosworth, about 6 ft. below the surface, in a piece of land belonging 

 to Mr. F. F. Turvile, called Gravel Pit Close. Recent inquiries of the 

 present representatives of the family have tended to show that they are not 

 now preserved in Leicestershire. 



A flanged bronze celt of small size and quite early type is figured in 

 Nichols's Leicestershire? and is therein stated (p. 605) to have been found 

 near the Foss Road in Croft parish. The engraving, like so many in this 

 book which represent early antiquities, is by no means accurately executed, 

 but it offers so many points of resemblance to a bronze celt now in Leicester 

 Museum, and of unknown provenance, that one feels little hesitation in 

 regarding it as having been intended as a picture of that implement. 



Nichols* also figures two typical spear-heads of the Bronze Age, each 

 socketed and furnished with two loops, found on Bosworth Field. 



Another discovery of a Bronze Age object worthy of being recorded 

 is the palstave found at Bardon Hill, 6 in or about 1875, and now preserved 

 in the Leicester Museum. It is 6j in. in length, and weighs three-quarters 

 of a pound. 



A bronze dagger of unusual interest was found in Leicester some years 

 since, and is now preserved in the museum of that town. 6 The pommel 

 consists of two pieces of bone riveted on either side of a bronze plate, which, 

 however, does not appear to have been continuous with the blade. Nine 

 rivets remain attached to the base of the blade, and they are of different 

 lengths, indicating that the handle was made thicker in the middle than at 

 the sides, a very natural and convenient arrangement. Of nine rivets in the 

 bronze plate near the pommel eight remain. The handle was probably made 

 of wood, but it has entirely perished. 



A palstave of the common form, with curved stop-ridge and a loop 

 which had been worn or broken about the middle, is figured in Potter's 

 Charnwood Forest. 1 It was found in 1818, during planting operations, at 

 Benscliffe. The writer in describing the implement remarks that it is 

 supposed to belong to an era much anterior to that of those having sockets. 



The most important discovery of Bronze Age remains in Leicestershire 

 was the hoard found in 1858 at Beacon Hill, Charnwood Forest. The objects, 

 which comprised two spear-heads, one celt, one gouge, and an armlet, all of 

 bronze, were found by workmen engaged in cutting a drive through the 

 encampment on Beacon Hill. The antiquities were exhibited at a meeting 

 of the Society of Antiquaries of London 8 in May, 1859, when it was 



* Vol. iv, pt. 2, plate opposite p. 606. 



4 Op. cit. iv, pt. 2, plate opposite p. 557. To his brief mention of the discovery Nichols adds a footnote 

 on the use of bows and arrows in warfare, from which it is evident that he considers the spear- head to be of 

 mediaeval date. 



5 Trans. Leu. Phil, and Lit. Sac. pt. 9, p. 29 (1888). ' Evans, Bronze Imp. 231. 

 ' Plate opposite p. 42. He adds : ' My own opinion, from a close examination of the peculiarity of 



form and the small size (5 Jin. long) ... is, that it was inserted in a long cleft shaft, and used by the 

 Druids for cutting off the mistletoe growing on branches too high to be reached from the ground.' 

 8 Proc. (ser. i), iv, 322-3. 



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