A HISTORY OF LEICESTERSHIRE 



directions and at various depths. Under a pile of some half-hundredweight 

 of heavy stones, four skeletons were found side by side 3 ft. below the top of 

 the gravel ; near one lay part of a horse's skeleton with bridle-bit, but the 

 latter is not further described nor is it illustrated with the other finds. These 

 comprise girdle-hangers or chatelaines of bronze (one with animal-head 

 terminals), a bronze pin with mouldings and loop to which spangles may have 

 been attached, a knobbed ring, and various fragments. But two complete 

 brooches survived to indicate the approximate date of the burials. One is 

 evidently of the type called in Scandinavian ' cruciform,' but better known in 

 England as the ' long ' brooch, as cruciform better describes a later stage of 

 development peculiar to England. It is impossible to decide from the draw- 

 ing whether the bosses attached to the head-plate were round or flattened and 

 cast in one piece with the brooch, but the head-plate is of native form and 

 the date is almost certainly sixth century. The other is gilt and more elaborate 

 but based on the ' long ' brooch, which accounts for the spreading foot, the 

 square plate below the bow, and the plain central portion of the head. Other 

 parts of the surface are covered with decoration borrowed from the native 

 square-headed type on which the animal natives of the sixth century were freely 

 employed, and even the rough drawing that survives shows clearly enough 

 beaked animal heads and the device that is sometimes considered to represent 

 the human face. This blend of the two styles seems to date from the latter 

 part of the sixth century, and no doubt continued into the next, while the 

 wings below the bow appear in the latest stages of the Scandinavian cruciform 

 brooches. 



In 1866 Major Joseph Knight exhibited to the Leicestershire Architec- 

 tural and Archaeological Society a series of Anglo-Saxon antiquities found at 

 Glen Parva on a property of his called Rye Hill Close in February of that year. 

 His account 22 showed that they had been discovered by workmen digging for 

 gravel on the summit of a low sand-hill, about 200 yards from the fourth 

 milestone on the east side of the road from Leicester to Lutterworth. About 

 two feet from the surface some stones were found forming a rude arch, which 

 had served to protect a skeleton lying with the head to the south and in 

 excellent preservation. The teeth were as usual perfect, and the skull was 

 that of a woman of about thirty years of age. The grave furniture was com- 

 paratively rich, consisting of personal ornaments and utensils of recognized 

 types. A conical glass cup about 6 in. in height and aj in. across the mouth, 

 with horizontal ribs below the lip, was found near the head. Though broken 

 in removal from the grave, it was evidently of the tumbler variety, not being 

 made to stand alone. The colour is pale green, like those from Baggrave and 

 High Down, Sussex ; ss twenty-eight beads strung as a necklace are also of 

 glass, the central specimen being of the Roman ' melon ' shape, made of a 

 turquoise-coloured frit ; an animal's claw was also worn on the necklace. A 

 piece of crystal regularly faceted and perforated, 3^ oz. in weight, was per- 

 haps used as a spindle-whorl, but such crystals may have been occasionally 

 worn as beads or pendants. Specimens may be cited from Worcestershire, 8 * 

 Warwickshire, Gloucestershire, Northamptonshire, and Cambridgeshire, while 



" Leu. Trans, iii, 123 ; Proc. Sac. Antlq. (Ser. 2) iii, 344 (not Lyehill Close). The site is marked on 

 the 25 in. O.S. Map, xxxvii, 10. 



13 r.C.H. Sussex, \, 342 (fig. 8, 9). " V.C.H. Wore, i, 228 (fig. 4, 5). 



230 



