ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS 



artistic excellence. Unhappily little is known with regard to the discovery 

 at Ingarsby : this was the only object preserved when several skeletons and 

 some relics were turned up about 1830, in planting trees on a mound or 

 tumulus of sand on the estate of Lord Maynard, ten miles east of Leicester. 



A more perfect specimen was found about a mile distant to the south- 

 east. One of the chief treasures of the Leicester Museum is a large bronze- 

 gilt square-headed brooch dug up near Billesdon Coplow ** (coloured plate, 

 fig. 2). It was presented by the joint lords of the manor, and has silver discs 

 attached to the angles of the head as well as the lobes of the foot or stem. The 

 absence of the debased animal forms seen on certain specimens from the county 

 is noticeable and indicates a slightly earlier date than that of the majority of 

 brooches here described ; but in view of the late settlement of this part of the 

 country, it should probably be placed about the middle of the sixth century. 



A discovery of considerable interest, but inadequately recorded, was made 

 in May, 1860, with a skeleton in a flower-garden at Keythorpe Hall, Tugby.* 7 

 The objects found included portions of a bronze bowl, a large double-toothed 

 bone comb measuring 7 in. by 2 J in., an object ornamented with silver (perhaps 

 a knife-handle), a pair of bone dice, forty-six bone draughtsmen, and also one 

 made of a horse's tooth. The last-named piece resembles specimens found at 

 Taplow (Bucks) and Faversham (Kent),* 8 while the others were all of one 

 pattern, without any distinguishing marks. These were evidently made on 

 the lathe and, with the dice, 

 are probably of Roman 

 manufacture. The bowl 

 seems originally to have 

 measured 8 in. in diameter 

 and 4 in. in height, and 

 belongs to a series of which 

 the most elaborate specimen 



was found in Lullingstone Park, Kent (plate II, fig. i). Like that better pre- 

 served specimen, Lord Berners' bowl was apparently suspended by three 

 chains attached to hooks which were fastened to the outside of the rim by 

 escutcheons usually enamelled in Celtic patterns ; and the Keythorpe dis- 

 covery confirms the view taken of the odd fragments found at Twyford. 



Another find of some importance, as indicating one route followed by 

 the invading Teuton, was made in 1794 near some rubbish-pits of the 

 Roman period in Medbourne Field, north-west of the village. 483 Three feet 

 below the surface several skeletons were found in fragments, but one skull 

 was nearly entire and the teeth almost perfect. On each skeleton had been 

 heaped a large quantity of stones (as at Wigston and Glen Parva), many 

 bearing evident traces of fire. With the best-preserved skull was an iron 

 spear-head 13 in. long, including about 3 in. of socket, which was defective ; 

 and about 2 in. of the point was lost. It was much rusted, but the midrib 

 could be distinguished, and there can belittle doubt of its Anglo-Saxon origin, 

 though pottery fragments found on the same site are as certainly Roman. 

 These skeletons in the neighbourhood of the Roman road from Godman- 



46 Akerman, Pag. Sax. pi. xvi, p. 29 : no further details of discovery recorded. 



" Arch. Journ. xviii, 76. *" Both now in the British Museum. 



48i Nichols, Hist. ofLeic. ii (2), 717 ; spear figured, pi. cxi, p. 657, fig. 15. 



239 



DIE AND DRAUGHTSMEN, FROM KEYTHORPE (?-) 



