ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS 



shape, found in the remarkable cemetery at Kempston in Bedfordshire and 

 now included in the national collection. The Croydon specimen however 

 differs from many of its class in having a foot and being therefore 

 capable of standing unsupported. Other fragments of glass were also 

 found, but these belonged to one or more vases with hollow claws 

 attached in two or three rows to the sides. This form is frequent in 

 Kent and occurs in other parts of the country as Berkshire, Hampshire 

 and Northants*, Gloucestershire and Cambridgeshire ; while it is not 

 uncommon in the Prankish graves of Normandy and the Rhine district. 



It may be mentioned that both these forms of the glass drinking 

 cup were decorated with threads generally applied in spirals ; and the 

 foot which is always present with the hollow claws is sometimes attached, 

 as in the present instance, to vessels without that peculiar ornamenta- 

 tion. 



The paucity of smaller relics from the site is to be regretted, for it 

 is suspected that some of the more portable and less conspicuous objects 

 were appropriated by the workmen and thus left unrecorded. A few 

 bronze needles (figs. 10, 11) were found, indicating perhaps feminine 

 burials, but the number of brooches is extraordinarily small when com- 

 pared with the number of graves. This may be to some extent ex- 

 plained by the large proportion of male interments, as shown by the 

 swords and spearheads, ornaments being more plentiful in burials of the 

 other sex. Two discs for attachment to some part of the dress have 

 been preserved, each with an open work centre of triskele form, the 

 limbs being of serpentine appearance (fig. 12). A very similar specimen 1 

 belonging to the Merovingian period has been found in the Department 

 of the Aisne, France ; and another " with four instead of three spokes 

 was discovered in the Linton Heath cemetery. This particular device 

 is not uncommon on objects of an earlier date, and has survived to 

 modern times in the arms of the Isle of Man. 



This is perhaps the only site in Surrey which has produced exam- 

 ples of the brooch, an important and characteristic item in early Anglo- 

 Saxon costume. It was worn by both sexes, and though widely differ- 

 ing in pattern even within the limits of England was yet fairly uniform 

 in particular districts and among particular tribes; so that the several 

 types constitute an important factor in determining nationality. Little 

 however is contributed to our knowledge of early England by the few 

 brooches as yet discovered in Surrey, and these no more than the records 

 can decide whether Kent or Wessex dominated Surrey in the pagan 

 period. The flat ring brooch (as fig. 8) is indeed represented but 

 is a most uncommon type in England, only a few isolated specimens 

 being known. A finely engraved example from Kent is preserved in 

 the British Museum, and others from Stamford, Lines, 3 and Welford, 

 Northants, 4 may perhaps be included in this class, though they differ in 

 more than one particular. 



1 F. Moreau, Alburn Caranda, \. pi. xxxi. Figured in Journal of Arch<tokgical IniAtutt, xi. 98. 

 8 Pagan Saxondom, pi. xii. * Ibid. pi. zxzii. 



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