A HISTORY OF SURREY 



The square-headed type is on the other hand more sporadic, but it 

 is difficult to match some of the Croydon specimens. Two of them 

 (figs. 2, 3) have all the appearance of rude copies from a well known 

 type which may perhaps be called Jutish, as it occurs almost exclusively 

 in Kent and the Isle of Wight. The originals, which were highly gilt 

 and generally ornamented with niello and garnets, occur in various sizes ; 

 the smallest, about 3 inches in length, being perhaps the prototype of 

 those from Croydon, which have lateral projections that are otherwise 

 difficult to explain, as they are not constructional and rather interfere 

 with the design. - 



The others here represented (figs. 4, 5) with slender bow and stem 

 are more commonplace and widely distributed. Examples more or less 

 parallel are in the national collection from Harnham Hill, Wilts j 1 Long 

 Wittenham 2 and East Sheffbrd, Berks ; and Cambridgeshire. The pre- 

 sumption therefore is that they are of West Saxon origin, but this view 

 is not supported by any example from the site of the peculiar brooch 

 of Wessex ; the Croydon specimens described as saucer-shaped being of 

 the smallest type, which is more of the nature of a button, and practi- 

 cally confined to the Jutish districts. 



The foreign weapons and unfamiliar ornaments in the Croydon find, 

 while not pointing definitely to any centre of emigration on the conti- 

 nent, still suggest a racial distinction between the early occupants of the 

 county and their neighbours of Kent and Wessex. The records make 

 it clear that Surrey was not considered an integral part of either king- 

 dom in the early Anglo-Saxon period. 



A peculiar feature of these interments has yet to be noticed. In 

 the Croydon town-hall are exhibited a few vases which from all ana- 

 logy would be referred without hesitation to the Roman period in 

 Britain, and yet were discovered on the site of the Saxon cemetery just 

 mentioned, apparently deposited in the graves. They were never in- 

 tended to hold the ashes of the dead, and may therefore be classed with 

 the rough hand-made pottery that will presently be noticed from Anglo- 

 Saxon sites in Surrey. It is at present impossible to decide how long 

 the Roman or Romano-British potteries, as for example in the Upchurch 

 marshes, survived after Britain was cut adrift from the empire ; but it is 

 probable that though the handicraft declined, the custom of depositing a 

 vase by the head of the deceased 3 was not affected by the changes of the 

 fifth century. The condition of these Roman vases shows that they 

 were carefully handled and deliberately preserved ; and an intermediate 

 stage may perhaps be traced in the form and quality of about half a 

 dozen cinerary urns, also preserved at Croydon, which recall the wheel- 

 made productions of the Roman potter ; but, though found on an 

 Anglo-Saxon site, they are devoid of ornament, and may thus be 

 distinguished from the cinerary urns characteristic of Anglian ceme- 



1 Figured in Archteohgia, xxxv. pi. xii. * Ibid, xxxix. pi. xi. 



8 An examination of some Sussex interments suggests that such vessels were only placed in the 

 graves of males. 



262 



