A HISTORY OF SURREY 



boss. Though of extraordinary form it may be compared with the 

 specimen mentioned above from Croydon, and is now preserved in the 

 Ashmolean Museum. Near the left shoulder of the same skeleton was 

 a bucket, the staves of which were bound together by iron hoops a 

 good deal broken and corroded, and a small buckle 1 for a strap was also 

 found. 



In a neighbouring grave near the left shoulder of the skeleton was 

 discovered a drinking cup l (fig. 6) of wooden staves ornamented at top and 

 bottom with thin bands of bronze gilt embossed with serpentine inter- 

 lacings (fig. 6a), while the edges are bound by other strips of bronze attached 

 by three transverse bands at the top and bottom. Fragments of this cup 

 with the sword and some other objects are now preserved at Croydon. 

 Though buckets of similar construction are commonly found in graves 

 of this period and have been already noticed more than once in the 

 vicinity, drinking cups of this character are extremely rare, and the 

 only perfect specimen in the British Museum at all comparable is the 

 remarkable vessel from Long Wittenham, Berks, which has scenes from 

 the Gospel history embossed round the outside. There is however in 

 the national collection the upper brim of a wooden vessel which so 

 closely resembles the gilt mount found at Farthingdown that the vessels 

 may be supposed to have been of the same form and origin. It was 

 found at Faversham and is included in the Gibbs collection. Below the 

 three strips that cross the rim are grotesque human heads in bold relief 

 that are strikingly realistic for the period, but the embossed ornament 

 round the cup is composed of the dislocated limbs of the quadruped so 

 commonly found in Anglo-Saxon ornament of the early time. In this 

 respect it differs from the Surrey specimen, the design on which a con- 

 sists of a continuous interlacing band in the form of a serpent, the head 

 at least being as plainly discernible as in a somewhat similar design on an 

 Anglo-Saxon brooch found at Standlake, Oxon, 8 and on a jewel found at 

 Hardingstone, Northants. 4 The excavations in the former case were of 

 special interest and were thoroughly carried out by John Yonge Akerman, 

 who observed that in nearly every case the skeletons were lying with 

 the feet pointing a little south of east. One burial pointing north-east 

 and south-west, though the direction of the head is not stated, suggests 

 a further comparison with some of the Surrey cemeteries ; and the 

 Hardingstone jewel has representations of a fish which may be regarded 

 as a well known Christian symbol. 



Among other graves examined on Farthingdown was one probably 

 of a young girl, in which was found a small iron buckle l and six glass 

 beads 1 of various colours. This seems to have been the only occurrence 

 of beads in the whole cemetery, and their scarcity in the burials of 

 Surrey may mark some difference either of race or condition between 



1 Figured in the original account of the excavations. 



* A coloured drawing is given in Surrey drcbieohgical Collections, vi. pi. iii. 113. 

 8 Figured in Proceedings, Society of Antiquaries, iv. 93-6. 



* Figured in Victoria History ofNorthants, vol. i. 



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