ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS 



the manner usually associated with the Christian profession ; and it has 

 been more than once inferred by writers on the subject that burials not 

 so orientated are of pagan origin and presumably earlier in date. There 

 is much to be said for this view, and plentiful evidence in its favour both 

 in this country and abroad. Burgundians, for instance, who were con- 

 verted to Christianity early in the fifth century, were found almost 

 without exception to have been buried unburnt and with the head to 

 the west in the extensive cemeteries excavated by M. Baudot at Charnay ; 

 and a similar uniformity of orientation was observed in a supposed Visi- 

 gothic cemetery discovered in the Charente at Herpes, described by 

 M. Barriere-Flavy. The same may be said of Selzen on the Rhine, 

 and of the burials in Normandy excavated by the Abbe Cochet, though 

 whether these last were all of Christian converts is certainly open to 

 question. 



It may be assumed that as the influence of the Church spread 

 among the Teutonic conquerors of Britain, the common pagan custom 

 of burning the dead, or burying them in full dress with their weapons, 

 ornaments and personal utensils, would gradually give place to the more 

 simple rites of primitive Christianity. The scanty furniture of the 

 graves at Sanderstead and elsewhere in Surrey might indeed be reason- 

 ably explained by the supposed poverty of the deceased, but the assump- 

 tion is unnecessary here if the east and west position is accepted as a 

 proof that these were all burials of Christians. In the present state of 

 knowledge it would be unwise to dogmatize on the point, for positive 

 proof is still wanting that the distinction was uniformly observed. 

 Negative evidence there is in plenty, for, in the first place, no Christian 

 emblem is known in this country from a cremated burial or from any 

 unburnt interment with the head placed to the south or south-west. 



In our own country, where Christianity was not fully re-established 

 till at least the middle of the seventh century, the direction of the graves 

 varies considerably. Cemeteries have been discovered, as at Marston 

 St. Lawrence, Northants, in which the bodies lay regularly with the 

 head to the south-west. 1 Other sites have been found to contain burials 

 in both directions, as Long Wittenham, Berks, while Kentish graves are 

 almost invariably east and west. 2 As Kent was the first to receive the 

 emissaries of Rome, it might be inferred that the graves of that king- 

 dom were principally of Christian converts ; but it should be noted that 

 in the neighbouring kingdom of the South Saxons, who were among 

 the last to accept baptism, the east and west position is usual. Account 

 must also be taken of Kentish subjects buried before the end of the 

 sixth century ; and many must have met their death in the century and 

 a half that is supposed to have elapsed since the traditional arrival of 

 Hengest and Horsa in 449. 



These difficulties may eventually prove to be not insuperable, and 

 the Christian character of the east-and-west burials is again confirmed 

 by at least two discoveries in this country of objects distinctly connected 



1 A plan is given in ArchxokgM, xlviii. pi. Mii. * Inventorium Sepukbrale, p. 39. 



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