A HISTORY OF SURREY 



with Christianity in graves of that description. The Desborough 

 necklace l with its central cross of gold and the Long Wittenham 

 cup 2 with its scenes from the Gospel history go far towards proving 

 the case, especially as both were found in cemeteries containing inter- 

 ments in both directions. Though nothing strikingly suggestive of 

 Christian ownership has occurred in the Anglo-Saxon graves of Surrey, 

 the paucity of relics is in itself an argument of the same force as the 

 direction of the graves ; and the exercise of a little more care in the 

 investigation of the cemetery at Beddington would perhaps have settled 

 the priority of the unorientated burial at least in this particular instance. 



It must be admitted however that the uniformity and the pre- 

 sumably Christian character of the Surrey interments render the early 

 period none the less obscure. If the graves already discovered are all 

 later than Augustine, why are there no traces of occupation in the sixth 

 century, when there were probably two armies in the heart of the 

 district, both of whom considered it worth acquisition by the sword ? 

 Where again are the traces of the West Saxons, who, after the fight of 

 568, apparently kept back the arms of Kent behind a frontier that was 

 naturally weak and must have needed ample garrisons ? Nor are these 

 the only problems still awaiting a solution that seems only possible from 

 archaeological research. If the Surrey graves are all later than Augustine, 

 whence came the Christian missionaries to the dwellers on the North 

 Downs ? It is generally held that the mission of Augustine accounted 

 only for the conversion of Kent and East Anglia ; and if Birinus brought 

 baptism to Surrey, it is still more difficult to account for the absence of 

 supposed pagan interments in the county, for the West Saxon court itself 

 was not converted till 635, and at least a century must have elapsed 

 since Wibbandune before the men of Surrey ceased to be worshippers 

 of Woden. 



It is certainly open to conjecture that Surrey was less strongly West 

 Saxon than Hampshire, a county which there is reason to think was not 

 overrun by the house of Cerdic so early as is commonly supposed. 3 And 

 it may be that a minute examination of some of the ancient sites in 

 Surrey would reveal traces of occupation by Britons more or less 

 Romanized for a considerable time after the legions had been withdrawn 

 from our shores. There is no obvious reason why the discoveries of 

 the late General Pitt Rivers near Salisbury should not find a parallel in 

 Hampshire and Surrey, as the chalk is common to all three counties and 

 remains of Roman buildings plentiful enough in each of them. For 

 the present, archaeology dare not put a limit to the survival of a Romano- 

 British civilization in any part of the country ; and in view of the 

 Surrey discoveries, it is not impossible that the kings of Kent and 

 Wessex were content to exercise dominion over the Britons of the 

 North Downs without actually planting colonies of their own among 

 them till Christianity had in a measure prepared the way. Though the 



1 Arcbceologia, xxxviii. 350, pi. xvii. 2 Ibid. Iv. 467. 



* See chapter on Anglo-Saxon Remains in Victoria History of Hampshire, vol. i. 



270 



