ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS 



the uniform orientation of so many graves, and the entire absence of 

 reUcs in twenty-five, or about thirty per cent, of the total excavated. 

 This is by no means unprecedented, but supports the view that burials 

 with the head to the south or south-west, of which there are a few 

 examples at High Down, are earlier and pagan, while the change was 

 due to Christian influences which cannot have been very strong among 

 the Anglo-Saxon population till the second half of the 7th century. 



The similarity between two flattened bronze tubes from graves at 

 High Down and one found at Croydon, Surrey, was remarked upon ; ' 

 but besides these three peculiar and unexplained objects there are other 

 particulars which point to some connexion between the early Teutonic 

 settlers north and south of the Weald. At Croydon were found several 

 relics of remarkable interest ; and though parallels have been found for 

 all of them, some were of such rare and peculiar form as to warrant a 

 further inquiry into their local distribution. The most striking instance 

 perhaps, after the tubes already mentioned, is the glass vase standing on 

 a foot ^ which has more than a family likeness to three found at High 

 Down, and it is seldom even in Kent that glass of this period has 

 anything but a rounded base, constituting a true tumbler.' The ' button ' 

 (or diminutive ' saucer ') brooch which is rarely found outside the Jutish 

 districts occurs both at High Down and at Croydon ;* and the ring- 

 brooch, which is such a special feature of the High Down cemetery, is 

 also represented at Croydon,^ but hardly anywhere else, and it should be 

 noticed that the angon occurs once on both sites. Another weapon 

 of equal rarity in this country is the francisca, or battle-axe of 

 peculiar type, and though it has not yet been found at High Down, 

 specimens are known from Croydon," and one from Lewes ' is preserved 

 in the museum of the Sussex Archaeological Society there. The orienta- 

 tion of the High Down graves is now established ; and, though not 

 certain, it is probable that the Croydon burials were likewise east-and- 

 west. According to the evidence available, this was the prevailing 

 practice in both counties,* though it involves a problem that still awaits 

 solution. That light will before long be thrown on the ethnological 

 relations of the tribes that carved England out of Britain, is rendered 

 highly probable by an examination of the important series from the 

 cemetery of Herpes, Charente, about the centre of the west coast of 

 France. Among the objects recently acquired for the British Museum 

 are several square-headed brooches like fig. 5, buckles like fig. i, conical 

 glasses like figs. 8 and 9, and several with feet like that of fig. 2 ; also a 

 button brooch like fig. 4, while bird-brooches like fig. 6 frequently 

 occurred. Nor do the coincidences end here, for the angon and trancisca 

 were found, the latter in some quantity, and several rare brooch-forms 

 were represented on both sites. 



» Archaeologia, liv. 378. = Illustrated in V.C.H. Surrey, p. 257, fig. I. 



s The delicate lobed vases are a distinct class. * V.C.H. Surrey, fig. 8, and p. 261. 



» Op. cit. p. 262. 8 Proc. Soc. Antiq. xv. 331. 



' Ptoc. Soc. Antiq. xviii. 28. ^ V_C.H. Surrey, i. 269. 



I 345 44 



