A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE 



A winged palstave with loop was found in the hoard at Cumberlow, 

 near Baldock, about to be mentioned, and an outline of it has been 

 figured. 1 



Socketed Celts, etc. Several instruments of this kind have been found 

 in Hertfordshire. In the collection of Mr. W. Ransom, F.S.A., is an 

 example 4 inches long, ornamented with three vertical ribs on each face (like 

 A.B.I., fig. 124), found at Knebworth in 1897. I have a specimen, 4^ 

 inches long (like A.B.I., fig. 133), but with four ribs only on each face, 

 found near Royston in 1 882. I have also a long, narrow celt, 5 inches long, 

 and i^ inch wide at the edge (in form like fig. 148, but plain), found 

 at Hitchin in 1896. In most instances these celts seem to have formed part 

 of founders' hoards, inasmuch as they were accompanied by fragments of 

 bronze tools and lumps of rough metal. 



In December, 1851, a plain socketed celt, 3 inches long (like fig. 

 114, A.B.I.}, the fragment of another, and about 4 Ib. in weight of 

 rough lumps of metal, were found in a ploughed field near Westwick 

 Row, 2 in the parish of St. Michael's, St. Albans. 



About 1853, some socketed celts, for the most part either damaged 

 or imperfectly cast, were found with lumps of metal at Danesbury, 3 near 

 Welwyn, and were exhibited to the Archaeological Institute by Mr. 

 William Blake. A similar hoard from Furneaux Pelham 4 was formerly in 

 the collection of the Hon. Richard Neville, afterwards Lord Braybrooke. 



The most important hoard of this kind found in the county is, how- 

 ever, that unearthed at Cumberlow Green, 6 Rushden near Baldock, in 1 876. 

 There some labourers while draining came across ' a neatly made, well- 

 shaped hole about 2 feet in diameter ; and at about 2^ feet below the 

 surface, in stiff red loam,' found about forty instruments of bronze, some 

 of them perfect, but others broken or much battered. ' They lay at the 

 bottom of the hole with about 50 Ib. of metal, all of the same description 

 partially fused.' Among the implements was the winged palstave already 

 mentioned, a socketed and looped celt, ornamented with two curved ribs 

 on each face (3! inches long, somewhat like figs, in, 113), another of 

 octagonal section (4 inches long, like fig. 176), apparently another of the 

 same character without a loop, and fragments of a sword and of a dagger. 

 The three last mentioned are figured in the Journal of the Anthropological 

 Institute. 6 Many of the objects from this ' find ' are in the collection of 

 Mr. William Ransom, F.S.A. 



Daggers and Swords. The fragment of a dagger from Cumberlow 

 Green is like the lower half of fig. 312, A.B.I., but has four rivet-holes 

 in it. The portion of a sword consists of part of the hilt with the base 

 of the blade. There are four rivet holes in it, two on each side of a 



n. Anthrop. Inst., vi. p. 195. 



* Arch. Journ., xi. p. 24 ; Ancient Bronze Implements, pp. 1 1 2, 424, 468. 

 8 Arch, yourn., x. p. 248, xi. p. 24 ; Ancient Bronze Implements, 423. 



* Arch, yourn., x. p. 248. 



6 Journ. Anthrop. Inst., vi. p. 195 ; Trans. Herts Nat. Hist. Sac., iv. p. 40 ; Ancient 

 Bronze Implements, pp. 94-110, 134, 424, 467. 



6 vi. p. 195. 



234 



