ANGLO-SAXON 

 REMAINS 



1 



"CHOUGH the chalk downs of Kent, of Sussex, Wiltshire and 

 the Isle of Wight are strewn with Anglo-Saxon burials of the 

 pre-Christian period, it would seem that those of Hampshire 

 and Buckinghamshire, perhaps to a less extent also Berkshire, 

 were neglected in favour of the more fertile valleys. A circular pendant 

 of gold (see fig.), with filagree ornament almost identical with Kentish 

 specimens, 1 has indeed been found at High Wy combe in 

 circumstances that indicate one or more interments of the 

 seventh century, but further evidence is wanting of an ex- 

 tensive occupation of the chalk area. The fact that a large 

 part of the Chilterns was forest or waste land, subsequently 

 under forest law, is no adequate reason, for though the lower 

 GOLD FILAGREE s i O p es wer e no doubt thickly wooded at that time, the higher 

 f *WtaMm. ground must always have been dry and open. That these 

 heights were inhabited during the early part of the seventh 

 century is indeed shown by the mention of the Chiltern-sastna, or 

 dwellers on Chiltern, in the tribal hidage," but whether these were 

 Saxon immigrants or refugee Britons, or a blend of both races, cannot 

 be deduced from the record, and must be left to archaeology to de- 

 cide. Perhaps in some uncultivated area a discovery may yet be made 

 of equal interest and importance to that on Farthingdown, to the south 

 of Croydon, where a series of interments were brought to light some years 

 ago. 3 



Though it proves little as to British 

 occupation, an interesting relic from Oving 

 near Whitchurch, preserved in the museum 

 of the Buckinghamshire Archaeological So- 

 ciety at Aylesbury, may be mentioned here. 

 It is an enamelled disc (see fig.) ornamented 

 on one face with graceful scrolls that can be 

 at once distinguished from early Anglo- 

 Saxon work. How long the Celtic arts 

 survived the Roman conquest is an unsolved 



BRONZE ENAMELLED Disc, OVING. 



1 Several are figured in Faussett's Invcntirium Sepukbrale, plate iv. 



2 W. J. Corbett in Transactions of Ro^al Historical Society, new ser. xiv. 191 ; Y.C.H. Herts, \. 252. 



3 V.C.U. Surrey, i. 264. 



195 



