A HISTORY OF BUCKINGHAMSHIRE 



problem, but several discs of this description with sunk (champleve) 

 enamels have been found with Anglo-Saxon interments in various parts of 

 England. 1 Only two however have been published from Ireland, which 

 was untouched by the Romans and preserved its artistic traditions for 

 many centuries after Britain was cut adrift from the empire. Bronze 

 bowls with such discs attached to the outside below the hooks for suspen- 

 sion have been found from time to time, and there can be little doubt that 

 bowls so richly ornamented were the work of Celtic artists in England or 

 Ireland. They are found however in graves that presumably belong to 

 the seventh century, while in Norway they are common during the Viking 

 period, but no very plausible suggestion as to their use has yet been brought 

 forward. 



How far beyond Bedford the Saxons advanced under Cuthwulf or his 

 successors has yet to be determined, but a northern limit about Daventry, 

 Dunsmore Heath and the Warwickshire Avon is indicated by the remains 

 already discovered. It is a fair deduction from the statement in the 

 Chronicle that the capture of the four towns (Aylesford, Bensington, 

 Eynsham, and perhaps Lenbury in 571) led at once to the occupation 

 of Buckinghamshire and parts of the adjacent counties by the West 

 Saxons. In spite of the aggressive policy of Mercia in the middle of the 

 seventh century, it is by no means improbable that the West Saxon did 

 not finally retire from the district thus won till the battle of Bensington in 

 the year 779. 



Up to the present time archaeology has not furnished any positive 

 evidence of any settlement by the West Saxons in the immediate neigh- 

 bourhood of Lenbury and Buckingham, but their occupation of the Vale 

 of Aylesbury is illustrated in a clear and consistent manner by relics re- 

 covered from the soil. Even in recent times the physical characteristics 

 of natives of that fruitful vale have been held to exhibit a strong West 

 Saxon element, 2 and there can be little doubt that this was one of their 

 richest and best protected seats. It is from this as a centre that a brief 

 review of early Saxon remains recovered from the soil of the county and 

 now preserved in museums and private collections should naturally start. 



Close to Aylesbury, on the south-west, is a group of Anglo-Saxon 

 sites, from which a few unmistakable relics of the pagan period have 

 been recovered. At Hartwell, on the road to Thame, a number of iron 

 weapons, spearheads, knives and shield-bosses were brought to light about 

 1866, and exhibited to the Archaeological Institute. 3 At Stone, on the 

 same road, there seems to have been a cemetery at that date between the 

 vicarage garden and the mill, but only a few particulars are recorded of 

 discoveries made there about sixty years ago.* On one occasion were 

 found six skeletons regularly interred, and with one was a coin of the 

 Emperor Magnentius, who died in the year 353, though the date has 



1 Most of the sites and references are given in Mr. Romilly Allen's paper in Arch. Ivi. See also 

 V.C.H. Warwickshire, vol. i. for examples from Chesterton. 



Dr. Beddoe, Races of Britain, p. 257. a Journal, xxiii. 78. 



* Arch, xxxiv. 23, 26, and map, pi. ii. 



196 



