A HISTORY OF BUCKINGHAMSHIRE 



1769, but the few details recorded were not published till seventeen years 

 later. Though not in themselves of much importance, they suggest that 

 the road existed before the interments were made, and furnished a means 

 of communication between several early Saxon settlements on its course. 

 More than twelve skeletons were discovered at Dinton, but many of the 

 bones were scattered. In three cases however the direction of the graves 

 could still be determined, the head being to the north-west, but beyond a 

 glass cup, nothing except iron weapons of the usual kind appear to have 

 been deposited with the bodies. Douglas published a letter from Sir John 

 Van Hattem, the owner of the estate, briefly describing the exploration of 

 the mounds, and illustrated three of the objects discovered. 1 An iron spear- 

 head and knife call for no remark, but the conical glass cup, apparently 

 from the grave of a warrior,* is of a form somewhat rare in England. 

 Being footless, the vessel cannot stand upright, and the ornament consists, 

 as usual, of loops and spirals of applied threads. Outside the more richly 

 furnished graves of Kent, specimens have been found at Kempston, Beds, 

 and East Shefford, Berks, and also in a Jutish cemetery on Chessell Down, 

 Isle of Wight. 3 



Another brooch of the saucer-type has been found at Bishopstone, 

 about 2 miles east of Dinton, and the same distance from Aylesbury ; 

 while beside it in the museum of the Bucks Archaeological Society is ex- 

 hibited another variety from the same locality. Instead of being made 

 all in one piece, this brooch has an embossed gilt plate of bronze applied 

 to the front, while a separate vertical border is attached to a stouter plate 

 at the back to which have been affixed the pin and catch. The applied 

 plate is very common on circular brooches from this part of England, 

 and in the large cemetery at Kempston, Beds, many were found associ- 

 ated with the true saucer-brooch manufactured in one piece. The latter 

 type is also represented by a specimen in the same museum found in 

 1859 at Kingsey Park, another site in the Aylesbury district, but no 

 further particulars of its discovery are on record. Yet another * was 

 discovered about sixty years ago at Mentmore, where several skeletons were 

 subsequently unearthed at different spots. 8 Some were found in a gravel pit 

 in the centre of the village ; and others, of which two had been accom- 

 panied by spears, were met with on the brow of the hill immediately 

 south of the church. About twelve more burials in all were found 

 nearer the church and kennels, but the only objects found with them 

 were a bronze buckle-plate, a coin of Constans or Constantius (fourth 

 century) and a few fragments of iron weapons. Those burials of which 

 any note was taken at the time had been in an east-and-west direction, 

 the head being to the west. At Wing, 3 miles distant, several skeletons 



1 Nenia Britannica, pi. xvi. figs. 4, 5 and 6, and p. 69. Records of Buckinghamshire, ii. 1379 > 

 Arch. x. p. 169, pi. rviii. 



* Douglas conjectures that it came from a woman's grave, but its association with a spearhead 

 seems decisive. 



3 Akerman's Architohgcal Index, pi. xiv. fig. 12. Journal of Brit. Arch. Assoc. i. 52, fig. 2. Others 

 are published from Andernach, Bavaria and Rhenish Hesse. 



Figured in Arch. xxxv. 381, where the excavations are described ; see also Proc. Sot. Ant. iii. 72. 



One is marked on the 6-inch ordnance map. 



198 



