A HISTORY OF CORNWALL 



FIG. 2. GOLD FILIGREE 

 PENDANT FROM TRE- 

 WHIDDLE. J 



Canterbury by the moneyer WFA. The occurrence of a coin of Ceolwulf 



in this hoard shows that the deposit cannot have been 

 made earlier than 874, while the small number of Alfred's 

 coins included, points to the earlier years of his reign. 

 There can be little hesitation, therefore, in fixing the date 

 between 874 and 880. 



Four objects belonging to the hoard had been lost sight 

 of before 1866, but they were illustrated with the rest by 

 Mr. Philip Rashleigh l in 1788, and are here reproduced. 

 A gold pendant (fig. 2) consists of a thin looped plate to 

 which is applied filigree work in six closely-coiled spirals, 

 the ground being furnished with annulets of the same 

 material. The other piece of gold was a small angular 

 ingot ; and of two silver finger-rings one (fig. 3) had a 

 quatrefoil bezel apparently inlaid with niello, the designs resembling those on 

 the polygonal head of the pin (fig. 6), while the other (fig. 4) was of uniform 

 breadth, the hoop being faceted in a manner not unlike the well-known ring 

 of Alhstan, bishop of Sherborne (823867), and no doubt inlaid with similar 

 material. 



The scourge or disciplinarium (fig. 7) included in the 

 hoard has met with a better fate, and is in perfect preserva- 

 tion. It consists of a double-plaited silver chain of ' Trichi- 

 nopoly ' pattern, looped in a large glass bead at one end, and 

 at the other divided into four short chains terminating in 

 knots. Seven plaited slides of silver wire are placed at in- 

 tervals, and the total length is 2 1 \ inches. There can be no 

 doubt that this formidable instrument was intended for peni- 

 tential purposes, and it would be difficult to find another of the kind, at least 

 in such perfect condition. A similar chain, 15 inches long, with similar 

 crossbands but without the four ' tails,' was indeed found in a woman's grave 

 of the Viking period at Ballinaby, near Loch Gorm, in the island of Islay 

 off the west coast of Scotland ; but even if it had been originally part of a 

 scourge, it had evidently been last used as a personal ornament. 

 It is perhaps significant that the site was only about forty 

 miles due south of the famous lona, the cradle of the Scottish 

 church, and another feature of the Trewhiddle find suggests 

 that it was the property of a religious ascetic. Apart from 

 the chalice there was evidently an ecclesiastical significance 

 in the equal-armed cross engraved on the back of an oval 

 silver box (fig. 5), the use of which is not altogether clear. 

 It is bottomless and has a flat lid unsecured, while the sides 

 are engraved in panels containing beaded crosslines. It may 

 to some perishable vessel of wood or horn that was also 

 the three silver bands (fig. 8) which diminished in propor- 

 tion and seem to have been affixed to some vessel of circular section intended 

 to be seen only from one side. All these are inlaid with niello, and the design 

 of the smallest band is a free scroll of foliage, while the other two have trian- 

 gular panels filled with grotesque animals and geometrical devices, such as are 



1 Arch, ix, pi. viii. 

 376 



FIG. 3. SILVER FIN- 

 GER - RING FROM 



TREWHIDDLE. I 



FIG. 4. SILVER FIN- 

 GER - RING FROM 



TREWHIDDLE. A 



have belonged 

 decorated with 



