I i 



FIG. 9. SILVER PENANNU- 

 LAR BROOCH. 



ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS 



seen on a few surviving relics that may be referred to the same period. 1 The 

 style has most affinity with that of the Merovingian illuminated manuscripts, 

 but seems to have been specially developed on English soil, while on the 

 Continent a new era began with the accession of Charlemagne. The pin 

 with polygonal head (fig. 6) is ornamented in the same manner, and was 

 perhaps used for securing a loosely-woven fabric, as was 

 also the penannular brooch (fig. 9). This bears a close 

 resemblance to one found at Croy, Inverness-shire, with 

 a coin of Coenwulf, king of Mercia (795818), and both 

 belong to a comparatively early stage in the interesting 

 evolution of this type of brooch, which culminated in 

 the famous Tara and Hunterston examples. 



Other items were bronze strap-ends for facilitating 

 the use of the buckle, one example of the latter, without 

 a tongue, being included in the find. Also connected 

 with a strap were two bronze runners with oblong 

 opening and lozenge-shaped top for keeping together 

 overlapping lengths of leather : these, and one pair of 

 tabs, were devoid of ornament, but the other pair was 

 engraved and inlaid with niello in animal patterns 

 (fig. 10) similar to those on the two longer bands. 



It is indeed a piece of good fortune that coins were found in undoubted 

 association with this hoard, as otherwise there would either have been a lively 

 controversy about its date, or the discovery would have passed into oblivion 

 altogether. As it is, we have here one of the few landmarks in later Anglo- 

 Saxon art, and can determine by its means not only the relative but the 

 absolute date of several other relics. Towards the close of the ninth century 

 England was exposed to the ravages of Danish piratical 

 hordes, and it may be that these treasures were hidden in 

 the ground during one of the attacks on the western coast 

 recorded in history. The year 877 is marked by a disaster 

 of that kind ; and the following year the Danes appeared 

 in twenty-three ships, and no doubt spread terror and 

 devastation far inland. Any Christian priest or hermit would then have had 

 every reason to conceal the few church vessels and valuables in his possession, 

 in the hope of quieter times. 



The art of the silversmith here exemplified is of a distinctly high order, 

 and though related to the Merovingian school may be looked upon as that 

 prevailing in Alfred's time in England. The absence of any Irish elements 

 enables us to determine with some degree of certainty the ecclesiastical rela- 

 tions of the West Welsh, who had till the year 823 been independent in 

 Cornwall. Egbert had left the court of Charlemagne in 802 to ascend the 

 throne of Wessex, and had marched into Cornwall first in 815, but towards 

 the end of his reign found the natives combining with the Northmen against 

 him, and the decisive blow only came in 835 at Hengestdun (Kingston Down). 

 The intimacy of their first Saxon overlord with the Frankish court may account 

 for the adoption of the ornamental designs and processes here employed, and 

 may also have led to the immigration of a certain number of Frankish 



1 These are detailed in Pne. Soc. Antlq. Lend, xx (1904), 54. 

 I 377 48 



FIG. 10. SILVER TAG 

 OF STRAP. 



