A HISTORY OF ESSEX 



though nothing of importance was found in them, the arrangement in 

 two cases was remarkable. The bodies were disposed in a ring, and 

 radiated from the centre, as was recently found to be the case at New- 

 port Pagnell, Bucks. 1 The feet were in both cases turned towards the 

 centre, and parallels are thus furnished in this country to a discovery 

 made some years ago at Vendhuile, a Merovingian site in the Depart- 

 ment of Aisne, France. 2 



Saxon or Danish relics are said to have been discovered some years 

 since at Goldhanger when several small grave mounds were opened on 

 the marshes ; and several burials at Leigh near Southend were dated 

 approximately by numerous silver pennies of Alfred (871-900) and 

 Plegmund, Archbishop of Canterbury (890914). Specimens of these 

 are in the museum at Colchester. 



By that date the practice of burying ornaments and weapons with 

 the dead had been abandoned under the influence of the Church, and 

 finds in graves of the later Anglo-Saxon period are very exceptional. 



Coins of the ninth and tenth centuries have seldom any other than 

 a numismatic importance, and there are only a few recorded discoveries 

 in Essex. A penny of Beornwulf, King of Mercia, found at Ashdon 

 (Hadstock), 3 throws no light on a number of burials placed north and 

 south and accompanied by weapons of some kind 4 ; nor is the post- 

 Roman history of Ithanceaster (Bradwell-on-Sea) any clearer for the 

 discovery of a silver penny and sceatta there. 6 To these may be added 

 various coins found at Leyton 6 and Barking, 7 but no further details of 

 any importance survive. 



As a comprehensive survey of the archaeological remains in the 

 county may one day throw some light on the extent to which in the 

 post-Roman period Christianity influenced the native or his conqueror, 

 the few details recorded of missionary effort in this region will not be 

 out of place. According to Bede, who wrote early in the eighth century, 

 London was the metropolis of the East Saxons ; and the story of 

 Mellitus, its first bishop, is too well known to be repeated here. From 

 the archaeological point of view it is more important to notice that at 

 the opening of Anglo-Saxon history, as soon as the records became 

 credible, Essex is a sub-kingdom with its ruler Sigeberht bound by ties 

 of marriage to his Kentish overlord. The foundation of the see of 

 London was no doubt one of many ways in which Kentish influence was 

 exercised north of the river ; and it is hard to imagine that along their 

 opposite coasts there was not easy communication between Jute and 

 Saxon, or whatever races owned a common allegiance to the throne of 

 ^Ethelberht at the opening of the seventh century. 



Traces of such influence may be noticed in the Essex finds, but 



1 Antiquary, 1900, xxxvi. 97. 



* 6. Fleury, Antiquitis et monuments du Deft, de r Aisne, pt. 2, p. 131. 



8 Journal of British Archetologcal Association, v. 80. 



4 Essex Archaeological Transactions, new ser. iv. 7. B Gentleman's Magazine, 1865, pt. ii. 403. 



6 T. Wright, History of Essex, ii. 500 ; Cough's edition of Camden's Britannia, ii. 50. 



7 Lyson's Environs of London, iv. 58. 



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