r- 



ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS 



The Gilton sword-pommer is of the cocked-hat pattern, common 

 enough in the south of England but especially in Kent. It was found 

 in the Anglo-Saxon cemetery (p. 354), and is now in the Mayer collection 

 at Liverpool. Though the edges were much rubbed, Haigh deciphered 

 the inscription as ICU IK SIGI MUARNUM IK WISA DAGMUND, translating 

 ' I increase victory by great deeds, I, chieftain Dagmund.' 



The two sepulchral stones now in the Canterbury Museum are 

 of special interest as having no apparent connection with Christianity, 

 and as being unparalleled in this country, though Horsa's monument 

 mentioned by Bede ' as existing in his own day (early eighth century) may 

 have been of a similar description. Both the 

 stones were found about 1830 by Mr. Boys' 

 labourers who were digging in an open field near 

 Sandwich, and one retains in Runic letters the 

 name R/EH/EBVL (see fig. 2), the lettering on 

 the other having been effaced almost entirely." 

 The inscribed stone is 16 inches high, and 6 

 inches square at the widest part, while the other is 

 somewhat larger, measuring 17 inches in height, 

 and 5 inches square. It is probable that the thicker 

 portion was the top, the base tapering somewhat 

 and being shaped with less care ; but whether 

 they were placed on the summit or in the interior 

 of grave-mounds cannot now be determined. 

 The historian of Sandwich presented them to his 

 fellow-townsman, Mr. Rolfe, who transferred 

 them to their present resting-place. 



The majority of the early cemeteries lie 

 within or close to a triangle of which the sides 

 meet at Canterbury, Dover and Sandwich, and 

 coincide with ancient Roman roads. As in the 

 present state of knowledge it would be idle to 

 pretend to a systematic chronology, it will be con- 

 venient to start with the ancient capital, where 

 we seem to be brought face to face with the first Christian king by a 

 chance discovery near St. Martin's Church. Six gold coins, a Roman 

 intaglio set in the same metal, and what was probably the face of a 

 brooch set with garnets or glass slabs in projecting partitions, were found 

 actually on the site of St. Augustine's, and had no doubt been originally 

 deposited in a grave. The grant by Ethelberht of a chapel to his queen 

 Bertha and her priest Luidhard is well known, and it is interesting to 

 find that one rendering* of the lettering on one piece is LYUDARDVS EPS. 



1 Figured in Arch. Cant. viii. 259 (3 views); Stephens, Runic Monuments, i. 370. 



2 Eccles. History, i. 15 ; Stephens points out that it had disappeared when Alfred made his transla- 

 tion of Bede. 3 Both figured by Stephens, Runic Monuments, i. 366-7 ; Arch. Cant. viii. 226. 



* Rev. D. H. Haigh, in Num. Chron. n. s. ix. (1869), 177, and Arch. Cant. viii. 233 (figure) ; for 

 the find as a whole, see Num. Chron. vii. (1845), 187, and Proc. p. 28 ; Coll. Ant. i. pi. Iv. figs. 6-8, 

 p. 178 J Arch. Journ. i. 279 ; Arch. Cant. iii. 40. Now in the Mayer collection at Liverpool. 



Fig. 2. Tombstone of Rae- 

 HAEBta, Sandwich Q). 



