A HISTORY OF KENT 



Roach Smith, however, attributed the coin to Eupardus, a bishop of 

 Autun in the middle of the sixth century, and the rest included a coin 

 of Justin (d. 527), a blundered copy of a Roman 

 type, and a coin of the moneyer Leodulphus. 



As the map clearly shows, the downs to the 

 south-east of Canterbury are thickly strewn with 

 records of the past, and have been explored over 

 a long period. In 1866 about twenty graves 



Fig. 3. Gold Coin-Pendant, ^^^^ ^^^^^ . workmen On Patrixbourne 



St. Martin s (j;. J r i 



Hill in Bifrons Park, 200 yards east of the 

 road from Bridge and within an area 30 feet square. The relics com- 

 prised two swords, two spear-heads, a shield-boss with the stays extending 

 to the circumference,^ and a number of buckles and knives, taken 

 promiscuously from the graves, which were, with one exception, east- 

 and-west. Interred with a woman were found a necklace of amber 

 and glass beads (the latter of double and treble form, like some from 

 Northants'), a pair of small brooches set with garnets of keystone form 

 (as pi. i. fig. 4), keys, a silver finger-ring, a buckle and stud, all of which 

 are now in the collection of the Kent Archaeological Society." 



The excavations conducted by Mr. Godfrey Faussett in 1867 at 

 Bifrons are of special importance, as they were carefully recorded,* and 

 the relics now form part of the Kent Archaeological Society's collection 

 at Maidstone. About one hundred graves were opened on the slope of 

 the hill overlooking the Lesser Stour and about \ mile up stream from 

 Patrixbourne Church ; and the whole of the district is thickly 

 scattered with interments, perhaps more so than any other area in 

 England. The ground was perfectly smooth, no doubt owing to con- 

 tinued ploughing, and the slope was held to account for the direction 

 of the majority of graves : they had been cut horizontally so as to avoid 

 unnecessary labour, and the head was in these cases at the south or 

 south-east end of the cutting in the chalk. A few, however, lay east 

 and west, generally with the head at the latter point, and the explorer 

 did not fail to notice a comparative scarcity of relics in these graves : 

 both features suggesting a Christian origin. The brooches found were 

 observed to be mostly in pairs, the square-headed variety (pi. i. fig. 2) 

 being invariably worn with the pin-point upwards, the square head being 

 below. Another important point is that no fewer than five graves in 

 this, and at least two in a neighbouring, cemetery contained the remains 

 of women with a crystal sphere and spoon (as pi. i. fig. 8) with perfor- 

 ated bowl placed between the thighs. More than once these curious 

 relics were associated with brooches of the Jutish square-headed type 

 (as pi. i. fig. 3) and also of the bird-form, while gold braid was found 

 near the skull as though belonging to the head-dress. Though crystal 

 spheres are not unknown in post-Roman cemeteries on the Continent, 



> Douglas found the shields were generally I J to 2 ft. across {Nen. Brit. p. I2i). 

 » Arch, xlviii. pi. xxiii. ; V.C.H. Northants, i. 233. 

 » Arch. Cant. vi. 331 (three figs.). « Ibid. x. 298; xiii. 552. 



342 



