A HISTORY OF KENT 



as a sword, but was probably something more appropriate in a woman's 

 grave. It has a blade like a short two-edged sword, but terminates at 

 both ends in a tang, the longer no doubt being a handle. Its use as a 

 sceptre is conceivable, but only a few examples have been found in 

 England and abroad,* and their use is at present a mystery. 



Another splendid example of our early goldsmiths' work was dis- 

 covered at Sarre in 1843, and though exact details are wanting, it is 

 known to have been associated with a bronze bowl similar to that just 

 mentioned, but 12 inches in diameter, with two drop-handles. ° It 

 is a brooch 2 inches in diameter, of which the front is gorgeously 

 decorated with gold filigree and cell-work set with garnets and tur- 

 quoise (or blue glass) ; the central boss was damaged, but the rest well 

 preserved, the design consisting of concentric bands of chevrons, step- 

 pattern and rosettes. It is worthy of remark that the head of the pin 

 at the back is set with a garnet, like the Kingston specimen (fig. 4) ; 

 and the gold front rested on a layer of cement. 



Excavations on a more systematic plan were commenced in 1863 

 and reported on by Mr. John Brent, junr.,^ who pointed out that Sarre 

 formerly had a haven on the Wantsum, and a charter of Edbert, 

 A.D. 726, mentions ships navigating thither, while the Danes sailed past 

 it in 1052. It is remarkable that the site was not explored by 

 Faussett, Douglas, or other antiquaries of their day. A careful 

 inventory of each grave is published, but only a few relics and details of 

 special interest can be dwelt on here. Grave No. 4 was specially rich 

 and the contents illustrated in colour. It was of unusual dimensions, 

 10 feet long, 4! feet deep, and 4 feet wide at the foot, expanding 

 towards the shoulders : the occupant had evidently been a lady of 

 distinction ; and, as in the famous Taplow barrow, the first indication of 

 the burial was some gold braid that had been woven into a fabric, just 

 above the right hand of the skeleton. Near it was a small finger-ring 

 of silver wire with spiral bezel ; and six circular pendants of gold-foil 

 lay between the shoulders. The ornaments embossed on these consist 

 mainly of the distorted and dissected quadrupeds common in Anglo- 

 Saxon work ; and it is interesting to note that the design seems to have 

 been fully understood by the goldsmith who applied the loop at the 

 same part of the margin in four of similar pattern. Over 140 beads, 

 mostly amber, lay in the centre of the grave, and amongst them two 

 small bronze brooches with keystone garnet settings, probably joined by 

 a wire. At the head was a glass vessel of a form very rare even in 

 Kent (though thirty were found at Woodnesborough, p. 352), and 

 common in certain parts of the Continent. 



> Osengal, Kent {Coll. Ant. vi. 147), and Chessell Down, I.W. (ib. pi. xxviii.) ; a fourth is said to 

 have been found near the windmill at Sarre in i860 {Arch. Cant. vii. 318), and one now in the British 

 Museum was found in the Prankish cemetery at Herpes, Dept. Charente. 



2 Gloucester vol. of Brit. Arch. Assoc. (1848), p. 88, note ; this brooch is illustrated in colours as a 

 frontispiece to the volume. It was formerly in the possession of Lord Amherst {Arch. Cant. ii. p. xlii. ; 

 Inv. Sep. p. xxi.). 



3 Arch. Cant. v. 305 ; vi. 157 ; vii. 307 ; all fully illustrated. 



358 



