A HISTORY OF WORCESTERSHIRE 



closest parallel is afforded by a more complete specimen discovered in an 

 interment on Roundway Down, to the north of Devizes. There is a 

 coloured drawing of it on the first plate of Akerman's Pagan Saxondom\ 

 the original lay on the breast of a supposed female skeleton, at the feet 

 of which had been deposited a bronze-mounted bucket, such as have 

 come to light in many parts of England and the continent. It is possible 

 that the Romanized Britons, who seem to have survived the Anglo-Saxon 

 invasion in this part of the country, may have left a trace of their handi- 

 work in this piece of jewellery. 



Pairs of bronze pins connected in the same way by a simple bronze 

 chain have been found in association with remains of the Anglo-Saxon 

 period at Breach Down, Kent,^ and at Long Wittenham, Berks ; while 

 a third, in the Bateman collection,^ was probably found in Derbyshire. 

 There seems no doubt that they were worn on the breast, perhaps 

 originally serving to fasten the outer garment near the shoulders. This 

 was evidently the purpose of somewhat similar fastenings that sometimes 

 occur in Gaulish graves on the continent, and specimens are published 

 from Caranda (Dept. of the Aisne)' and the Department of the Marne.* 

 That the Anglo-Saxon examples were lineally descended from the 

 Gaulish type is more than probable, and it is interesting in this connec- 

 tion to note that while the Kentish specimens were no doubt imported 

 from France, the workmanship of the Little Hampton jewel shows 

 Roman rather than Teutonic influence, and may point to a survival of 

 Roman handicraft in a part of Britain remote from the main centres of 

 Teutonic occupation. The minute plaited strands of gold that are 

 applied lengthwise to the larger links of the chain bear a very close 

 analogy to the Roman bracelet recently discovered at Rhayader in 

 Radnorshire with other pieces of jewellery dating from about the third 

 century. And though the garnet setting points to a post-Roman date 

 and connects the work with Kentish and other jewellery of succeeding 

 centuries, the design of the centre seems obviously akin to the wheel 

 ornaments commonly found attached as pendants to neck-chains of the 

 Roman period in Britain. On specimens from Wales and Northumberland, 

 now in the British Museum, the number of spokes is the same as on the 

 Worcestershire jewel ; and it is just possible that this design was popular 

 as perpetuating the form in which money seems to have been current 

 among the Gaulish tribes by whom parts of Britain had been occupied 

 before Cesar's landing on the island. 



Further south, in the chapelry of Norton-in-Bredon, have been 

 found various Anglo-Saxon relics, consisting of iron shield-bosses and 

 spearheads, a knife and fragments of a sword, with part of the scabbard 

 mounted in bronze, and a blue and reddish-yellow bead. The discovery 

 was made during excavations at Norton Pitch near Bredon Hill ; and 



1 British Museum, from the Londesborough Collection. 



* Figured in his Catalogue of Antiquities, p. 157 ; and Journal of British Archaolo^cal Association, 

 ii. 237. 



3 Album Caranda (F. Moreau), vol. 3, pU. 56, 94. Nouvelle Serie. 



* La Champagne Souterraine (Morel Collection), pll. 13, 29, 40. 



230 



