ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS 



the objects were presented to the museum of the Worcestershire Natural 

 History Society in 1838 by one of the engineers employed in making 

 the Birmingham and Gloucester railway. These are figured on a small 

 scale in Allies' Antiquities and Folk-lore of the county, plate iii. One of 

 the shield-bosses still retains a rivet which fastened it to the wooden 

 shield ; and on more than one occasion similar rivets have been found in 

 the graves, still retaining their original tin or silver coating. Specimens 

 may be seen in the national collection from White Horse Hill and Long 

 Wittenham, Berks, from Kempston, Beds, and the Isle of Wight, and 

 they were evidently not confined to any one tribe or locality. The same 

 may perhaps be said of the bronze chape (fig. 10), such as still remains 

 attached by rust to the sword ^ found at Norton. Roach Smith, in 

 describing the important discovery at Fairford, remarked^ that the pro- 

 tection of the scabbard with a bronze rim at the top and bottom was a 

 pecuUarity he had noticed in other examples found in Gloucestershire 

 and Worcestershire. His observation would have carried more weight 

 in the present case if he had pointed to drawings or descriptions of other 

 specimens in the Hwiccan district ; and two instances will suffice to 

 show that such examples are not confined to the district in question. A 

 remarkably well-preserved chape from Brighthampton, Oxon,' has the 

 same peculiarity, and the bronze binding is ornamented with figures of 

 lions with the head turned round over the back, a design that seems also 

 to have been a favourite one with the Anglo-Saxon craftsmen of the 

 Christian period. Another found near Burford, Oxon, is in the British 

 Museum. 



But archeology cannot at present be said to have shown any 

 essential difference between burials in Hwiccia and in the original king- 

 dom of the West Saxons. In addition to the objects already mentioned 

 as showing connection with the occupants of the upper Thames valley, 

 there are preserved in the museum at Worcester some of the antiquities 

 collected by the late Canon Winnington Ingram of Harvington. Some 

 of these were doubtless found in his own neighbourhood along the Avon 

 valley in the south-eastern angle of the county ; and an exceptionally 

 fine pair of saucer brooches, of the type discovered at Upton Snodsbury, 

 are known to have come from Bidford, just across the county border in 

 Warwickshire. Six miles to the north-east of this place have been found 

 similar specimens at Aston Cantlow,* and further up the Avon at Long- 

 bridge near Warwick.^ This series of discoveries goes some way towards 

 proving that the same tribe had settlements along the river above and 

 below the present border of Worcestershire ; and lends support to the 

 view that the conquests of Ceawlin took this direction, stopping short 

 only at the early Mercian frontier about Rugby. The blending of races 

 in this vicinity is strikingly suggested by the discovery of the West-Saxon 



1 Part of a pommel (fig. i), found in the county, belonged to such a sword. Akerman, Pagan 

 Saxondom, pi. xxiv. gives details. 



* Archaologia, xxxiv. 8i, pi. x. fig. 3. ^ Figured in Archaoh^a, xxxviii. 96, pi. ii. 



* Society of Antiquaries, Proceedings, 2nd series, iii. 424. ^ British Museum. 



231 



