ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS 



high, vaulted at the top, with open-work between ribs representing birds 

 and fishes among scrolls. At the base of each side, which measures 

 2j inches, are three round arches surmounted by a tympanum filled 

 with a scale pattern, below which on one face is the inscription Thodric 

 ME worh[te] : 'J'h{e)odric made me. From various points project heads of 

 a grotesque character, while at each corner of the base are pierced lugs 

 for the rods that connected the cover with the body of the censer. In 

 the opinion of Mr. W. H. Stevenson there is practically nothing to go 

 upon in determining the date from the lettering, beyond the fact that the 

 pronoun is me and not mec. The latter form occurs on the jewel of 

 Alfred, but me was also in use during his reign. Prof Earle in a recently 

 published work. ^ states that mec was already an archaic form in the ninth 

 century and is never found in the prose of the tenth. But considering 

 that the mec form was naturally retained before a vowel, there was 

 probably little difference in date between the famous Aelfred mec heht 

 GEWYRCAN : Alfred ordered me to be made ; the inscription on a gold ring 

 in the British Museum, Aethred mec ah Eanred mec agrof : Aethred 

 owns me, Eanred engraved me ; and the Pershore example, which is of the 

 same character. Further, to judge from the arcading round the censer, 

 the tenth century would be a likely date. Though there is nothing in 

 the ornament to show a religious use, it is not an unreasonable sup- 

 position that this interesting relic of antiquity, which was found in a 

 mass of gravel during excavations for a cellar near the middle of the 

 town, once belonged to Pershore abbey, and may well have been lost at 

 the destruction of that house by iElfliere about the year 976.^ 



1 The Jlfred Jewel, pp. 17, 154. * "Journal of Anhceological Institute, xix. 238, note 9. 



233 



