220 On a Sepulchral Vessel found near Marlborough. 



the fibres of the wood, and even minute fragments of it, are so 

 distinctly preserved on the rust of the iron bar that the arrange- 

 ment of the strips can be easily ascertained. 



There were two well-wrought iron handles, one on either side, 

 fixed by loops of the same metal passing through the staves, and 

 bent over, or rivetted, on the inside. The appearance of ornament 

 on these handles, which the engraving would suggest, is due to a 

 covering of small pebbles derived from the gravel in which they 

 were found, agglutinated by the oxide of iron; underneath they are 

 quite smooth. 



The ornamentation consists of three broad bands formed of plates 

 of bronze fastened to the wood ; one on each side the middle hoop, 

 and a third covering the space above the upper hoop, just over- 

 lapping the edge of the vessel, and continued upward so as to 

 enclose the two projecting staves. On these bands there are 

 wrought, in repousse, various strange and grotesque figures, some 

 of them more or less resembling horses. These are generally in 

 pairs, having a mask of a human face between each. On the lowest 

 band there are two horse-like monsters, having their noses pro- 

 longed in a fantastic manner, so as to resemble elephants' trunks. 

 The figures of the upper band have heads apparently of birds or 

 griffins ; and the bronze on each of the projecting parts of the staves 

 is decorated with a pair of quaint faces, in profile. The plates of 

 bronze here bend round the edge, so that the thickness of the wood 

 is exactly shown as it was in the original, viz., rather more than 

 half an inch. 



The bronze knobs, or rather the bronze-headed nails with which 

 these decorations were fastened to the wood were very numerous, as 

 may be seen in the engraving. They were formed by soldering 

 small iron nails into the centre of half-spheres of bronze— very 

 much in the same manner as brass-headed nails were, until lately, 

 made. 1 A fragment of the wood is preserved, in which one of these 

 nails is still fixed. 



Having been buried i n a bed of the old river-drift gravel of the 



1 We hope to give an analysis of the solder used in making the nails of the 

 Marlborough bucket further on. 



