262 



Notes, Archaeological and Historical. 



small buttons or bosses, all of amber, and thirteen long beads 

 of glazed earthenware (?)— {Ancient Wilts, vol. I., 211). £10. 

 Lot 132. Five roediseval crucibles of terra cotta, found in St. Thomas's 

 Church, Salisbury, and a mediaeval bowl of tin, from Cornwall. 

 £12. 



Other Wiltshire things which fell to different buyers were: — two bronze • 

 crucifix figures, found at Old Sarum — one of them clothed and crowned after 

 the Byzantine fashion, with traces of enamel, and probably of the twelfth . 

 century ; and another which may have been of the fourteenth century. A 

 couple of interesting silver rings, a seal with the figure of St. Catherine, all I 

 found near Salisbury ; a small gold ring with a sapphire, found at Durnford 

 (wrongly catalogued as an " ecclesiastic's ring ") ; and two mediaeval arrow- 

 heads of iron, found near Salisbury. 



An important object was the "St. John's Head," of alabaster, English work 

 of the fourteenth century, described by Mr. St. John Hope in Archceologia, 

 1892, in his paper on these curious devotional tablets, of which he enumerates \ 

 twenty-seven examples as known at present. This example is a fine one. It 

 went for £45. (The Salisbury Museum possesses another example presented 

 by the late Mr. Nightingale, which is said to have been found near Salisbury, I 

 and is figured in Arckceological Journal, 1855, vol. xii., 184) 



But perhaps the most remarkable things in the whole collection were the ! 

 two pairs of fire-dogs, which many of our Members must remember seeing in 

 the hall at Lake House. They are of brass, covered with blue-and-white \ 



enamel, English work of the time, probably, of Elizabetl^ or James I. Such 

 enamelled work is rare, and these are specially fine examples of it. The 

 larger pair, measuring 19in. in height, went for £86 ; the smaller, M^in. 

 high, for £50 ; both being bought by Mr. Harding. 



The whole sale, which included some china and glass, realised £502 6s. 



Opexixg of a Barrow at Popple Church, near Aldbotjrxe. 



This barrow, which is situated in a ploughed field close to the Ermine 

 Way — which is very perfect at this spot — is about two hundred yards from 

 the modern road from Shepherd's Rest to Aldbourne, opposite the junction ; 

 with the Bay don Road. It is bowl-shaped, much spread by ploughing, and is 

 now 80ft. in diameter and 3ft. 6in. high. Excavation was commenced in April, 

 1895, in the centre, and at 1ft. numerous flint-flakes were passed through, 

 together with fragments of burnt sarsen, also a piece of ornamented pottery, I 

 probably part of a drinking-cup. At 2ft. layers of light brown earth were ex- 

 posed, about Jin- thick, sharply defined against the darker soil of the barrow. In ; 

 this were found three small flint scrapers, a piece of stag's horn, and a quantity ; | 

 of flakes. At 3ft. charcoal and wood ashes denoted that an interment was 

 near, and at 3ft. Gin. a heap of burnt bones was uncovered, placed on the \ 

 floor of the barrow, and not in a cist. The chalk underneath was rammed 

 down hard and smooth. Just above the bones was a knife-dagger of bronze, . 

 the point of which is missing, and was broken off, apparently before it was 

 placed in the barrow. It is rather over 4in. long, and l^in. wide at the 



