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have been actually discovered upon its surface. I could 
have brought some of their weapons for your inspection, 
but these are much decayed ; they consist of swords, spear 
heads, knives, and the large bosses of their shields. These 
were found in making the railway hence to Boston, very 
near the spot where the line crosses the town street ; and 
although it was reported to me that " some of Oliver Crom- 
well's old soldiers had been found there, bagonets and all," 
I soon had the pleasure of finding out that these relics were 
a thousand years older than had been anticipated, and that 
from them might be gathered what was the character of the 
weapons used by our Anglo-Saxon forefathers. One object, 
however, that was found at Ancaster, is of undoubted Saxon 
make, and probably a " coffin," for when discovered it con- 
tained the remains of a human being, whose body had been 
burnt — in fact all that could be collected from the funeral 
pile ; but amongst these was one little object of considerable 
interest, namely, half of a bone hair comb, in a perfect state 
of preservation, and as I have found similar half combs in 
other Saxon funeral vases in this vicinity, — this by no means 
being a solitary instance of the kind, — I believe that the 
other halves of these were preserved by the sorrowing 
relatives of the deceased as reminiscences, because they were 
certainly never deposited in the urns whole, and because the 
fractures are as fresh as on those days of mourning when 
they were originally made. 
A different people now rules in England over its Saxon 
population — the "Norman Conquest" has taken place; but as 
William I. never passed over the Heath, although he was at 
Lincoln, we can not raise up the shadow of his memory in 
connection with our present subject. Pass we on then to the 
year 1200, when a remarkable sight was witnessed on the 
Heath. It is nearly the end of November (the 23rd), and 
precisely 662 years ago. The Heath is veiled with a dense 
