Feb., 1890. 
PHOTOGRAPHIC SURVEY OF WARWICKSHIRE. 
89 
SOME NOTES UPON A PROPOSED PHOTOGRAPHIC 
SURVEY OF WARWICKSHIRE. 
BY W. JEROME HARRISON, F.G.S., 
VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE BIRMINGHAM PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY ; AUTHOR OF 
THE “HISTORY OF PHOTOGRAPHY;” “PHOTOGRAPHY FOR ALL,” ETC. 
(Continued from page 14.) 
Saxon Warwickshire.— The Romans were little more 
than visitors to Warwickshire, and they probably seldom, if 
ever, penetrated the recesses of Arden. After their departure 
in 449 a.d. , they were succeeded by the Saxons, who “ came 
to stay.” And yet the Saxons cannot be said, in the ordinary 
sense of the term, to have “ conquered ” the Midlands. 
The tribes of Angles (from North Germany), who landed on 
our eastern coasts, very slowly advanced inland, and only by 
slow degrees gained power over, and amalgamated with— 
rather than subdued—the Celtic inhabitants of Arden. 
Warwickshire formed a part of the Saxon Kingdom of 
Mercia, which flourished under Cridda, Ethelbald, and Offa 
from the sixth to the ninth centuries; after which the eight 
Saxon sub-kingdoms (the Heptarchy) united to form the 
Anglo-Saxon Kingdom (827-1066). 
Many of the tumuli or mounds of earth (sometimes so 
large as to be actually small hills) which stud the surface of 
Warwickshire, contain the remains of Saxon chiefs ; but 
without actual exploration we cannot distinguish the Saxon 
from the Celtic tumuli. At Walton, near Wellesbourne, a 
Saxon grave, which was opened in 1774, contained “ three 
skulls lying in a row, with two Saxon jewels set in gold, one 
with an opal and two rubies, and the other adorned on both 
sides with a cross, between two rude human figures, with a 
sword or lance at the outer hand of each.” Iron swords and 
the iron bosses of shields are also commonly found in Saxon 
interments; while stone implements, etc., accompany the 
bones of the Celts. 
It is probable that during the next few years many of the 
as yet undisturbed tumuli will be explored; and it is earnestly 
to be hoped that photographs will be taken, recording each 
stage of the operations, and especially as showing the positions 
of the interred skeletons, whether lying on the side or back, 
and with legs drawn up or extended, as each of these points 
appears to have characterised different times and different 
nations. 
