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neighbourhood (at Bonsall), of which I may yet take occasion to speak in the pages of THE STUDENT.

Of beads and necklaces some extremely beautiful examples have been found; of these, the necklace from the barrow at Wyaston (page 467,) will be sufficient for my present purpose. It consists of twenty-seven beads, five of which are of amber, carefully rounded into a globular shape, the largest an inch in diameter, and the remaining twenty-two are of glass or porcelain, variegated in different colours. Another necklace was formed of garnets, etc., set in gold, and was of extremely elegant pensile form.

Combs, rings, earrings, and armlets have occasionally been found, and have been of the usual forms.

Of enamelled ornaments some choice examples have been

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exhumed. One of these, a pendant ornament, was found in a

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barrow on Middleton Moor, and others, though fragmentary, which are here engraved, at Benty Grange. In the same

barrow were found the silver edging and mountings, and the ornaments, of a small drinking cup of leather. The cup was about three inches in diameter at the top, and had been ornamented by two crosses and four wheel-shaped ornaments of silver, and by a silver rim and upright bands. It is shown page 468. Several other objects, in silver, including earrings, rings, sword mountings, fibulæ, and other personal ornaments, have also been brought to light. In one interment some silver ornaments, and various articles belonging to a lady's chatelainé, along with a thread box of bronze, and some bronze needles or pins, were found in what appeared to be the remains of a wicker basket. Portions of buckets too have been noticed.

In bronze many articles have been found. Among these, perhaps two of the most curious are the bowl and the small

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box pierced for suspension, here shown. The bowl measured

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seven inches in diameter, and the box two inches. Bosses, highly ornamented, and other bronze objects, have also been found.

One of the most curious set of objects which the Saxon graves of Derbyshire have produced is a set of twenty-eight bone counters, or draughtsmen, some of which are shown on the following engraving, where they are represented of their full size. They were found by Mr. Bateman in a barrow near Cold Eaton, along with an interment of burnt bones, some

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fragments of iron, and portions of two bone combs. draughtsmen, as they are supposed to be, and the combs had been burnt with the body. Querns have occasionally been found in Saxon barrows.

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Of glass vessels I have already mentioned the finding of some examples, but it is necessary also to note the curious disco

very of the glass cup here shown, and which, from the care which had been taken in inclosing it in a wooden box must have been no little prized by the deceased lady. The cup, of thick green glass, a bone comb, some small instruments of iron, a piece of perforated bone, and a necklace with pendant ornaments, with other articles, were found inclosed in a box or casket, made of ash wood half an inch in thickness, with two hinges, and a small lock, which had, when placed in the grave, been carefully wrapped in woollen cloth. The interment was in many respects a highly interesting one.

The pottery of the Anglo-Saxon grave-mounds and cemeteries consists almost entirely of cinerary urns. These were undoubtedly, like those of the ancient Britons, made near the places where the remains have been discovered, and, as a natural consequence, usually from clays found in the neighbourhood of the place. The form of the cinerary urns is somewhat peculiar. Instead of being wide at the mouth, like the Celtic

urns, they are contracted and have a kind of neck instead of the overhanging lip or rim which characterizes so much of the sepulchral pottery of that period. The urns are formed by hand, not on the wheel, like so many of the Romano-British period, and they are, as a rule, perhaps, more firmly fired than the Celtic ones. They are usually of a dark-coloured clay, sometimes nearly black, at other times they are dark brown, and occasionally of a slate or greenish tint produced by surface colouring. The general form of these interesting fictile vessels will be best understood by reference to the accompanying

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engraving which exhibits two of the urns from Kingston. One of these will be seen to have projecting knobs or bosses, which have been formed by simply pressing out the pliant clay from the inside with the hand. In other examples these raised bosses take the form of ribs gradually swelling out from the bottom, till, at the top they expand into semi-egg-shaped protuberances. The ornamentation on the urns from these cemeteries usually consist of encircling incised lines in bands or otherwise, and vertical or zig-zag lines arranged in a variety of ways, and not unfrequently the knobs or protuberances of which I have just spoken. Sometimes, also, they present evident attempts at imitation of the Roman egg and tongue ornament. The marked features of the pottery of this period, is the frequency of small punctured or impressed ornaments which are introduced along with the lines or bands with very good effect. These ornaments were evidently produced by the end of a stick cut and notched across in different directions so as to produce crosses and other patterns. In some districts these vessels are ornamented with simple patterns painted upon their surface in white; but so far as my knowledge goes, no ex

amples of this kind have as yet been found in Derbyshire. One or two examples of domestic vessels, though but in fragments, have been found in the cemeteries; but of these just now it will be unnecessary to speak. Those who desire more extended information on the subject of the pottery of the Anglo-Saxons cannot do better than turn to the sixth volume of the INTELLECTUAL OBSERVER, where they will find an admirable paper on the subject from the pen of my friend Thomas Wright, who, along with another valued friend, Charles Roach Smith, was among the first to clear up the mystery which surrounded the remains of the fictile arts of that people.

Having now fulfilled the promise which I made in the opening of this series of papers, that of devoting them to giving a general insight into the modes of construction and the contents of the grave-mounds of Derbyshire, I close my subject with the earnest expression of a hope that the information which I have given, brief though it necessarily is, may be of service to the readers of the INTELLECTUAL OBSERVER, and may enable them to appropriate to their respective ages such remains of the early inhabitants of our country as may come under their notice. In future volumes of THE STUDENT* I hope to give from time to time some short separate papers on matters to which I have so far but passingly alluded.

*See Notice on page 401.

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