Page:VCH Cornwall 1.djvu/446

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A HISTORY OF CORNWALL FIG. 2. GOLD FILIGREE PENDANT FROM TRE- WHIDDLE. J Canterbury by the moneyer WFA. The occurrence of a coin of Ceolwulf in this hoard shows that the deposit cannot have been made earlier than 874, while the small number of Alfred's coins included, points to the earlier years of his reign. There can be little hesitation, therefore, in fixing the date between 874 and 880. Four objects belonging to the hoard had been lost sight of before 1866, but they were illustrated with the rest by Mr. Philip Rashleigh l in 1788, and are here reproduced. A gold pendant (fig. 2) consists of a thin looped plate to which is applied filigree work in six closely-coiled spirals, the ground being furnished with annulets of the same material. The other piece of gold was a small angular ingot ; and of two silver finger-rings one (fig. 3) had a quatrefoil bezel apparently inlaid with niello, the designs resembling those on the polygonal head of the pin (fig. 6), while the other (fig. 4) was of uniform breadth, the hoop being faceted in a manner not unlike the well-known ring of Alhstan, bishop of Sherborne (823867), and no doubt inlaid with similar material. The scourge or disciplinarium (fig. 7) included in the hoard has met with a better fate, and is in perfect preserva- tion. It consists of a double-plaited silver chain of ' Trichi- nopoly ' pattern, looped in a large glass bead at one end, and at the other divided into four short chains terminating in knots. Seven plaited slides of silver wire are placed at in- tervals, and the total length is 2 1 inches. There can be no doubt that this formidable instrument was intended for peni- tential purposes, and it would be difficult to find another of the kind, at least in such perfect condition. A similar chain, 15 inches long, with similar crossbands but without the four ' tails,' was indeed found in a woman's grave of the Viking period at Ballinaby, near Loch Gorm, in the island of Islay off the west coast of Scotland ; but even if it had been originally part of a scourge, it had evidently been last used as a personal ornament. It is perhaps significant that the site was only about forty miles due south of the famous lona, the cradle of the Scottish church, and another feature of the Trewhiddle find suggests that it was the property of a religious ascetic. Apart from the chalice there was evidently an ecclesiastical significance in the equal-armed cross engraved on the back of an oval silver box (fig. 5), the use of which is not altogether clear. It is bottomless and has a flat lid unsecured, while the sides are engraved in panels containing beaded crosslines. It may to some perishable vessel of wood or horn that was also the three silver bands (fig. 8) which diminished in propor- tion and seem to have been affixed to some vessel of circular section intended to be seen only from one side. All these are inlaid with niello, and the design of the smallest band is a free scroll of foliage, while the other two have trian- gular panels filled with grotesque animals and geometrical devices, such as are 1 Arch, ix, pi. viii. 376 FIG. 3. SILVER FIN- GER - RING FROM TREWHIDDLE. I FIG. 4. SILVER FIN- GER - RING FROM TREWHIDDLE. A have belonged decorated with