I i FIG. 9. SILVER PENANNU- LAR BROOCH. ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS seen on a few surviving relics that may be referred to the same period. 1 The style has most affinity with that of the Merovingian illuminated manuscripts, but seems to have been specially developed on English soil, while on the Continent a new era began with the accession of Charlemagne. The pin with polygonal head (fig. 6) is ornamented in the same manner, and was perhaps used for securing a loosely-woven fabric, as was also the penannular brooch (fig. 9). This bears a close resemblance to one found at Croy, Inverness-shire, with a coin of Coenwulf, king of Mercia (795818), and both belong to a comparatively early stage in the interesting evolution of this type of brooch, which culminated in the famous Tara and Hunterston examples. Other items were bronze strap-ends for facilitating the use of the buckle, one example of the latter, without a tongue, being included in the find. Also connected with a strap were two bronze runners with oblong opening and lozenge-shaped top for keeping together overlapping lengths of leather : these, and one pair of tabs, were devoid of ornament, but the other pair was engraved and inlaid with niello in animal patterns (fig. 10) similar to those on the two longer bands. It is indeed a piece of good fortune that coins were found in undoubted association with this hoard, as otherwise there would either have been a lively controversy about its date, or the discovery would have passed into oblivion altogether. As it is, we have here one of the few landmarks in later Anglo- Saxon art, and can determine by its means not only the relative but the absolute date of several other relics. Towards the close of the ninth century England was exposed to the ravages of Danish piratical hordes, and it may be that these treasures were hidden in the ground during one of the attacks on the western coast recorded in history. The year 877 is marked by a disaster of that kind ; and the following year the Danes appeared in twenty-three ships, and no doubt spread terror and devastation far inland. Any Christian priest or hermit would then have had every reason to conceal the few church vessels and valuables in his possession, in the hope of quieter times. The art of the silversmith here exemplified is of a distinctly high order, and though related to the Merovingian school may be looked upon as that prevailing in Alfred's time in England. The absence of any Irish elements enables us to determine with some degree of certainty the ecclesiastical rela- tions of the West Welsh, who had till the year 823 been independent in Cornwall. Egbert had left the court of Charlemagne in 802 to ascend the throne of Wessex, and had marched into Cornwall first in 815, but towards the end of his reign found the natives combining with the Northmen against him, and the decisive blow only came in 835 at Hengestdun (Kingston Down). The intimacy of their first Saxon overlord with the Frankish court may account for the adoption of the ornamental designs and processes here employed, and may also have led to the immigration of a certain number of Frankish 1 These are detailed in Pne. Soc. Antlq. Lend, xx (1904), 54. I 377 48 FIG. 10. SILVER TAG OF STRAP.
