ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS Graves of the other sex were as usual more productive, though jewellery was scarce, and the most frequent article was the chatelaine or girdle-hanger, that sometimes took the form of a key. Coffers had been placed in nine graves at the feet, but usually only the iron mounts and hinges remained ; on the other hand, a bronze cyhndrical thread- box ' was in good condition, with chains and lid complete, containing small silken strings of two sizes, some raw silk, wool and short hair, as well as some seeds which had apparently been strung on a necklace. Six or seven spindle-whorls (not recognized as such at the time), two combs and six pairs of shears all came from women's graves, while amethyst beads occurred in seven. Several earrings were found, and one silver brooch (pi. i. fig. i) was jewelled in a three-edged star, with pearl bosses and filigree ground.^ One grave contained a gold circular pendant ' with a cruciform corded design and garnet settings ; another pendant with coloured glass mosaic, and an oval pair with glass centres of a corded lattice pattern,* as well as amethysts and garnets set in gold for a necklace.^ In the same grave were two gold coins" of the Merovingian series, struck at Verdun and Marsal in France, one being mounted as a pendant. In two other graves were found circular pendants of gold with simple cruciform design in raised dots ; ' and near the neck of another female skeleton were two silver pendants, one of pointed oval shape with a most unusual floral design,^ and the other simply embossed and punctured with a cruciform design. Five glass vases or cups were recovered from graves of either sex, and two wooden cups of extra- ordinary form,° one much patched, were found near the head of what seemed to be a woman's grave. Having now gone over the country served by the Roman road to Dover, we may turn to a less productive area between Canterbury and Deal. Eastry village is on rising ground 2| miles from Sandwich and 12 from Canterbury, and on the line of another Roman road between Woodnes- borough and Dover. In the triangular area between the Lynch, the Five Bells Inn and Buttsole Pond a number of burials were discovered in 1792, which must, from the objects associated with them, be assigned to Anglo-Saxon times." Several graves lying close together in parallel rows from east to west, east of the highway from the cross to Buttsole, contained skeletons, brooches, beads, knives, shield-bosses, and especially several green glass vessels with hollow lobes. The mounds had been previously levelled by the plough, but the cemetery was thought to have extended as far as the Cross. The only two brooches were of Jutish types — small jewelled square-headed, and round- headed with triangular foot. The urns are rudely fashioned, about > Nen. Brit. pi. xviii. fig. i. = Inv. Sep. pi. ii. fig. 6. 3 Nen. Brit. p. 67 (centre). « Ibid. pi. xxi. figs. 2, 7. ^ Inv. Sep. pi. xi. figs. I, 3 : Coll. Ant. i. pi. vi. figs. 7, 8. « Nen. Brit. pi. xxii. figs. 8-1 1. ' Ibid. pi. xxi. fig. 3. 8 Inv. Sep. p. 115. 9 Ibid. p. I13. »" They were considered Roman by the discoverer, Mr. Boteler, whose MS. is quoted by Harris in Hasted's Hist, of Kent, 8vo, vol. x. p. loi, and by W. F. Shaw, Liber Eastriae ; Memorials of Eastry, p. 3. The glass, two urns, girdle-hanger, beads and brooches are illustrated on his plates.
