A HISTORY OF BEDFORDSHIRE dish find are preserved, it is allowable to argue from such a coincidence, and to conclude that these horned brooches were made and worn by fellow-tribesmen in the two localities, who interred their dead without crema- tion. It is to this district that the South Gyrwa are assigned, and it is tempting to identify them with this folk, who lived in Anglian surroundings and yet had different burial rites ; but it has been suggested 1 that the Gyrwa were Britons who had retained their territory and independence, and the question must remain an open one. Two silver pennies of the Anglo-Saxon period may be mentioned as having been found in the county and published on account of certain special features. The earlier of the two, from the Can- terbury mint, was discovered at Bedford and can be dated within three years. On the obverse is the name of Archbishop Ethelhard as 'pontifex,' and on the reverse that of Offa, King of Mercia (757-96). The coin was described by Sir John Evans, 2 who assigned it to the years 790-3, the former being the date of Ethelhard's nomination to the see of Canterbury, and the laiter that of his full recognition as archbishop on receiving his pall from Rome. The other piece is from Toddington, and was struck for King Ceolwulf of Mercia (822—3 or 4) by a rnoneyer whose name appears as /Elhun, but who is supposed to be same as Almund. 3 An interesting relic of the late Anglo-Saxon period from the county may be mentioned in conclusion. Reference has already been made to some east-and-west burials in Russell Park that may conceivably be later than the seventh century, and contemporary with another sword pre- served at Bedford, 4 of the date and origin of which there is still some uncertainty. The place of its discovery is indefinite but not far from the county town, and this serviceable weapon may have been wielded by one of the Danes who made an unsuccessful attack on Bedford in 921. It is 35^ inches long, and complete except for the bone or wooden portion of the handle. The blade slightly tapers, and is double-edged with a shallow groove running down either face, as on most swords of the Viking period. The handle however is not quite so heavy as usual, the pom- mel being diminutive, and the straight guard of 3-3 inches somewhat short in proportion, in this respect resembling the early Anglo-Saxon type. On one face of the blade near the hilt is perhaps a trace of a damascened circular mark, 5 a not uncommon feature on swords of this class, that are supposed to have been exported from Normandy and the mouths of the Rhine, and often bear the name of a maker VLFBERHT. 1 Rev. Edw. Conybeare, Popular History of Cambridgeshire, p. 42. 2 Numismatic Chronicle, new ser. (1865), v. 352, pi. xiv. No. 2. 3 Op. cit. p. 168 ; cf. Catalogue of Anglo-Saxon Coins (British Mviseum), i. 40. 4 Recently restored at the instance of the Bedford Arts Club. 6 Cf. A. L. Lorange, Den yngre jernalders Svcerd, pi. iii. fig. 5. 1 90
