problem, but several discs of this description with sunk (champleve) enamels have been found with Anglo-Saxon interments in various parts of England.[1] Only two however have been published from Ireland, which was untouched by the Romans and preserved its artistic traditions for many centuries after Britain was cut adrift from the empire. Bronze bowls with such discs attached to the outside below the hooks for suspen- sion have been found from time to time, and there can be little doubt that bowls so richly ornamented were the work of Celtic artists in England or Ireland. They are found however in graves that presumably belong to the seventh century, while in Norway they are common during the Viking period, but no very plausible suggestion as to their use has yet been brought forward.
How far beyond Bedford the Saxons advanced under Cuthwulf or his successors has yet to be determined, but a northern limit about Daventry, Dunsmore Heath and the Warwickshire Avon is indicated by the remains already discovered. It is a fair deduction from the statement in the Chronicle that the capture of the four towns (Aylesford, Bensington, Eynsham, and perhaps Lenbury in 571) led at once to the occupation of Buckinghamshire and parts of the adjacent counties by the West Saxons. In spite of the aggressive policy of Mercia in the middle of the seventh century, it is by no means improbable that the West Saxon did not finally retire from the district thus won till the battle of Bensington in the year 779.
Up to the present time archaeology has not furnished any positive evidence of any settlement by the West Saxons in the immediate neigh- bourhood of Lenbury and Buckingham, but their occupation of the Vale of Aylesbury is illustrated in a clear and consistent manner by relics re- covered from the soil. Even in recent times the physical characteristics of natives of that fruitful vale have been held to exhibit a strong West Saxon element,[2] and there can be little doubt that this was one of their richest and best protected seats. It is from this as a centre that a brief review of early Saxon remains recovered from the soil of the county and now preserved in museums and private collections should naturally start.
Close to Aylesbury, on the south-west, is a group of Anglo-Saxon sites, from which a few unmistakable relics of the pagan period have been recovered. At Hartwell, on the road to Thame, a number of iron weapons, spearheads, knives and shield-bosses were brought to light about 1866, and exhibited to the Archaeological Institute.[3] At Stone, on the same road, there seems to have been a cemetery at that date between the vicarage garden and the mill, but only a few particulars are recorded of discoveries made there about sixty years ago.[4] On one occasion were found six skeletons regularly interred, and with one was a coin of the Emperor Magnentius, who died in the year 353, though the date has
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