Page:VCH Derbyshire 1.djvu/356

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A HISTORY OF DERBYSHIRE chain work, keys and other objects, ' the whole comprising the girdle and chatelaine with appendages of a Saxon lady.' The iron objects showed the imprint of fine linen and coarse flannel. With a similar interment at Stand-low 1 were two knives (one in a sheath), and other articles which may have been a chatelaine, all of iron, two rings or buckles, and a cylindrical box with a hinged lid, of bronze, and a silver needle ; while where the neck had been was a necklace consisting of eleven beads of glass of various shapes, and one formed of a spiral of silver wire. At Cow-low near Buxton, 5 two gold pins with settings of ruby glass and linked together by a gold chain must have formed part of the buried lady's head-dress, for they were found near her skull, and close by were the remains of a wooden box, with bronze hinges and hasp, and fastened by an iron padlock. This box contained a few cherished treasures a small green glass basin, an ivory comb, and a necklace consisting of eight silver pendants, two spiral beads of electrum and a central pensile ornament of variegated porcelain set in silver, etc. More elaborate still was a necklace consisting of fourteen pendants in pure gold, eleven of which were enriched with brilliant garnets on a chequered foil, which was found with a skeleton at Galley-low or Callidge-low near Brassington in 1 843." Perhaps the finest example of the goldsmith's art of the period, in Derbyshire, was a circular gold brooch ornamented with filigree work and red stones in compartments over chequered foil, found in the barrow known as White-low near Winster, already referred to, 4 from which were also obtained a looped cross of pure gold of similar workmanship, a silver bracelet, several beads, two glass vessels and two large urns. Another fine example of a brooch, but of some- what later date and probably of Irish make, now preserved in the British Museum, may be mentioned here. It was found in 1862 at Bonsall near Matlock. It is of bronze, and the ring measures 3^ inches at its greatest diameter, and the acus is 6^ inches long. It was origin- ally set with amber or paste and has been richly gilt and enamelled, the interlaced ornaments being elaborately formed. The head of the acus is finely ornamented, and like the ring has been set with studs. It is described and figured by Mr. Jewitt in Grave Mounds and their Contents? An instructive barrow of the period was opened at Bruncliff near Hartington in 1847. Here, in the rock-grave, was an extended skeleton, with a knife and a small pitcher at its side. The vessel was of hard wheel-made red earthenware with a trefoil-shaped mouth, appar- ently copied from a Roman original. In the mound, which was of earth as usual, and immediately above the grave, were the calcined remains of a young horse amidst much charcoal, a rare occurrence in this country.* 1 Vestiges, p. 74. * Ibid. p. 93. 3 Ibid. p. 37 ; Arch. Album, p. 205 ; Akerman's Pagan SaxonJom, pi. xl. fig. 4.

  • Vestiges, p. 19 ; Arch. iii. 274 ; Journ. Brit. Arch. Assoc. xiii. 226.

8 pp. 274, 275 ; see also the Reliquary, v. 65, pi. viii. 8 Vestiges, p. 101. 270