EARLY MAN handle. Generally speaking the forms are elegant and rather more elongated than one usually finds in articles of this period found in England. It is possible, of course, that the drawing may be somewhat inaccurate. There is little known about these bronze objects beyond the fact that they were dis- covered on 23 December, 1801, by Matthew Grocock and James Allam, of Husbands Bosworth, about 6 ft. below the surface, in a piece of land belonging to Mr. F. F. Turvile, called Gravel Pit Close. Recent inquiries of the present representatives of the family have tended to show that they are not now preserved in Leicestershire. A flanged bronze celt of small size and quite early type is figured in Nichols's Leicestershire? and is therein stated (p. 605) to have been found near the Foss Road in Croft parish. The engraving, like so many in this book which represent early antiquities, is by no means accurately executed, but it offers so many points of resemblance to a bronze celt now in Leicester Museum, and of unknown provenance, that one feels little hesitation in regarding it as having been intended as a picture of that implement. Nichols* also figures two typical spear-heads of the Bronze Age, each socketed and furnished with two loops, found on Bosworth Field. Another discovery of a Bronze Age object worthy of being recorded is the palstave found at Bardon Hill, 6 in or about 1875, and now preserved in the Leicester Museum. It is 6j in. in length, and weighs three-quarters of a pound. A bronze dagger of unusual interest was found in Leicester some years since, and is now preserved in the museum of that town. 6 The pommel consists of two pieces of bone riveted on either side of a bronze plate, which, however, does not appear to have been continuous with the blade. Nine rivets remain attached to the base of the blade, and they are of different lengths, indicating that the handle was made thicker in the middle than at the sides, a very natural and convenient arrangement. Of nine rivets in the bronze plate near the pommel eight remain. The handle was probably made of wood, but it has entirely perished. A palstave of the common form, with curved stop-ridge and a loop which had been worn or broken about the middle, is figured in Potter's Charnwood Forest. 1 It was found in 1818, during planting operations, at Benscliffe. The writer in describing the implement remarks that it is supposed to belong to an era much anterior to that of those having sockets. The most important discovery of Bronze Age remains in Leicestershire was the hoard found in 1858 at Beacon Hill, Charnwood Forest. The objects, which comprised two spear-heads, one celt, one gouge, and an armlet, all of bronze, were found by workmen engaged in cutting a drive through the encampment on Beacon Hill. The antiquities were exhibited at a meeting of the Society of Antiquaries of London 8 in May, 1859, when it was
- Vol. iv, pt. 2, plate opposite p. 606.
4 Op. cit. iv, pt. 2, plate opposite p. 557. To his brief mention of the discovery Nichols adds a footnote on the use of bows and arrows in warfare, from which it is evident that he considers the spear- head to be of mediaeval date. 5 Trans. Leu. Phil, and Lit. Sac. pt. 9, p. 29 (1888). ' Evans, Bronze Imp. 231. ' Plate opposite p. 42. He adds : ' My own opinion, from a close examination of the peculiarity of form and the small size (5 Jin. long) ... is, that it was inserted in a long cleft shaft, and used by the Druids for cutting off the mistletoe growing on branches too high to be reached from the ground.' 8 Proc. (ser. i), iv, 322-3. I 169 22
