Page:VCH Leicestershire 1.djvu/307

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ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS artistic excellence. Unhappily little is known with regard to the discovery at Ingarsby : this was the only object preserved when several skeletons and some relics were turned up about 1830, in planting trees on a mound or tumulus of sand on the estate of Lord Maynard, ten miles east of Leicester. A more perfect specimen was found about a mile distant to the south- east. One of the chief treasures of the Leicester Museum is a large bronze- gilt square-headed brooch dug up near Billesdon Coplow ** (coloured plate, fig. 2). It was presented by the joint lords of the manor, and has silver discs attached to the angles of the head as well as the lobes of the foot or stem. The absence of the debased animal forms seen on certain specimens from the county is noticeable and indicates a slightly earlier date than that of the majority of brooches here described ; but in view of the late settlement of this part of the country, it should probably be placed about the middle of the sixth century. A discovery of considerable interest, but inadequately recorded, was made in May, 1860, with a skeleton in a flower-garden at Keythorpe Hall, Tugby.* 7 The objects found included portions of a bronze bowl, a large double-toothed bone comb measuring 7 in. by 2 J in., an object ornamented with silver (perhaps a knife-handle), a pair of bone dice, forty-six bone draughtsmen, and also one made of a horse's tooth. The last-named piece resembles specimens found at Taplow (Bucks) and Faversham (Kent),* 8 while the others were all of one pattern, without any distinguishing marks. These were evidently made on the lathe and, with the dice, are probably of Roman manufacture. The bowl seems originally to have measured 8 in. in diameter and 4 in. in height, and belongs to a series of which the most elaborate specimen was found in Lullingstone Park, Kent (plate II, fig. i). Like that better pre- served specimen, Lord Berners' bowl was apparently suspended by three chains attached to hooks which were fastened to the outside of the rim by escutcheons usually enamelled in Celtic patterns ; and the Keythorpe dis- covery confirms the view taken of the odd fragments found at Twyford. Another find of some importance, as indicating one route followed by the invading Teuton, was made in 1794 near some rubbish-pits of the Roman period in Medbourne Field, north-west of the village. 483 Three feet below the surface several skeletons were found in fragments, but one skull was nearly entire and the teeth almost perfect. On each skeleton had been heaped a large quantity of stones (as at Wigston and Glen Parva), many bearing evident traces of fire. With the best-preserved skull was an iron spear-head 13 in. long, including about 3 in. of socket, which was defective ; and about 2 in. of the point was lost. It was much rusted, but the midrib could be distinguished, and there can belittle doubt of its Anglo-Saxon origin, though pottery fragments found on the same site are as certainly Roman. These skeletons in the neighbourhood of the Roman road from Godman- 46 Akerman, Pag. Sax. pi. xvi, p. 29 : no further details of discovery recorded. " Arch. Journ. xviii, 76. *" Both now in the British Museum. 48i Nichols, Hist. ofLeic. ii (2), 717 ; spear figured, pi. cxi, p. 657, fig. 15. 239 DIE AND DRAUGHTSMEN, FROM KEYTHORPE (?-)