ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS •N •exhibit were offered to the meeting by the late Mr. Syer Cuming, and its Runic inscription secured it a place in George Stephens's monumental work.'* It consists of a bronze edging broken at one end, which Jiad been originally attached to a ridge of wood or metal by eight rivets, of which five remain in position. On either face are deeply engraved Runic characters, and along the top is a rope-pattern, while the terminal is a characteristic production of Scandinavian art. The monster whose head is here represented in the round is sometimes known as the Irish hound when it occurs in illuminated manuscripts of the Hibernian school ; and Irish examples are sometimes distinguished from Scan- dinavian by the form of the eye. In the present example, however, the eyes are not oval but circular, and consist of blue glass beads, and its Scandinavian origin is suggested by the character of the bronze as a whole. There are extant several caskets or shrines (mostly of the twelfth century) with a gable roof sur- mounted by a ' ridge-tile ' of this kind, the terminal projecting as a gargoyle from either end.*° The present curve is no doubt accidental, but it is conceiv- able that the whole formed the ridge of a helmet," the animal's head serving as a crest, but no mount of this description is available for comparison, unless it be a fragment figured by Du Chaillu *^ which terminates in a monster's head and has a double twisted stem. There is also some doubt as to the interpretation of the inscription, and that suggested by Stephens cannot be recommended. It is most likely that the bronze mount belonged to a reliquary of the Christian church, and on this hypothesis it is not likely to be earlier than the time of Guthorm ^Ethelstan, who was christened in 878. Of particular interest is a Runic monumental stone now in the Guildhall Museum. It was found in August, 1852, during excavations for the foundations of a new warehouse for Messrs. Cook, Sons & Co. on the south side of St. Paul's Churchyard, and was fully published Nif^^x in English by Mr. Charles C. Rafn for the Society of ^^ Northern Antiquaries.*' Details of the discovery were u' derived from the architect, Mr. James T. Knowles, V| and are recorded with admirable precision. At a depth of rather more than 20 ft. the natural ground level was Fig. 30. — Bronze Mount reached, consisting: of a compact dark yellow gritty °^ Reliquary (?), with ° '■ J o J Runic Inscription, from ^ Old "Northern Runic Monuments, iii, 204. Thames at Westminster (i) Illustrations of both in Sophus Muller's Die Thier-omamentik im Norden, 1 1 6. " Worsaae, Afbildmnger (Copenhagen, 1854), fig. 399 : reproduced by Stephens, op. cit. i, 476B.
- ' Of the type figured by Montelius, Guide to Stockholm Museum (trans. C. H. Derby), 82, fig. 129.
" The Viking Age, ii, 350, figs. 1329-30. " Memoires de la Soc. Roy. des Antij. du Nord (Copenhagen), vol. for 1845-9 (published some years later), 286, pi. iii ; Illustrated London News, 28 August, 1852 (xxi, 157); Arch. Journ. xlii, 251, pi. i; x, 82. Proc. Soc. Antij. (Ser. i), ii, 285 ; Morning Chronicle, 18 Sept. 1852. 167 /'.-
