Page:VCH Rutland 1.djvu/157

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ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS Charlemagne early in the 9th century. In the earliest examples the quad- ruped is generally recognizable and complete, though there is always some doubt as to what the animal should be called. Within a short time the design deteriorated, and the animal is represented very imperfectly by means of detached limbs, eyes, and heads, which the engraver arranged regardless of anatomy to fill a given space. Thus on the head-plate of the brooch in question legs and trunks can be traced on either side, and two heads meeting in the middle produce a pattern remotely resembling a human face, and used independently at the bottom of the brooch. Two curved heads with open jaws also spring from the base of the bow, and with other details prove the descent of this specimen from the square-headed brooches of the 5th century found in Scandinavia and North Germany. It was apparently by way of Hanover that the large square-headed type penetrated into Southern Germany and crossed to England in the early part of the 6th century,^* but their dis- tribution in this country is somewhat unexpected. A general resemblance will be noticed between figs. 8 and 10, but the latter is by far the handsomer specimen, not only on account of its excellent gilding and terminals of silver, but also for the amount of surface left free of ornament. To cover all available space with engraving was the chief failing of the Teutonic art of this period, and it is seldom that so simple and dignified a production as fig. 10 is recovered from an Anglo-Saxon site. In the middle space of the head-plate can still be seen the animal motive in hopeless confusion, and the designs just below the bow and above the terminal are reminiscent of that already referred to on the foot of fig. 8 ; but elsewhere geometrical pat- terns are introduced, the diamond in the middle of the foot and the general arrangement of the whole being still characteristic. The larger specimen is, in point of style, the later, but there cannot be many yeais' difference in date, as both belong to the latter part of the 6th century. Earlier examples differing in many respects from each other, but both explaining the salient features of fig. 10, have been found in Norfolk"^ and the Isle of Wight,*^ while another from Wight" throws some light on the ancestry of fig. 8. The beads illustrated as specimens (fig. 1 1) comprise glass of various colours, rough amber, and faceted crystal : such are generally found, in the form of a necklace, in graves of women, while the large bead (fig. 7) was probably attached to the sword hilt, as single specimens of this size are sometimes found in the graves of warriors. On the coloured plate is also the remarkable specimen (fig. 5) from the collection of Mrs. Morris, who kindly lent it for reproduction : its use has already been discussed under finds at North Luffenham, and this alone among the Anglo-Saxon finds in Rutland shows at all adequately the original form of the quadruped so often referred to as an ornamental motive. Two forms may be seen, heads downward, attached to the lower edges of the lozenge- shaped centre. The remaining ornament from North Luffenham, illustrated in colour (fig. 2), is a silver disc with a small boss at the centre, from which radiate five ^* S:)lin, Die altgermanhche Thierornamentik, 353-4- " r.C.H. Norf. i, 340 (fig. 5 on plate). '« F.C.H. Hants, i, 388 (fig. 6 on plate). Ibid. (fig. 2 on plate). 103