Page:VCH Surrey 1.djvu/321

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ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS shape, found in the remarkable cemetery at Kempston in Bedfordshire and now included in the national collection. The Croydon specimen however differs from many of its class in having a foot and being therefore capable of standing unsupported. Other fragments of glass were also found, but these belonged to one or more vases with hollow claws attached in two or three rows to the sides. This form is frequent in Kent and occurs in other parts of the country as Berkshire, Hampshire and Northants*, Gloucestershire and Cambridgeshire ; while it is not uncommon in the Prankish graves of Normandy and the Rhine district. It may be mentioned that both these forms of the glass drinking cup were decorated with threads generally applied in spirals ; and the foot which is always present with the hollow claws is sometimes attached, as in the present instance, to vessels without that peculiar ornamenta- tion. The paucity of smaller relics from the site is to be regretted, for it is suspected that some of the more portable and less conspicuous objects were appropriated by the workmen and thus left unrecorded. A few bronze needles (figs. 10, 11) were found, indicating perhaps feminine burials, but the number of brooches is extraordinarily small when com- pared with the number of graves. This may be to some extent ex- plained by the large proportion of male interments, as shown by the swords and spearheads, ornaments being more plentiful in burials of the other sex. Two discs for attachment to some part of the dress have been preserved, each with an open work centre of triskele form, the limbs being of serpentine appearance (fig. 12). A very similar specimen 1 belonging to the Merovingian period has been found in the Department of the Aisne, France ; and another " with four instead of three spokes was discovered in the Linton Heath cemetery. This particular device is not uncommon on objects of an earlier date, and has survived to modern times in the arms of the Isle of Man. This is perhaps the only site in Surrey which has produced exam- ples of the brooch, an important and characteristic item in early Anglo- Saxon costume. It was worn by both sexes, and though widely differ- ing in pattern even within the limits of England was yet fairly uniform in particular districts and among particular tribes; so that the several types constitute an important factor in determining nationality. Little however is contributed to our knowledge of early England by the few brooches as yet discovered in Surrey, and these no more than the records can decide whether Kent or Wessex dominated Surrey in the pagan period. The flat ring brooch (as fig. 8) is indeed represented but is a most uncommon type in England, only a few isolated specimens being known. A finely engraved example from Kent is preserved in the British Museum, and others from Stamford, Lines, 3 and Welford, Northants, 4 may perhaps be included in this class, though they differ in more than one particular. 1 F. Moreau, Alburn Caranda, . pi. xxxi. Figured in Journal of Arch<tokgical IniAtutt, xi. 98. 8 Pagan Saxondom, pi. xii. * Ibid. pi. zxzii. 26l