from the excellent drawings[1] of the objects, are of characteristic Late Celtic form. The purpose for which these discs were used was long a matter of speculation among archaeologists, but Dr. Ingvald Undset, in a paper published by the Royal Society of Northern Antiquaries[2] in 1890, conclusively proved that they were parts of the mountings of metal bowls. They were attached to the bowl by means of a ring furnished with a zoömorphic termination which served as a hook for suspension. Some of these ring settings were discovered with the discs and are now preserved in Warwick Museum. Mr. J. Romilly Allen, F.S.A., who in 1898 contributed to the Society of Antiquaries of London[3] a valuable paper on the metal bowls of this character found in different parts of England, ascribes them to the end of the Late Celtic period and the beginning of the Saxon period.[4]
Coins of the Ancient Britons
Sir John Evans, in his well-known work on this subject, records only one ancient British coin as having been found in Warwickshire. This was of gold bearing on the obverse an object like a fern leaf or spike of flowers, and on the reverse a horse, a circular wheel-like object, etc., and the inscription VO-CORIO-AD (?). The coin, which was found at Stoneleigh, was formerly in the possession of Mr. Llewellyn Jewitt, F.S.A.
Another gold coin, of a more common type, is however stated to have been found at Southam. The particulars given are not very precise, but it appears that one side of the coin was plain, and the other bore 'the imitation of Philip's stater.'[5]
Megalithic Remains
The interesting megalithic group known as the Rollright Stones, situated mainly in Oxfordshire, but partly in Warwickshire, consists of (i.) a circle of about seventy blocks of stone, 100 feet in diameter; (ii.) a single upright stone of irregular form, known as the King-stone, and standing to the north-east of the circle ; and (iii.) a group of stones called the Whispering Knights, in a more eastern direction and at a greater distance.
The Rollright Stones are mentioned by Camden and Plot, and have been more minutely described by Mr. Arthur J. Evans,[6] who considers the whole group to be the work of more than one period, but later than the
- ↑ Here reproduced by the kind permission of the Society of Antiquaries of London.
- ↑ Memoires de la Société Royale des Antiquaires du Nord (1890), pp. 33-44.
- ↑ Arch. Ivi. 39-56.
- ↑ As it is probable that the Warwick discs may belong to the latter period rather than the former, the subject will be more fully dealt with in the article on 'Anglo-Saxon Remains' in this volume, and to that the reader may be referred for a more particular account of them. If the actual time of manufacture be within the Anglo-Saxon period, however, the origin of the ornamental forms with which they are enriched must unquestionably be referred to an earlier period and probably to a time anterior to the Roman occupation.
- ↑ Information given by the Rev. J. H. Bloom.
- ↑ Folk-Lore, vi. 6-17.
