Proceedings at the Meetings of the Archaeological Institute.
January 4, 1850.
Frederic Ouvry, Esq., F.S.A., in the Chair.
An account of the discovery, in the early part of the last year, of a remarkable collection of gold ornaments, was read; and these precious relics of antiquity, by the kind permission of Lord Digby, on whose estates in Dorsetshire they had been found, were submitted to the meeting. The discovery was made in January, 1849, at Whitfield Farm, in the parish of Beerhackett, five miles south of Sherborne. They consist of armillæ of various types; some of them of the class of tore ornaments, and others plain; they were brought under the notice of the Institute through the obliging mediation of Mr. William Ffooks, his Lordship's agent, in consequence of early notice of this curious discovery communicated to the Society by the Rev. C. Bingham. The accompanying representations exhibit the most interesting of the armillæ, and the fragments of a singular object of unknown use. The first (Fig. A) is formed of a round solid bar, without any ornament, slightly increasing in thickness towards the extremities where the ring is disunited, the ends being simply cut off and blunt. Its weight is 2 oz. 2 dwts. 21 gr. This armlet supplies a fresh example of the curious class of penannular gold ornaments, of frequent occurrence in Ireland, but more rare in this country. A specimen of the penannular gold ring, of smaller dimensions, found likewise in Dorsetshire, and now in Mr. Charles Hall's cabinet, has been given in the last volume of the Journal.[1] We are not aware that any plain gold armilla of the precise type now supplied had hitherto been found in England, their form being usually with the extremities considerably dilated, the inner side flat, or else the bar tapering considerably towards the ends.[2] The ring now found appears to present the first step from the penannular ornament formed of a simple hoop of equal thickness throughout (such as have been found in Ireland, of most massive dimensions[3]), towards the remarkable ornaments with the ends widely dilated, and forming cups, of which a specimen, found in Yorkshire, was communicated to the Institute by Capt. Harcourt.[4] It deserves notice that the weight of the penannular armlet here represented, 629 gr., is divisible by six (within a fraction—a single grain), in accordance with the rule asserted by Irish antiquaries in regard to the "ring-money" of the sister kingdom.
Fig. B.—An armlet formed of an annular piece of plain wire, fashioned so that the disunited extremities form loops, through which cither a lace or a metal hook might be passed, if any such means of attachment were desired. Weight, 11 dwt. 5 gr.—A second armlet, formed with a double wire, and looped extremities. Weight, 11 dwt. 12 gr. (276 gr. divisible by 6). This closely resembles the last, and no representation of it is given.
- ↑ See a Memoir on ancient ornaments of gold found in England, Archaeol. Journal, vol. vi., p. 56.
- ↑ A remarkable example, found near Dover, is given in Cent. Mag., 1772, p. 266.
- ↑ One found in co. Meath, in 1833, weighs 12 oz. See Dublin Penny Journal, vol. i., p. 413.
- ↑ Archaeol. Journal, vol. vi., p. 61.
