Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 5.djvu/450

330 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INTELLIGENCE. times. Although there may be no distinct evidence to prove the precise date of this cuiious relic, the form and mode of construction appears to shew considerable antiquity, bearing no resemblance to any similar object of a later age than that to which antiquarians have attributed it. We are indebted to the Dean of Hereford for permitting this bell to be exhibited at the meetings of the Institvite, as also for the following particulars regarding the discovery. " The bell was found atMarden, in Herefordshire, in cleaning out a pond; it lay below the mud and rubbish which had accumulated for centuries, and at a depth of eighteen feet below the level of the adjacent ground. " The pond is only a few yards distant from the church built on the spot where the body of St. Ethelbert, murdered by Oifa, was said to have been deposited, and in which there is still a hole in a stone of the floor, where tradition says the body rested, and a miraculous spring arose. The pond is in a field belonging to the vicar, and adjacent to the vicarage house, the site of which has been asserted to have been that of Ofia's palace ; whilst others claim that distinction for ' Sutton Walls,' about a mile distant. That spot was evidently a Roman encampment, possibly occupied in later times by Offa, and his palace built thereon ; it is an elevated position, and in the area there is a hollow, still called ' the king's cellar,' where it is said that a precious diadem was found some years since. " The bell appears to have been formed of a sheet of mixed metal, which had been hammered into shape : it is four-sided, resembling other ancient bells existing in Ireland and in Wales ; it is riveted together on each side, and the handle is rounded on the lower side, possibly to be more conve- niently held in the hand. The clapper is lost, but there is a loop inside from which it was suspended. " There is a tradition at Harden among the common people that there lies in the river Lugg, near the church, a large silver bell, which will never be. taken out until two white oxen are attached to it, to draw it from the river. The glebe and great tithes of Marden, held by the Dean and Chapter of Hereford, were granted by Offa." This ancient relic measures fifteen inches in height, including the handle : the sides are not of equal breadth ; the greatest diameter of the mouth is eight inches. In the Dublin Penny Journal two ancient bells of similar square form, I'esembling the modern sheep-bell, are represented; one of them was found with " Celtic weapons," as stated, in the county Monaghan ; the other is of mixed metal, hammered and riveted together, and it was dug out at Loughmore, co. Limerick, near the celebrated abbey of Mungrel. Mr. Westwood, in one of his interesting memoirs published in the Cambrian Archseological Journal, has brought together a very curious 'mass of evidence relating to the ancient portable bells of the British and Irish churches, and the veneration with which they were regarded, as recorded by Giraldus Cambrensis, on account of the holy persons to whom they were supposed to have belonged. We must refer to Mr. Westwood's able 1 Vol. iv. p. 237.