the trench, which was now at least 12 feet square, and from 6 to 8 feet deep.
In this barrow there were no stones,—nothing whatever to protect the remains of the defunct warrior. He must have been placed originally in a sitting position, his sword probably on the right side, the shield on his knees; where the remains of the horse, the bit, and shoes were placed I was enable to ascertain; but it is very likely that the enormous weight of earth, now 8 feet high, and which originally must have been nearer 16 feet, would, in settling, somewhat alter the relative position of the objects interred. The skeleton was deposited on the level surface of the field, and not in a cist; for what purpose the hole was made, which I have before described, I cannot imagine. All the pieces of wood are flat, and not convex; but I could find no pieces of wood or metal to enable me to form any conjecture as regards the shape or size of the shield, nor any part of the boss of the shield, if I except the small portion of silver rim here represented (orig. size). The silver plate was affixed to a separate piece of wood, let into the larger portion, and which eventually separated from it. The dimensions, however, must have been very large; the mere fragments found supplied evidence of five ornamented circles, two of them measuring 312 inches diameter, one 514 inches, and one 234 inches.
The investigation of the tumulus at Caenby has elicited certain facts, which appear of essential interest as regards the classification of ancient remains; and they present peculiar features, to which it is behoved nothing precisely analogous has been hitherto recorded, in the history of sepulchral antiquities in Great Britain. It is remarkable that in the extensive examination of British tumuli during recent years, no example appears to have been described, sufficiently characterised by distinctive peculiarities, to justify its being with confidence recognised as the tomb of a Dane. The long continuance of Danish influence in the British Islands, from the first appearance of those daring marauders in the times of Bertric, King of Wessex, A.D. 787,[1] to the
- ↑ Saxon Chron., A.D. 707. "In his days came first three ships of the Northmen from the land of robbers.—These were the first ships of the Danish men that sought the land of the English nation." Ed. Ingram, p. 78.
