Page:VCH Leicestershire 1.djvu/290

A HISTORY OF LEICESTERSHIRE British Museum from a Prankish cemetery at Herpes, Dept. Charente, France, probably of the sixth or seventh century. A set of toilet articles attached to a ring, in a manner reminiscent of the Roman period, has been found near Butt Close Lane and is here illus- trated. 19 Annular or quoit-shaped brooches are common in the county, and examples have been found both in High Cross Street and Butt Close ; but a penannular specimen (plate I, fig. 4) from the town is somewhat of % a rarity. This well-defined type is seldom found with any objects that enable us to date it with certainty, but it is somewhat widely distributed, and the ter- minals suggest a transition between the Roman and Anglo-Saxon styles of ornament that is also observable on certain Irish antiquities. Indeed, it is commonest on the further side of St. George's Channel ; but two are known from Wales, and single specimens have come from Derbyshire, Berkshire, and Kent, the last-named county furnishing an indication of date, as the bifrons specimen 193 was associated with a spoon and brooch dating from about A .D. 500. The date of another brooch found in Leicester is not quite clear, though several specimens are extant. It consists of a heavy bronze ring of circular section, to which is attached a ring-headed pin, likewise of solid workmanship, with characteristic transverse lines just below the head. Four were found at Nottingham, and the available evidence has been detailed in connexion with them, 20 the probability being that they all belong to the latest Anglo-Saxon, or possibly to the Norman, period. With this may be classed an engraved girdle- end of bone, found in 1864 at a depth of 7 ft. in High Cross Street. The illustration (plate II, fig. z) will ren- der a description unnecessary, and shows the holes at one end by which it was attached to a belt. A very similar piece from London is preserved in the Guild- hall Museum, and both exhibit the intertwined animals and foliage introduced at the time of the Carlovingian Renaissance, though there is little to distinguish it from early Norman work. Three miles further up the Soar Valley, but a little east of the main stream, are the sites of Anglo-Saxon interments, which are of special interest and importance in a county that is rather better known for its isolated finds of brooches. In close proximity to Great Wigston and Glen Parva were evidently Teutonic settlers who in their personal ornaments perpetuated a Norwegian tradition, though all the grave furniture was evidently manufac- tured in this country. The use of large stones as a covering for the grave on both sites should also be remarked, as the same was observed at Medbourne. In the parish of Great Wigston about twenty skeletons of the Anglo-Saxon period were discovered in 1795 and recorded by Nichols, who fortunately gave illustrations of the grave furniture. 81 The interments had been made on sloping ground resting on gravel within a square of 10 yds. in different Lelc. Trans, ii, 112. 19a Arch. Cant, x, 303, grave 6. * V.C.H. Notts, i, 204. 11 Hist, of Lelc. iv, 377, pi. Iv. ; the figures are also given in Collectanea Antiqua,, 167, pi. xlii. The site is near Wigston Hall Chapel, and is marked on the 2;-in. O.S. Map, xxxvii, n. 228 TOILET ARTICLES, LEICESTER (t)