A HISTORY OF WORCESTERSHIRE closest parallel is afforded by a more complete specimen discovered in an interment on Roundway Down, to the north of Devizes. There is a coloured drawing of it on the first plate of Akerman's Pagan Saxondom the original lay on the breast of a supposed female skeleton, at the feet of which had been deposited a bronze-mounted bucket, such as have come to light in many parts of England and the continent. It is possible that the Romanized Britons, who seem to have survived the Anglo-Saxon invasion in this part of the country, may have left a trace of their handi- work in this piece of jewellery. Pairs of bronze pins connected in the same way by a simple bronze chain have been found in association with remains of the Anglo-Saxon period at Breach Down, Kent,^ and at Long Wittenham, Berks ; while a third, in the Bateman collection,^ was probably found in Derbyshire. There seems no doubt that they were worn on the breast, perhaps originally serving to fasten the outer garment near the shoulders. This was evidently the purpose of somewhat similar fastenings that sometimes occur in Gaulish graves on the continent, and specimens are published from Caranda (Dept. of the Aisne)' and the Department of the Marne.* That the Anglo-Saxon examples were lineally descended from the Gaulish type is more than probable, and it is interesting in this connec- tion to note that while the Kentish specimens were no doubt imported from France, the workmanship of the Little Hampton jewel shows Roman rather than Teutonic influence, and may point to a survival of Roman handicraft in a part of Britain remote from the main centres of Teutonic occupation. The minute plaited strands of gold that are applied lengthwise to the larger links of the chain bear a very close analogy to the Roman bracelet recently discovered at Rhayader in Radnorshire with other pieces of jewellery dating from about the third century. And though the garnet setting points to a post-Roman date and connects the work with Kentish and other jewellery of succeeding centuries, the design of the centre seems obviously akin to the wheel ornaments commonly found attached as pendants to neck-chains of the Roman period in Britain. On specimens from Wales and Northumberland, now in the British Museum, the number of spokes is the same as on the Worcestershire jewel ; and it is just possible that this design was popular as perpetuating the form in which money seems to have been current among the Gaulish tribes by whom parts of Britain had been occupied before Cesar's landing on the island. Further south, in the chapelry of Norton-in-Bredon, have been found various Anglo-Saxon relics, consisting of iron shield-bosses and spearheads, a knife and fragments of a sword, with part of the scabbard mounted in bronze, and a blue and reddish-yellow bead. The discovery was made during excavations at Norton Pitch near Bredon Hill ; and 1 British Museum, from the Londesborough Collection.
- Figured in his Catalogue of Antiquities, p. 157 ; and Journal of British Archaolo^cal Association,
ii. 237. 3 Album Caranda (F. Moreau), vol. 3, pU. 56, 94. Nouvelle Serie.
- La Champagne Souterraine (Morel Collection), pll. 13, 29, 40.
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