ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS the objects were presented to the museum of the Worcestershire Natural History Society in 1838 by one of the engineers employed in making the Birmingham and Gloucester railway. These are figured on a small scale in Allies' Antiquities and Folk-lore of the county, plate iii. One of the shield-bosses still retains a rivet which fastened it to the wooden shield ; and on more than one occasion similar rivets have been found in the graves, still retaining their original tin or silver coating. Specimens may be seen in the national collection from White Horse Hill and Long Wittenham, Berks, from Kempston, Beds, and the Isle of Wight, and they were evidently not confined to any one tribe or locality. The same may perhaps be said of the bronze chape (fig. 10), such as still remains attached by rust to the sword ^ found at Norton. Roach Smith, in describing the important discovery at Fairford, remarked^ that the pro- tection of the scabbard with a bronze rim at the top and bottom was a pecuUarity he had noticed in other examples found in Gloucestershire and Worcestershire. His observation would have carried more weight in the present case if he had pointed to drawings or descriptions of other specimens in the Hwiccan district ; and two instances will suffice to show that such examples are not confined to the district in question. A remarkably well-preserved chape from Brighthampton, Oxon,' has the same peculiarity, and the bronze binding is ornamented with figures of lions with the head turned round over the back, a design that seems also to have been a favourite one with the Anglo-Saxon craftsmen of the Christian period. Another found near Burford, Oxon, is in the British Museum. But archeology cannot at present be said to have shown any essential difference between burials in Hwiccia and in the original king- dom of the West Saxons. In addition to the objects already mentioned as showing connection with the occupants of the upper Thames valley, there are preserved in the museum at Worcester some of the antiquities collected by the late Canon Winnington Ingram of Harvington. Some of these were doubtless found in his own neighbourhood along the Avon valley in the south-eastern angle of the county ; and an exceptionally fine pair of saucer brooches, of the type discovered at Upton Snodsbury, are known to have come from Bidford, just across the county border in Warwickshire. Six miles to the north-east of this place have been found similar specimens at Aston Cantlow,* and further up the Avon at Long- bridge near Warwick.^ This series of discoveries goes some way towards proving that the same tribe had settlements along the river above and below the present border of Worcestershire ; and lends support to the view that the conquests of Ceawlin took this direction, stopping short only at the early Mercian frontier about Rugby. The blending of races in this vicinity is strikingly suggested by the discovery of the West-Saxon 1 Part of a pommel (fig. i), found in the county, belonged to such a sword. Akerman, Pagan Saxondom, pi. xxiv. gives details.
- Archaologia, xxxiv. 8i, pi. x. fig. 3. ^ Figured in Archaoh^a, xxxviii. 96, pi. ii.
- Society of Antiquaries, Proceedings, 2nd series, iii. 424. ^ British Museum.
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