ANTIQUITIES EXHIBITED IN THE MUSEUM OF THE INSTITUTE, AT LINCOLN. Bronze skillets, found near Swinton Park, Yorkshire. ANGLO-SAXON OR ANTE-NORMAN, AND EARLY IRISH ANTIQUITIES. A very singular vase, or shallow cup, of silver-gilt, most curiously ornamented on both sides with filagree work, fictitious gems, and plaques of vitreous paste, forming a kind of mosaic, resembling Oriental work in its design. In the centre of the vase there is a figure of an animal, possibly a cameleopard. This remarkable vase appears to have been contrived so as to be suspended, and it was possibly one of the hanging pelves anciently used amongst sacred decorations. It was found in clearing out the bed of the river Witham, near Lincoln, about 1820, and was purchased by the late Coningsby Waldo Sibthorp. Esq., by whom it was bequeathed to his brother-in-law, John Hawkins, Esq.-John Heywood Hawkins, Esq., Bignor Park, Sussex. Three pins, of silver-gilt, headed with flat disks, measuring about 1 inches diameter, highly ornamented with interlaced work and intertwined dragons or wyverns, in the style of the sculptured crosses of the ante-Norman period. Each of these circular plates had a jewel or fictitious gem in the centre, surrounded by four others, and the general arrangement of decoration appears intended to give a cruciform effect, analogous to the sculptured heads of some stone crosses in Wales, Ireland, &c. The disks are linked together by narrow plates, 24 in. in length, chased with scroll ornaments of the same period. These unique ornaments had been supposed to have been worn in the hair, or as a kind of coronet, being fixed into a head-dress of tissue. The pins are extremely sharp. They were found in the bed of the river Witham, near Lincoln. A dish, or pelvis, described as of pure copper, found about 1700, on the site of Chertsey Abbey, Surrey. It bears on the rim an inscription, in characters partly Runic or Anglo-Saxon, partly Roman, which have been thus read by Mr. Kemble: GÆTEOH URÆCкO, and interpreted as signifying-" Offer, Sinner! It was probably an offertory vessel, and may be assigned to the eleventh or twelfth century. It is the property of Mr. Wetton, of Chertsey, whose family had long possessed the Abbey lands. Dimensions:-diameter, 7 in.; depth, 14 in. (See Archæologia, Vol. xxx., p. 40.)—Mr. J. M. Kemble. An oval dish, or basin, of mixed yellow metal, found in the bed of the river Witham, about five miles below Lincoln, with various antiquities assigned to the Ante-Norman period. Dimensions, 127 in. by 7 in.; depth, 24 in. Mr. E. J. Willson, F.S.A. Ancient bell, of bronze plate, hammered and rivetted together. Found on the supposed site of Offa's Palace, at Marden, Herefordshire. Engraved in Arch. Journ., Vol. v., p. 329.—The Dean of Hereford. Cruciform fibula, of bronze, of the Anglo-Saxon age, found in Suffolk. A very curious sword, the blade of iron, sheathed in a scabbard of bronze, which is mounted with a peculiar embossed and engraved ornament, bearing resemblance in the character of design, to that of the bronze coating of a shield, found about 1826 in the Witham, near Washingborough, and now preserved in the armory at Goodrich Court.* (See Archæologia, Vol. xxiii., pl. xiii. Skelton's Illustr. of the Meyrick Armory, pl. xlvii.) It was also discovered in the bed of the river Witham.-Mr. E. J. Willson. Two iron swords, in bronze scabbards, one of which has some appearance of gilding. They were found in the Witham, at Washingborough, and bear much resemblance to the remarkable weapons discovered in 1787, in the same river, Presented to Sir S. Meyrick, through the Earl Brownlow, by the Rev. Humphrey W. Sibthorpe, near whose property this unique object was found. near Bardney Abbey, one of which, represented in Philos. Trans., 1796, tab. xi. may now be seen in the Library over the Cloisters at Lincoln Cathedral. S. M. Peto, Esq., M.P., and James Peto, Esq. Another iron sword, in a bronze scabbard, found in the Witham, at Bardney. Length of the scabbard, 2 ft. 7 in.-The Rev. the Precentor. A collection of weapons and antiquities, discovered in Ireland (see woodcuts), consisting of two iron swords, iron spear-heads, dagger, axe-head, chain and ring (supposed to have been a manacle), an iron ladle, a small knife, and other curious relics, found in a remarkable tumulus at Lagore, co. Meath. (See Arch. Journ., Vol. vi., p. 101.) Also, a bronze sword, found near Innfield, co. Kildare; a small celt, and bronze arrow-head; an object formed of stone, supposed to have been a projectile for the sling; four arrow-heads, of silex, and one lozenge-formed, discovered in co. Antrim; and three small axe-heads, of stone, found in Ireland.— The Hon. James Talbot. Cast, in plaster, from a bronze torc, originally ornamented with gems or fictitious pastes, found in the parish of Wraxall, Somerset.—Mr. Arthur Trollope. A bronze torc, of the beaded type, found in a small bronze basin, in Sochar Moss, Scotland. (Archæologia, Vol. xxxiii., pl. xv.; Arch. Journ., Vol. iii., p. 159.)— Mr. Thomas Gray, of Liverpool. A bronze ring-fibula, either of the late Roman or of Saxon date; found in Lincoln. Diameter, 14 in. Another, precisely similar, found with Anglo-Roman remains at Chesterford, is in the Hon. R. Neville's Museum, at Audley End.Rev. Edwin Jarvis. Armilla, of bronze, twisted, 21 inches internal diameter; found in the Castle Yard, Lincoln, in digging for the foundations of the New County Hall, Dec., 1822. Four or five other armillæ were found at the same spot, at a depth of twenty feet or upwards. Many foundations of buildings were discovered, some of them having been anciently arched over, with semicircular arches. The other armillæ were all broken, and most of them of slighter form than this specimen ; a second, similar to it, was found broken into two pieces. They were ornamented with circular marks, engraved or impressed on the outside. Similar armillæ were dug up at Kingerby, when the Hall was rebuilt, about the end of the last century: one of them, as it was stated, was found upon the arm-bone of a human skeleton. -Mr. Edward J. Willson. Skates, formed of the leg-bone of a small horse, or other animal, discovered in Lincoln. One side was shaved off, presenting a smooth flat surface, and in some examples there is a transverse perforation through one end, doubtless to pass a strap; and, at the other end, another, in a lengthwise direction, which might receive a peg or hook, for the purpose of attachment to the foot. Similar skates have been found at York, and are preserved in the Museum there. They have been also found in various parts of London, especially in the boggy soil of Moorfields, as stated by Mr. Roach Smith, in whose collection they are. It is very remarkable that Stephanides, in his account of the sports of the citizens, describes sliding on that very moor, north of London, and says, that some bind to their shoes leg-bones of animals, therewith moving with speed as a bird," &c. The practice was in use in Northern Europe, and is described by Olaus Magnus.* of the relics of this nature exhibited was of greater length and weight than is suitable for such use, and possibly was used with some kind of sledge, or as a "runner," to facilitate the removal of a boat: it was found, in 1848, near an ancient canoe, disinterred in forming the Great Northern Railway, at Stixwold Ferry. (See Woodcuts.)—Mr. Arthur Trollope. One Collection of remains of various kinds, found in excavations at Lamel-hill, near York, in 1847-48, with fragments of metal, supposed to have been affixed to coffins, &c., deposited in the singular tumular cemetery at that spot, attributed to the See Mr. Smith's Collectanea Antiqua, p. 167, where representations of these curious relics are given. |