Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 11.djvu/69

Rh dilated, finishing like the top of a ramrod, and without any ornament. The weight was about two ounces. It was sold to a watchmaker at Axminster and condemned to the crucible, through apprehension possibly of the arbitrary claims of "Treasure-trove."

The Hon. gave a detailed relation of the discoveries made by him in a Saxon cemetery on Linton Heath, in Cambridgeshire, during the months of January and February, 1853. He exhibited a remarkable assemblage of bronze and silver ornaments, beads of amber, crystal and coloured paste, a few of the more curious objects of iron, and drawings by Mr. Youngman, of Saffron Walden, representing an unique funnel-shaped vase of glass; of admirable workmanship, and several cinerary urns. Mr. Neville's memoir will be given hereafter in this Journal. These remains, he observed, are similar in character to those found by him near Little Wilbraham, in the same county, in 1851, but he had reason to consider the cemetery at that place as of a rather later period than the burial-ground which had unexpectedly produced, in the immediate vicinity of the celebrated Bartlow Hills and other Roman vestiges, so rich a harvest of Saxon relics. In immediate juxtaposition, however, with these Saxon remains had been found several Imperial coins, the earliest being a second brass of Vespasian, an urn of Roman ware and a few other objects of decidedly Roman character. The like occurrence of Roman relics, comparatively few in number, had been noticed in the examination of Saxon barrows in Kent, as related by Douglas in the Nenia, and shown by the original objects preserved in the precious Museum of Kentish Antiquities, now belonging to the family of the late Dr. Faussett. Some persons had been disposed to regard the burial-place on Linton Heath as the vestige of some deadly conflict, for instance, in the struggle between Edmund Ironside and Hardicanute, in the year 1016, of which those parts of the eastern counties had been the scene. The discovery of Roman relics appears, Mr. Neville observed, to indicate an earlier period; and other facts connected with his discovery had led him to the opinion that the cemetery had been that of a tribe settled near the site of Roman occupation at Bartlow.

Mr. proposed thanks to Mr. Neville for so valuable a communication, and for the opportunity he had so kindly afforded to members of the Institute of examining a series of Saxon ornaments, exceeding in their variety and preservation any collection hitherto displayed before an assembly of English Archæologists; he also expressed his concurrence in the opinion that the cemetery had been a regular burial-place of Saxons settled near Linton Heath, and should not be regarded as the result of some great battle. The careful comparison of these beautiful ornaments and vestiges of ancient customs and warfare in Saxon times with those of cognate tribes in Kent and other districts of England, would be full of interest to the antiquary, and throw a fresh light upon obscure questions of historical enquiry. In regard to the Faussett Collection, of which mention had been made, Mr. Westmacott had the gratification to know that it had been recently offered to the Trustees of the British