Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 4.djvu/76

64 eorumve antecessores qui è drengorum classe erant, vel per drengagium tenuere, sua incoluisse patrimonia ante adventum Normannorum." The discovery, therefore, of a skeleton, which, from the whole appearance of its interment, undoubtedly dated from very early times, the presence of this ornament of Saxon workmanship, and the locality of the grave, make it more than probable that this was the tomb of one of Gilbert de Broham's Saxon ancestors.

It is not easy to conjecture to what purpose the ornament itself had been applied. It may have been the end or mounting of a Saxon drinking-horn, or possibly of a hunting-horn, the whole of which (except the metal rim) had decayed during the eight centuries it has lain in the ground.

The other skeletons found in this part of the chancel were five in number, making in the whole nine bodies in a space of little more than twelve feet, all of them laid with their feet to the east, and at a depth of about twenty inches below the surface of the ground. They rested upon a bed of dry gravel, without any appearance of damp, which may account for the perfect preservation in which the bones were found. In only two of the nine were any traces of a coffin visible; these were in two near the centre of the chancel (the Saxon grave being near the south wall); the coffins were indicated by the form of the coffin ends being impressed upon the soil, and marked by a black powder, the exact shape of a coffin end, and evidently of decayed wood. Why there were no remains of the sides, top, or bottom, can only be accounted for on the supposition that the end boards were of much thicker wood than the rest of the coffins. The only difference between the two was that in one case the wood-dust was black, in the other dark brown.

No trace of lead, cerecloth, or leather was found. In these early interments, therefore, the bodies were probably only wrapped in their shrouds.

In the remaining portion of the south end of the chancel (now used as the burying vault of the family) there is a large stone coffin, filled with bones, there being actually nine skulls in it. There are also some leaden coffins, quite plain: these, from the inscriptions on the floor of the chancel, are not more ancient than the fifteenth century, and they present nothing remarkable in their appearance; they were not opened.