Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 5.djvu/88

64 during the Meeting of the Institute at Norwich. Of one of these rings, formed of mixed yellow metal, with eleven bosses, and an oval facet, upon which appears a figure of St. Catharine (?), we are enabled, by the kindness of Mr. Fitch, to give a representation, of the same size as the original. It was found in Norfolk; the engraved device does not appear to have been intended to serve as a signet, but had probably been enamelled. Its date may be assigned to the times of Henry VI. Another example of this class here figured, and given by Mr. Jesse in his "Gleanings of Natural History," was discovered in the bed of the Thames, near Kingston; it has likewise eleven bosses, and is of brass: it lay near the weapons of bronze and iron, celts, &c., regarded as evidences that Cæsar and the Roman invaders passed the Thames at the ford near that spot, after a sharp conflict with the Britons, according to the curious details communicated by Dr. Roots, of Surbiton, at the Meeting of the Institute at Winchester. The interesting remains alluded to were exhibited by the kindness of that gentleman in the temporary museum formed on that occasion. This curious ring has been considered to be of the Roman times, but comparison with the specimen in Mr. Fitch's collection appears to justify the notion that it may be regarded as of medieval date, although found in the immediate vicinity of vestiges of an earlier age, thus accidentally thrown together in the alluvial deposit. Mr. Hoare, in a subsequent communication on this subject, states that the following explanation of the use of these rings had been given: that the ten bosses indicated ten aves; by the eleven, ten aves and a pater-noster were numbered, the last being marked by a boss of larger size; and the addition of a twelfth marked the repetition of a creed.

It has been stated by French antiquaries that metal rings formed with ten bosses, and one of as early date as the reign of St. Louis, have been found in France. It was at that period that the use of the chapelet, in honour of the Blessed Virgin, is supposed to have been devised by Peter the Hermit. A gold ring, with ten knobs and a circular ornament of larger size, bearing a plain cross, was found, in 1846, in pulling down an old house in Henllan Street, Denbigh, and was in the possession of S. Edwards, Esq., of that town. Its weight is a quarter of an ounce. A similar ring, of base metal, discovered in a tomb in York Minster, is preserved in the treasury of that church; and another example, of silver, precisely similar in form, was found in Whitby Abbey, Yorkshire, as communicated to Mr. Hoare, by Dr. Proctor, of York.

We are indebted likewise to Mr. Fitch for the communication of another curious ring, from his interesting cabinet of Norfolk antiquities. It is a