Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 9.djvu/242

 180 NOTICE OF A SAXOX BEOOCH. supposition that tlioy were frequently worn in pairs,' although in manr instances as in that now noticed, a single fibula only may have been brought to light. Amongst specimens found in England, may be noticed those represented by Douglas in the Xenia, (plates 2, 4, 6, and 15) dis- interred in tumuli in Kent, some of them of small dimensions ; one found at Rothley Temple, Leicestershire, now in the Museum of the Society of Antiquaries, and another from Great "Wigston, in the same county, both represented in Nichols' History ; - the fine examples from Cataractonium, in the possession of Sir William Lawson, Bart., figured in this Journal,^ and the highly curious assemblage of varied forms, produced by Mr. Roach Smith in a memoir on " Anglo-Saxon Remains," in his Collectanea Antiqua."* These brooches were attached to the dress by means of an iron acus, which fell into a small recurved catch, and the intention of the embowed neck, an almost invariable feature of the larger ornaments of this description, appears to have been for facility in passing the finger under it, when it was desired to relieve the crews from the fastening. The face of the brooch is very often thickly gilded, in some examples silvered, and occasionally it is set with a few small pieces of bright red glass. A very interesting display of rich examples existing in the Museums at Mayence, "Wiesbaden, Augsburg. <tc., may be seen amongst the illustra- tions of German Antiquities, produced at Mayence by the Society for investigating Rhenish History and Archaeology, a beautiful work, well deserving the attention of English Antiquaries.^ From these .foreign examples we learn the curious fact that occasionally a pendant, possibly regarded as an amulet, was attached to the smaller extremity of this kind of fibula, tending to indicate that it was worn, not transversely placed on the dress, as might have been supposed, but with the broader end upper- most. In the Wiesbaden Museum a large brooch of this description, found at Kreuznach, maybe seen (oo in. in length), having at the smaller end a loop, to which a ball of red ferruginous stone is appended, in a light frame of metal wires. ^ This adjustment strikingly recalls the crystal ball suspended in a frame of silver, attached to two rings of the same metal, found by Douglas in a tumulus on Chatham Lines." Another fibula, found at Frankfort, now in the same Museum, has a small ring on the reverse of its smaller extremity, doubtless for the suspension of some object of an ornamental or talismnnic nature. The conjecture seems not inadmis- sible, that the large perforated crystal found with the fibula at Myton may have been an amulet appended to it by means of a string or thong, which might readily be attached to the acus on the reverse of the brooch. A similar peifurated crystal of quartz, of much smaller dimensions, may be seen in the Museum of the Society of Antiquaries. It was found with ashes, in an urn, near Hunsbury Hill, Northamptonshire.^ Albert Way. ' Compare the accounts of interments also Journal of Brit. Archaeol. Assoc., in Gemiany piven in tlie interesting work vol. i., p. 61 ; vol. ii., p. 31 1. f f Lindenschmit, " Das Germanische ^ Abbildunpen von Mainzer Alter- Todtenlager bei Selzen, in der Provinz tluimern, &c.,No. 3. Mayence, 1851. 4to. Rheinhessen," Mayence, 1848 ; pi. 10, 1 1. « See Lindenschmit" s " Jlemoir, ibid., - Nichols" Hist, of Leicestershire, vol. p. 11. iii.,p 956, pi. 129 ; vol. iv., part i.,p. 377. '' Nenia, plate iv.,p 14. An imperfect specimen, of large dimen- ^ Catalogue of the Museum of Soc. of sions, may be seen in the Leicester Antiqu., p. 20. This crystal measures Museum. about 1 a in. greatest diameter. Another •■' Archaeol. Journal, vol vi., p. 21 6. is figui-ed by Mr. Wylie, Fairford Graves,
 * Collect. Ant., vol. ii., p. 155. See pi. 4.