Page:VCH Kent 1.djvu/421

 r- ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS The Gilton sword-pommer is of the cocked-hat pattern, common enough in the south of England but especially in Kent. It was found in the Anglo-Saxon cemetery (p. 354), and is now in the Mayer collection at Liverpool. Though the edges were much rubbed, Haigh deciphered the inscription as ICU IK SIGI MUARNUM IK WISA DAGMUND, translating ' I increase victory by great deeds, I, chieftain Dagmund.' The two sepulchral stones now in the Canterbury Museum are of special interest as having no apparent connection with Christianity, and as being unparalleled in this country, though Horsa's monument mentioned by Bede ' as existing in his own day (early eighth century) may have been of a similar description. Both the stones were found about 1830 by Mr. Boys' labourers who were digging in an open field near Sandwich, and one retains in Runic letters the name R/EH/EBVL (see fig. 2), the lettering on the other having been effaced almost entirely." The inscribed stone is 16 inches high, and 6 inches square at the widest part, while the other is somewhat larger, measuring 17 inches in height, and 5 inches square. It is probable that the thicker portion was the top, the base tapering somewhat and being shaped with less care ; but whether they were placed on the summit or in the interior of grave-mounds cannot now be determined. The historian of Sandwich presented them to his fellow-townsman, Mr. Rolfe, who transferred them to their present resting-place. The majority of the early cemeteries lie within or close to a triangle of which the sides meet at Canterbury, Dover and Sandwich, and coincide with ancient Roman roads. As in the present state of knowledge it would be idle to pretend to a systematic chronology, it will be con- venient to start with the ancient capital, where we seem to be brought face to face with the first Christian king by a chance discovery near St. Martin's Church. Six gold coins, a Roman intaglio set in the same metal, and what was probably the face of a brooch set with garnets or glass slabs in projecting partitions, were found actually on the site of St. Augustine's, and had no doubt been originally deposited in a grave. The grant by Ethelberht of a chapel to his queen Bertha and her priest Luidhard is well known, and it is interesting to find that one rendering* of the lettering on one piece is LYUDARDVS EPS. 1 Figured in Arch. Cant. viii. 259 (3 views); Stephens, Runic Monuments, i. 370. 2 Eccles. History, i. 15 ; Stephens points out that it had disappeared when Alfred made his transla- tion of Bede. 3 Both figured by Stephens, Runic Monuments, i. 366-7 ; Arch. Cant. viii. 226. the find as a whole, see Num. Chron. vii. (1845), 187, and Proc. p. 28 ; Coll. Ant. i. pi. Iv. figs. 6-8, p. 178 J Arch. Journ. i. 279 ; Arch. Cant. iii. 40. Now in the Mayer collection at Liverpool. Fig. 2. Tombstone of Rae- HAEBta, Sandwich Q).
 * Rev. D. H. Haigh, in Num. Chron. n. s. ix. (1869), 177, and Arch. Cant. viii. 233 (figure) ; for