Page:VCH Northamptonshire 1.djvu/310

 A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE being beaded and the backs plain ; and lastly a gold cross, which formed no doubt the central ornament of the necklace. The body of the cross is formed of two cylinders of gold, and at the intersection is set a small garnet in bead-work, the back having had a similar ornament which is now missing. Gold-mounted garnets in the form of pendants have often been dis- covered in Kent,^ where the graves contain jewellery in such profusion ; but elsewhere they are rare, and it is interesting to notice that while single pendants are not unknown in other parts of England, three of these rare necklaces have been discovered in districts which on geographical or historical grounds may be considered as Romano- British rather than Anglo-Saxon during the pagan period. One found on Roundway Down, near Devizes, is figured in Akerman's Pagan Saxondom ; another from Derbyshire formed one of the chief orna- ments of the Bateman collection ; and the Desborough specimen is figured in Rev. R. S. Baker's account in Archaologia. At the same time it is unwise to call these trinkets late Roman, as some well- informed antiquaries have done, for at present they seem to be gener- ally associated with Anglo-Saxon remains in the graves, and a wiser course is to consider them as Teutonic reproductions of the paste- settings so characteristic of late Roman jewellery. The cross on the Desborough necklace is presumptive evidence that the original owner had adopted the Christian faith, and unless we allow that Christianity has persisted in the county from the days of the Emperor Constantine, remains of this character must be referred to some date before the end of the fifth century or after the middle of the seventh. The presence of Anglo-Saxon glass and other objects is generally held to fix the latter as the period of this and similar interments. In the other grave, which also contained a skeleton and was near the last, a number of objects were found, which are thus described by the excavator. A saucepan-shaped vessel of very thin metal, with rounded bottom and a broad flat handle which expands towards the end into a circle. The edge of the handle is flanged or strengthened by a projecting ridge, and at the back of the handle has been a small loop or ring by which the vessel could be suspended. It is 3 inches in depth, and the diameter of the bowl 10 inches, the entire length including the handle being 16 inches. Besides this, a delicate pair of scales, of which only fragments remain, the pans being of very thin bronze, and measuring i| inches in diameter. A spoon of base silver or white metal, just over 6 inches long has both extremities imperfect ; and the lower part of the stem where it meets the bowl has a singular expansion, suggested perhaps by the form of the late Roman spoons, although the somewhat meagre ornament in the upper end shows no mark of classical design.^ A hinge or clasp, also of white metal, with engraved ornament of Teutonic character, each portion having three prominent rivets, and the whole measuring 2| inches. > Several are figured in Inventorium Sepulchrale, pi. iv. ' Anhaolo^a, vol. liii. p. 117. 238