Page:VCH Suffolk 1.djvu/428

 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK to be ultimately derived from Italy, but adapted and transformed by native artists. That the Blythburgh tablet served another purpose when no longer used for writing on wax is deduced from the fact that the decorative panel was pierced by seven (now six) bronze rivets placed symmetrically, and apparently intended to hold a metal cross outside, as there are marks on the interlacing that would agree with the equal-armed cross then in use among the Anglo- Saxons.'"^ On this theory, however, there would be no use for the rivet at the ano-le and the corresponding one (if it ever existed) on the corner broken away. A bone draughtsman now in the Bury Museum was found at Fin- borough ; and may, like several found in London,"^^ date from the Viking period, but contemporary finds are scarce in the county ; and special men- tion may be made of a trefoil brooch ornamented with conventional foliage in Carlovingian type found at Lakenheath Warren and now preserved at Cambridge. It resembles one in the British Museum from Roskilde, Zea- land, though the latter is ornamented in a different style, and its locality explains the presence of this type in England during the Danish period. Among Anglo-Saxon remains of the later period seals are perhaps the rarest, and at the same time the most interesting from the historical point of view. The series is very limited, but Suffolk is, as usual, represented. The seal-matrix is of bronze, 2| in. in height, and in the form of a cone, with two tiers of pierced arches, each containing an animal head, and at the apex of the cone a terminal something like a fleur-de-lys. The eyes of the animal heads were originally represented by garnets, of which only one remains, and their loss is easily explained. After being dug up in a garden by a labourer, about 200 yds. from the site of the monastery at Eye, the seal was given as a plaything to a child, who threw it on the fire. The effect of this treatment may still be seen on the bronze, which was luckily rescued by the child's mother, and presented to the British Museum in 1822 by Mr. Hudson Gurney."* The legend of the seal is : + sig. eoilwaldi ep. —, which shows that it belonged to Ethilwald, Bishop of Dunwich, in the middle of the 9th century. This prelate addressed the Profession of Faith to Ceolnoth, Archbishop of Canterbury (830-70), and cannot have resided at Dunwich after 870, when the see, created by St. Felix in the 7th century, was ravaged by the Danes. The East Anglian bishopric had been divided about 673, and while Dunwich remained the see of Suffolk, that of Norfolk was removed to Elmham. The monks of Eye possessed the site of the bishopric at Dunwich till it was swallowed by the sea, and had a cell there till the Dissolution, hence the discovery of the seal near the monastery is easily explained. The lettering is an abbreviation of sigillvm ethilwaldi EPiscoPi, and surrounds a star, of which four points have floral additions, much in the style of the coinage.'"'^ In the abbey grounds at Bury an interesting relic was found more than sixty years ago by a labourer, and subsequently passed into the collection of "" Besides the jewelled crosses from Norfolk and Suffolk, compare the Gravesend and Canterbury examples {F.C.H. Kent, i, 381, 382) and that found in the coffin of St. Cuthbert, who died 687 {KC.H. Dur. i, 254). ""' r.C.H. London, i, 166. "* This account is published with illustrations and the text of the Profession in ^rch. xx, 479. ^"'^ Cat. Jngi'o-Saxon Coins (Brit. Mus.), ii, pi. viii, 16 (penny of Edward the Elder). 352