Page:VCH Sussex 1.djvu/401

 ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS accurately determined, it will be convenient to begin the series with those at the eastern extremity of the county and continue westward. The promontory overlooking the old haven of Hydney near Eastbourne has been prolific in remains of the Britons and Saxons, but these have not always been recorded or investigated with suffi- cient care. Where the Grange now stands in the Mill Field, a large number of interments were discovered in 1877 and fully described by Mr. Herbert Spurrell. The graves were spaced with the utmost regularity, and were about 2 ft. from the surface. Knives, spears, shield-bosses, glass tumblers, a wooden bucket with mounts of silvered bronze, an armlet, stirrups and swords were found, one of which had the upper portion of the wooden scabbard bound with a gilt bronze rim bearing a triangle and interlaced pattern.' A little nearer the town, on this same ridge, a grave was laid bare, containing an iron shield-boss on the chest of the skeleton, a spear-head, and a small wooden bucket about 6 inches high, the silvered (or tinned) bronze hoops of which were fastened by little screw-nuts. An iron sword was also found on the site with a silver-gilt mount ; and a bracelet lay in position on the wrist bones of another skeleton.^ There was no trace of mounds over the graves, but the Mill Field had been under cultivation for some time and any small barrows may have been obliterated. Fragments of Saxon pottery mixed with sherds of the Roman period are said to have been found in abundance all over the west slope of the hill, and further traces of the Saxons seem to have been met with when the road to Willingdon was lowered near the cemetery, several graves having been cut through in the course of the work. In January 1843 a small Saxon cemetery was discovered by Mr. Coles Child on the South Downs about six miles east of Lewes. On this, the highest eminence in the county, was a cluster of more than a dozen depressed mounds, the largest not more than 9 ft. in diameter ; and in each was a single skeleton laid in a cist about 3 ft. deep. In every case the feet were at the east end, and no spears or ornaments were found in the graves, though on the left side of one skeleton were seen traces of rust on the chalk, evidently the remains of the usual iron knife. This skeleton was the tallest in the group and was estimated at 6 ft. 4 in., belonging to a man between thirty-five and forty years of age at the time of death. His cranium showed a terrible sword-cut between 4 and 5 inches long, but the smoothness of the cut showed, in the opinion of Dr. Barnard Davis,^ that he lingered a few days before dying of the wound. The skull is fully described and said to have a modern English appearance, being regular and ovoid ; so much so that it is regarded as typical of one of the chief forms common among Anglo- Saxon skulls — a form that has evidently descended from pre-Norman > Sussex Archaeological Collections, vol. xxxvii. p. 112 ; Proc. Soc. Antiq, xv. 275. 2 Trans. Eastbourne Nat. Hist. Soc. vol. i. 18S2, p. 30 ; 1S84, p. 6. 3 Thurnam and Davis, Crania Britannica, pt. 2, pi. 29. 335