The second of the three rings is inscribed in the above form with the name of Alfred’s father, king Ethelwulf, for whom it was evidently made. It is in the form of a bishop’s mitre, with only one peak.
In 1781, March 22, Lord Radnor brought this find before the Society of Antiquaries. It had been found in the summer of 1780 in a field in the parish of Laverstoke, near Salisbury. According to the finder’s story, it was brought to the surface by the pressure of a cart-wheel, and it lay exposed on the edge of the rut. Mr. Howell, a silversmith in Salisbury, gave the man thirty-four shillings for the value of the gold, and Lord Radnor bought it of Mr. Howell. It still shows the effect of hard pressure, being almost flattened. It was figured in the Archæologia, vii. 421, and repeatedly since. It is preserved in the British Museum.
A Gold Ring upon which the Name Of Æthelswith, Queen of Mercia, has been incised.
In the two rings already described, the names of Alhstan and Æthelwulf belong to the fabric of the rings, as the name of Ælfred belongs to the fabric of the Jewel. But it is different in the ring of queen Æthelswith.
This ring swells out into a dilated bezil, on the cop of which is an Agnus Dei, beautifully engraved in relief, with a background of niello. The interior of this bezil (which would be in contact with the wearer’s finger) was a fair gold surface when the ring was finished and put out of hand by the goldsmith. Subsequently, the name of Æthelswith has been incised upon that surface with the fine point of a graving tool, somewhat in this form:
where the