In another sickle found in the Thames, near Bray, Berks[709] (Fig. 235), the socket dies into the blade instead of forming a distinct feature. A third, found near Windsor, and engraved in the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries,[710] closely resembles Fig. 234, but the end of the socket, instead of being closed, is open. The blade of this also is sharp on both edges.
One from Stretham Fen, in the Museum of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society (about 5½ inches), is of the same character. It has two rivet-holes in the socket. Another from Downham Fen (5¾ inches) is sharp on both edges.
Fig. 235.—Near Bray. ½
In the Norwich Museum is a sickle of somewhat the same character as Fig. 235, but the socket instead of being oval is oblong, and is placed at a less angle to the blade, which in this case also is double-edged. The socket is 11/16 by 7/16 inch, and has one rivet-hole through it. The curved knife from Wicken Fen, to be described in the next chapter, much resembles this Norwich example in outline. Another sickle from Norfolk[711] was exhibited to the Archæological Institute in 1851. Mr. Franks has shown me a sketch of another found at Dereham which has the external edge of the blade extending across the end of the socket. Both edges of the blade are sharp.
But few sickles have been found in Scotland. That shown in Fig. 236 was found in the Tay,[712] near Errol, Perthshire, in 1840, and has been described by Dr. J. Alexander Smith. The block, which has been kindly lent me by the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, is engraved on the scale of two-thirds linear, instead of my usual scale of one-half. The main difference between this specimen and mine from the Thames (Fig. 234) consists in the blade being fluted. Another more rudely made sickle, found at Edengerach,[713] Premnay, Aberdeenshire, has also been engraved. This has a single central rib along the blade and no rivet-hole through the socket. Perhaps it is an unfinished casting.
Fig. 236.—Near Errol, Perthshire. ⅔
In Sinclair’s “Statistical Account of Scotland”[714] it is stated that an instrument of this class was found at Ledbeg, Sutherlandshire, and was pronounced by the Earl of Bristol, then Bishop of Derry, to whom it was presented, to be a Druidical pruning hook similar to several found in England.
In Ireland these instruments are much more abundant. Eleven specimens are mentioned by Wilde[715] as being in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy, and there are three in the British Museum, as well as one in that at Edinburgh.