I have examples from the Seine at Paris, and also from the neighbourhood of Amiens.
In some cases the rivet-holes cut through the margin of the metal as in Fig. 304.
Blades appear sometimes to have been cast with deep rounded notches in the base to receive the rivets instead of having holes drilled or cast in them. That shown in Fig. 314 is of this character, and was found in the Thames at London. It was given to me by Mr. C. Roach Smith, F.S.A. Others of the same character have also been found in the Thames. One of these (16⅝ inches), of nearly the same type but more rounded at the lower part of the wings, is in the British Museum.
Canon Greenwell has a blade of this type (8¾ inches), found near Methwold, Norfolk.
A specimen of this form (11 inches) from Edington Burtle, Somerset, is in the Museum at Taunton.
A blade from Inchigecla,[940] Co. Cork, figured in the Archæological Journal, seems to be notched in a similar manner. Another of different form, but apparently notched after the same fashion, is engraved by Vallancey.[941]
Some of the rapier-shaped blades, and especially those of larger size, such as seem intermediate between swords and daggers, are ornamented as well as strengthened by a projecting midrib, while their weight is diminished by flutings along either side. A beautiful example of this kind, found at the bottom of an old canoe, between the peat and clay, near Chatteris, Cambs, is shown one-quarter size in Fig. 315. I have another (14 inches) with the midrib not quite so prominent, and with the rivet-holes cutting the margin of the base, found at Aston Ingham, Herefordshire. A portion of another was found near Waterbeach,[942] Cambs.
A broader blade of the same character (12¾ inches), with two very large rivets, was found in the Thames at Kingston, and is now in the British Museum. A narrower blade (12 inches) with the rivet-holes cutting through the base, was found at Cæsar’s Camp, Farnham, Surrey, and is in the same collection.
A long blade of this character from the Thames (21 inches long and 2⅜ inches wide at the base), with central ridge and slight flutings at the edges, may more properly be regarded as a sword. It is in the British Museum.
Six blades, all of the rapier character, but varying in details, and from 12 inches to 22 inches in length, were found at Talaton, Devonshire.[943] Some moulds of stone for blades of the same kind were found at Hennock in the same county, and will subsequently be described. Another blade (17 inches) was found at Winkleigh,[944] near Crediton, Devon.