A blade of the same character from Ireland is given by Vallancey.[945] A fine specimen from the same country (18 inches) is in the British Museum.[946] What appears to be a part of a blade[947] of the same kind has been regarded as a kind of “steel” for sharpening other blades.
A rapier-shaped blade (21 inches) with two rivet-holes was found, with socketed celts and a palstave, at Mawgan,[948] Cornwall.
Blades of this character are also found in France. Two from the departments of Aisne and Somme,[949] have been figured. One (20 inches long) is in the Museum at Nantes.
A rapier blade from the Chaussée Brunehault, and now in the Boulogne Museum, is almost like a trefoil in outline at the hilt end.
A still longer blade of this character, which perhaps ought with greater propriety to have been classed among swords, is shown in Fig. 316 on the scale of one-fourth. It has unfortunately lost its point, but is still 17¾ inches long. It would appear to have been originally about 20½ inches long, as shown in the figure. The blade in this case has three projecting ribs between which and again towards the edges it is fluted. It was found in the River Ouse, near Thetford. The imperfect rivet-holes at the base appear to have been cast in the blade, and the means of steadying it in its hilt must have been but inadequate. Such weapons, however, can only have been intended for stabbing, and not for striking.
Another blade of similar form, but with perfect rivet-holes, was found in the fine earthwork of Badbury, Dorsetshire, and is in the collection of Mr. Durden, of Blandford. It is 23½ inches long and 2-9/16 inches wide at the base above the rivet-holes.
Blades of this kind are occasionally found in Ireland. In the British Museum is one (9 inches) with deep notches for the rivets, found in Rathkennan Bog, Co. Tipperary.
Fig. 315.—Chatteris. ¼ — Fig. 316.—Thetford. ¼ — Fig. 317.—Londonderry. ¼
