I have an example, originally 26 inches long, found with a leaf-shaped spear-head near Weymouth.
The type occurs also in France. I have one (18¾ inches), with a slot and four rivets, from Albert, near Amiens. Another was found near Argenteuil,[1028] Seine et Oise. I have seen a bronze sword from Spain, also with the three slots.
In the collection of Canon Greenwell, F.R.S., is a remarkably fine sword (27½ inches) from Barrow, Suffolk, in which the long slot in the hilt-plate is combined with ten small rivet-holes. The central ridge on the blade is well pronounced, as will be seen by Fig. 343. The blunted part of the blade near the hilt is engraved or milled diagonally. The number of rivets is here larger than usual; but in a sword (28½ inches) from the Thames, near Vauxhall,[1029] there are five rivet-holes in the centre of the plate in lieu of the slot, and four in each of the wings—thirteen in all. In another (23½ inches) from the same locality there are eleven, three in each wing and five in the centre. One (27 inches) from the Thames, in the Museum of the Society of Antiquaries, has ten rivets, of which four are in the centre.
Another (28½ inches) with ten rivet-holes, four in the hilt-plate and three in each wing, was found in the Thames[1030] in 1856, and is in the British Museum.
A sword from the Roach Smith Collection (20⅜ inches) has a well-marked midrib to the blade, which is somewhat hollowed on either side of it. The hilt-plate has the central slot and four rivet-holes, in which two rivets remain.
In the British Museum is another sword (27⅝ inches) of much the same form at the hilt, but with ten rivet-holes, three in each wing and four in the central plate, which is prolonged beyond the fishtail-like expansion in the form of a flat tang, 1 inch by ⅝ inch. It was found in the Lea,[1031] near London. The lower part of the hilt has been united to the blade by a subsequent process of burning on, as will shortly be mentioned.
This prolongation of the hilt-plate is not singular. In the Rouen Museum is a sword with thirteen rivets which exhibits this peculiarity. The same exists in a Swiss Lake[1032] sword, and is not uncommon in swords found in Italy.
Another sword from the Thames (23 inches) has five holes in the hilt-plate and four in each wing. The blade, which expands from 1¼ inch near the hilt to 2⅛ inches at two-thirds of its length, is ornamented with a single engraved line skirting the edge.
In the British Museum is another remarkably fine sword from the Thames, ornamented in a similar manner, but with a slot in the hilt-plate and three rivet-holes in each wing. The blade is 24½ inches long and from 1⅞ inch to 2⅜ inches wide.
Another, from Battle, Sussex (29½ inches), has eleven rivets, three in the hilt-plate, which is in form much like that of Fig. 343. The blade is drawn down towards the edges. The lower end shows where the runner was broken off after it was cast, and is left quite rough, thus raising the presumption that it was covered by some kind of pommel. Five rivets are still preserved.