In palstaves of this class there is often a slight projection on each of the sides a little below the level of the stop-ridge. Below this projection the sides are usually more carefully hammered and planished than above it.
In a narrow palstave of this class, found at Freeland, near Witney, Oxfordshire, there are three short ridges at the bottom of each of the recesses for the handle, like those in a palstave from Newbury, subsequently described. These were probably designed to assist in steadying the handle.
A palstave (7¼ inches) from Cynwyd,[261] Merionethshire, appears to be of this type.
An instrument of this type from Les Andelys[262] (Eure) has been figured. Another, with the vertical rib in the shield, from a hoard found in Normandy, has been engraved by the Abbé Cochet.[263] Some from the Bernay hoard have a similar ornament.
On some palstaves of this class there is a series of vertical ribs within the semi-elliptical loop, as will be seen in Fig. 61. This is taken from a specimen found at Shippey, near Ely, which is in the collection of Mr. Marshall Fisher of Ely, who has kindly allowed me to engrave it. I have one from Bottisham, near Cambridge (6¾ inches), on which there is a smaller vertical ridge, on each side of the central ridge, within the ornament. One from Snettisham, Norfolk (6⅛ inches), like that from Shippey, is in the Norwich Museum. Another from Lakenheath, Suffolk (5¾ inches), is in the collection of Mr. James Carter of Cambridge.
A palstave with this ornament is in the Museum at Soissons.
The type is also found in Northern Germany.[264]
In some cases these vertical lines below the stop-ridge are not enclosed in any loop. In Fig. 62 is shown an example of the kind from a specimen in my own collection found in the Severn, near Wainlodes Hill, Gloucester. It has a slight rib down the middle of the blade. One of the same class (6¼ inches), with four vertical stripes, found on Clayton Hill, Sussex, is in the collection of Mrs. Dickinson of Hurstpierpoint; four others (about 6½ inches long), with five short vertical ridges, were found with two of the type of Fig. 63 in making the railway near Bognor, and are now in the Blackmore Museum at Salisbury.
—— Fig. 62.—Severn. ½ —————— Fig. 63.—Sunningwell. ½