Another, apparently of the same type, found near Brighton, is engraved in the Sussex Archæological Collections.[265]
Another variety, having nearly the same general form, but no elliptical ridge below the stop, is shown in Fig. 63, engraved from a specimen in my own collection, found at Sunningwell, near Abingdon. The end of the recess for the handle is somewhat rounded, and there is a well-marked central rib running down the blade. At the upper part, near the stop-ridge, there are also slight side flanges. The metal in the recess for the handle is thinnest near the stop, so as to be somewhat dovetailing.
This is markedly the case in a fine example of the same type (6½ inches) with the provenance of which I am unacquainted. In another, also in my own collection, found at Newbury, Berks, the side flanges of the blade are continued almost down to the edge, and the bottom as well as the end of the recess for the handle is rounded. Near the end of the recess are some slight longitudinal ribs, one on one face and two on the other, perhaps designed to assist in steadying the handle. The mouldings along the sides of the blade are often much more fully developed, like those on Fig. 77.
Palstaves of this type have been obtained from the following localities: from South Cerney,[266] near Cirencester; from the mouth of the River Wandle,[267] in Surrey, now preserved in the British Museum; from Bucks[268] (6 inches long), also in the British Museum; from Chichester;[269] Astley,[270] Worcestershire; Llangwyllog,[271] Anglesea (6¼ inches); from near Bognor,[272] Billingshurst,[273] and Iford,[274] Sussex; and Lovehayne,[275] near Broad Down, Devon (5⅛ inches); where several appear to have been found in the rough state in which they came from the mould. I have an example from the neighbourhood of Penzance.
One (6¾ inches) found near Ashford, Kent, is in the Mayer Collection at Liverpool. One of the same kind was found with a hammer, a tanged chisel, broken spear-heads, and rough metal, in Burgesses’ Meadow, Oxford. The hoard is now in the Ashmolean Museum. In three palstaves of this kind found in the parishes of Llandrinio,[276] and Caersws, Montgomeryshire, and St. Harmon, Radnorshire, there is a hole in the metal between the two recesses for the handle just above the stop-ridge. It has been thought by Professor Westwood that these holes were connected with the manner of fastening the instrument to its haft, but it appears to me much more likely that they arise from accidental defects in casting. This is certainly the case with two specimens of my own, which also have holes through the same part of the instrument, where the metal is thin.
One (5 inches), rather narrower in the blade than the figure, found near Longford, Ireland, is in the Blackmore Museum at Salisbury.
Palstaves with a central and two lateral ribs on the blade are of not unfrequent occurrence on the Continent, especially in the North of France. I have examples much like the figure found in the hoard at Bernay, near Abbeville. Others, much narrower in the blade, have been discovered in large numbers in the North-west of France.
German examples have been figured by Lindenschmit.[277]
In another variety the blade is nearly flat, having only a broad protuberant ridge extending along the upper part to the stop. A palstave of this kind, found near Winfrith, Weymouth, Dorset, is shown in Fig. 64. In this, the metal between the side flanges tapers towards the top of the instrument, instead of being of nearly even thickness, as is often the case, or thinnest near the stop-ridge, as it is sometimes. Close to the stop the metal is ½ inch thick, while at the top of the recess it comes to a nearly sharp edge. A palstave of this character was found on Kingston Hill,[278] Surrey, near Cæsar’s Camp.
