Fig. 428.
“The barrow, which is on a farm called Benty Grange, a high and bleak situation to the right of the road from Ashbourn to Buxton, near the eighth milestone from the latter place, is of inconsiderable elevation, perhaps not more than two feet at the highest point, but is spread over a pretty large area, and is surrounded by a small fosse or trench. About the centre, and upon the natural soil, had been laid the only body the barrow ever contained, of which not a vestige besides the hair could be distinguished. Near the place which, from the presence of hair, was judged to have been the situation of the head, was a curious assemblage of ornaments, which, from the peculiarly indurated nature of the earth, it was impossible to remove with any degree of success. The most remarkable are the silver edging and ornaments of a leathern cup, about three inches in diameter at the mouth, which was decorated by four wheel-shaped ornaments and two crosses of thin silver, affixed by pins of the same metal, clenched inside ([fig. 429]). The other articles found in the same situation consist of personal ornaments, the chief of which are two circular enamels upon copper 1¾ diameter, in narrow silver frames, and a third, which was so far decomposed as to be irrecoverable (see group, [fig. 430]); they are enamelled with a yellow interlaced dracontine pattern, intermingled with that peculiar scroll design, visible on the same class of ornaments figured in ‘Vestiges,’ p. 25, and used in several MSS. of the seventh century, for the purpose of decorating the initial letters. The principle of this design consists of three spiral lines springing from a common centre, and each involution forming an additional centre, for an extension of the pattern, which may be adapted to fill spaces of almost any form. Mr. Westwood has shown in a most able paper in the 40th No. of the Journal of the Archæological Institute, that this style of ornamentation is peculiar to the Anglo-Saxon and Irish artists of the period before stated. The pattern was first cut in the metal, threads of it being left to show the design, by which means cells were formed, in which the enamel was placed before fusion, the whole being then polished became what is known as champ-levé enamel. There were also with these enamels a knot of very fine wire, and a quantity of thin bone, variously ornamented with lozenges, etc., which were mostly too much decayed to bear removal; they appeared to have been attached to some garment of silk, as the glossy fibre of such a fabric was very perceptible when they were first uncovered, though it shortly vanished when exposed to the air. Proceeding westward from the head for about six feet, we arrived at a large mass of oxydized iron, which being removed with the utmost care, and having been since repaired where unavoidably broken, now presents a mass of chainwork, and the frame of a helmet. The latter consists of a skeleton formed of iron bands ([fig. 431]) radiating from the crown of the head, and riveted to a circle of the same metal which encompassed the brow: from the impression on the metal it is evident that the outside was covered with plates of horn disposed diagonally so as to produce a herring-bone pattern; the ends of these plates were secured beneath with strips of horn corresponding with the iron framework, and attached to it by ornamental rivets of silver at intervals of about an inch and a half from each other. On the bottom of the front rib, which projects so as to form a nasal, is a small silver cross, slightly ornamented round the edges by a beaded moulding; and on the crown of the helmet is an elliptical bronze plate supporting the figure of an animal carved in iron, with bronze eyes, now much corroded, but perfectly distinct as the representation of a hog. There are, too, many fragments, some more or less ornamented with silver, which have been riveted to some part of the helmet in a manner not to be explained or even understood; there are also some small buckles of iron, which probably served to fasten it upon the head. Amongst the chainwork is a very curious six-pronged instrument of iron, in shape much like an ordinary hay-fork, with the difference of the tang, which in the latter is driven into the shaft, being in this instrument flattened and doubled over so as to form a small loop, apparently convenient for suspension; whether it belonged to the helmet or the corselet, next to be described, is uncertain. The iron chainwork already named consists of a large number of links of two kinds, attached to each other by small rings, half an inch in diameter; one kind are flat and lozenge-shaped, about an inch and a half long; the others are all of one kind, but of different lengths, varying from four to ten inches. They are simply lengths of square rod iron with perforated ends, through which pass the rings connecting them with the diamond-shaped links; they all show the impression of cloth over a considerable part of the surface, and it is, therefore, no improbable conjecture that they would originally constitute a kind of quilted cuirass, by being sewn up within, or upon, a doublet of strong cloth. The peculiarly indurated and corrosive nature of the soil in this barrow is a point of some interest, and it will not be out of place to state that such has generally been the case in tumuli in Derbyshire, where the more important Saxon burials have taken place, whilst the more ancient Celtic interments are generally found in good condition, owing to there having been no special preparation of the earth, which in these cases has undergone a mixing or tempering with some corrosive liquid, the result of which is the presence of thin ochrey veins in the earth, and the decomposition of nearly the whole of the human remains. The following extract from Professor Worsaae’s ‘Antiquities of Denmark’ illustrates the helmet, which is the only example of the kind hitherto discovered, either in this country or on the Continent:—
Fig. 429.
Fig. 430.
Fig. 431.
Fig. 432.