Fig. 437.
Fig. 438.
It is, of course, very difficult to come to any conclusion, in the present state of our knowledge of Anglo-Saxon history, as to the original uses of these and other objects. That these enamelled and handled discs were intended for suspension by their hooks there can be but little doubt, and it seems not improbable that they might serve as pendants to the helmet; the two with hooks possibly hanging as ear-guards or coverings, and the others being attached by pins or rivets to, perhaps, the front and back of the circle. It is hoped that ultimately the use of these curious relics may be correctly ascertained. In the barrow at Grimthorpe, already referred to, a disc of somewhat similar character, of thin metal, was found. It had been attached by three pins or rivets, the holes for which remained. It was not enamelled, but decorated with raised ornaments. It is engraved of its full size on [fig. 439].
Fig. 439.
A singular plate of cast and chased bronze, strongly gilt, and set with garnets, found in Northamptonshire, and now in the Bateman museum, is engraved in the “Reliquary,” vol. i. It has at the back, besides a central projection, four pierced projections for attachment to leather or other substance, and four “swivel” projections, if they may be so termed, on its edges, to which other matters have been attached by rivets, which are still remaining.
Enamelling and goldsmiths’ work were evidently arts in which the Anglo-Saxon artificers excelled; some of the rings and fibulæ, and other relics, being of extreme elegance and richness, and of great beauty in design.
Having spoken of the arms, helmets, etc., found in Anglo-Saxon graves, it will be well before proceeding to describe the personal ornaments, to note that horse-shoes are occasionally met with in interments, showing that the horse was, in some instances, buried with its rider. Having given, on [fig. 324], the form of a horse-shoe of the Romano-British period, I now engrave examples of those of the Anglo-Saxon times. Figs. 440 and [441] are two shoes from a Saxon grave in Berkshire.