Journal.[1] The ornament may have been attached by hooking these ends together, or by passing them through a separate ring. This type of the torc, termed by Mr. Birch "funicular," is referred by him to as late a period possibly as the fourth or fifth century. A gold torc, closely similar as it would appear to that lately found at Stanton, was discovered in the same county in 1700, at Fantley Hill near Pattingham; it measured four feet in length, the weight being 3 lbs, 2 oz., and the extremities were hooked.[2]
Mr. Birch communicated further notices which he had received from Mr. Jenkins, of Hereford, relating to ancient remains in the neighbourhood of St. Margaret's Park and the cruciform earth-work already noticed in this Journal. (See vol. x. p. 358.) With permission of the proprietor excavations had been made in that singular embankment, at three different places, but without making any discovery: it has also been cleared of the brush-wood which encumbered it, and may now be fully examined. Not far distant may be noticed several basins or cavities of considerable size, supposed to have been possibly the sites of ancient habitations, and in one of these hollows some ancient pottery had been found, which, it is hoped, may be obtained for examination, as this might supply a clue to the probable date of these works.[3] It was stated that a cross of metal had been found in the Park and sent to London. About 250 yards N.E. of the cruciform embankment in St. Margaret's Park there is a flat horizontal slab of limestone, like the upper stone of a cromlech. It is of an irregularly oval form, measuring about 27 feet 6 inches by 9 feet 6 inches; average thickness, 2 feet 6 inches in the direction of the longer diameter, being north and south. This stone lies on the declivity of the wooded hill, its face on the western side being level with the adjacent surface of the ground, and on this side there is a trench, 2 feet wide, and 212 feet deep, which appears to have been at one time much deeper, and to have been filled up by soil brought down by the rain into it. On the east side, and partly on the north, the ground slopes from it, and a cavity appears under the slab. Half a century ago, as stated by an old man in the neighbourhood, it stood wholly free from the ground, resting on certain upright stones. There is still at the west end of the slab, but now at a slight distance from it, an upright stone, flat at top, which may have originally been one of those on which it was supported. It seems probable that these may be the remains of a fallen cromlech. About half a mile south of the cross-shaped mound and cavities above mentioned several objects of bronze have been found in ploughing, of a type hitherto, as it is believed, unnoticed. They may have been fixed on the ends of spear-shafts, to serve
- ↑ Vol. ii. p. 379. Compare the torques found in Ireland, and belonging to the Earl of Charleville, Vetusta Monumenta, vol. v. pl. 29.
- ↑ Shaw, Hist. of Staffordshire, vol. i. Gen. Hist. p. 32. Erdeswicke, note on Pattingham. An inset of gold was found in an adjoining field in 1780, round at top and Hat beneath like a pig of lead.
- ↑ See the description of these cavities, Gent. Mag., Oct. 1853, p. 388.
