A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE A winged palstave with loop was found in the hoard at Cumberlow, near Baldock, about to be mentioned, and an outline of it has been figured. 1 Socketed Celts, etc. Several instruments of this kind have been found in Hertfordshire. In the collection of Mr. W. Ransom, F.S.A., is an example 4 inches long, ornamented with three vertical ribs on each face (like A.B.I., fig. 124), found at Knebworth in 1897. I have a specimen, 4^ inches long (like A.B.I., fig. 133), but with four ribs only on each face, found near Royston in 1 882. I have also a long, narrow celt, 5 inches long, and i^ inch wide at the edge (in form like fig. 148, but plain), found at Hitchin in 1896. In most instances these celts seem to have formed part of founders' hoards, inasmuch as they were accompanied by fragments of bronze tools and lumps of rough metal. In December, 1851, a plain socketed celt, 3 inches long (like fig. 114, A.B.I.}, the fragment of another, and about 4 Ib. in weight of rough lumps of metal, were found in a ploughed field near Westwick Row, 2 in the parish of St. Michael's, St. Albans. About 1853, some socketed celts, for the most part either damaged or imperfectly cast, were found with lumps of metal at Danesbury, 3 near Welwyn, and were exhibited to the Archaeological Institute by Mr. William Blake. A similar hoard from Furneaux Pelham 4 was formerly in the collection of the Hon. Richard Neville, afterwards Lord Braybrooke. The most important hoard of this kind found in the county is, how- ever, that unearthed at Cumberlow Green, 6 Rushden near Baldock, in 1 876. There some labourers while draining came across ' a neatly made, well- shaped hole about 2 feet in diameter ; and at about 2^ feet below the surface, in stiff red loam,' found about forty instruments of bronze, some of them perfect, but others broken or much battered. ' They lay at the bottom of the hole with about 50 Ib. of metal, all of the same description partially fused.' Among the implements was the winged palstave already mentioned, a socketed and looped celt, ornamented with two curved ribs on each face (3! inches long, somewhat like figs, in, 113), another of octagonal section (4 inches long, like fig. 176), apparently another of the same character without a loop, and fragments of a sword and of a dagger. The three last mentioned are figured in the Journal of the Anthropological Institute. 6 Many of the objects from this ' find ' are in the collection of Mr. William Ransom, F.S.A. Daggers and Swords. The fragment of a dagger from Cumberlow Green is like the lower half of fig. 312, A.B.I., but has four rivet-holes in it. The portion of a sword consists of part of the hilt with the base of the blade. There are four rivet holes in it, two on each side of a n. Anthrop. Inst., vi. p. 195.
- Arch. Journ., xi. p. 24 ; Ancient Bronze Implements, pp. 1 1 2, 424, 468.
8 Arch, yourn., x. p. 248, xi. p. 24 ; Ancient Bronze Implements, 423.
- Arch, yourn., x. p. 248.
6 Journ. Anthrop. Inst., vi. p. 195 ; Trans. Herts Nat. Hist. Sac., iv. p. 40 ; Ancient Bronze Implements, pp. 94-110, 134, 424, 467. 6 vi. p. 195. 234
