ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS Lord Londesborough. It consists of a leaden tablet bearing an Anglo-Saxon inscription with three holes along one edge, in one of which is a leaden loop as if for binding several such leaves together. The title is in runes which may represent ' The book of Alfred says,' and the remainder is in Anglo-Saxon minuscules, as follows : Ic iElfric munc et maesse-preost wear}? asend on iEj)ilredes dasge cyninges fram yElfeage biscope, iEjjelwolde asfter-gengan, to sumum mynstre ]>z is Cernl'. ]?a beam me on mode, ic treowege J>urh Godes gife, J»^t ic Jjas . . . This represents in modern English : ' I, ^Elfric, monk and mass-priest, was sent in King iEthelred's time from Alfeah the bishop, the successor of ^Ethelwold, to a certain minster (or monastery) which is called Cernel. Then it came into my mind I would this . . .' These are the opening lines of ^Ifric's preface to his first collection of Anglo-Saxon homilies, and express his intention to translate the Latin text into English. Thomas Wright, from whose account ^°* the above is taken, considered it the front cover of a manuscript volume of the Homilies, the English introduction being continued on the first vellum page, as the back of this cover has no inscription. The runes were used at this date only excep- tionally, as a piece of archaism, and from a comparison of the texts it is clear that this is an abbreviated version. iEthelwold and Alfeah were successive bishops of Winchester, and Mlinc (subsequently Archbishop of Canterbury) was sent as abbot to the newly-founded abbey of Cerne in 988 or 989, where he translated his first volume of homilies in 990. Discoveries of isolated coins add little to our knowledge of this later Saxon period, but may be noted as suggesting pre-Norman occupation of their sites. A silver penny of Cuthred, King of Kent (797-805), was found at Lavenham,'"^ bearing the name of the moneyer Sigeberht on the reverse ; and a number of pennies of Edward the Confessor are recorded from Campsey Ash.'*" Sir John Evans has described coins of ^thelred II (978-1016) found at Ipswich,"^ where at the depth of about 5 ft. from the modern surface is a continuous band of black earth about i ft. thick, in which Roman and Saxon antiquities are found.™ Three coins of Canute have also come to light in the churchyard at Rougham ; ^"^ and a number of ^thelred's coins, now at Bury, were found fused together in Sir Henry Bunbury's garden at Great Barton. As might naturally be expected, a survey of the Anglo-Saxon remains of Suffolk suggests the same conclusions as in Norfolk. In both counties two distinct rites of burial were practised in what must be called the pagan period, that is from the end of the Roman occupation to the time when arms, ornaments, and utensils ceased to be buried with the dead. To explain this duality in a sphere most congenial to conservatism is one of the main problems of archaeology ; and the advent of Christianity does not fully explain so radical a change as that from cremation to inhumation. The former may be considered frankly pagan, the latter perhaps as a step towards the Christian orientation of the grave, but unburnt burials in East Anglia and elsewhere are by no means uniformly east and west ; nor, indeed, if they '"* y4ni. xxxiv, 438, pi. xxxvi ; Proc. Soc. Jntiq. (ist Ser.), ii, 105 ; Miscellanea Graphica, 12. "" Burj and W. Suff. Proc. ii, 211. '»« Akerman, Pagan Saxondom, 43. "" Numis. Chnn. iv, 1864, p. 28 ; one from St. Matthew's churchyard. Bury and W. Suff. Proc. ii, 214. "» Antij. iv (1881), 272. '<" E. Anglian N. and Q. i, 437. I 353 45
