Part 5 (1/2)

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 109.]

The prevailing form of the old Celtic finger-ring is shown in Fig. 109.

It is formed of thick twisted wires of pure gold. This fas.h.i.+on seems to have been in most favour with all the early Celtic tribes, such rings being found in the grave-mounds of Gaul, Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, and Scotland. A discovery of many similar rings was made in one of the Western Islands of Scotland; they were formed of from three to eight wires each, elaborately and beautifully enwreathed.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 110.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 111.]

The south Saxons retained to the last the simple form of wire-ring, which originated, as we have already shown, with the most ancient people. Its comparative cheapness and ease of construction were no doubt its great recommendations. Similar rings are still made for the poorer cla.s.ses in the East: the author has seen such worn in modern Egypt.

Specimens have been obtained in Anglo-Saxon grave-mounds in England, and others, identical in form, in the old Saxon cemeteries of Germany.[97-*]

Fig. 110 represents one of the plainest of these wire-rings; it was exhumed from a tumulus on Chartham Downs, a few miles from Canterbury, Kent, in 1773, by the Rev. Bryan Faussett, who says, ”the bones were those of a very young person.” Upon the neck was a cross of silver, a few coloured earthen beads, and ”two silver rings with sliding knots.”

The industry of the same collector furnishes us with Fig. 111, a specimen of a wire-ring so twisted as to resemble a seal ring, or one set with a stone: the wire round the finger has been beaten out flat. It was discovered in the extensive Saxon cemetery on Kingston Downs, near Canterbury, on the Dover Road. The tumulus was evidently the last resting-place of a person of small wealth, as this copper ring and two small beads only were found in it; and it was customary to bury the ornaments of the deceased, however valuable, with them.[98-*]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 112.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 113.]

Ireland seems to have boasted a higher civilisation at an earlier period than the sister kingdoms, and her ancient art-works are remarkable for their skilled and tasteful elaboration. Gold, too, appears to have been used more commonly there, and the museum of the Royal Irish Academy can show a more wonderful collection of personal ornaments in that precious metal, as once worn by the native n.o.bles, than is to be seen in the national museums of any other country, with the exception of Denmark.

The gold is of the purest kind and richest colour, and the manner of its working could not be excelled by a modern goldsmith. The Londesborough collection includes two remarkable rings (Figs. 112 and 113), which were found with other gold ornaments near the very remarkable tumulus known as ”New Grange,” a few miles from Drogheda. They were accidentally discovered in 1842 by a labouring man, within a few yards of the entrance to the tumulus, at the depth of two feet from the surface of the ground, and without any covering or protection from the earth about them. Two bracelets of thick twisted gold, and a chain, also of gold, were found with them. Another labouring man, hearing of this discovery, carefully searched the spot whence they were taken, and found a denarius of Geta, which may aid us in arriving at some conclusion as to the age of these curious works. The stone set in both rings is a cut agate.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

CHAPTER II.

MEDIaeVAL RINGS.

The rings worn by the higher cla.s.s of our Anglo-Saxon ancestors during the Heptarchy were often very beautiful, and of imposing form. One of the finest we have seen belonged to the Rev. H. B. Hutchings, of Appleshaw, Hants,[100-*] and was found in a meadow at Bosington, near Stockbridge, in the same county, by a labourer who saw it among a heap of peat. We give a side and front view of this interesting relic; the whole is of gold, and is of considerable weight and thickness; the gold threads are all beautifully reeded, and the lettering and head executed with great care. The inscription reads--NOMEN EHLLA FID IN XPO, equivalent to its owner saying, ”My name is Ella, my faith is in Christ.”

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 114.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 115.]

The beautiful and remarkable collection of rings formed by Edmund Waterton, Esq., F.S.A., to which allusion has already been made, includes a ring of South Saxon workmans.h.i.+p, which was found in the Thames at Chelsea in 1856. The face of this ring (Fig. 116) is an elongated oval, with a circular centre. Within this circle is the conventional figure of a dragon, surrounded by convoluted ornament, reminding us forcibly of the prevailing enrichments so lavishly bestowed on old Runic monuments, at home and abroad. Four quaintly-formed heads of dragons occupy the triangular s.p.a.ces, above and below this centre.

This ring is of silver. The ground between the ornament has been cut down, probably for the insertion of niello or enamel colours.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 116.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 117.]

Fig. 117 is an historic relic of singular interest, and a remarkable work of early art. It is the ring of Ethelwulf, King of Wess.e.x (the father of Alfred the Great), who reigned A.D. 836-838, and bears the royal name upon it. It was found in the parish of Laverstock, Hants, in a cart-rut, where it had become much crushed and defaced. The form is remarkable, the front rising pyramidally. Two birds of conventional form face each other, a flower ornament dividing them; these decorations, like those on Mr. Waterton's ring just described, are relieved by a ground of glossy bluish-black enamel, cavities having been cut between the ornament for its infusion. This ring is of gold, weighing 11 dwts.

14 grs.; it is now preserved in the British Museum.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 118.]

Mr. Waterton is the fortunate possessor of a ring second only in interest and value to this royal relic. It is the ring of Ahlstan, Bishop of Sherborne, the friend and counsellor of King Ethelwulf, who flourished A.D. 817-867. It was discovered in Carnarvons.h.i.+re, and has the name of the bishop in divided letters distributed on the circular rosettes of the design; they are connected by lozenge-shaped floriated ornaments, having dragons in their centres. Our cut (Fig. 118) gives the general form and detail of this beautiful ring, which is remarkable for the elegance of its design. It is of gold, like the preceding ring; both being admirable ill.u.s.trations of the _champ-leve_ process of enamelling as practised in the ninth century.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 119.]