A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK many years ago in the Victoria Cave, Settle, Yorkshire.* In one of these, which represents a dragon, the eye is made of red enamel. Other Early Iron-Age brooches found in Suffolk are now in the Museum of Archaeology at Cambridge. Mr. Fenton also possesses a charming little bronze finger-ring displaying strong Celtic influence in the scroll-work, which ornaments and partially fills a longitudinal opening extending for about an inch. On either side of this opening there are lines of beaded ornament pointing, perhaps, to Roman influence. The Late Celtic scroll-work, however, is quite definite enough to prove its close relation to native British art. The ring is quite small and clearly intended for a lady. It was found in the neighbourhood of Mildenhall. An interesting group of Early Iron-Age objects was discovered in 1854, during the process of draining a field at Westhall, a Suffolk village situated about 3 miles north-east of Halesworth. Details of the discovery were communicated to the Society of Antiquaries of London by Mr. Henry Harrod, F.S.A., in 1855, and this paper, published in Archaeologia^ is the authority for the following account : — A farmer engaged in draining Millpost Field caused the trenches to be carried to a depth of between 2 ft. and 3 ft. below the surface, revealing a stiff, clayey soil. In the lowest part of the field, adjoining a water-course, it was observed that there was an area of about 2 acres of much darker soil than that of the other part of the field. This peculiarity was visible when the field was turned up by the plough, but when the drained trenches were cut, much burnt earth and many fragments of pottery were discovered. Near the centre of this dark patch of earth, and about 2 ft. below the surface, the workmen came upon a number of bronze rings and other fragments, which the farmer gave to Mr. Hylton, a Norfolk farmer. The discovery led to the careful examination of the site, and upon digging over the surface with a spade it was found that throughout the blackened area the soil contained evidences of the action of fire to a depth below the surface varying from i ft. 6 in. to 3 ft. The soil also contained much charcoal and very many fragments of broken pottery, all of the commonest and plainest kind, but in great variety. All the pottery was broken, but so abundant were the fragments that each spadeful of earth contained a dozen fragments of a dozen different urns. Mr. Harrod found a solitary fragment of a plain Samian patera^ but he seems to have been convinced that all the rest was of ' Roman-British manufacture.' The more important objects were contained in a bronze vessel, of which the bottom and part of the side remained. Over them was found a thin bronze plate or cover which was of ruder workmanship than the other bronzes, and it had, in its centre, a circular plate or disc embossed with an animal recalling the forms found on the Late Celtic bucket from Aylesford. The cover itself, although considerably damaged, appears to have been ornamented with a species of elongated cross patee, between the limbs of which were conventional branches r> „" T ,„ „„ of palm, the whole inclosed in (i) a circle of oval CjRNAMENT ON JjID OF / . V ' Bronze Box projections arranged diametrically, and (2) five concentric
- See Boyd-Dawkins, Cave Hunting, 98. * Op. cit. rxxvi, 454-6.
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