THE RELIQUARY. OCTOBER, 1863. NOTICE OF A BROOCH OF PENANNULAR FORM, FOUND IN DERBYSHIRE. BY LLEWELLYNN JEWITT, F. S. A. &c. &c. &c. THE splendid brooch, of which the accompanying engraving (Plate VIII.) is a faithful representation, was found in the autumn of 1862, at Bonsall, in the High Peak of Derbyshire, and is now the property of my friend John F. Lucas, Esq., of Middleton-by-Youlgreave, It is of pure Irish type, of extremely large size, is remarkably elaborate in its ornamentation, and is one of the finest examples which has ever been found either in or out of Ireland. It is of bronze, and is here engraved of its full size. The ring measures 37 inches in its greatest diameter, and the acus is 63 inches in length. It has originally been set with amber or paste, and has been richly gilt and enamelled. The interlaced ornaments are most exquisitely and elaborately formed, and are of great variety, and the heads of animals are of excellent and characteristic form. The head of the acus, or pin, is large and beautifully ornamented, and, like the ring, has been set with studs. The pin itself, as will be seen by the accompanying engraving, is flattened and made thin at its upper end, and bent so as to allow of the free passage of the ring through it, and is riveted on to the ornamented plate in front. It is remarkable, that in this fibula the ring, which like other examples of this form of brooch, has been made to play freely for half its circumference through the acus (see the engravings on following pages, for the way in which brooches of the penannular form are supposed usually to have been worn), has been riveted to the head of the pin in the position shown in the engraving on Plate VIII. That it has been much worn in this position -across the breast or shoulder-is evident from the ring being much worn where the pin has pressed against it when clasped. I believe this is the only example on record in which the pin has been fixed to the side of the ring, and this was certainly not the original intention of the maker of the brooch, but was subsequently done. This will be seen by the engraving of the profile of the head of the acus, on the preceding page. On one or two examples of penannular brooches, inscriptions in Ogham characters have been found, and it is highly interesting to be able to add, that on the back of the Derbyshire example, faint traces of Oghams still remain. Brooches of the penannular form are very rarely indeed found in England. In Ireland they are occasionally exhumed, and some very fine examples, which I shall shortly notice, are fortunately preserved in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy at Dublin. One or two examples have also been found in Scotland the finest of which, the "Hunterston Brooch," is of the same general form as the one under notice. It is engraved as a frontispiece to Wilson's "PreHistoric Annals of Scotland," in which work it and other Scottish examples are described. The one under notice, recently discovered in Derbyshire, is by far the finest and most elaborately ornamented example which, so far as is known, has yet been found in England, and is thus particularly interesting and valuable. It may be well, briefly, to notice some of the more remarkable examples of fibulæ, of this general type, which have been found in England and in Ireland, for the purpose of comparison. By far the finest (and indeed the only one of its form), hitherto found in England, is the one discovered in Westmoreland, and described and engraved in the Archeological Journal, Vol. IX. page 90. This beautiful fibula I here engrave of a reduced size. The ring, it will be seen, moves freely round the upper half of the brooch, the lower, or flat part of which, is divided so as to allow of the passage of the acus through it. is set with flat bosses, five on either side. Each of these flat dilated "It parts of this curious ornament, appear to proceed from the jaws of a monstrous head, imperfectly similating that of a serpent or dragon; and between the jaws is introduced the intertwined tripled, or trignetra, the same ornament which is found on the sculptured cross at Kirk Michael, Isle of Man, and on some Saxon coins." This example is of silver, and belongs to the Rev. J. F. Weston, of Ravensworth. It was found with a silver torc-a simple twisted bar of decreasing thickness towards the extremities, which are hooked-in a crevice of a limestone rock at Orton Scar. The dimensions of the fibula are, length of acus, 11 inches; greatest diameter of circular part, 5 inches; width of the dilated part, 2 inches; weight, 8oz. 8 dwts. Another brooch, of silver, though different in form from the expanded examples under notice, and although of later date, is nevertheless of the same construction, and may be here noticed. It is engraved of a reduced size. "The acus has been broken off. There B B& Ay appears to have been a third knob, now lost, which should correspond with the knob B, the acus passing between the two. The upper knob A is very loose, and moves freely around the ring. The knob B turns, but much less freely, and does not pass over C, having merely a lateral motion of one-fourth of an inch." The diameter of the widest part is nearly 51⁄2 inches; the globular ornaments measure 11 inches in diameter. The under side of each of the balls is flat, and is engraved with ornaments, as shown on the engraving. This brooch belongs to C. Carus Wilson, Esq., and it will be seen how closely it |