The swords are straight-bladed, usually double-edged, with hilts of metal or wood. The scabbards were sometimes of wood, sometimes of leather, and sometimes again of bronze, and are often elaborately ornamented at the chape. The sword here engraved (fig. 372) was found in a barrow at Tissington, in Derbyshire. It had originally been enclosed in a wooden scabbard or sheath, which had apparently been covered with leather, and mounted with ornamented silver. Most of this ornamentation was decayed and lost, but sufficient remained to show that the sword had been of no ordinary beauty and value, and must have belonged to some person of note. The traces of silver ornamentation at the head are indicated on the engraving. The chape, which is simply rounded, is of silver, and the rivets still remain, as do also those by which the leather was attached to the wood. The sword is thirty-four inches in length, and two inches and a half in breadth. Across its upper part lay a small fragment of the shield, and near it, spread about, were a few pieces of iron, some of which, when joined together, proved to be a spear-head of the usual form of the period. It had doubtless been broken and disturbed at the time when the bones were dispersed by the planting of the trees. [Illustration: Fig. 372.] [Illustration: Fig. 373.] [Illustration: Fig. 374.] [Illustration: Fig. 375.] A remarkably fine sword (fig. 373) was found in 1868 at Grimsthorpe. It is of iron, and remains encased in its bronze scabbard in a more perfect state than usual. The extreme length of the sword and scabbard, from pommel to chape, is thirty-one inches; the length of the scabbard from guard to point of chape, twenty-four inches. The breadth at the mouth is one inch and seven-eighths. The guard is of bronze, and is engraved on fig. 374. The scabbard is formed of thin plate bronze, and has an encircling band of the same material to hold the upper points of the chape to its sides. The length of the chape from the band is six inches and a half. The chape, which is exquisitely formed, is engraved on fig. 375, and will be seen to be of unusual beauty. It is in a remarkably perfect condition, and, being formed of bronze (the scabbards of the period to which it belongs being usually of wood with metal chape and fittings), is of great rarity and interest. The chape had been set with six small, and one large, stones, as will be seen by the engraving. Some of these, which were probably garnets, were remaining. They had been affixed to their places by small rivets passing through their centres. A series of fifteen examples of Anglo-Saxon swords (figs. 376 to 390) from illuminated MSS., etc., are here given for purposes of comparison. Some of these will be found to be of precisely similar form to those already given, and others, again, have trefoiled pommels. [Illustration: Fig. 376.] [Illustration: Fig. 377.] [Illustration: Fig. 378.] [Illustration: Fig. 379.] [Illustration: Fig. 380.]