One of the most remarkable remains of shields which has been brought to light is the one at Grimsthorpe,[54] where, on the breast of the skeleton, lay a mass of decayed wood, a quantity of ferruginous dust--probably the remains of the handle and inside fittings of the shield--and remains of decomposed leather. On these lay two thin plates of bronze, and the umbone or boss of the same metal, which had formed the outer covering of the “war-board.” These two plates and the umbone are engraved on fig. 405. The discs or plates of bronze are little thicker than ordinary writing-paper. They each measure twelve and a half inches from point to point, and are three and three quarter inches in width in the middle. They have a raised border of curious design around their outer edge, and they have been, like the boss, attached to the shield by pins or rivets. The boss is of very unusual form, and has been attached to the shield by rivets or pins; it is ornamented with engraved lines. From this curious discovery it would appear that this warrior of the Yorkshire Wolds bore a shield formed of wood and covered with leather; that it was faced with plates of bronze, and had a bronze umbone; and that the handle, and probably the strengthening bars, on the inner side were of iron. [Illustration: Fig. 405.] Many handles of iron, belonging to shields, have been found in the Kentish and other barrows. The shield, in interments, was usually placed flat on the centre of the body, as shown on fig. 325. [Illustration: Fig. 406.] [Illustration: Fig. 407.] [Illustration: Fig. 408.] The umbone or boss of the shield was, as I have said, of various forms. The most usual shapes are, perhaps, those here given from Kentish graves (figs. 406 and 407), and fig. 408, from Tissington, where it was found along with the sword before described (fig. 372). This extremely interesting relic, which is among the largest ever found, measures nine inches in height. It is, of course, of iron, and is of the same type as one found at Sibertswold, which is engraved in the “_Inventorum Sepulchrale_.” The texture of cloth in which it had been enfolded when placed by the body of the hero by whom it was borne, is distinctly traceable on several parts of its surface. The umbone, as it lay, was surrounded with the wood, in a complete state of decay, which had once formed the shield; and small fragments of corroded iron, which were doubtless a part of the mountings of the shield, were scattered about. Of the form of the Anglo-Saxon shield and its umbone, a tolerably good idea may be formed by the series of examples here given (figs. 409 to 416), from the illuminated MSS. of the period. [Illustration: Figs. 409 to 416.]