the purpose of decorating the initial letters. The principle of this design consists of three spiral lines springing from a common centre, and each involution forming an additional centre, for an extension of the pattern, which may be adapted to fill spaces of almost any form. Mr. Westwood has shown in a most able paper in the 40th No. of the Journal of the Archæological Institute, that this style of ornamentation is peculiar to the Anglo-Saxon and Irish artists of the period before stated. The pattern was first cut in the metal, threads of it being left to show the design, by which means cells were formed, in which the enamel was placed before fusion, the whole being then polished became what is known as _champ-levé_ enamel. There were also with these enamels a knot of very fine wire, and a quantity of thin bone, variously ornamented with lozenges, etc., which were mostly too much decayed to bear removal; they appeared to have been attached to some garment of silk, as the glossy fibre of such a fabric was very perceptible when they were first uncovered, though it shortly vanished when exposed to the air. Proceeding westward from the head for about six feet, we arrived at a large mass of oxydized iron, which being removed with the utmost care, and having been since repaired where unavoidably broken, now presents a mass of chainwork, and the frame of a helmet. The latter consists of a skeleton formed of iron bands (fig. 431) radiating from the crown of the head, and riveted to a circle of the same metal which encompassed the brow: from the impression on the metal it is evident that the outside was covered with plates of horn disposed diagonally so as to produce a herring-bone pattern; the ends of these plates were secured beneath with strips of horn corresponding with the iron framework, and attached to it by ornamental rivets of silver at intervals of about an inch and a half from each other. On the bottom of the front rib, which projects so as to form a nasal, is a small silver cross, slightly ornamented round the edges by a beaded moulding; and on the crown of the helmet is an elliptical bronze plate supporting the figure of an animal carved in iron, with bronze eyes, now much corroded, but perfectly distinct as the representation of a hog. There are, too, many fragments, some more or less ornamented with silver, which have been riveted to some part of the helmet in a manner not to be explained or even understood; there are also some small buckles of iron, which probably served to fasten it upon the head. Amongst the chainwork is a very curious six-pronged instrument of iron, in shape much like an ordinary hay-fork, with the difference of the tang, which in the latter is driven into the shaft, being in this instrument flattened and doubled over so as to form a small loop, apparently convenient for suspension; whether it belonged to the helmet or the corselet, next to be described, is uncertain. The iron