68 'I'lIE TOMBS or THE DE BROHAM FAMILY.

ample shews that it was occasionally nearly flat, resembling the bronze tarian of the Britons, snch as have recently been found in Cambridge- shire. In other instances, however, it appears to have been of a con- vex form, rising to a central apex, as represented in the sculpture of St. Michael, over the doorway of Hallaton church, Leicestershire, and in figures given by Strutt, Horda, plates IV, V, XXXI ^. It is not im- probable that in the northern counties the use of this kind of shield had been retained, whilst the fashion of the kite-shaped and triangular shield prevailed in other parts of the country, and even at the present time the roundel is not wholly obsolete in North Britain. The curious circlet of gilt metal which had been deposited in one of the tombs at Brougham is deserving of notice, both on account of the singular ornaments engraved upon it, and the difficulty of ascertaining to what pur- pose it had been applied. It was conjectured that it had been an armlet, but this supposition appears incorrect : its form and size would indicate that it had served as the rim, or mounting, of a cup, a drinking-horn, or, more probably, an oliphant or hunting-horn. The representations of ancient tenure-horns, given in the Archgeologia, suggest that such may have been the purpose for which this ornament had been fabricated : and the figures of the three seraphim, whose names occur in the composition of written physical charms, may have been introduced with a notion of some talis- manic virtue. Amongst the curious interlaced ornaments, which seem to de- note a Saxon or early Norman date, a sacred symbol is introduced, properly pertaining to the Eastern Church, and designated by the term gammadion, being compounded of the letter gamma, several times repeated. It was introduced very frequently in the decorations and vestments of the Greek Church, as also occasionally of our own ; an example is supplied by the fine effigy of Bishop Edyndon, at Winchester. This symbol, retained in later times as an heraldic charge, was known as the "fylfot," a term hitherto un- explained. There is no instance, it is believed, on record, of the discovery of a horn in any medieval interment, but the conjecture suggested by this ornament may on various accounts appear probable. The horn was borne by persons of distinction not only in the chace, but in warlike enterprises ; it served from early times both as a token of the conveyance of lands, and of official appointments. In the marches of Scotland, moreover, the teliure by cornage prevailed, namely, by the service, or grand scrjeanty, of sound- ing a hor-n whenever the Scots or other foes of the realm should cross the Border ^ A. W.

• A very good example of this kind of burial-place of the de Broham family may

buckler is supplied by a figure of Goliath, have been a horn of this description, that given in the Kssai sur la Calligraphie, by Lord Brougham actually holds some lands Langlois, from a MS. of the twelfth century, in the manor of Brougham by tenure of in the public library at Rouen. cornage, and an ancient horn is still in his ' It is indeed remarkable, as regards the possession, traditionally called the cornage conjecture that the object deposited in the liorn.