Fig. 240 shows a knife with two rivet-holes, which was found at Thorndon, Suffolk, together with socketed celts, a spear-head, hammer, gouge, and an awl, several of which have been figured in preceding pages. Another (9 inches long), much like Fig. 240, but with the sides of the socket flat, and the blade more fluted, was found in the Thames, and is engraved in the ArchÆological Journal.[728] Another, of much the same size and general character, formed part of a hoard of bronze objects found in Reach Fen, near Burwell, of which mention has already frequently been made. It is in my own collection, and is shown in Fig. 241. I have another, 6½ inches long, found in Edmonton Marsh.

A fine blade of this kind, with two rivet-holes in the hilt (14½ inches), was found in the New Forest, Glamorganshire, and was formerly in the Meyrick Collection.[729] It is now in the British Museum. The blade has shallow flutings parallel with the edges.

A socketed knife of this kind (4½ inches) was found by General A. Pitt Rivers, F.R.S., in a pit at the foot of the interior slope of the rampart of Highdown Camp,[730] near Worthing, Sussex. It may possibly have accompanied a funereal deposit.

In some instances the two rivet-holes run lengthways of the oval of the socket. One such, discovered with other objects at Lanant, Cornwall (8¼ inches), is engraved in the ArchÆologia.[731] It is now in the Museum of the Society of Antiquaries. One like it was found on Holyhead Mountain,[732] Anglesea, and is now in the British Museum.

A fragment of a knife of this kind is in the museum at Amiens, and formed part of a hoard found near that town. It has a beading at the mouth of the socket, and also one about midway between the rivet-holes.

Of other specimens, but without the small bosses, the following may be mentioned:—One (6½ inches long) found with socketed celts, part of a sword blade, and a gouge, at Martlesham, Suffolk, and in the possession of Captain Brooke, of Ufford Hall. Two found in the Thames near Wallingford.[734] Another (5? inches), from the same source, in my own collection. This was found with a socketed celt, gouge, chisel, and razor (Fig. 269). One from Llandysilio, Denbighshire, found with socketed celts and a spear-head, is in Canon Greenwell’s collection. A knife of this kind was among the relics found above the stalagmite in Kent’s Cavern, near Torquay.

I have a knife of this character (4¾ inches), but with the rivet-hole in a line with the edges of the blade, found in Dorsetshire.

That shown in Fig. 243 was found at Kilgraston, Perthshire, and is in the collection of Canon Greenwell, F.R.S. It has a central rib along the blade and two shorter lateral ribs, and in some respects has more the appearance of being a spear-head than a knife.

Another, with the rivet-hole in the same plane as the blade, was found near Campbelton, Argyleshire, and has been engraved as a spear-head by Professor Daniel Wilson.[735] The discovery of a blade having its original handle, as subsequently mentioned, proves, however, that some of these are rightly regarded as knives, though another form (Fig. 328) has more the appearance of being a spear-head. The curved knife with a socket, figured by the same author,[736] can hardly, I think, be Scottish.

That shown in Fig. 244 is in the collection of Canon Greenwell, F.R.S., and was found at Kells, Co. Meath. As will be observed, the blade is at the base somewhat wider than the socket. The indented lines upon it appear to have been produced in the casting, and not added by any subsequent process. A knife of the same kind, found in the Bog of Aughrane, near Athleague, Co. Galway, is still attached to the original handle, which, like many of those of the flint knives found in the Swiss Lake-dwellings, is formed of yew. It has been several times figured.[738]

I have a specimen of the same character, but in outline more like Fig. 240, 6 inches long, from the North of Ireland.

A knife of this kind, found in a hoard at St. Genouph, is in the Tours Museum.

The example shown in Fig. 245 is in my own collection. I do not, however, know in what part of Ireland it was found. The rivet-hole is at the side, and not on the face, in which, however, there is a slight flaw, which assumes the appearance of a hole in the figure. In Canon Greenwell’s collection is a nearly similar specimen (10¾ inches), found at Balteragh, Co. Derry, with two rivet-holes at the side and the socket somewhat ornamented by parallel grooves at the mouth and at the junction with the blade.

One of the socketed knives in the Academy Museum at Dublin has two rivet-holes on the face. Of the others, about two-thirds have a single rivet-hole on the face, and the other third one on the side.

A long blade, somewhat differing in its details from Fig. 245, was found between Lurgan and Moira, Co. Down, and, it is stated, in company with the bronze hilt or pommel shown in Fig. 246. These objects formed part of the Wilshe Collection, and are now in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy. Two objects, somewhat similar to Fig. 246, found with spear-heads in Cambridgeshire, will subsequently be mentioned. A piece of bronze of much the same form, found with a hoard of bronze objects at Marden,[739] in Kent, seems to be a jet or waste piece from a casting. It has, however, been regarded as part of a fibula.

The socketed form of knife is hardly known upon the Continent, though, as will have been observed, it has occasionally been found in the North of France. Among the fragments of metal forming part of the deposit of an ancient bronze-founder, and discovered at Dreuil, near Amiens, I have the fragments of two such knives. I have also a fine and entire specimen, 9¼ inches long, from the bed of the Seine at Charenton, near Paris. There is a transverse rib at each end and in the middle of the socket, through the face of which are two rivet-holes. A portion of the original wooden handle is still in the socket, secured in its place by two pins, also apparently of wood, which pass through the rivet-holes. Another knife (6? inches), like Fig. 241, but with only one rivet-hole, was also found in the Seine at Paris, and is now in my collection.

Several socketed knives with curved blades have been found in the Swiss Lake-dwellings, and one such, found with the sickle already mentioned, is in the Amiens Museum.

That shown in Fig. 247 is in my own collection, and was found with a gold torque and bracelet, a bronze anvil (Fig. 217), and other objects, at FresnÉ la MÈre, near Falaise, Calvados. It seems well adapted for working out hollows in wood. With it was found a small, tanged, single-edged knife, the end of which is bent to a smaller curve.

An instrument of much the same character (4 inches) was found, with a bronze sword, spear-heads, &c., in the Island of Skye, and is now in the Antiquarian Museum at Edinburgh. As Professor Daniel Wilson[740] observes, “in general appearance it resembles a bent spear-head, but it has a raised central ridge on the inside, while it is nearly plain and smooth on the outer side.—The most probable use for which it has been designed would seem to be for scraping out the interior of canoes and other large vessels made from the trunk of the oak.” It is shown as Fig. 248. Another instrument of the same kind (4½ inches), found at Wester Ord, Invergordon, Ross-shire, is engraved in the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland,[741] and is here by their permission reproduced as Fig. 249.

It seems by no means improbable that such instruments may have been mistaken for bent spear-heads, and that they are not quite so rare as would at present appear.

Two specimens of the socketed form have been found in the Lake settlement of the Eaux Vives, near Geneva, and are now in the museum of that town. Another, with a tang, is in the collection of M. Forel, of Morges, and was found among the pile-dwellings near that place.

A fragment of what appears to have been one of these curved knives, but with a solid handle, and not a socket, was found with gouges and various fragments at Hounslow, and is now in the British Museum.

What seems to be a tanged curved knife of this kind formed part of the great Bologna hoard.

The original was found in Reach Fen, Cambridgeshire, and is now in my own collection. The blade has the appearance of having been originally longer, but of being now worn away by use. I know of no other specimen of the kind. The power to cast such loops upon the blade is a proof of no ordinary skill in the founder.

A palstave with a loop of this kind instead of a stop or side-flanges was found at Donsard,[742] Haute Savoie.

The blade shown in Fig. 251 was found in the same hoard as that engraved as Fig. 241. The rivets are fast attached to the blade, and the handle through which they passed was probably of some perishable material, such as wood, horn, or bone.

Another blade (5¼ inches), with a broad tang and two rivet-holes, was found in the Thames.[743]

In the British Museum is a knife much like the figure, 8 inches long, and showing three facets on the blade, found in the Thames at Kingston.

One of the former class, from the Heathery Burn Cave, is shown in Fig. 252. It is in the collection of Canon Greenwell, F.R.S.

An imperfect knife of the same kind, found in Yorkshire, is in the Scarborough Museum.

Another, with the edges more ogival, like Fig. 241, was found in the neighbourhood of Nottingham,[744] with socketed celts and numerous other objects in bronze.

Another, broader at the base and more like a dagger in character, was found with various other articles at Marden,[745] Kent.

More leaf-shaped and sharply pointed blades of this kind, probably daggers rather than knives, have been often found in Ireland. One[746] (10½ inches) has been figured by Wilde. Another was in the Dowris hoard.

In the Isle of Harty hoard, already more than once cited, was a knife with a plain tang, shown in Fig. 253. It has rather the appearance of having been made from the point of a broken sword, as the edges of the tang have been “upset” by hammering. The blade itself is now narrower than the tang, the result probably of much wear and use.

The end of a broken sword in the Dowris hoard has been converted into a knife in a similar manner. In the collection of the late Lord Braybrooke is what appears to be part of a tanged knife, sharpened at the broken end so as to form a chisel.

In the Reach Fen hoard was a knife (4? inches) of much the same character, but not so broad in the tang.

A flat blade with a tang for insertion in a haft must have been a very early form of metal tool. Among the Assyrian relics from Tel Sifr, in South Babylonia, such blades were found, of which there are examples in the British Museum.

Canon Greenwell, F.R.S., has two leaf-shaped blades of copper, with tangs set in handles of bone rather longer than the blades, which were lately in use among the Esquimaux. In form they resemble Fig. 257.

The knives with the projecting rib upon the tang are by no means uncommon, and there are several in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy and elsewhere. Canon Greenwell has one (6? inches) from Ballynascreen, Co. Tyrone, much like that from the Heathery Burn Cave (Fig. 252).

The knife or dagger with a plain tang and an ornamented blade engraved as Fig. 254 is in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy. Another, simply ridged and with a single rivet-hole in the tang, found at Craigs,[747] Co. Antrim, is in the collection of Mr. R. Day, F.S.A. It is less round-ended than the blade with a central rib along it and one rivet-hole in the tang, shown in Fig. 255. This is in my own collection, and was found at Ballyclare, Co. Antrim.

A mould for blades of this character will subsequently be mentioned.

Another form of knife, unless possibly it was intended for a lance-head, is shown in Fig. 256. This specimen is also from the Reach Fen hoard, but is of yellower metal and differently patinated from the objects found with it. Canon Greenwell has a knife of the same form (4¾ inches), found at Seamer Carr, Yorkshire. Another, smaller (3? inches), is in the British Museum, but its place of finding is not known. A nearly similar blade, found near Ballycastle, Co. Antrim, is shown in Fig. 257.

Another example of this form (5? inches) is in the British Museum.

Sir W. Wilde[748] has figured some other examples of the same kind, from 3 to 4 inches long, which he regarded as arrow-heads. They appear to me, however, too large for such a purpose.

In the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy is yet another variety, with the blade pierced in the centre (Fig. 258).

In Fig. 259 I have engraved a small instrument of this kind, found at Wigginton, near Tring, Herts, the handle of which terminates in the head of an animal. It was therefore not intended for insertion into a haft of some other material.

I have another bronze knife, rather longer and narrower, and with a pointed tang, which is said to have been found in London; but of this I am by no means certain.

The rude knife found with the Isle of Harty hoard, and shown full size as Fig. 260, is the only other English specimen with which I am acquainted, but no doubt more exist.

The only specimen mentioned in the Catalogue of the Museum of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland is in all 14 inches long, with a thick back and notched tang, and of this the place of finding is unknown. Professor Daniel Wilson[749] speaks of it as having been found in Ayrshire, and regards it as a reaping instrument. He also figures a socketed knife of much the same size from the collection of Sir John Clerk at Penicuick House, in which are also some tanged specimens. I cannot help suspecting that these are of foreign origin.

In Ireland the form appears to be at present unknown.

The specimen here figured has been kindly lent me by Mr. Humphrey Wickham, of Strood, and was found with a hoard of bronze objects at Allhallows, Hoo,[750] Kent. The hoard contained socketed celts, gouges, a spear-head, fragments of swords, and the object engraved as Fig. 286. One more crescent-like in form was found with a hoard of bronze objects near Meldreth, Cambridgeshire, and is in the British Museum.

Knives of this kind were associated with celts, gouges, &c., in the hoard of Notre-Dame d’Or, now in the museum at Poitiers. Two also were present in the Alderney hoard found near the Pierre du Villain.[751]

Some knives of this character were found with a hoard of bronze tools and weapons at Questembert, Brittany, and are now in the museum at Vannes. A broken one was in the hoard of the Jardin des Plantes, Nantes.[752] One from La Manche is engraved in the Memoirs of the Society of Antiquaries of Normandy, 1827-8, pl. xvi. 20. A knife of this character of rectangular form, each side being brought to an edge, was found with other bronze relics at PlonÉour, Brittany, and is engraved in the ArchÆologia Cambrensis.[753] In character this knife closely resembles some of those in flint.[754] A kind of triangular knife of the same character was found at Briatexte[755] (Tarn). One from the station of Eaux Vives, in the Lake of Geneva, has the face ornamented at the blunt margin with a vandyke of hatched triangles. In some French varieties there are rings at the top of the blade instead of holes through it. In a curious specimen from St. Jullien, Chapleuil, in the collection of M. Aymard, at Le Puy, the edge is nearly semicircular, and there are eight round holes through the blade as well as two rings at the back. Some of the razors from the Lake-dwellings of Savoy and Switzerland are of much the same character as these knives. I have a knife of this class with a rather large triangular opening in it and two circular loops, found at Bernissart, Hainault.[756] Another somewhat different was found at LavÈne[757] (Tarn).

A Danish[758] knife of this character has five circular loops along the hollowed back. A Mecklenburg[759] knife has three such loops and corded festoons of bronze between.

The bronze knife or razor, shown full size in Fig. 262, was found at Cottle,[760] near Abingdon, and is now in the British Museum. It is of a peculiar and distinct type, but somewhat resembles in character the oblong bronze cutting instrument found at PlonÉour, Brittany, already mentioned. It is thinner and flatter than would appear from the figure. A Mecklenburg[761] knife or razor figured by Lisch is analogous in form.

I have a rough and imperfect blade of somewhat the same character as that from Cottle, but thinner and more curved. It has no hole through it, but thickens out at one end into a short boat-shaped projection about ½ inch long. It was found near Londonderry.

A diminutive pointed blade which appears to be too small to have been in use as a dagger, and which from the rivet-hole through the tang can hardly have served as an arrow or lance head, is shown in Fig. 263. This specimen formed part of the Reach Fen hoard. A very small example of this kind of blade, from a barrow near Robin Hood’s Ball, Wilts, has been figured by the late Dr. Thurnam, F.S.A., in his second exhaustive paper on “Ancient British Barrows,” published in the ArchÆologia,[762] from which I have derived much useful information.

A small blade with the sides more curved is shown in Fig. 264, which I have copied from Dr. Thurnam’s engraving.[763] The original was found in Lady Low, Staffordshire.

A smaller example, with a longer and imperforated tang, found in an urn at Broughton,[764] Lincolnshire, and now in the British Museum, has been thought to be an arrow-head; but I agree with Dr. Thurnam in regarding both it and the small blades described by Hoare[765] as arrow-heads, as being more probably small double-edged knives.

Fig. 265, copied from Dr. Thurnam’s plate,[766] represents what has been regarded as a razor blade. It was found in a barrow at Winterslow, Wilts, and is now in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford. Its resemblance to the leaf of rib-wort (Plantago media) has been pointed out by Dr. Thurnam, who records that it was found in an urn with burnt bones and a set of beautiful amber buttons or studs. He has also figured one of nearly the same size, but with fewer ribs, from a barrow at Priddy, Somerset. This also has been regarded as an arrow-head, though it is 3 inches long and 1½ inches broad. It has a small rivet-hole through the tang. The original is now in the Bristol Museum, and its edge is described as sharp enough to mend a pen.[767] I have reproduced it in Fig. 266. A blade of much the same kind was found in an urn, with an axe-hammer of stone and a whetstone, at Broughton-in-Craven,[768] in 1675.

Canon Greenwell records the finding of an oval knife (2? inches) with burnt bones in an urn at Nether Swell,[769] Gloucestershire.

A flat blade, almost circular, with a somewhat longer tang than any here figured, formed part of the great Bologna hoard.

A small plain oval blade, which has possibly lost its tang, was found in a tumulus at Lieraboll,[770] Kildonan, Sutherland, and has been figured. Two oval blades were found with burnt bones in urns near St. Andrews.[771]

Another, found in a large cinerary urn at Balblair,[772] Sutherlandshire, is shown full size in Fig. 267. The edges are very thin and sharp, and the central rib shown in the section is ornamented with incised lines.

Another blade of the same character, but ornamented with a lozenge pattern, and with the midrib less pronounced, is shown in Fig. 268, also of the actual size. It was found in a tumulus at Rogart,[773] Sutherland.

Another, apparently more perfect, and with many more lozenges in the pattern, is engraved in Gordon’s “Itinerarium Septentrionale.”[774] He describes it as “the end of a spear or Hasta Pura of old mixt brass, finely chequered.” It was in Baron Clerk’s collection.

The only English example which I can adduce was found with some sickles, a torque, and numerous other objects at Taunton. It is of nearly the same size and shape as Fig. 267, but the centre plate is fluted with a slight ridge along the middle and one on either side, and is not ornamented. It is described as a lance-head in the ArchÆological Journal.[775]

I am not aware of any such blades having ever been found in Ireland, in which country the plainer forms of oval razors also seem to be extremely rare.

In Canon Greenwell’s Collection is an oval blade (4 inches) with a flat central rib, tapering to a point, running along it. It has no tang, but there is a rivet-hole through the broad end of the rib. It was found in an urn with burnt bones at Killyless, Co. Antrim.

Another, without midrib, from the Heathery Burn Cave, is, by the permission of Canon Greenwell, F.R.S., shown as Fig. 270.

An example from Wiltshire[777] in the Stourhead Museum (now at Devizes) is more barbed at the base and rounded at the top, in which there is neither notch nor perforation.

It is difficult to assign a use for the small hole usually to be seen in these blades. It may possibly be by way of precaution against the fissure in the blade extending too far, though in most cases the notch in the end of the blade does not extend to the hole.

Razors of this character have been discovered in Scotland. Three which are believed to have been found together in a tumulus at Bowerhouses, near Dunbar,[778] Haddingtonshire, about 1825, are shown in Figs. 271, 272, and 273. They are all in the Antiquarian Museum, at Edinburgh, together with a socketed celt found with them.

Razors of the class last described have been found in Ireland, and three are mentioned in Wilde’s Catalogue[779] of the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy, to the Council of which body I am indebted for the use of Fig. 274. The midrib of the specimen here shown is decorated with ring ornaments formed of incised concentric circles, an ornament of frequent use in early times, though but rarely occurring on objects of bronze in Britain. There is a large razor of this kind in the Museum of Trinity College, Dublin. Several unornamented blades of this character were present in the Dowris hoard. Two which were found in a crannoge[780] in the county of Monaghan were regarded as bifid arrow-heads. One of these (2? inches) is in the British Museum.

A blade of this kind, but with a loop instead of a tang, and a hole at the base of the blade as well as one near the bottom at the notch, was found at Deurne,[781] Guelderland, and is in the Leyden Museum.

The only remaining form of razor which has to be noticed is that of which a representation is given of the actual size in Fig. 275.

This instrument was found at Kinleith,[782] near Currie, Edinburgh, and has been described and commented on by Dr. John Alexander Smith. The blade, besides being perforated in an artistic manner and having a ring at the end of the handle, is of larger dimensions than usual with instruments of this kind. The metal of which it is composed consists of copper 92·97 per cent., tin 7·03 (with a trace of lead).

It affords the only instance of a razor of this shape having been found in the British Isles. The form much more nearly approaches one of not uncommon occurrence on the Continent than any other British example, and Dr. Smith has illustrated this by the accompanying figure of a razor from the Steinberg, near Nidau,[783] on the Lake of Bienne (Fig. 276). I have a razor of nearly the same form from the Seine at Paris, and others have been found in various parts of France.[784]

The nearest in character to Fig. 275 is perhaps one found in the hoard of Notre-Dame d’Or,[785] and preserved in the museum at Poitiers. Instead of the blade being a single crescent, it consists of two penannular concentric blades with a plain midrib connecting them, which has a ring at the external end. An instrument with the blade formed of a single crescent was found at the same time.

A German example is in the Museum of the Deutsche Gesellschaft, at Leipzig.