In Fig. 364 is shown a portion of a sword blade, with the scabbard end still in position, which was found in the Thames near Isleworth, and is in the collection of Mr. T. Layton, F.S.A.[1141] This scabbard end has a central rib and two other slight ribs along each margin in order to give it strength, and, as will be seen from the figure, probably extends at least 6 inches beyond the end of the sword, thus giving an opportunity of securing the metal end to the wooden or leather scabbard at a place where the blade would not interfere with the passage of a pin or rivet.

A scabbard end of much the same form (13½ inches) is shown in Fig. 365. It was found with fifteen others, some broken, near Guilsfield,[1142] Montgomeryshire, together with looped palstaves, spear-heads, &c. It has a small rivet-hole about half-way along it. Another,[1143] somewhat straighter (12½ inches), found with a bronze buckler in the River Isis near Dorchester, Oxon,[1144] is shown in Fig. 366. It is now in the British Museum. There is a small rivet-hole passing transversely through it. Several[1145] other sheath ends of the same kind are preserved in the same collection. One, imperfect, from the Thames at Teddington (10 inches), with ribs along the middle and edges, has a hole for a diagonal rivet, and retains a fragment of wood inside, as does also another from the Thames at London, which has a very slightly projecting midrib. A third, of the same character (10¾ inches), from the Thames at Chelsea, has a small end plate secured by a central rivet. This has traces of either leather or wood inside.[1146] In another, also from the Thames (7¾ inches), the end plate has been cast with the sheath, and there is a wooden lining secured by a diagonal rivet. The opening is nearly flat.

In some there is no rib down the middle, but merely a projecting ridge, and in others no rivet-holes are visible.

This straight form of scabbard end has been very rarely found in Ireland. The only specimen mentioned by Wilde is by permission here reproduced as Fig. 367. Another (5½ inches) was in the collection of Mr. Wakeman, of Enniskillen.

A scabbard end of much the same general character as that from Guilsfield, but shorter and broader, is shown in Fig. 368. It was found at Wick Park, Stogursey, Somerset,[1147] with palstaves, socketed celts, gouges, spear-heads, and fragments of swords, together with jets from castings and rough metal.

Scabbard ends occur also in Scotland, for one nearly similar to these last (5¾ inches) was found with four leaf-shaped swords and a large spear-head, all of bronze, at Cauldhame, near Brechin, Forfarshire.[1148] They are now in the Antiquarian Museum at Edinburgh. The scabbard is by permission of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland here shown as Fig. 369. Another scabbard tip in the same museum is rather shorter. It was found at Gogar Burn, near Edinburgh, together with a sword and a penannular brooch of bronze and a small penannular ornament of gold. A Scotch specimen from the farm of Ythsie, Tarves, Aberdeenshire, is in the British Museum. It is like that from Brechin, and is 5½ inches long.

The straight form of scabbard end has been discovered, though rarely, in Northern France. One from Caix, Somme, is engraved in the Dictionnaire ArchÉologique de la Gaule. A fragment of another, more like Fig. 365, has been found near CompiÈgne (Oise).

A still shorter form is shown in Fig. 370, the original of which was found at Pant-y-maen, near Glancych, Cardiganshire,[1149] together with broken swords, spear-heads, and ferrules, as well as some small rings.

A still more simple form, and one more nearly approaching the modern chape, has occasionally been found. That shown as Fig. 371 formed part of the hoard found in Reach Fen, Cambridgeshire, which comprised also some fragments of swords. It is of especial interest, as the small bronze nail which served to fasten it to the wooden scabbard was found with it. This nail is shown above the chape in the figure.

Another chape of the same kind, but more like Fig. 372 in form, was found at Haines Hill, near Hythe, Kent,[1150] with a perforated disc of bronze, like Fig. 503, and some other objects.

Fig. 372, kindly lent by the Royal Irish Academy, shows a chape found at Cloonmore, near Templemore, Co. Tipperary.[1151] This form seems to be of very rare occurrence in Ireland.

It has, however, been found in Savoy,[1152] and in the Swiss Lake-dwellings.

An English form, which is, I believe, as yet unique, is shown in Fig. 373. It was found, with several broken swords and spear-heads, at Stoke Ferry, Norfolk. It is ornamented with a neat fluting, produced apparently by means of punches. The rivet-holes are at the sides, instead of being, as usual, on the face.

A curious socketed object in bronze, found near Piltown,[1153] in the barony of Iverk, Co. Kilkenny, has been regarded as the haft of a dagger. It is rectangular in section and expanding at the base which is closed. But from its analogy with some of the scabbard ends lately described it seems possible that it formed part of a sheath. The objection to this view is that the breadth of the socket is much greater than usual with these chapes. The zigzag and other ornamentation upon it is described as having been engraved with a fine point after the object was cast. The lower face is not ornamented.

The form is not unlike that of the end of the scabbard of some modern African leaf-shaped swords of iron, as to which Mr. Syer Cuming[1154] has remarked, that while the point of the blade is as sharp as a needle, the base of its receptacle measures nearly 3 inches across. It is possible that the object engraved as Fig. 286 may be intended for the end of a scabbard, and not for that of a hilt, but this can only be determined by future discoveries.

Another Irish form is shown in Fig. 374, the original of which was found at Keelogue Ford, in the Shannon, and is in the Royal Irish Academy. In this instance the chape has assumed a kind of boat-like form with pointed ends. As Sir W. Wilde[1155] has observed, the indentations at the top mark the overlapping of the wooden portion of the scabbard, which was fastened to the bronze by two slender rivets, so that the ends projected about an inch on each side.

Fig. 375 shows an English scabbard tip of the same class, though differing in details, which was found in the neighbourhood of Mildenhall, Suffolk, and is in the collection of Mr. Simeon Fenton, of that town, to whom I am indebted for permission to engrave it. The surface of this chape is beautifully finished, and the raised rib round the semicircular notch is delicately engrailed or “milled.” There is a single minute hole for a pin or rivet on one face only. As will be seen, this English example closely resembles that from Ireland shown in the previous figure.

Though chiefly found in Ireland, this elongated form of scabbard has occasionally been discovered in England. Fig. 376 represents a specimen from the Thames, now preserved in the British Museum.

Another example, but slightly more curved, was found with a bronze sword at Ebberston, Yorkshire, and is in the Bateman Collection.[1157] It has been figured. The rivets for attaching it to the wooden scabbard are still in position.

This type of scabbard end has also been found in France. In the Museum of Bourges is an example about 5½ inches long, much like Fig. 376, but rather more V-shaped. Another, more like the figure, was found with a bronze sword, near Marsanne[1158] (DrÔme), and a third in the tumulus of BarÉsia[1159] (Jura). Another was found at the end of an iron sword in a tumulus at Mons[1160] (Auvergne).

It is to be observed that the ends of some of the knife sheaths of the Early Iron Period[1161] expand in somewhat the same manner, so as to assume an anchor-like appearance.

A bronze bouterolle or scabbard tip of a very peculiar type, the sides being elongated and flattened out so as to form two sickle-shaped wings curving upwards, was exhibited to the Society of Antiquaries in 1867[1162] as having been found in Britain. A figure of it was to have appeared in the ArchÆologia, but has not yet been published. Perhaps there was room to doubt its English origin. Certainly the description, with the exception of the sickle-shaped wings curving upwards, agrees with a form of which several examples have been found in Germany and in France.[1163] Some of these are sharp at the end like a socketed celt, with two expanding sickle-like wings, but their purpose as chapes has not always been recognised. One from Hallstatt is described by Von Sacken[1164] as a cutting tool to be attached to a thin shaft. There are two in the Museum at Prague, found at Korno and Brasy.

One from Oberwald-behrungen is in the Museum at WÜrzburg. Another is at Hanover.

The fact that traces of wooden sheaths to daggers have been found in the Wiltshire and other barrows has already been mentioned, but no bronze fittings have been found with them. There are, however, some objects which may have served either as the mouth-pieces of sheaths for daggers or small knives, or as ferrules for their hilts.

One of these from the Harty hoard is shown full size in Fig. 377.

Another of identically the same character, but rather shorter, was found, with a bronze knife or dagger and numerous other articles, at Marden,[1165] Kent. It was regarded by Mr. Beale Poste as the mounting of the top of a dagger sheath formed of leather.

Another was found with various other relics near Abergele,[1166] Denbighshire.

Some elongated loops formed of jet are of a shape that would have served for the mouth-pieces of sword scabbards, but whether so fragile a substance was used for such a purpose may well be questioned. They may have been merely ornamental. One about 3 inches long, found in Scotland,[1167] has been regarded as a clasp for a belt. Possibly these objects in bronze may, after all, be of the nature of slides or clasps.

Another loop, more rounded at the ends, found in the peat at Newbury,[1168] Berks, has been described as a slider for securing some portion of the dress, or for passing over a belt. Not improbably this is their true interpretation. Some outer slides are described at p. 404.

Some bronze objects of nearly similar form, but about 3 inches in length, found with late Celtic remains, have been regarded as the cross-guards[1169] of daggers or knives.

In my own collection is a fine bronze sword from Denmark with broad side flanges to the hilt plate, on the blade of which is a bronze loop about ¼ inch wide, rebated for the reception of wood, but without any rivet-holes. Each face presents four parallel headings. For some time, in common with some Danish antiquaries, I regarded this loop as the mouth-piece of a scabbard, for which it appears well adapted; but I now find that such a view is erroneous, and that this loop is the ferrule for receiving the ends of the plates of wood or horn which formed the hilt. For in the barrow of LydshÖi,[1170] near Blidstrup, Frederiksborg, was a bronze sword with a similar ferrule upon it, and the remains of the plates of horn beneath it still in position. One of these Danish ferrules is of gold.[1171] A sheath[1172] from a barrow at Hvidegaard, made of birch wood with an outer and inner casing of leather, has a leather band for the mouth-piece, and a leather eye for receiving the belt. Some small sheaths for bronze knives and for a flint dagger found at the same time are simply of leather.