the superior wealth and refinement of the Kentish Saxons ; and show how much they had profited by Roman art and artists.
   The most novel feature in Mr. Gibbs's collection, and to which I direct your especial attention, is the fine ornamented plates, with rings and other appendages: they appear to have decorated the harness of a sumptuously caparisoned horse, which there is every reason to suppose was interred with the body of its master, doubtless a thane of distinction. Before the ancient Germans had been much influenced by intercourse with the Romans, and when cremation was more generally practised, we find that burning the war-horse was occasionally one of their funeral ceremonies. Tacitus¹ observes, " sua cuique arma, quorundam igni et equus adjicitur;" and the practice was continued down to a late period: traces of it indeed remain to the present day. Of course only persons of wealth or eminence could afford to make such a costly sacrifice.
   The glass vessels comprise the more ordinary varieties which are found in Saxon graves. Bare as they are now become, they must have been in general use among the Saxons, although, from the fragile nature of the material, they are seldom preserved entire, except when graves are excavated intentionally and with great care. It is said that in past times so many of these cups were taken from graves at Wodensborough, near Sandwich, that on one occasion they were used at a harvest-home in a neighbouring farmhouse for beer-glasses. An example of the exceedingly rare type, of which varieties are given in plate xlv. of the 'Inventorium Sepulchrale,' for many years did duty upon the tea-table of a Kentish lady as a sugar-basin. Although these vessels, like most of the Saxon remains, are of so peculiar a fabric and character that they cannot be mistaken for Roman, yet it is easy 
   ¹ De Mor. Germ., cap. xxvii.