Henderson, Charles

Henderson, Charles: Review by PASP from Cornwall Archaeology 1 (1962) narrowed in the last twenty years by the slow now lost, was originally recorded as belonging to accumulation of chance finds, and it seems quite this hoard and if it is properly included would likely that some knowledge of filigree technique date the hoard later than the other coins suggest- remained among Anglo-Saxon metal workers. Mr. Blunt however considers that this coin in The author's most valuable discussion in this default of clear evidence can be left aside and paper is of the animal ornament on the mounts, would accept the conventional date for the ornament which is distinguished among art deposit of circa 875. historians as The Trewhiddle Style. He disagrees ROSEMARY CRAMP with Br0ndsted's theory, as set forward in Early Department of Archaeology, English Ornament, that this style, like that of a University of Durham group of Canterbury manuscripts was derived from Merovingian models. Mr. Wilson considers that the Trewhiddle style was a natural develop- (The late) CHARLES HENDERSON Ecclesiastical ment from the animals found on pagan Saxon Antiquities of the 109 Ancient Parishes of West metal work. P. 100, 'If we look at the animal Cornwall. Published in four parts, in Journal ornament on the metal work of any period between of the Royal Institution of Cornwall (New Series 450 and 950 we can see the same traditions II, 3, 1955; II, 4, 1956; 111,2,1958; III, 4,1960); at work'. It is true that Merovingian influence obtainable from the Curator, County Museum. whether on manuscripts sculpture or metal work River Street, Truro; prices on application. is often too easily conceded. It can also be mis- leading to indulge in a chain of comparisons 'Others abide our question, thou art free' is a between different art media. Nevertheless I do tribute which can never apply to any historian, not see that in fig. 5 where the author shows a but no one more nearly attained this ideal than series of animals from the fifth to the ninth Charles Henderson (1900-1933), who in a brief centuries that the sequence is entirely convincing. but astonishingly fruitful career set a standard for For one thing the creature used to introduce the local enquiry in Cornwall that will always stand naturalistic if contorted animal form is from the as a goal for his successors. To the Royal Institu- Lindisfarne Gospels and not from metal work. tion of Cornwall he left a massive legacy of Moreover, if one allows that the Trewhiddle thousands of original documents, calendars, animal could well develop from the Lindisfarne transcripts and notes, consultation of which forms type, it is sufficiently distinct from its predecessor the starting-point (and usually very much more) to be placed unhesitatingly within a different for virtually every project involving research in aesthetic milieu. Mr. Wilson has made a valuable Cornish history. It is thus fitting that the Institu- point, but one can spend too long in constructing tion, which in 1937 published Henderson's History a chain of influence from inadequate material. of Constantine as a memorial, should have under- What seems more worthwhile at this present stage taken the further project here under review. in our knowledge is what he has done elsewhere Its scope is the ecclesiastical history of the in his discussion to give an explanatory definition parishes forming the western Hundreds of Pen- of a style and a full comparison with what may be with, Kerrier, Powder and Pydar, and it is difficult considered contemporary material. to over-estimate its importance for anyone work- Mr. C. E. Blunt in his account of the coins ing on this area, since it combines the results of (with the exception of the small find fromTywar- extensive documentary research, often with dreath this is the only hoard of Anglo-Saxon sources never before used, with those of careful coins in Cornwall) has provided a most illuminat- observation in the field. But, great as its value is, ing account of their significance for the non- the work must be used with caution since, numismatic reader. After a careful re-examina- although it was largely written by 1924, the author tion of the evidence he feels disposed to reject the never revised it for publication and it cannot be attribution of the disputed Eanred coin to Eanred said to represent the final word (or even his final of Northumbria and supposes that it must belong word) on any subject. Much of it is in note form, to an unrecorded king of Mercia. A coin of King and it does not include some of the author's later Alfred of the later two line type, 885-95, which is discoveries, such as the important grant of 1396 126 .

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