226i KIMMEEIDGE COAL-MOXEY; 



Mr. Diirden of Blandford informs me, that annillso of 

 Kimmeridge Coal have been found vdih. Roman remains. 



The following is extracted from a letter from T. AV. Wake 

 Smart, Esq., of Northiam, in S^ussex. 



*' In digging the sunken fence at Moreton House, an urn filled 

 with "Coal-money" was brought to Hght ;* and for the following 

 fact I was indebted to my fi-iend the late Mr. J. F. Peniiie, 

 who in a letter to me, dated 1846, thus writes; "about 58 years 

 ago as some men were digging for stone near the lodge, which 

 leads to Encombe House, they came to two very large flat stones 

 set up edgeways, very like the early Chiistianized Saxou 

 tombs: beneath these stones they found a perfect skeleton, 

 and close by its side was a large urn, (vulgo earthen crock, ) 

 "VYliich would have held at least a gallon, filled to the brim 

 with pieces of * Coal-money'." Mr. Pennie assured me that 

 his informant, an old man, was a credible authority for the 

 fact. The "Coal-money" has indeed been but very rarely 

 discovered in the exploration of tumuli; which is not very 

 remarkable perhaps, as the Bomans did not usually raise 

 tumuli over their dead, though they sometimes availed them- 

 selves of those which the Celts had previously constructed. 

 Hutchins relates that "at Bradford Peveril was found in 

 baiTOWs opened there, urns, burned bones, ashes, leathern 

 money J or rather such "Coal-money" as is found at Kimme- 

 ridge, which, when long exposed to the air, looks like leather, 

 and is sometimes marked with yellow marcasite spots, which 

 appear like the remains of gilding." f It was reported at the 

 Congress of the British Archaeological Association at WeUs in 

 1856, that a Celtic tumulus had been opened at Sulwood, 

 Somerset, in which a flint arrowhead and "Coal-money" were 

 found. J It would seem that pieces of "Coal-money had been 

 sometimes carried about the person, and valued either aa 



* On the authority of C. Warne, Esq., F.S.A. 

 t History of Dorset, Vol. i, page 445. 

 X Journal, March 31, 1857, page 52. 



