242 Dr Mantell's Illustrations cf the Connexion 



kingdom. In the conglomerates accumulated in the beds of 

 streams, lakes, and rivers, and in the masses of ferruginous 

 sandstone dredged up from the sea, coins are not unfre- 

 quently enclosed. From the blocks of regenerated granitic 

 stone formed around the sunk treasures of the Thetis, pre- 

 viously mentioned, many thousand dollars were extracted. 



The following instance of the preservation of coins in a 

 fluviatile conglomerate, the date of which can be precisely 

 determined, is one of the most interesting examples of this 

 kind with which I am acquainted. In the year 1831, some 

 workmen employed in deepening the river Dove, where it 

 winds round the base of the rock on which stand the moul- 

 dering ruins of the once regal castle of Tutbury, and forms 

 the boundary-line that separates Staffordshire from Derby- 

 shire, they observed, among the loose gravel spread over the 

 bed of the stream, many small silver coins ; and continuing 

 their labours, discovered, at the depth of ten feet, large 

 masses of a very hard ferruginous conglomerate, which, on 

 being broken, were found to be studded with hundreds of 

 similar pieces of money. On the discovery becoming known 

 in the neighbourhood, scores of peasants hastened to the 

 river, and at one time not less than three hundred persons 

 were engaged in searching for the treasures. But those who 

 were successful had great difficulty in detaching the coins 

 from the stone in which they were impacted ; for the money 

 having lain for upwards of five centuries in the bed of the 

 river, the water had gradually deposited successive layers of 

 sand and gravel, till the heterogeneous mass was converted 

 into a compact rock, of which the coins constituted an in- 

 tegral part. 



The coins collected amounted to many thousands. They 

 comprised sterlings of the Empire, Brabant, Lorraine, and 

 Hainault ; and the Scotch money of Alexander III., John 

 Baliol, and Robert Bruce ; and a complete English series of 

 Edward I. There were likewise examples of all the prelati- 

 cal coins of Edward I. and II., and of the first and second 

 coinage of Henry III., and of the most early of Edward II. 

 " On the whole," says a contemporary writer, " a finer 

 museum of early English, Scotch, and Irish coins was never 



