Coins found near Marlborough. 85 



was once the seat of a large and thriving- population. Now and 

 again, while ploughing the land, a horse will suddenly sink into a 

 regular pit-fall and perhaps require to be dug out before the plough 

 can start again. Some of those pits or wells have been opened and 

 found to contain all manner of the debris of a Roman town or village. 

 Pottery of various kinds, oyster shells, bones of animals used for 

 food, cooking utensils, fragments o£ iron, bronze and glass, abound 

 in them ; quantities of burnt wood occur, shewing that in all pro- 

 bability either the retreating Romans or the pursuing Britons set 

 fire to the town and station, which the former were obliged to 

 abandon. 



In the Museum in the Upper School at Marlborough College 

 are some specimens of the pottery and other articles found in one of 

 the wells, but I am bound to say that (though in many instances 

 very similar) they cannot compare with the interesting relies just 

 placed in the Museum of this Society at Devizes, which have been 

 recovered from a somewhat similar Roman well at the Westbury 

 Iron Works. In a dry season it is quite possible to distinguish even 

 the lines of the main streets and thoroughfares of the town by the 

 difference in the growth of the corn, but I fear it would be hopeless 

 to look for them this very wet summer. 



Some persons have been so surprised at the number of coins found 

 continually on this spot that they have hazarded the extraordinary 

 suggestion that the Romans were, in the habit of scattering them 

 over the ground as an evidence of their having conquered the 

 country. But I do not think it necessary to adopt any such theory 

 to account for the presence o£ large quantities of money on such a 

 site. If we consider for a moment what would be the consequences 

 of an army suddenly retreating from a long occupied camp, or what 

 would be found on the spot where a battle had been fought, a villao-e 

 burnt, or a town stormed, we shall not be astonished at finding a 

 very large quantity of coins on the scene of such an event. There 

 were no cheques or bank-notes in those days, money was kept in 

 the shape of coin. The coinage of that period was chiefly copper, 

 and had been so from the time of Constantino or earlier. A vast 

 number of small coins must have been necessary to carry on the 



