On a Hoard of Gold Nobles. 121 



who by no means excluded corporal punishment from his system of 

 education. As to claiming' benefit of clergy, my recollection is that 

 so soon as a verdict of guilty was given the Clerk of the Peace ad- 

 dressed the prisoner with some such words as ' having been duly 

 convicted of the felony laid to your charge, have you anything to say 

 why judgment should not be passed on you.' This of course meant 

 sentence of death for a felony; the convicted person had of course 

 nothing to say, and was then desired to ' kneel and pray the benefit 

 of the statute,' whereupon, being instructed by the gaoler or constable, 

 he bent his knee, and having thus by a gesture, of which perhaps 

 he was only half conscious, made a claim on the court, of which he 

 had even less understanding,he received sentence from the chairman.'' 

 Benefit of clergy was formally abolished by the Act of 7 & 8 

 Geo. IV., cap. 28 : branding had long previously fallen into disuse. 

 (To be Continued.J 



h a Poat^ of ^A\ ftaHe^ fomtlr at 



By the Eev. J. Babon, D.D., F.S.A., 



Rector of Upton Scudamore, Wilts. 



5N the early part of September, 1877, there was found on 

 Bremeridge Farm, in the parish of Westbury, Wilts, be- 

 longing to Charles Paul Phipps, Esq., of Chalcot, a hoard of thirty- 

 two gold coins. They were found during repairs and improvements 

 of the homestead, about a foot and a half below the surface, in the 

 courtyard, piled one above another, without any appearance of a 

 purse or box. The place of deposit would be indicated by a line 



^ This paper was read at a meeting of the Society of Antiquaries, London, and 

 is here reprinted, by permission, from Archseologia, vol. xlvii., pp. 137-156. 



