LETTER I. 



IT is reasonable to suppose that in remote ages this woody and 

 mountainous district was inhabited only by bears and wolves. 

 Whether the Britons ever thoug ht it worthy their attention, is not 

 in our power to determine ; but we may safely conclude, from 

 circumstances, that it was not unknown to the Romans. Old 

 people remember to have heard their fathers and grandfathers 

 say that, in dry summers and in windy weather, pieces of money 

 were sometimes found round the verge of Wolmer pond ; and 

 tradition had inspired the foresters with a notion that the bottom 

 of that lake contained great stores of tre asure. During the spring 

 and summer of 1740 there was little rain ; and the following sum- 

 mer also, 1741, was so uncommonly dry, that many springs and 

 ponds failed, and this lake in particular, whose bed became as 

 dusty as the surrounding heaths and wastes. This favourable 

 juncture induced some of the forest-cottagers to begin a search, 

 which was attended with such success, that all the labourers in 

 the neighbourhood flocked to the spot, and with spades and hoes 

 turned up great part of that large area, Instead of pots of coins, 

 as they expected, they found great heaps, the one lying on the 

 other, as if shot out of a bag; many of which were in good 

 preservation. Silver and gold these inquirers expected to find ; 

 but their discoveries consisted solely of many hundreds of Roman 

 copper-coins, and some medallions, all of the lower empire. 

 There was not much virtu stirring at that time in this neighbour- 

 hood ; however, some of the gentry and clergy around bought 

 what pleased them best, and some dozens fell to the share of the 

 author. 1 



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