292 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 



The owners at first held their commodity at a high price ; but, 

 finding that they were not likely to meet with dealers at such 

 a rate, they soon lowered their terms, and sold the fairest as they 

 could. The coins that were rejected became current, and passed 

 for farthings at the petty shops. Of those that we saw, the greater 

 part were of Marcus Aurelius, and the Empress Faustina, his 

 wife, the father and mother of Commodus. Some of Faustina 

 were in high relief, and exhibited a very agreeable set of features, 

 which probably resembled that lady, who was more celebrated 

 for her beauty than for her virtues. The medallions in general 

 were of a paler colour than the coins. To pretend to account 

 for the means of their coming to this place would be spending 

 time in conjecture. The spot, I think, could not be a Roman 

 camp, because it is commanded by hills on two sides ; nor does 

 it show the least traces of entrenchments ; nor can I suppose 

 that it was a Roman town, because I have too good an opinion 

 of the taste and judgment of those polished conquerors to imagine 

 that they would settle on so barren and dreary a waste. 



NOTE TO LETTER I. 



1 In October 1873 two earthenware vessels were found two feet under the 

 surface of a field near Selborne containing about thirty thousand Roman and 

 Roman-British coins. 



LETTER II. 



THAT Selborne was a place of some distinction and note in the 

 time of the Saxons we can give most undoubted proofs. But, as 

 there are few if any accounts of the villages before Domesday, it 

 will be best to begin with that venerable record. " Ipse rex 

 tenet Selesburne. Eddid regina tenuit, et nunquam geldavit. 

 De isto manerio dono dedit rex Radfredo presbytero dimidiam 

 hidam cum ecclesia. Tempore regis Edwardi et post, valuit 

 duodecim solidos et sex denarios ; modo octo solidos et quatuor 



