242 WHITE 



around bought what pleased them best, and some dozens fell 

 to the share of the author. 1 



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 fair- 

 est 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 color 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 



1 In October 1873 ^ wo 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 presby- 

 tero dimidiam hidam cum ecclesia. Tempore regis Edwardi 

 et post, valuit duodecim solidos et sex denarios ; modo octo 

 solidos et quatuor denarios." Here we see that Selborne was 

 a royal manor: and that Editha, the queen of Edward the 



