DORSET TOKENS AND MEDALS. 89 



shewn on Nos. 17 to 23 are those engraved upon a Corporation 

 seal dated 1570, so that Shaftesbury may claim a title to them by 

 use for more than three centuries, although no grant or confirma- 

 tion is recorded at Herald's College. 



MEDALS COMMEMORATING PERSONS AND EVENTS 

 CONNECTED WITH DORSET AND ITS HISTORY. 



John Evelyn, who wrote " Numismata : A Discourse of 

 Medals" in 1697, engraves in his pages, and comments upon 

 with approval, four of the examples to be mentioned in these 

 notes, viz., those of Strangways, Shaftesbury, and Monmouth's 

 Rebellion. His testimony as a contemporary critic and man of 

 taste is useful as showing the estimation in which these medals 

 were held at a time when they had just left the presses, and their 

 reputation is not less to-day. Evelyn suggests some names of 

 distinguished men who were " worthy the honour of medals," 

 and among them are Sydenham and Boyle. The author's desire 

 was fulfilled many years after his death by the issue of medals in 

 memory of these two worthies, but their posthumous honours 

 were not in either case, alas ! conferred upon them by their own 

 countrymen. 



25. obv : Portrait to the right, in Roman dress. " ^Egidius 

 Strangways de Melbury in com : Dorcestr : 

 armiger." (Ian. R.F.) (Plate II., obv. only.) 

 rev : The White Tower of London ; above, the sun. 

 " Decusque adversa dederunt." In ex : " Incar- 

 ceratus Sept. 1645. Liberatus, Apr. 1648." 

 In silver ; a few in gold ; size, 2*401. Engraved by John 

 Roettier, a native of Antwerp, who was employed at our Mint. 

 Colonel Sir Giles Strangways was born in 1615, and was buried 

 at Melbury in 1675. This medal, struck after the Restoration, 

 refers to the imprisonment he underwent for his devotion to 

 Charles I. He was M.P. for Bridport until deprived of his seat 

 by Parliament, and was afterwards Knight of the Shire under 

 Charles II. 



