^io The Statural Hijlory 



with the Horfe and wheel under him, moft times found on the 

 Coins of the fame Boodicia, where her name is ftamp'd on them, 

 as may be feen both in Mr. Camdemnd Mr. Speed's Hiftories : by 

 the horfe and wheel intimating perhaps their great ftrength to lie in 

 their Ejfeda, a fort of Chariot much ufed by the Britans'm War, 

 as is teftified by Cafar , and particularly by Tacitws of this very 

 Boudicea, vi%. that (he was drawn in a Chariot, with her daugh- 

 ters placed before her p , when (lie came to fight Suetonius then 

 Proprietor of Britan. Or elfe perhaps by this time having learn- 

 ed of the Romans the neceflity and convenience of making mili- 

 tary ways, and other paffages for Carriages through the Woods and 

 marifi grounds in memory of the faft, after the manner of the 

 Romans, as may be feen on the mony of Trajan, Hadrian r , (src. 

 they might put thefe horfes and wheels on their Coin. 



8. Which is all I know remarkable in thefe Br itijh pieces, but 

 that they are all hollowed to a concave on. one fide, and convex on 

 the other (a concomitant of moft, if not all Britifi coin) and 

 that they are all gold, or at Ieaft Eletirum, as moft of the Britijb 

 mony we now find is, which is a fort of metal compounded of 

 gold and filver, and this done either by nature, or proportioned 

 by the Artifi. That there is fuch a metal as natural Eleclrum, we 

 have not only the teftimony of Pliny s , who fays, 'tis found com- 

 monly in trenches and pits. But of Servius l , and St. Ifidore 

 Bifhop of Sevil, the latter whereof aflerts, that the natural E- 

 leclrum is of great value, Quod naturaliter invenitur inpretio habe- 

 tur, are his very words, for that it is more pure then any other 

 metal, and that if poifon be put into a veflel made of it, it makes 

 a hifling fparkling noife (as Pliny alfo witneffes) and cafts it felf 

 into femicircles, refembling Rain-bows, as well in colours as fi- 

 gure u . 



9. To which add the teftimony of Peter Martyr, a perfon of 

 unqueftionable credit and veracity, who himfelf faw a great piece 

 of pure natural Eleclrum, fo heavy, that he was unable to move 

 it one way or other, much lefs to lift it with both hands from the 

 ground: they affirmed (faies he) that it weighed above 300 

 pounds, at eight ounces to the pound, and that it was found in 



