A HISTORY OF SURREY 



In the original account l it was compared with a somewhat more com- 

 mon type belonging for the most part to the prehistoric period and illus- 

 trated in an early volume of the Archaeological Institute. 3 The addition 

 of a thinner strand to the spiral coil of gold seems to have been 

 characteristic of the Viking period, and the Witley ring may be more 

 properly classed with the gold bracelet found at Wendover and now 

 preserved in the British Museum. Gold and silver bracelets of this 

 type are however more commonly found in Norway, some associated 

 with coins which assign them to the ninth and tenth centuries. 8 



Also of gold, is a small Merovingian coin found about 1854 in a 

 garden at Brockham, between Reigate and Dorking. It is a triens or 

 tiers de so/ struck at Metz, of the coinage of the French kings of the 

 first race. 4 Its weight just exceeds 19 grains, and another coin of the 

 same type, bearing the name of the same moneyer, Ansoaldas, occurred 

 in the Crondall hoard. The Brockham piece is now preserved in the 

 British Museum, and may be assigned to the period 550-600, during 

 which the Roman influence is still apparent in the coinage. 



In addition to the above, two important hoards of Anglo-Saxon 

 coins in Surrey have been recorded. The first discovery 6 was made in 

 April, 1817, within the parish of Dorking on Lower Merriden Farm 

 at Winterford Hanger. A wooden box, containing about 700 silver 

 coins and about six ounces of fragments, was struck by the plough, and 

 being massed together by the decomposition of the alloy were easily 

 recovered, though the box crumbled away on exposure to the air. The 

 treasure had been concealed about a foot below the surface in a spot 

 where the earth is of a particularly dark colour and productive of better 

 corn than any other part of the field. A revised list of the coins shows 

 that East Anglia was represented by sixteen of Aethelweard (837 

 50), three of Eadmund (855-73), an< ^ ^ same number of the 

 Danish Aethelstan (878-90) ; Mercia by one each of Ceolwulf I. 

 (822-3), Beornwulf (824-5), Wiglaf (825-39), and Burgred (853- 

 74), while there are twenty-three of Berhtwulf (839-53). ^ 

 Ceolnoth, Archbishop of Canterbury (83370), there are eighty-six, 

 while of the sole monarchy there are twenty of Ecgberht (80238), 

 265 of Aethelwulf (838-58), and 249 of Aethelbearht (861-6). 

 The only foreign piece in the parcel was one struck at Soissons of 

 Pepin (752-68), the father of Charlemagne. The majority were there- 

 fore struck in the first half of the ninth century, and though the deposit 

 cannot have been made before the year 870, it was evidently not long 

 after that date, and may thus have coincided with the accession of 

 Alfred to the throne of England. It may here be added that the 

 British Museum was indebted to Mr. Robert Barclay of Bury Hill and 

 Mr. George Dewdney of Dorking for examples of types not already 



1 Society of Antiquaries, Proceedings, ser. ^, ii. 88. 



8 Vol. vi. p. 58 ; the Wendover specimen is figured in the same volume, p. 48. 

 8 Rygh, Nonke Oldsager, Nos. 713, 714. * Journal of 4nh<tological Institute, . 69. 

 8 Arciucolo&a, xix. 109, where several pieces are figured. 



272 



