172 



KNOWLEDGE. 



[August 1, 1896. 



each about two yards square, are annually imported into 

 Great Britain, cliitily from Arcliangd. 



Daring the strupj,'los of thi^ Swiss and Flemish to recover 

 their liberty it was their custom to plant a lime tree on 

 the field of every battle they had gained. Some of these 



Fiti. 2 — Loaves and Seeds of the Lime Tree. 



still remain, and have been the subjects of many ballads. 

 One planted at Fribourg in 1476 was standing in 18131, 

 and then measured, accordiog to Loudoun, twenty-three 

 feet nine mches in circumference. Another, near the same 

 place, supposed to be nearly a thousand years old, has a 

 trunk thirty-six feet in girth. A famous tree at Neustadt, 

 in Wiirtemberg, with a stem nine feet in diameter, has given 

 that town the name of Neustadt an dfr (Jrosscn Linden. At 

 Eeinhardtsbrun a lime in vigorous health measured, ia 

 1895, twenty-five feet nine inches five feet from the ground, 

 and has a clear bole of fifteen feet. 



Autumn brings new grace to the lime as the foliage 

 turns to yellow — in some years clear as the green of spring, 

 but, alas ! even more fleeting. It is to be regretted that this 

 tree is one of the first to lose its leaves ; indeed, almost 

 before we have time to realize our brief summer we see 

 them begin to fall. In spring or early summer the lime is 

 at its best, and it is evidently to that time Mrs. Browning 

 refers when she pays it this graceful tribute : — 



"Here a linden tree stood, briglit'ning 



All adown its silver rind ; 

 For, as some trees draw tlie lightning. 



So this tree, unto my mind. 

 Drew to earth the blessed sunshine 



From the sky where it was shrinod." 



ENGLISH COINS.-II. 



By G. F. Hill, M.A. 



THE effect of the Norman Conquest on the 

 English coinage is almost imperceptible, 

 and any change that took place was 

 apparently for the worse. Under William 

 I. and II. (whose coins have to be dealt 

 with together, as no satisfactory distinction 

 between the two monarchs has been arrived at) 

 the number of types is numerous, and the facing 

 bust of the king (Fig. 1 : PILLEM REX ANGLOR ; 

 reverse, man ON CANTVLBI, a Canterbury penny) 

 now begins to be very common. The silver of 

 these coins is of about the same fineness as that 

 of our coins of the present time. From this 

 time the style of the coinage deteriorates rapidly, 

 until, under Stephen, it reaches its lowest point. 

 The coins of this period are, however, interesting 

 for the reason that, besides Stephen and Matilda, 

 several other persons who were conspicuous in 

 these troubled days are represented by coins. 

 Thus we have coins of P^ustace and William, 

 sons of Stephen ; of Henry de Blois, Bishop of 

 Winchester, and Stephen's illegitimate brother 

 (Fig. 2: HEN [rig] VS EPC ; reverse, [sTEP] 

 HANVS rex); of Robert, Earl of Gloucester, 

 the illegitimate son of Henry I. ; and of Roger, 

 Earl of Warwick. 



On his accession Henry If. found the coinage 

 in a bad state. During his reign some uniformity 

 was brought into the system, the number of types 

 being shnplified and a single superintendent being 

 appointed who was responsible for the whole of 

 the coinage. In 1180 an important issue took 

 place, which consisted of what are known as 

 " short-cross pennies," from the double or voided 

 cross not reaching to the edge of the coin, which 

 is the uniform type of the reverse. These coins 

 all bear Henry's name, although they were in 

 part issued in the reigns of Richard I. (Fig. 3 : 

 HENRicvs rex ; reverse, stivene on lvn, a 

 London penny) and of John. Neither Richard 

 nor John struck English coins with his own name. The 

 short-cross pennies lasted until 1217 or 1218, when, to 

 prevent the too prevalent practice of clipping the coins, 

 the cross was lengthened. This was not the only innova- 

 tion made in this reign. 



In 1257 an attempt was made to introduce a gold 

 coinage, which had been inaugurated five years before by 

 the coming of the first "florin " in Florence. Henry's gold 

 pennies (each worth twenty silver pennies) were not a 

 success. They are excessively rare. The probability is 

 that being of pure gold they were speedily melted down 

 (Fig. 6: henrig rex III : reverse, willem on lvnde). 

 Another innovation was the placing of ill, or terci(us), 

 after the king's name. Curiously, this very sensible reform 

 ■was not followed out by later kings, and the numerals do 

 not appear again after the king's name until the time of 

 Henry VII. The only lasting change made by Henry III. 

 was the introduction of three pellets in the angles of the 

 cross ; these pellets occur constantly until the time of 

 Henry VII., and only finally disappear under James I. It 

 has been suggested that they gave rise to the three balls 

 adopted by money-lenders as their sign. 



The coins of the first three Edwards are difficult to 

 distinguish. By this time the voided cross has given place 



