THE PREHISTORIC PERIOD 



hardly consistent with the views ordinarily held as to the civilization of 

 Britain in the days of the Roman emperors Augustus and Tiberius. 



It will now be well to say a few words as to the ancient British 

 coins other than those of Tasciovanus and Verulamium that have been 

 found within the county. Fuller details with regard to nearly all the 

 instances that I shall cite are to be seen in The Coins of the Ancient 

 Britons and the supplement to that work. 



Examples of the second variety of the prototype of the large gold 

 coins figured on p. 015, fig. 12, have been found at Ashlyns near Berk- 

 hamsted, near Hemel Hempstead, and at Wildhall near Hatfield. Other 

 uninscribed gold coins have been discovered at Barnet, Standon and 

 Braughing. 



A small gold coin of a Sussex type was found near Hitchin, an 

 uninscribed silver coin of Icenian type at Bygrave near Baldock, and 

 others of more western character at Braughing, where numerous copper 

 coins of various types, some of uncertain attribution, have been un- 

 earthed. Some cast tin coins have been found in the same locality. 



Coins of Cunobelinus, the son of Tasciovanus, have occurred not 

 unfrequently in the county. His gold coins have been found near Bal- 

 dock, near Tring, and at Lilly Hoo near Hitchin, while his copper coins 

 have been found at Berkhamsted, Tring, Wigginton, Pitstone, Ashwell, 

 Baldock, Royston, Walsworth near Hitchin, Braughing, and on the site 

 of Verulamium. 



EARTHWORKS 



Earthworks in Hertfordshire are fairly numerous, but in many cases 

 it is almost impossible to determine their age. 1 One of the most im- 

 portant is the Grimes-ditch, Grimsdyke, or Graemesdyke, of which 

 traces are visible on Berkhamsted Common, and which reappears on the 

 other side of the valley of the Bulbourne, while a vallum extends in a 

 bold sweep from near the town of Great Berkhamsted through the 

 parishes of Northchurch and Wigginton to the north of the camp of 

 Cholesbury, and thence to St. Leonard's in Buckinghamshire, continuing, 

 it is said, past Missenden to near Bradenham. If the name of this earth- 

 work be the Saxon ' Grams-die,' ' the devil's dyke,' it seems to afford 

 evidence that the work dates from pre-Saxon times, and in Saxon days 

 was regarded as of unearthly origin. 



Another important earthwork, known as Beech-Bottom, 2 lies be- 

 tween the site of Verulamium and Sandridge, and has by some been re- 

 garded as of Roman date. It is however probably pre-Roman, and it 

 may be connected with a large encampment known as ' The Moats ' 3 or 

 ' The Slad,' which is situate a little to the east of Wheathampstead. The 

 outer earthworks, which run nearly parallel to parts of the Roman wall 

 round Verulamium, 4 are also probably pre-Roman. 



1 Cussans, i. p. 8 ; Trans. Herts Nat. Hist. Sue., iv. xlix. ; Proc. Sac. Ant., ii. p. 215. 



* Brit. Arch. Assoc. Journ., xxvi. p. 182 ; Trans. Herts Nat. Hist. Sac., iv. p. xx. 

 3 Trans. Herts Nat. Hist. Soc., v. p. xxxviii. 



* Arch. Journ., xxii. p. 299 ; Brit. Arch. Assoc. Journ., xxvi. p. 238. 



243 



