A HISTORY OF BUCKINGHAMSHIRE 



modified, and at the present time the limbs are about 1 5 feet in breadth. 

 It has no base. 



The Whiteleaf cross is kept in fairly good repair, some parts having 

 been returfed recently ; and there is a local tradition that both of these 

 crosses were regularly cleaned or " scoured," like the White Horse at 

 Uffington. 



ANCIENT BRITISH COINS 



The period covered by what are commonly called ancient British 

 coins overlaps, in a certain sense, the historic period, because the names 

 of various ruling princes are inscribed on British coins. 



Many of the coins found in Buckinghamshire, however, are of an 

 early character and uninscribed. The most important discovery in the 

 county was that made in February 1849 at Whaddon Chase, when 

 upwards of 400 gold coins were unearthed by the plough. Mr. J. Y. 

 Akerman, F.S.A., Secretary of the Society of Antiquaries of London, 

 contributed to 'The Numismatic Chronicle* an account in which it is stated 

 that 



"About February 1849, the son of a tenant of Mr. Lowndes 

 ploughed up a quantity of gold coins at Whaddon-chase, in a field 

 called Narbury in the parish of Little Horwood. The discovery 

 brought to the spot many persons, some of whom contrived to get 

 possession of nearly one hundred specimens, which have been dispersed. 

 About 320 reached the hands of Mr. Lowndes, who has kindly sub- 

 mitted them to our inspection. Fragments of an earthen vessel were 

 said to have been turned up where the coins were found ; but, on 

 enquiry, no satisfactory information on this point could be gathered. . . 



"Though extremely interesting to the numismatist, it is greatly to 

 be regretted that not a single example of an inscribed coin occurs in 

 this find. About one fourth consists of pieces of a type already well 

 known, stamped on one side only with the rude figure of a horse, the 

 head grotesquely shaped, and resembling the bill of a fowl, and the 

 limbs disjointed. The rest have, on some examples, a tolerably well- 

 executed figure of a horse unbridled and at liberty ; and on the reverse, 

 a wreath dividing the field." 



Sir John Evans, who deals with the question of the date of these 

 coins in his monumental work, 2 writes : " Their weight, which is 

 usually about 90 grains, or even a little more, proves them to be earlier 

 than those of Cunobelinus, or even Tasciovanus, whose coins rarely, if 

 ever, exceed 85 grains. At the same time, the type of the obverse 

 does not show so complete an oblivion of the original prototype as the 

 cruciform ornament on the coins of Tasciovanus." 



The ancient British coins found in the central part of England, 

 including the counties of Oxford, Bucks, Herts, Beds, and Essex, are 

 represented on Plate C of Sir John Evans's book just referred to. They 

 show very degraded versions of the laureate head of Apollo (or of the 



1 Vol. xii. pp. 3-5. * Ancient British Coins, p. 73. 



190 



