DISCOVERY OF TREASURE AND HORSE-SHOES. 415 



shovelful of gravel, and nearly five thousand of them 

 were collected by two of the individuals thus employed on 

 that day ; they were sold to the bystanders at six, seven, 

 eight, or eight shillings and sixpence per hundred ; but 

 the next day a less quantity was procured, and the prices 

 of them advanced accordingly. The bulk of the coins 

 were found in a space of about three yards square, near 

 the Derbyshire bank of the river. Upwards of three 

 hundred individuals might have been seen engaged in 

 this search at one time, and the idle and inquisitive were 

 attracted from all quarters to the spot. Quarrels and 

 disturbances naturally enough ensued, and the interference 

 of the neighbouring magistrates became necessary. 



'At length the officers of the Crown asserted the king's 

 right to all coin which might subsequently be found in 

 the bed of the river, since the soil thereof belonged to his 

 Majesty in right of his duchy of Lancaster.' 



The consequence was, that all persons were prohibited 

 from collecting coin except those appointed by the Chan- 

 cellor of the duchy, who, on behalf of the Crown, instituted 

 a search on the 28th of June that lasted until the ist of 

 July. In this brief period more than 1500 additional 

 coins were found, and then the excavation from which 

 they were principally extracted was filled up and levelled 

 over. The total number of coins thus found is supposed 

 to have been, upon the most moderate computation, no 

 less than 100,000. 



Often those who found one of these pieces had much 

 difficulty in detaching it from the gravel in which it had 

 become imbedded. Having been for so long a period 

 lying amid the soil which once formed the bed of the 



