4i6 



HORSE-SHOES AND HORSE-SHOEING. 



stream, and on which the water had gradually deposited 

 stratum upon stratum of sand and pebbles, the mass had 

 become a hard substance, scarcely yielding in solidity to 

 stone itself, in which coin after coin appeared to form 

 some of the original component parts. Pieces of iron 

 from the waggon or chest had also, in the process of 

 oxidation, become pulpy, and still firmer bound and in- 

 creased the strange conglomerate. 



The earl's chest appears to hav^e contained some curious 

 and varied specimens of the currency then in use. Besides 

 a number of sterlings of the Empire, Brabant, Lorraine, 

 and Hainault, and the Scotch coins of Alexander II., 

 John Baliol, and Robert Bruce, there was found a com- 

 plete English series of those of the first Edward (fig. 150), 



who, at various times, had 

 his money struck at several 

 towns in England, Scotland, 

 and Ireland. There were 

 also specimens of all the pre- 

 latical coins of Edward I., Edward II., as well as many of 

 Henry III., — both of his first and second coinage, — and a 

 few of the most early of Edward II. On the whole, a finer 

 museum of English, Scotch, and Irish coins was never be- 

 fore, under any circumstances, thrown open to the inspec- 

 tion of the antiquary and historian. Yet it seems very sur- 

 prising that the English coins found should, with only one 

 exception, have been of the same small size and value. 

 This exception was a very beautiful coin of silver, about the 

 size of half-a-crown, and of the reign of Edward I. Nor 

 is it less surprising that the chest should have contained 

 no jewellery or other valuable articles, one ring alone 



fig- 150 



