Ancient Coins brought to Light 19 



rain. As the villages are on the lesser ' bournes,' so the 

 towns are placed on the banks of the rivers these fall into. 

 There may generally be found a row of villages and hamlets 

 on the last slope of the downs, where the hills sink finally 

 away into the plain and vale, so that if any one went along 

 the edge of the hills he would naturally think the district 

 well populated. But if instead of following the edge he 

 penetrated into the interior he would find the precise con- 

 trary to be the case. Just at the edge there is water, the 

 ' heads ' of the innumerable streams that make the vale so 

 verdant. In the days when wealth consisted chiefly in 

 flocks and herds, men would naturally settle where there 

 were ' water-brooks.' 



When at last the drought ceases, and the rain does 

 come, it often pours with tropical vehemence ; so that the 

 soil of the fields upon the slopes is carried away into the 

 brooks, and the furrows are filled up level with the sand 

 washed out from the clods, the lighter particles of earth 

 floating suspended in the stream, the heavier sand remain- 

 ing behind. Then, sometimes, as the slow labourer lingers 

 over the ground, with eyes ever bent downwards, he spies 

 a faint glitter, and picks up an antique coin in his horny 

 fingers : coins are generally found after a shower, on the 

 same principle that the gold-seekers wash away the auri- 

 ferous soil in the ' cradle,' and lay bare the yellow atoms. 

 Such coins, too, are sometimes of the same precious metal, 

 ancient and rude. Sometimes the edge of the hoe clinks 

 against a coin, thus at last discovered after so many cen- 

 turies ; yet which for years must have lain so near the 

 surface as to have been turned over and over again by the 

 ploughshare, though unnoticed. 



The magnitude of the space enclosed by the earthwork, 

 the height of the rampart and depth of the fosse, show 



c 2 



