132 On a Hoard of Gold Nobles 



The nobles of the Bremeridge hoard are of various dates, as might 

 be expected, but within moderate limits, just as at the present day 

 we often have in our pockets coins not only of various dates in the 

 reign of * Victoria, but specimens also of the coinage of William IV., 

 George IV., and even of George III. Some of the earlier nobles 

 can be assigned to the year 27 Ed. III., i.e., 1353-4, and are there- 

 fore now five hundred and twenty-four years old. The extreme 

 limit at the other end of the period would be 1417, when the re- 

 ception of the nobles called Burgundian was prohibited : but this 

 range can be reduced with much probability. As some of the nobles 

 are of Richard II., it is clear that the hoard could not have been 

 deposited before that reign, which lasted from 1377 to 1399, that is, 

 twenty-two years. The deposit is not likely to have taken place 

 much later than 1399, or it would, in all probability have contained 

 some coins of a succeeding reign. 



" Burgundian " nobles may have been current in England from 

 3384, when they were first coined, to 1417, when their currency was 

 prohibited by Henry V. ; but it is only natural to suppose that the 

 Burgundian specimens in this hoard are not later than the latest 

 date which can reasonably be assigned to any of the English, that 

 is 1399. 



The circumstances of the discovery in 1877, detailed above, seem 

 to indicate in some degree the manner of the deposit. 



The nobles appear to have been put into a bag sufficiently narrow 

 to keep them piled one above another, and then to have been let 

 down into a hole made with a fold stake, locally called a f ' fossle," 

 or some such instrument, and covered in with earth till wanted. 1 



The unexpected decease of the depositor, either by violence or 

 natural cause, would account for the treasure being lost. 



The practice of hoarding nobles in a poke or bag is indicated by 

 the contemporary poet Chaucer : — 



" Certes, were it gold 

 Or in a poke nobles al untold." * 



1 The holes now made by a shepherd in pitching a fold are about fifteen inches 

 in firm greensward and about eighteen inches in looser soil. 



* " The Milleres Tale," v. 3777, 



