By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.S.A. 47 



It could not have been of much benefit to the Edington brethren, 

 for they had to pay out of it £10 a year, or thirty nobles, to Sarum 

 Cathedral, leaving only 13s. 4-d., or two nobles, for themselves. I 

 mention the amount emphatically in nobles, as it suggests an in- 

 teresting discovery at Bremridge. The name is properly Bremel 

 ridge, and Bremel is simply our old acquaintance the bramble : the 

 same that gave its name to Bremhill, and we are to presume that 

 at both places the ground was more open and rough, and favourable 

 to its growth. 1 On the farm here belonging to Mr. Charles Phipps 

 some workmen making alterations in the house, in the year 1877, 

 came upon a hoard of thirty-two gold coins, piled one upon another, 

 as if they had been packed in some case of wood or leather, which 

 had perished. The workmen, ignorant of the law, proceeded 

 forthwith to appropriate the spoil, but being informed that such 

 gold treasure-trove belongs neither to the finder nor even to the 

 landlord, disgorged it. The coins were shown to the late Dr. Baron, 

 of Upton Scudamore, who took much interest in ascertaining what 

 they were, and published a full account of them, with plates, both 

 in the Archaologia and in the Wiltshire Magazine. He describes 

 them as gold nobles of the reigns of Edward III. and his son, 

 Richard II., and, therefore, deposited not before Richard. One 

 peculiarity is that some of them were coined in England, bearing 

 the English King's name on them, and some in Flanders, bearing 

 the name of Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy and Count of 

 Flanders. This, as Dr. Baron observes, confirms the historical fact 

 (and this is one of the principal uses of old coins) that Edward III. 

 in his struggle with France did all in his power to secure the alliance 

 with Flanders, one important step towards his purpose being the 

 making the coinage of England and Flanders international. Another 

 interesting circumstance connected with these coins is that on one 

 side of some of them is a ship with the King standing in it, crowned, 

 and on the other side a legend or inscription round the margin, in 

 Latin, taken from Luke iv., verse 30 : — t( Jesus autem transiens 

 per medium illorum ibat." [Jesios passing through the midst of 



t hem went his way.~] The first gold nobles were issued soon after a 



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