The record-union., 1893-01-06
HIDDEN TREASURE.
Fabulous Sums Supposed to be Buried
in England.

Of traditions OF buried treasure attach
ing to the sites Of Roman camps ard de-
serted cities there are plenty still to be
met with. A familiar instance is that of
The riches to be found at Uriconium, the
modern WroXeter.
Near the Brook of Bell
There is a well
Which is richer than any men can tell.
Doubtless in a wealthy commercial city
overwhelmed with sudden destruction.
as was the case with ancient Urconium,
much treasure was actually buried or
thrown into wells or drains. But then
the treasure seekers of the Middle Ages
have generally exploited such sites pretty
thoroughly, and modern excavations
made in the interest of archaeological re-
searches have brought little to light in
the way of treasure. Great boards OF
copper coins of the Empire have often
been brought to light, but not much in
the way OF precious metals.
We might expect that more treasure
was concealed here and there during the
long-continued strife between BritoiI and
Saxon, and the Norman Conquest NAV
have caused some deposits of buried
boards. But the Norman Kings them
selves, with their habits of accumuIating
boards of specie against rainy day, offer
the most tempting studies To the treas
ure-seeker.
King j John, for instance, is capital sub
ject, Tor he was both a seeker for and a
hider OF treasure. We find him digging
for treasure in Northumberland and
about the sites Of the stations on the Ro-
man wall and he was reputed to have
great stores of treasure in his favorite
strongholds. Somewhere buried i'll the
sandy estuaries OF Lincolnshire are the
golden crown and jewels of King John,
with the chests of treasure that were car
ried in his train. But we may speculate,
too, about other boards, chiefly buried
beneath the foundations OF his castle
walls, the secret of which was lost in the
sudden death of the greedy King.
Again there IS royal treasure, perhaps
at this moment lying hid in some rocky
chasms of the mountains of Wales
nothing less than the treasure of King
Charles the Second, which he carried
with him iii his flight from his trium-
phant Queen and her paramour, and
which they vainly, it would seem, after
his capture, endeaVOred to recover.
The Wars OF the Roses, too, with their
sudden catastl ophies and total reversal
OF fortunes, gave rise without doubt to
| many secret deposits, the clew to which
was lost by the destruction of those
who made them. Then came the
dissolution of the monasteries, and
though rumor exaggerated the wealth of
these establishments, and the Kings
Commissioners had a vigilant eye to all
their belongings, yet many precious
treasures must have been hidden away
by devout brethren, who looked forward
to seeing them once more devoted to the
service of the sanctuary.
The civil wars, too, had their deposits.
both of pIunder and of secret boards:
and We may be on the trail of buried
treasure III following the detours of plots
and conspiracIes for which secret depos-
its of coin may have been made, aban-
doned in the heat OF flight or lost sight of
by the violent deaths of those concerned
How common and necessary the practice
was of burying ones savings in time of
panic we may learn from Mr.. Pepv's
diary" who, on the alarm of the Dutch
invasion, hurried down with all his
guineas to his fathers house in Huntiug-
don, and there buried his treasure in the
garden. His agonies of mind for the
safety OF his treasure and the trouble he
had in digging it up and sitting earth
from guineas, are naively told by the
diarist.-All The Year Round.