The times., 1899-03-26
GOLD MINES IN ENGLAND.
Discoveries From Ancient Time.
Down to the Present.
From the London Evening standard.)


able quantities has been found in some
| part or other of Great Britain There was
rumor of this kind respecting gold and
silver mine in the Isle of Man some short
time back, and at the date of writing there
IS another rumor of this variety due But
in the matter of results those of the Isle
OF Man mine do not appear to have been
very great. for the public has heard little
OF nothing of 1t since. The rumor will
probably, like the one before it, which re-
lated to a new mine in Wales. die a nat
urai death, and there is every likelihood
that the next will be like unto 1t, and also
the next after that. In fact. every rumor
of the kind this century, with only one SOL
itray exception. has demised in the same
way.
The exception was the Welsh gold mine
the discovery of which was, we believe, due
to Pritchard Morgan. NJ. p. This, from all
accounts, was a really valuable find, and
one which would have returned very hand
some profits indeed had it not been for the
government exercising its rights and
claiming royalty on the output. Wales
however. abounds in gold. though in so
scattered state as to be unavoidable.
But at one time there was plenty of Che
precious metal in sufficiently concen-
trated form to attract the Phoenicians,
copper. and lead, but for gold also, and for
anything else they could find. Nor did this
race confine their efforts to such mines as
the Poltimore and the Oogafen, in Car
marthenshire, with the silver-producing
lead ores of Cornwall. They were very
probably the original workers of the mines
at Lanark, which were afterward worked
by the Romans in the time of Commodus.
These mines were very extensively worked,
and one can even trace more or less the
method of working from the galleries cut
in the rock. They were SO shapsd that one
man could walk along them carrying a
basket of ore on his head, but we do not
know what method of extraction was used.
The whole mine is surrounded by a Ro-
man camp, and is intersected by Roman
road.
But the Romans knew long before the
time of Commodus that gold in fairly
plentiful quantities was to be found in
Britain. In Tacitus' Life of Agricola"
We read: 'Fert Britannia aurum ct ar
gentum ct ALA metalla. pretium victoriae
gignit ct oceanus margarita, sed obfu5ca
ct liventia, etc. There was once plenty of
gold, comparatively speaking, in Essex,
for at Camelodunum gold coins were once
struck made from metal found in the dis
trict. All over England and Wales, too.
the British barrows which have been
opened have usually contained articles of
gold, such as breastplates. handles CT
swords, and SO forth; while in ireland
there was found. in 1854, large collection
of solid golden breastplates, brides, gor-
gets, ETC., the intrinsic value of which
amounted to over 100000, these being
probably the spoils of some battle hidden
until n more convenient time should arise
to remove them, and left there through
the death of the hider and his secret at
the same time.
The county of Westmoreland has fo-a
long time past been known as gold
bearing district. According to Mr.. Calvert,
who is an authority upon auriferous Brit
ain, the chief localities are Goldscroop,
Borrowdale, Bullermere, High Ireley. Bas
senthwaite, Keswick, and Coldbuckfells,
but the metal may be found in small
grains in almost every part Of the county.
This being so, it is not at all impossible
that there is rich deposit somewhere
which has not yet been discovered, and
that an expert pocket" miner might per-
haps reap a rich harvest by a little judi
cious prospecting. Scotland has plenty OF
gold in it, and it has been worked in fits
and starts for over 1000 years. The Duke
of Sutherland recently made an attempt
to work the Kildonan mines, and, though
the amount of success attending his eff
forts has not been made public, it was
probably not very great or it would have
been heard about. Still, the district was
at one time exceedingly rich in gold. In
the Clydesdale district alone there were re-
covered in the reign of James of Scot
land no less than 100000 ounces, the value
of which amounted to nearly $500 900.
this being all obtained in small grains by
washing the Clyde and its tributaries.
The bulk of Scottish gold is in this form,
the largest nugget found weighing only
twenty-seven ounces, and being at pres
ent in the Hopetoun collection.
In 1862 there happened to be great gold
craze, and a German company obtained
lease of the district for period of forty
years. its object being to find gold and
other precious metals. This company found
about 130 ounces, which were coined, and
that was about as much as it obtained.
Some years later, after the accession OF
James VI, there was another craze, the re-
suit of which was that the ''wisest fool
in Christendom' spent sum OF c 600 in
looking for a fabulous deposit of gold
which. according to a book written by a
man named Atkinson, was TO be found on
Crawford Morr. He found about three
ounces, and those were probably planted"
by an enterprising servant who wished to
obtain the reward for first blood After
find of a couple of hundred ounces in the
Lanarkshire district revived matters, and
the coronation medals OF Charles l, were
struck from Scottish gold. Then came the
Nithsdale rush. which produced nearly
c 750, ,0O0 worth, and the mines were worked
at intervals for a long time-until the reign
of George ILL., in fact. In the reign of Henry
III we find the first mention of Westmore-
land gold in a charter granted by that
monarch. and directed upon the Keswick
gold district.
Most of the writs of early times, how
ever. seem to have been directed upon
mines further south-those in Devon,
Cornwall. Essex, and Dorset. There is
one, however. in the reign of Edward III
which is directed on a couple of mines sit
uated in Gloucester and Shropshire. The
Mines Royal of Elizabeth are well known.
So soon as Good Queen BeSS heard OF a
mine, of whatsoever kind, she promptly
annexed it, on the plea that it might con-
tain gold or silver. If it did. she took unto
herself the lions share. IL not, she grant
ed the mine to one of her favorites TO wo. k,
on commission. for the Virgin
Queen had a very good eye for business.
In this way the Earl of Leicester was the
lessee of several copper and lead minss,
and the Duke OF Northumberland of sew
eral others, the major portion of the profits
of which probably went into their royal
mistress pocket.
Very little. strangely enough has been
heard of Irish gold; yet Ireland was once
a centre of civilization far in advance of
Despite the fact that King Joan
squeezed vast quantity Of god out of the
Irish. and also that the remains ornament
ed with gold found in bogs, barrows, etc,
must have demonstrated conclusively that
there ought TO be a large quantity of the
precious metal in the country, nobody
seems to have given thought to prospect
ing it until the year 1896.