The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1903-08-26
HIDDEN .I'REASI RE,
The Romantic Finding Of Two Hui
dred Thousand Coins
IN A RIVER OVER IN ENGLAND.
Several Other Instances Where
Buried Treasure Were Acct
IDENTITY Discovered in the Old
Country Years ago.

Country Years ago.
He must be a strangely constituted
man who can resist the fascination OF
hidden gold which happy inspira,
ton, a kindly hint from capricicus
Fortune. may make his own, says
Tit-Bits. Certainly, as long as man
is merely human, the prospect Of thus
easily winning the means to make life
smoother or to achieve some pet ambi'
tion will always be irreSiStlbly attrac-
tive to him.
And the charm Of it is that For
tune often smiles on man just when
he least expects it, and when he has
made every effort to woo her. a
glance through the records OF dis
covered treasures speedily proves this,
and fills the least Sanguine or clever
of US with hope that, afterall, ne may
be the favored one.
Take, for instance, that romantic
unearthing of 200, 900 coins in the bed
of the River Dove, in Statfordshire,
seventy-two years ago. Some work
men were engaged in removing a mud
bank, which had formed in the centre
of the river. when one of them was
amazed to find, on raising his spade,
that it glistened with silver coins.
The next time the spade was raised 1t
brought them up by hundreds.
Attracted by the digger's eSclama-
tionS OF astoniShment and delight, his
fellow workmen hurried up, and In a
moment half a dozen men were scram-
bling and fighting for the treasure,
feveriShly filing their pockets, their
hats and beer caus with silver coins,
which were worth their weight in geld,
for they were of the time Of the first
two Edwards and had lain in the
river for 500 years. That the bulk of
the treasure trore was ultimately
claimed by the Duchy Of Lancaster
matters little: for its finders had al
ready appropriated scores OF thousands
Of the precious discs.
two years later few village
boys we're playing at marbles one
Sunday afternoon in field near Bea-
worth. in Hampshire, when one OF
them caught sight OF piece OF lead
projecting from cart rut in a rough
road that crossed the pasture. Tug
ging at the strip OF metal, ne dis
closed hole. and through the eS-
posed opening be say pile Of glitter
ing coins, bright as if fresh FROM the
mint. TO fill his pockets and those
Of his playmates was the work OF a
few moments, and so little did the
Youngsters appreciate the value OF
their discovery that on their way
home they amused themselves by fling
ing the coins at passing birds or into
the village pond.
Ultimately nearly 1000 coins were
recovered from this buried treasure
chest, and they proved to be Of the
reigns OF William I and II, and in a
wondeful state Of preservation.
a similar discovery was made pear
Wetherby, in Yorkshire, when a
heavy cart passing over a country road
stuck fast in a rut, and on being re-
leased disclosed number of silver
coins, which had escaped from the
burst lid of chest hidden under tae
roadway. 1t was assumed that the
chest of coins had been buried there
in the perilous days Of the civil war,
and that the gradual sinking Of the
road and the weight of the passing
cart haG at lust brought it again to
the light Of dav.
In the year 1916 a most valuable
deposit Of treasure was revealedin the
strs.ngest fashion at Cuerdale, near
Preston, in Lancashire. Some labor
ers were digging near the banks of the
River Ribble, when the pickaxe of one
Of them struck something harder
than earth and more yielding than
r, ok. On removing his pick he found
transfxed at the end of it a large in
got of silver. Plying his tool with
renewed vigor, he soon disclosed per-
feet mine Of wealth, consisting of
scores Of silver ingotS, weighing in all
over 1000 ounces, together with an
almost priceless collection Of 1000
coins of different periods and coun-
tries, many of them dating from
Saxon times 1000 and more years
ago.
Similar fortune befell q couple of Ia
borers who were digging in ditch
near Glastonbury, in Somersetshire,
when they unearthed an ancient chest
full OF coins of the Gays of the Stuarts.
They took samples of the coins to a
neighboring antiquary Of wealth, who
not Only paid the men large sum for
their treasure, but purchased a score
or more acres Of land adjacent to the
lucky ditch And here the irony OF
fortune is well illustrated: for, al
though the antiquary spent thous-
ands Of pounds in buying and excavat-
ing his land, not single coin was
discovered beyond those which a
stroke of the spade had revealed.
This is the kind of trick Fortune
loves to play on designing man. Not
very many years ago, when the
thatched roof Of an ancient cottage
near Ripon was removed, rich set Of
5 guinea gold pieces was discovered
hidden away under it. When the
news of this treaSure-trove came to
the ears of neighborlng landowner
be was so fred by the lust Of gold that
be forthwith purchased a dozen SINH
lar cottages in the district and had
them all pulled down, but again not a
solitary coin was found in exchange
for the $500 the experiment cost him.
In the year before that lucky game
OF marbles near Beaworth disclosed
1000 coins there was reported curl
ouSly interesting discovery in North
um5erland. When a grave was being
dug in Hexham Church the pickaXe OF
one of the workmen struck and trans
fixed a metal vessel, which proved to
be full Of coins TO its very brim.