The Marlboro democrat. [volume] (Bennettsville, S.C.) 1882-1908, 1903-08-28
s.sH1DDEN + EA:s H1,1
Tho Romantic Finding fTWo Hun,
dred Thousand Coins
in ASR1yHR ovER in ENGLAND
Several Other instances where

several o,her instances Where
buried treasure Teasi Were Acct.
atent,y Diissesovsesfed in tho OLD
Country Years years ago.
lie must be a sttapEeiy Constituted
man who can resist tie fascination Of
hidden gold which a happy .inspira-
tion, "a kindly hint from capricirus
Fortune, may make his own, says
Tit-Bits. Certainly, rs 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 irresIstibly attrac-
tive to him.
And the charm Of it Is that For
tune often smiles on a man juSt when
he least expects 1t, and when he has
!.madc every effort to woo her. A
glance through the records OF dis
covered treasures speedily proves this,
and fills the least sanguinc or clever
Of us with hope that, afterall, he may
be the favored one.
Take, for instance, that romantic
unearthing Of zoe, 900 coins in the bed
Of the River Dove, in Statfordshirc,
seventy two years ago. Some work
men were engaged III 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 gliStcned with silver coins
The next time the spade was raised It
brought them up by hundreds. /,
Attracted by the diggcr's exclama-
ti0ns of aStoniShmcnt and delight, his
fellow-workmcn hurried up, and in q
moment half dozen men were scraln-
bling and fighting for the treasure,
fevcrishly filling their pockets, their
hats and beer cans with silver coins,
which were worth their weight in gold, ,
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 troyc was ultimately
claimed by the Duchy of Lancaster
matters little; for its finders had al
ready appropriated scores OF thousands
OF the precious discs.
Only two years later few village
boys were playing at marbles one
Sunday afternoon in Il field near Bea
worth, in Hampshire, when one Of
them caught sight of Il piece Of lead
projecting from a cart rut in d rough
road that crossed the pasture. Tug
ging at the strip OF metal, he dis
closed Il hole, and through the ex-
posed opening he 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 !,
few moments, and SO little did the
youngsters appreciate the value of
their discovery that on their way
homo they amused themselves BY fling
ing the coins at passing birds or into
the village pond.
Ultimately nearly 1000 coins we're
recovered from this buried treasure
chest, and they proved to be Of the
reigns of William 1 and ii, and in a
wonderful state Of preservation.
A similar discovery was made near
Wethcrby, in Yorkshire, when Il
heavy cart passing over country road
stuck fast In a rut, and on being re-
leased disclosed a number OF Silver
coins, which had escaped from the
burst lid of a chest hidden under the
) 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 had at last brought it again to
the light Of day.
IN the year 1916 a most valua bic
deposit of treasure was revealed in the
str.ngest fashion at Cuerdale, near
Preston. in Lancashire. Some labor
ers were digging near the banks Of the
River lsibble, when the pickaxe of one
OF them struck something harder
than earth and more yielding than
r. ok. On removing his pick he found
transtixed 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 befcll a couple Of IA
borers who were digging in ditch
near Glastonbury, in Somc,sctshire,
when they unearthcd an aDcient chest
full of coins OF the days c1 the Stmrts.
They took samples of che coins to Il
neighboring antiquafy Of wealth, who
not only paid the men Il large sum for
their treasure, but purchased a score
or more aores of land adjacent to the
lucky ditch. And here the irony OF
fortune is we'll Illustrated; for, al
though the antiquary spent thous-
andS Of pounds in buying and excavat-
ing his land, not a 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
matched roof Of an ancient cottage
near Ripon was removed, a rich set Of
S guinea gold pieces was discovered
hidden away under it. When the
news or this trcaSurc-tr0yc came to
the cars of n neighboring landowner
he was SO fired by the lust OF gold tha t
he forthwith purchased a dozen simi-
lar cottages in the district and had
them all pulled down, but again not IL
solitary coin was found in exchange
for the .f3O0 the experiment cost him.
n the year before that lucky game
OF marbles near Bcaworth disclosed
1000 coins there was reported Il curl
ously interesting discovery in North
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