New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1907-02-25
PREHISTORIC GOLD.
Falling Into the Dead Hand of tka
State.
London. Fehrnarr "a

London, February 1e.
England is we'll regulated country. wbar.
every unusual episode is anticipated by ancien,
law. few days ago fresh Iaborer nan,ss
Chalkin was hired to dig in a sand pit at Crav.
ford, on the lower Thames. He had not been an
work more than few hours before ne turned ~,
nine gold armlets. He had struck tur,uI,.
where prehistoric British chiefs and their wfve.
had been buried possibly seven centuries before
Caesars Roman soldiers had crossed from CAM,
into Kent. The rings, wrought by primitivs
methods of metallurgy in an unknown bronze ~,
neolthic age, were Of pure gold and were a..
fresh and bright when the princes wore tha,,l
in the silence of stately sepulture ChsIkt,
after digging all about the circle to find out -
there were any more ornaments in the sand
carried the treasure to the nearest police statto,
at Bexley Heath. and left it there. He knew =.
stinctively that treasure trove belonged to N.
King. and assented readily when the sereas,si
announced that the nine antique armIets wonldi
be sent to the treasury. 1t is not every day thai
toiling labOrer suddenly finds himself in TONGA
with prehistoric royalty that antedates Norr,ar
Dane and Roman until it is lost in the dream,
reaches Of the past; but whenever he has +bt.i
novel experience he learns at the first police sta.
ton that the genius Of English law. as embodias
by Lord Coke. has anticipated the occurrence
and arranged everything. This was what was iuss
the books
Treasure trOve Is when anv gold or silver ia
coin. plate or bullion hath been of ancient frrai
hidden, wheresOever it be found whereof ~
person can prove any property. 1t doth belong
20 the King or to some lord or other bv ira
Kings grant or by prescription. The reason
why il belongs to the King IS rule OF cor7r1oTl
law that sucn goods whereof no person can
claim property belong to the King as wrscIIq-l
strays. etc QHOd non capt. Chrjstus capih
fSCES.
What the Church could not claim the Fx.
chequer took as the ancient right OF the Crown
The Dead Hand Of the State, which in thesai
modern days lays cold. mercfIess grip upon an
eighth Of the surplus wealth Of deceased MILL
ionaires. reaches back with terribly long am.
to that prehistoric tumulus and gathers in tbs
gold ornaments of the lords Of the bronze AKA.
The rings which represented tae wealth. pornn
and glory of that group of puissant chiefs ara
now in the treasury of a mighty empire was
permitted yesterday TO measure theu-soue %
them were half an inch in width: 10 test theirs
weight-the largest of them with trumpet endsi
might have gone on a warriors wrist when tbay,
We're more brittle; and to inspect the prir1itivs
workmanship of these relics Of an antiquity o.
which the Romans could not have taken note
when they overran Kent It was gold treasure
hidden for centuries in the sand until evervi
other trace of royal sculpture had Disappeared:
and by precedent as old as the Domesday survey
felt to the Crown. Yet the Dead Hand will not
be merciless. Chalkin will be remembered when
the antiquarian value of the buried treasure IS
properly appraised. The British Museum viii
have to pay for the armIets before they can bs
added TO the ornaments Of the period which have
been found near the same sandpit IN Crawford or
in other shires; or il they are not wanted there
German American museums will have 10 barr
gain for them. Whatever value they command
antiquarian objects will be the Iaborers re-
ward for turning them over 10 the treasury.
A tiny rivulet, the Cray, winds among soma
OF the finest estates Of suburban London on the
edge Of Kent until It meets the Darent and
empues sluggishIy into the Thames. ChIsel-
hurst. the last home OF an Emperor, is near by
Ethan. where Colonel North took his pIeasurs
after riling the nitrate coast OF its hidden treas
urcs. is little nearer London, and at Foot'a
Cray the American merchant prince Mr. Self
ridge. has a magnificent domain. The tricklins
Cray still knows something OF the decline os
imperial fortunes and the uses Of surplus wealth.
An older story is found when the brisk little
manufacturing hamlet of Crawford is reached
for il was there that the ancient BrirOns under
their prince. Vortigern, were defeated IN battls
by Hengist and Horsa, when the Saxon invaders
were conquerins Kent and laying the founda-
tons for the Canterbury See Yet when that
story was new the stone circles. Cromlechs and
mounds around Aylesford had their secrets
which had already passed out OF mind. and IN
derneath the sandpit was the unknown turnulus
OF primitive chiefs. who had carried their golden
treasure into their graves. like the Peruvian
InCas. who had been buried with their gutterins
bracelets and collars in splendid tombs.
These nine armlets like the eight from thu
same pit already In the British Museum. and
the gold beads and decorative potteries from adj.
jacent burrows. bear record OF arts Of metal
working. smelling and primitive design
which were superior 10 anything found in Kens
when the Romans landed there. As theirs is no
proof that the PhPnicians or Egyptian mer-
chants introduced those arts before the Roman
g-iIeys ran into Sandwich and Hythe, the treas
trove from Crawford points TO early metal
working in England in some golden era long
way in advance of the drift period OF rough
f1ints. or that superior civilization overlaid
as in SchHemann's Troy by inferior order,
these bracelets. in a back office OF thai
Treasury, sign. whether they were ones
worn by conquering cheftains or their languish-
ing prinCesses. l. y. F. s