297

XIX. Account of some British Coins found near High Wycombe, in Buckinghamshire, in 1827; by JOHN NORRIS, Esq. in a Letter to HENRY ELLIS, Esq. F. R. S. Secretary.

1.

Read 6th December 1827.

3.

SIR,

Hughenden House, near

High Wycombe, Bucks, June 5th 1827.

I BEG to trouble you, as Secretary of the Society of Antiquaries (of which I have long been an unworthy member), with drawings of five Coins, which I conceive to be ancient British, and which have been lately found, very accidentally, near High Wycombe, Bucks. These five coins, with six others, were found by a miller's boy upon a place called Keep-hill, in the parish of Chipping Wycombe, about half a mile from the town. The boy was sent to the spot, which is very near the mill, to look after his master's sheep, and happening to take up a flint, to grub at a fresh mole track, two of the coins fell out of a tubular cavity in the flint during the operation, and upon exami

nation, nine more were found within, the whole of which the boy brought to his master's house, where they remained some days, till the boy's father, hearing of the discovery, got possession of them and carried them about for sale. They are of gold, about the tenth of an inch thick, the obverse concave, the reverse convex; they weigh about 31⁄2 pennyweights, and are of the size represented. Tubular flints, similar to the one in which these coins were found, are very common in this stoney soil, and certainly, if a person wished to conceal his treasure, he could hardly hit upon a less suspicious receptacle. There are remains of artificial ditches still visible above Keep-hill, and I think it may fairly be presumed to have been a British strong-hold.

No 1 represents a warrior on horseback; the body and arms are clad in armour, which, when seen through a magnifier, seems to resemble a chain of large links round the body. The letter T appears above the horse's tail, A more plainly below it, S is very faint under the fore legs, and the coin is defective about the head of the horse, under which the letter C would otherwise have been inscribed to make the word TASC. The horse is well executed in high relief, and the gold of this coin is of a redder colour than the others, which are of a light yellow. The leg and thigh of the warrior seem to be bare.

No 2 very much resembles N° 1, but is not so well executed, nor is the armour visible upon part of the body; the warrior, however, has a curious battle-axe in his hand. The same letters which are inscribed upon the last coin, also appear upon this, in corresponding situations: and there is a wheel with four spokes above the horse's head. The reverses of both are much alike, but in the centre of No 1 there is the letter T and the letter A in one of the compartments, which are not upon the other.

Nos 3 and 4 are very like each other in design, but No 4 is much more rudely executed; the joints of the horse's legs being round knobs, and the hoofs disjointed from the legs. Over the horse in both coins there is a bull's head represented, and under the horse in No 4, is an instrument, the top of which only is visible in No 3. I do not

know whether the use of this instrument has been ascertained, but it strikes me that it might have been made use of to fasten horses to in the field; the sharp anchor-like point being fixed in the ground, and the hooked top receiving the bridle or halter. The inscription upon No 3, in the latter part only of which the letters appear entire, is tasCIAV; upon No 4, the lower part only of the first four letters are visible, TASC.

No 5 has more letters on it than any of the others, but the tops of several are cut off; the inscription, however, is clearly TASCIOVAN. The other six of these coins bear a general resemblance to Nos 3, 4,

and 5.a

I am, Sir,

Your most obedient servant,

JOHN NORRIS.

a The coins numbered 1, 3, and 5, were purchased by Mr. Norris, and subsequently presented to the British Museum.

XX. Account of certain Hill Castles, situated near the Land's End, in Cornwall; in a Communication from WILLIAM COTTON, Esq. M. A. of Leatherhead, Surrey, addressed to JOHN BRITTON, Esq. F. S. A. &c. &c.

Read 10th January 1828.

BARTINE-HILL is one of a chain of eminences near the Land's End, which command extensive views over the English and Irish Channels. On its summit is an ancient Earth-work, or Hill Castle, (as all these remains with ramparts are called in Cornwall,) consisting of a circular mound or vallum, slightly elevated above the natural soil, and a ditch. It contains a well, now filled up, and the remains of three contiguous circles, of different sizes, the largest being 28 feet across, whilst the whole interior diameter is about 360 feet. Borlase was uncertain whether these small circles were intended for military or religious purposes, but supposed them rather to have been the sepulchres for some of the garrison. I will only observe that a Circle of the same description remains within the area of Caër-Bân, and another at CastleAn-Dinas, in Cornwall: Mr Pennant noticed similar inclosures within the Hill Fortresses of Wales.a

CAER-BRAN is another circular fortification on the top of a hill in the parish of Sancred. It consists of a ditch, 15 feet wide, edged with blocks of stone, a mound of earth, or agger, 15 feet high (according to Borlase), and a stone wall, inclosing an area of 220 feet in diameter. The wall was constructed with rough masses of granite, placed carefully

a Tour in Wales, vol. ii. pp. 167, 194, edit. 1783.

together without cement, and is now in ruins. In the middle of the area thus inclosed, is a small circle built like the wall.

CHÛN-CASTLE Occupies the summit of a bald and rugged hill in the parishes of Morvah and Maddern, and commands an almost uninterrupted sea view. It must have been, formerly, a fortress of very great strength, and even now its ruius form a conspicuous object, though seldom visited, in consequence of the difficulty of getting there, over the wild and dreary moors, which are literally covered with fragments of granite rock, and unvaried by a single tree. Dr. Borlase has described this Castle in his "Antiquities of Cornwall" at considerable length, and caused a plan to be engraved of it; he remarks, that "the whole of the work, the neatness and regularity of the walls, providing such security, by flanking and dividing the fosse, shows a military knowledge superior to that of other works of this kind in Cornwall." Mr. Britton, also, wrote a description of this ancient fortress, for the second volume of the "Beauties of England and Wales," pointing out some inaccuracies in the Doctor's plan, and regretting that he could not, from the ruinous confusion of the stones, ascertain the thickness of the walls. It was for the purpose of investigating this singular fortress, and to elicit, if possible, some new information respecting it, that I made several visits to it in company with Captain Giddy, R. N. of Penzance, during a visit to Cornwall in 1826. Having employed some labourers to remove the fallen stones which blocked up the entrance, we were enabled to trace more accurately the true position of the walls, as well as their thickness, and to clear out the ancient passages of entrance to the inner area.

This investigation, though it has led to no very important discovery, has proved that Borlase's plan is incorrect with regard to the position of the walls at the entrance; and, as Mr. Britton's observation on the circular form of the foundations of the houses, or walled inclosures within the Castle is certainly just, I have made a new Plan from measurements taken on the spot, with as much accuracy as my unpractised skill would permit.

Chûn-Castle consists of two circular walls, one within the other,