fortunate for you that the stake is no longer the penalty for heresy.

Cruelty is perhaps a reversion to our savage ancestry. It is most marked in the youthful human being before the softening influence of example and education have been brought to bear upon him.

It is a pleasing reflection that there is a tendency among ourselves to get kinder as we get older. We notice it in the demeanour of our own parents, and we trust that in time our children will observe it in our own.

A similar tendency is, happily, observable in our treatment of the lower animals. Were we not as boys guilty of rifling the chaffinch's nest of its contents, notwithstanding the vehement and plaintive protests of its owners? Was not the dictum of Farmer Hodge that his farm was "fair overrun with they sparrows and starlings," sufficient to inaugurate a massacre in which sightless unfledged innocents were torn from the cosy nests under the eaves of the old farm, and ruthlessly done to death by enforced contact with mother earth? Did we not pride ourselves on the accuracy of our aim with a tweaker or catapult, and was not our efficiency in the art in a great measure due to the practice we got on our sister's fancy pigeons? Then again, the influence of Giles, the gardener, had not exactly a softening effect on our manners, when we heard him swear in the most solemn way that "they bullfinches and goldies be'nt no better than wermin and ought to be put a stop to," and saw him release the broken-legged thrush or blackbird from the gin trap in the strawberry bed, only to knock its brains out against his boot.

Jackson, the keeper, was no better. How he gloried in and gloated over those melancholy (to our present mind) rows of unfortunates, in the shape of crows, jays, magpies, hawks, rooks, jackdaws, owls, cats, stoats, hedgehogs (he would like to have included foxes, but the governor was a hunting man), nailed to the wall of the old shed hard by the wood, where they hung suspended till the rain washed their poor skins and bodies away from their grinning skulls, an awful warning to other members of their kind against the unlawful act of living.

When one looks back upon these things, one must be thankful for having been permitted to live to relate them, and as some

atonement for past transgressions, must feel impelled to devote one's remaining years to the preaching of a crusade of pity.

Fortunately, this refining process which is evident in the individual is true also in the case of the community; compare, for instance, with modern methods the following simple recipe, culled from an old bird book, for making a chaffinch sing:-" It has been remarked that these birds never sing so well or so long as when by any accident they have lost their sight. This was no sooner known than the art of blinding them was invented, and they became little slaves whose eyes we tear out that they may administer the better to our pleasure. The eyes are not torn out, but the lower eyelid is united to the upper one by a species of artificial cicatrice, by touching the edges of both lightly and repeatedly with a piece of red hot metal, and taking care not to injure the pupil of the eye. It is requisite to prepare them for this singular operation by accustoming them to the cage for 12 or 15 days, and then by keeping them confined night and day with their cage in a chest, and habituating them to take their food in the dark." In justice to our countrymen let me add that this system was not originated in England.

In comparison with this, the docking and cropping of horses and dogs may be considered a conspicuously humane and legitimate process.

In cases of wanton cruelty by hardened offenders, nothing short of a criminal prosecution will act as a deterrent. But what a number of cruelties one could enumerate which are perpetrated through sheer ignorance; and what a field of work lies open to every humane person by the offering of a little friendly advice to such persons.

Bill, the waggoner, and John, the coachman, may, if we flatter their intelligence, yet be persuaded that the former's jackdaw talks better without his tongue slit, and that the latter's horses go better and look better without the bearing rein; or to ascend to the top of the tree of fashion, Liftem, the jockey, will ponder over the statement that Fred Archer never hit or spurred Lord Falmouth's horses, and that their noble owner would always have preferred losing a Derby to winning it by whip and spur.

209

STATUE OF EDWARD THE ELDER AT COLCHESTER.

A fine marble statue of Edward the Elder has now been placed in position on the West Stockwell Street façade of the Colohester Town Hall. The statue is the gift of Mr. Charrington Nicholl, of Bovills Hall, Ardleigh.

Edward the Elder was a friend to Colchester and also to the Borough of Maldon, and indeed to Essex generally. In the year 922, with an army of West Saxons, he gained many victories over the Danes and expelled them from Colchester, where they had

wrought great havoc. After doing this good service to the town, Edward the Elder caused the town walls to be restored, and generally renovated and rebuilt the borough, which was in an almost ruinous state owing to the Danish incursion.

The statue is about 8ft. in height, and is dignified in design. It was supplied by Messrs. L. J. Watts, Limited, of Colchester, the model being designed to their order, by Mr. P. R. McCrossan, sculptor, of Fulham Road, London.

B

210

ANCIENT SILVER

HOARD

DISCOVERED AT COLCHESTER.

BY W. GURNEY BENHAM.

NE of the largest numismatic finds ever made in this

Ο country took place at Colchester on Saturday morning,

July 5th, when the workmen engaged in excavations on the site of the London and County Bank, in High Street, discovered a leaden casket containing over 12,000 early English silver pieces.

The Bank was lately demolished to make room for a more modern building, and workmen were digging for the foundations when the discovery was made. A pick struck and pierced the leaden vessel, and a shower of bright silver ran out, as an eyewitness put it, "like peas." The workmen swarmed down the ladders and began to appropriate the coins, but Mr. Saunders, foreman to the contractors (Messrs. Grimwood of Sudbury), at once claimed the find on behalf of the bank authorities. The hoard was emptied from the leaden casket into a bucket, completely filling it, and was conveyed to the temporary bank premises a little higher up the street. The coins are all silver "pennies,” in a remakably good state of preservation. None of course are dated. About fifty per cent. probably belong to the reign of Henry III.(1216—1273); nearly a hundred and fifty are the Dublin pennies of King John, and about sixty are Scottish coins of William the Lion and his successor Alexander II. These kings were contemporary with King John and Henry III. There are also many pennies of Henry II., and an immense variety of mint marks. The total weight of the coins is about 35 pounds, and it is understood that when weighed against current modern silver coin, they were equivalent in weight to 135 sterling. But their numismatic value to collectors is of course considerably more than this. It is a singular coincidence that the coins should have been found buried whilst excavating to provide foundations for a new bank, and it is also curious that Mr. Saunders, the foreman of the works, is himself a coin collector.

The coins were found about 5 feet 6 inches from the surface under the garden at the back of what was formerly the diningroom of the bank residence. The manager of the bank (Mr. F. T. Snell) took charge of the coins pending determination of their ownership. According to the common law of England, treasu

trove, which was once the property of the finder, now goes to the Crown, unless the actual owner is known or can be discovered.

In connection with the discovery of treasure trove there is a curious and little known custom of inquest. It is the duty of the finder of all treasure trove to report it to the Coroner, who, by the statute "De Officio Coronatoris," (4 Ed. St. 2) is directed "to enquire of treasure that is found, who were the finders, and likewise who is suspected thereof; and (the Statute adds) that may be well perceived where one lived riotously, haunting taverns, and hath done so of long time." By common law concealment of treasure is a misdemeanour, but there can be no larceny until it has been found by the Coroner to be the property of the Crown.

A great number of random estimates as to the number of the coins have been current. It does not appear that they have been actually counted, but we believe that the number handed over to Mr. Snell, manager of the London and County Bank, was, as nearly as possible, 10,500. This estimate is based upon the facts (1) that a hundred of the coins are equivalent in weight to twenty-six shillings, and (2) that the total bulk in possession of the bank was, as already mentioned, equivalent in weight to £135 in silver. At this rate the number of coins in Mr. Snell's custody must have been about 10,384.

It is certain, however, that more coins than this were actually found. Before the intervention of the foreman, and the transfer of the coins to Mr. Snell, it is believed that considerably over one thousand were appropriated by workmen or others who were on the spot, and it is known that large numbers have since been sold or given away in Colchester. It may therefore be assumed that the total number actually found was about 12,000. This estimate is justified by the fact that since the holding of the inquest on 10,000 odd coins in possession of the bank, some 1,700 further specimens have been voluntarily surrendered by different persons who had acquired them by purchase or otherwise.

The discovery was kept exceedingly quiet for several days, during which interval, the silver pennies of the 13th century, which had lain still and useless in the very midst of Colchester for at least five centuries, circulated almost as if they were once more coin of the realm. At any rate a large proportion of the coins were passed about from one "owner" to another the