Note 20a — SECTION I. OF THE ISLAND OF LOTHINGLAND.

In the year 1781, as some labourers were digging in the fields at Eye, in Suffolk, they discovered a leaden box, which contained several hundred Roman coins and medals; they were all of the purest gold, extremely well executed, and in the highest preservation; they were chiefly of the Emperors Arcadius and Honorius, the last who governed Britain; they were of about 11s. in value each, and near them were found some human bones. Whether they were buried with some eminent Roman, to defray his charges over Styx, or to inform posterity that the Romans once possessed this island, I leave the ingenious to determine. And in 1786 as the workmen were making a new turnpike road at Benacre, in this county, one of them struck his pick-axe against a stone bottle, which contained about 920 pieces of silver coin of Julius Cæsar, supposed by the date to have been hid there 1500 years. The coins were in general in good preservation, and included a large series, some few before Domitian; they were all about the size of sixpence, nine of them weighing an ounce. Sir Thomas Gooch purchased near 700, some were bought by different persons, and the remainder sold to a Jew, who retailed them at a low price in the neighbourhood. Some impressions of Aurelian, Germanicus, and Nerva Trajanus, were amongst them.