modified, and at the present time the limbs are about 15 feet in breadth. It has no base.
The Whiteleaf cross is kept in fairly good repair, some parts having been returfed recently; and there is a local tradition that both of these crosses were regularly cleaned or "scoured," like the White Horse at Uffington.
Ancient British Coins
The period covered by what are commonly called ancient British coins overlaps, in a certain sense, the historic period, because the names of various ruling princes are inscribed on British coins.
Many of the coins found in Buckinghamshire, however, are of an early character and uninscribed. The most important discovery in the county was that made in February 1849 at Whaddon Chase, when upwards of 400 gold coins were unearthed by the plough. Mr. J. Y. Akerman, F.S.A., Secretary of the Society of Antiquaries of London, contributed to The Numismatic Chronicle [1] an account in which it is stated that
"About February 1849, the son of a tenant of Mr. Lowndes ploughed up a quantity of gold coins at Whaddon-chase, in a field called Narbury in the parish of Little Horwood. The discovery brought to the spot many persons, some of whom contrived to get possession of nearly one hundred specimens, which have been dispersed. About 320 reached the hands of Mr. Lowndes, who has kindly submitted them to our inspection. Fragments of an earthen vessel were said to have been turned up where the coins were found; but, on enquiry, no satisfactory information on this point could be gathered. . .
"Though extremely interesting to the numismatist, it is greatly to be regretted that not a single example of an inscribed coin occurs in this find. About one fourth consists of pieces of a type already well known, stamped on one side only with the rude figure of a horse, the head grotesquely shaped, and resembling the bill of a fowl, and the limbs disjointed. The rest have, on some examples, a tolerably well- executed figure of a horse unbridled and at liberty; and on the reverse, a wreath dividing the field."
Sir John Evans, who deals with the question of the date of these coins in his monumental work,[2] little more, proves them to be earlier than those of Cunobelinus, or even Tasciovanus, whose coins rarely, if ever, exceed 85 grains. At the same time, the type of the obverse does not show so complete an oblivion of the original prototype as the cruciform ornament on the coins of Tasciovanus."
The ancient British coins found in the central part of England, including the counties of Oxford, Bucks, Herts, Beds, and Essex, are represented on Plate C of Sir John Evans's book just referred to. They show very degraded versions of the laureate head of Apollo (or of the
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