shovelful of gravel, and nearly five thousand of them were collected by two of the individuals thus employed on that day; they were sold to the bystanders at six, seven, eight, or eight shillings and sixpence per hundred; but the next day a less quantity was procured, and the prices of them advanced accordingly. The bulk of the coins were found in a space of about three yards square, near the Derbyshire bank of the river. Upwards of three hundred individuals might have been seen engaged in this search at one time, and the idle and inquisitive were attracted from all quarters to the spot. Quarrels and disturbances naturally enough ensued, and the interference of the neighbouring magistrates became necessary.
'At length the officers of the Crown asserted the king's right to all coin which might subsequently be found in the bed of the river, since the soil thereof belonged to his Majesty in right of his duchy of Lancaster.'
The consequence was, that all persons were prohibited from collecting coin except those appointed by the Chancellor of the duchy, who, on behalf of the Crown, instituted a search on the 28th of June that lasted until the 1st of July. In this brief period more than 1500 additional coins were found, and then the excavation from which they were principally extracted was filled up and levelled over. The total number of coins thus found is supposed to have been, upon the most moderate computation, no less than 100,000.
Often those who found one of these pieces had much difficulty in detaching it from the gravel in which it had become imbedded. Having been for so long a period lying amid the soil which once formed the bed of the
