THE PREHISTORIC PERIOD hardly consistent with the views ordinarily held as to the civilization of Britain in the days of the Roman emperors Augustus and Tiberius. It will now be well to say a few words as to the ancient British coins other than those of Tasciovanus and Verulamium that have been found within the county. Fuller details with regard to nearly all the instances that I shall cite are to be seen in The Coins of the Ancient Britons and the supplement to that work. Examples of the second variety of the prototype of the large gold coins figured on p. 015, fig. 12, have been found at Ashlyns near Berk- hamsted, near Hemel Hempstead, and at Wildhall near Hatfield. Other uninscribed gold coins have been discovered at Barnet, Standon and Braughing. A small gold coin of a Sussex type was found near Hitchin, an uninscribed silver coin of Icenian type at Bygrave near Baldock, and others of more western character at Braughing, where numerous copper coins of various types, some of uncertain attribution, have been un- earthed. Some cast tin coins have been found in the same locality. Coins of Cunobelinus, the son of Tasciovanus, have occurred not unfrequently in the county. His gold coins have been found near Bal- dock, near Tring, and at Lilly Hoo near Hitchin, while his copper coins have been found at Berkhamsted, Tring, Wigginton, Pitstone, Ashwell, Baldock, Royston, Walsworth near Hitchin, Braughing, and on the site of Verulamium. EARTHWORKS Earthworks in Hertfordshire are fairly numerous, but in many cases it is almost impossible to determine their age. 1 One of the most im- portant is the Grimes-ditch, Grimsdyke, or Graemesdyke, of which traces are visible on Berkhamsted Common, and which reappears on the other side of the valley of the Bulbourne, while a vallum extends in a bold sweep from near the town of Great Berkhamsted through the parishes of Northchurch and Wigginton to the north of the camp of Cholesbury, and thence to St. Leonard's in Buckinghamshire, continuing, it is said, past Missenden to near Bradenham. If the name of this earth- work be the Saxon ' Grams-die,' ' the devil's dyke,' it seems to afford evidence that the work dates from pre-Saxon times, and in Saxon days was regarded as of unearthly origin. Another important earthwork, known as Beech-Bottom, 2 lies be- tween the site of Verulamium and Sandridge, and has by some been re- garded as of Roman date. It is however probably pre-Roman, and it may be connected with a large encampment known as ' The Moats ' 3 or ' The Slad,' which is situate a little to the east of Wheathampstead. The outer earthworks, which run nearly parallel to parts of the Roman wall round Verulamium, 4 are also probably pre-Roman. 1 Cussans, i. p. 8 ; Trans. Herts Nat. Hist. Sue., iv. xlix. ; Proc. Sac. Ant., ii. p. 215.
- Brit. Arch. Assoc. Journ., xxvi. p. 182 ; Trans. Herts Nat. Hist. Sac., iv. p. xx.
3 Trans. Herts Nat. Hist. Soc., v. p. xxxviii.
- Arch. Journ., xxii. p. 299 ; Brit. Arch. Assoc. Journ., xxvi. p. 238.
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