of former disturbance of the ground down to the natural level, and a cavity, which might, not improbably, have once contained a sepulchral urn. It occurs to me also to mention in this place (though their origin, nature, and purpose is obscure) that, immediately to the south-west of the five tumuli on the Blackmoor Ridge, overlooking Woolmer Pond, are a series of ancient parallel trenches (six or seven in number), of some depth, running nearly north and south from the top of the ridge down to the present high road. They are certainly not the result of natural or artificial drainage; and from their number and proximity to each other, they can hardly represent ancient tracks or ways. Whether they could, under any circumstances, have been intended for military defence, I do not know. From the pottery and other remains found at and near Blackmoor House, it may be concluded with certainty that, on or close to that site, there once stood Roman or Roman-British buildings of some importance; and the name of the adjoining parish, Greatham, may perhaps indicate the situation (at least as early as Saxon times) of a hamlet or village more consider able than others in that neighbourhood. Mr. Sewell, in his letter of 1777 already referred to, speaks of Roman and British entrenchments, as visible at that time on Headley Heath and Common; and he also describes, as a known historical event (I know not on what authority), a march by Vespasian, as General under Claudius, about A.D. 47, from the neighbourhood of London towards Porchester, Southampton, and the Isle of Wight, by way of Headley and Woolmer; adding, that he (Vespasian) then fixed, at or near Woolmer Pond, "an abiding station or city, which remained near 150 years; when they seem to have been expelled thence by the Britons, or perhaps by an earthquake, or some other cause." I have not myself met with any mention of what Mr. Sewell calls "the Roman city or station of Wulmere in Hants," in any writer, ancient or modern, with whose works I am acquainted; and it is possible (as the end of the period of "near 150 years," which he assigns for its continuance, coincides with the time of Commodus, whose coins were the latest which had been found in Woolmer Pond) that his statements, however historical in form, may have been founded upon conjecture. From the condition of the fragments of weapons found at Hogmoor, and from the circular tumuli on the ridges surrounding the forest basin, it seems, further, to be a probable conjecture that this part of the parish of Selborne was a battle-field in Roman-British times; and the burial of so large a quantity of money in one spot, and the burying and casting away of another quantity (perhaps more valuable) in the water within a quarter of a mile of the same spot (on both sides of which water tumuli now appear), seem to tell a tale of panic and flight. If we ask how so large a number and variety of coins, thus hidden and cast away, came to be brought together (including, as they do, some so imperfectly minted, that they can hardly have been issued for circulation), it occurs to me, as a not improbable supposition, that they may have been hastily collected and carried off from some station in which there was a military chest, and perhaps also a mint, either to provide for the pay of a retreating army, or to prevent them from falling into the hands of an approaching enemy. The Roman Clausentum (now Bittern, near Southampton) was a garrison town, in which there was also a mint, in the times of Carausius and Allectus; some of whose coins, found at Blackmoor, bear the mint-marks of that place. The latest in date of all the coins found are eighty-two of Allectus, and a single coin of Constantius Chlorus:-of which the legend is, “FL. VAL. CONSTANTIUS NOB. C." (Flavius Valerius Constantius Nobilis Cæsar); and, on the reverse, "VIRTUS AUGG,” (Virtus Augustorum); with the device of Hercules leaning on his club, and holding a bow, with the lion's skin over his arm :— plainly, one of his early coins, before his accession to the Empire. The date, therefore, of their deposit cannot have been earlier than the reign of Allectus; and if it had been later than the re-conquest of Britain by Constantius, it is not probable that only one coin of that prince would have been found. On the other hand, there would be nothing in the occurrence, among this treasure, even of several coins of Constantius, while only Cæsar, inconsistent with the hypothesis that it may have |