'
'An odd man, that Griff, brother David,' said Mr Jonathan Prothero, as
if just awaking from a dream. 'Do you remember when we were lads
together, and used to go up to Garn Goch looking for treasures? I knew,
even then, that it was an old British encampment, and began to speculate
upon its date, and so on; you used to hunt rabbits, and provoke me by
overturning the walls, but Griff got it into his head that there was
money buried somewhere, and never ceased digging for it. At last he
found an old coin of very ancient date, and seeing that I wished to have
it, he bargained with me, until he got all the money I had for it. Of
course the coin was worth any money, and satisfactorily proves that Garn
Goch was an old British encampment at the time of the invasion of the
Romans.'
'Well, brother, you _are_ by the head! That old coin is nothing but a
well-used sixpence.'
'I have every reason to believe, and I am supported in my opinion by
various antiquaries, that it bears the inscription either of Cunobelin
or Caractacus. There is a decided C, and we are told that money was
coined in Britain in the time of Cunobelin.'
'And how on earth did he get up to Garn Goch?'
'Why, you know that Caractacus commanded the Silures, or people of South
Wales, against the Romans, and that they held out bravely, I have no
shadow of doubt that Garn Goch was one of their strongholds.
Pages:
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124