Eanred's reign, and lived, as they might easily do, through the first four years of Ethelred II.'s reign till the usurpation of Redulf? Surely the question answers itself.

Mr. Rashleigh, indeed, maintains that "there is considerable difference in the workmanship and in the character of the letters of these moneyers "—that is, of the moneyers of the same name in the two classes. With regard to questions of taste, such as style, &c., disputes are proverbially difficult. It is impossible to give the general impression obtained after examining a great number of coins. I must, however, say that I cannot see any great difference of style in the two classes of coins, and that, as far as the Museum collection is concerned, I do not perceive that most of the coins of the e class "appear to be much worn by circulation, as compared with the coins in the i class." In order, however, to give others some opportunity of deciding on this question of style, I have selected, whenever there were examples, a coin of each class having the same moneyer's name on the reverse, and have placed casts of these coins side by side. I have also placed at the top a coin of the quadruped type-admittedly a coin of Ethelred I.-between two, reading respectively Ethilred and Ethelred. You have thus an opportunity of judging if the difference between the two classes with e and i be really greater than the quadruped piece and the one reading Ethelred next to it, though Mr. Rashleigh places these two under the same head. I readily admit that there is in every case some difference between coins of the same moneyer with the two spellings; but we may fairly suppose that if

1 Which were exhibited before the Society. The reader may refer to Ruding's Plates.

he altered the obverse he would also alter the reverse a little. Nor are the differences greater than may be found within each of the classes. Thus we have in the e class one moneyer whose name is spelt both BROĐER and BRODER, while in the i class his name occurs only in the first form. Again, we have both the spellings VINTRED and PINTRED in both the classes-a very curious circumstance if we adopt Mr. Rashleigh's conclusions, meaning that in these two reigns there were two different moneyers, both of whom had the same uncertainty about the first letter of his name.

With the other suggestions made in the course of Mr. Rashleigh's article I cordially agree, except, perhaps, that the type formerly considered a hand on the coins of Regnald should be taken to be the glove of Thorr. Pleased though I should be to be able to recognise a mythological type where they are so scarce, I cannot shut my eyes to the fact that the hand in another shape does occur on the contemporary coins of Eadweard the Elder; nor to the great difference in importance as a symbol between the hammer of Thorr, which, as is abundantly. shown by the Eddas, was one of the most important symbols of the Scandinavian religion, and Thorr's gloves, which, as far as I know, are not once mentioned in the Eddaic poems. I am, moreover, rather inclined to think that if the Norsemen had attempted to represent Thorr's gloves, they would have conceived them as possessing only two divisions-one for the thumb and one for the four fingers. For it will be remembered that in Snorri's Edda (Dæmisaga 45) Thorr and his companions, when

Its use in consecrating marriages and funerals is shown in Prymskviða 31 and Snorra Edda, Dæmisaga, 49.

journeying to Jötunheim, are related to have hidden themselves in what they took to be "a very large hall, with a door at the end of the same breadth as the hall itself, and there they sought their night-quarters." Afterwards they found "a side chamber (afhús) on the right hand side in the middle of the hall." This hall turns out to be the glove of the giant Skrýmir, the side room being the thumb. Now the joke of this passage would be entirely lost unless this were the description of an ordinary glove.

C. F. KEARY.

IV.

KING CHARLES THE FIRST'S COLLECTION OF

COINS.

WHILE looking through a volume of original letters and warrants at the British Museum, I happened by chance to notice the following curious warrant of Charles I., and as it does not seem to have ever been printed, or noticed by any numismatic writer, I considered that a copy, together with the partial explanation that I can render of it, would not be unacceptable to this society.

CHARLES R.

Whereas wee have remayning in our Library at St. James divers Medalls and ancient Coines, Greeke, Romane, and others. Wee doe hereby authorize, constitute, and appoint, our trusty and welbeloved Sir Simonds D'Ewes of Stowhall in the County of Suffolck Knight & Baronet, and Patricke Young Gentl. keeper of our Libraries, to sort and put ye said Coines and Medalls into their Series and order, and to lay aside to bee disposed by us all duplicates among them wch are genuine and true, and to separate, and divide the novitious, adulterate & spurious peeces from ye said genuine. All which said peeces so separated and divided, are to remaine in our said Library at St. James, in the custody of the said Patricke Young, untill our further pleasure bee knowne. And that ye said Sir Simonds D'Ewes have free liberty from time to time to take into his owne custodie and keeping, such and soe many of them as hee shall have occasion to make use of, hee giving under his hand a note for the true & faithfull restoring of the number received. Given under our Royall hand at Newport in the Isle

of Wight this 19th day of October, in the foure and twentieth yeare of our Raigne. [1648].-(Additional MSS., No. 6,988,

fo. 216.)

Sir Simonds d'Ewes, Knight and Baronet, was an eminent historian and antiquary, who lived 1602-1650. He was a burgess for Sudbury in the celebrated Long Parliament; but his sympathies inclining to the Court, he was one of the members "purged" on the 6th December, 1648. He then retired to his antiquarian studies and pursuits, and we are told that he formed a noble collection of Roman coins.

Patrick Young, a Scotchman by birth (born 1584, died 1652), was appointed the first librarian of the English Royal Library after its complete settlement. He was also a prebendary and treasurer of St. Paul's Cathedral. Having premised these facts, which will be found in the " Biographia Britannica," I will now give, from the same source, a short account of the proceedings taken by the Commonwealth with regard to the Royal Library at St. James's. It was first seized by the Parliament in August, 1648, and committed to the trust of Hugh Peters, who preserved the library and coins for three or four months, when he delivered up the keys and custody of them to Major-General Ireton. The well-known and enlightened Sir Bulstrode Whitelocke, fearing that these national treasures might be sold to foreigners, and so lost to the country, and at the instance of the learned John Selden, undertook the care of them in July, 1649. He appointed, in the same year, John Dury, a German, to be his deputy librarian, and instructed him "to go for an inventory of the books and medals to Mr. Young." Mr. Dury continued in charge of the Royal Library and Medals probably until the Restoration, and from an account taken