{166}
_Coins in Foundations_ (Vol. vi., p. 270.).--I have a manuscript notice of
an early example of this custom. It is in a hand of the earlier half of the
seventeenth century. The Bostonians knew better, however, than to bury
their "great gifts;" and all who travel the Great Northern Railway will be
glad to preserve the names of the great givers, who afforded so noble a
relief to the tedium of Boston station.
"_The buylding of Boston Steeple._
"_Md._ That in the yeere of o^r Lord God 1309, the steeple of Boston,
on the Monday next following Palme Sunday, was digged wt many myners
till Mydsomer; and by that time they were deeper than the bottom of the
haven by fyve fote, and there they found a ball of sande nigh a fote
thick, and that dyd lye uppon a spring of sand neere three fote thick,
and that dyd lye uppon a bed of clay, the thicknesse thereof could not
be known. And there, uppon Monday nexte after the feast of St. John
Baptist, was layd the first stone, and that stone layd Dame Margaret
Tylney, and thereuppon layd she vl. sterling. The nexte stone was layd
by S^r John Tattersall, prson of Boston, who layd down thereuppon vl.
sterling. And Richard Stevenson, merchant of the Staple, layd the third
stone, and thereuppon vl. sterling. And these were all the great guifts
that at that time were given thereunto. Remaining amongst the records
at Lincolne.