ROMANCE OF WEALTH.
The unsunn'd heaps
Of miser's treasure.
MILTON.
Stories of lost or unclaimed property have always possessed a
fascinating charm, but, unfortunately, the links for proving the
rightful ownership break off generally at the point where its history
seems on the verge of being unravelled. At the same time, however
romantic and improbable some of the announcements relating to such
treasure-hoards may seem, there is no doubt that many a poor family,
at the present day, would be possessed of great wealth if it could
only gain a clue to the whereabouts of money rightfully its own.
The legal identification, too, of such property when discovered has
frequently precluded its successfully being claimed by those really
entitled to enjoy it, and few persons are aware of the enormous amount
of unclaimed money--amounting to some millions--which lies dormant,
although continually made public in the "agony columns" of the _Times_
and other daily newspapers. It should be also remembered that wealth
of this kind is carefully preserved in all kinds of places; bankers'
cellars, for instance, containing some of the most curious unclaimed
deposits, many of them being of rare intrinsic value, whilst others
are of great romantic interest.
Thus, not many years ago, there was accidentally discovered in the
vaults of the Bank of England a large chest of some considerable age,
which, on being removed from its resting place, almost fell to pieces.
On the contents of this old chest being examined, some massive plate
of the time of Charles II. was brought to light, of very beautiful and
chaste workmanship. Nor was this all, for much to the surprise of the
explorers, a bundle of love letters, written during the period of the
Restoration, was found carefully packed away with the plate. On search
being made by the directors of the bank in their books, the surviving
heir of the original depositor was ascertained, to whom the plate and
packet of love letters were handed over.
Many similar cases might be quoted, for in most of our bank cellars
are hoarded away family treasures, which for some inexplicable reason
have never been claimed. Some, again, of our old jewellers' shops have
had strange deposits in their cellars, the history and whereabouts of
their owners having baffled the most searching and minute inquiries.
As an illustration, may be given an instance which occurred some years
back in connection with a jeweller's shop near Soho. It seems that an
old lady lodged for a few weeks over the said shop, and, on leaving
for the Continent, left behind her, for safety's sake, several boxes
of plate to be taken care of until further notice. But years passed by
and no tidings of the lady reached the jeweller, although from time to
time the most careful inquiries were instituted. At last, however, it
transpired that she had died somewhat suddenly, but, as no record was
found amongst her papers relating to the boxes of plate, a lengthened
litigation arose as to the rightful claimant of the property.
Occasionally, through domestic differences, homes are broken up and
the members dispersed, some perhaps going abroad. In many cases, such
persons it may be are not only lost sight of for years, but are never
heard of again, and hence, when they become entitled to money, large
sums are frequently spent in advertising for their whereabouts, and
oftentimes with no satisfactory results. Indeed, advertisements for
missing relatives are, it is said, yearly on the increase, and
considerable sums of money cannot be touched owing to the uncertainty
as to whether persons of this description are alive or dead. An
interesting instance occurred in the year 1882, when Sir James Hannen
had the following case brought before him: "Counsel applied on behalf
of Augustus Alexander de Niceville for letters of administration to
the property of his father, supposed to be dead, as he had not been
heard of since the year 1831, and who, if alive, would be 105 years
old. In early life he held a commission in the French army, but in the
year 1826 he came to this country and settled in Devonshire. On the
breaking out of the French Revolution he returned with his wife to
France, but his wife came back to England, and corresponded with her
husband till the year 1831, when she ceased to hear from him. In spite
of every means employed for tracing his whereabouts, nothing was ever
heard of him, his wife dying in the year 1875. Affidavits in support
of these facts having been read, the application was granted."
Then there are the well-known unclaimed funds in Chancery, concerning
which so much interest attaches. It may not be generally known what a
mine of wealth these dormant funds constitute, amounting to many
millions; indeed, the Royal Courts of Justice have been mainly built
with the surplus interest of this money, and occasionally large sums
from this fund have been borrowed to enable the Chancellor of the
Exchequer to carry through his financial operations. By an Act passed
in the year 1865, facilities are afforded to apply £1,000,000 from
funds standing in the books of the Bank of England to an account thus
designated: "Account of securities purchased with surplus interest
arising from securities carried to the account of moneys placed out
for the benefit and better security of the suitors of the Court of
Chancery." Not so very long ago the subject was discussed in
Parliament, when it was urged that, as the Government were trustees of
these funds, something should be done, as far as possible, by
publicity, to adopt measures whereby the true owners might become
claimants if they had but the knowledge of their rights.
Another reason for money remaining unclaimed for a number of years, is
through missing wills. Hence many a family forfeits its claim to
certain property on account of the testator's last wishes not being
forthcoming. Thackeray makes one of his plots hang in a most ingenious
way upon a missing will, which is discovered eventually in the
sword-box of a family coach, and various curious instances are on
record of wills having been discovered years after the testator's
death in the most out-of-the-way and unlikely hiding places. In some
cases, also, through a particular clause in a will being peculiarly or
doubtfully worded, heirs have been deprived of what was really due to
them, a goodly part of the property having been squandered and wasted
in prolonged legal expenses.
Then, again, it is universally acknowledged that there is an immense
quantity of money, and other valuables, concealed in the earth. In
olden days, the householder was the guardian of his own money, and so
had to conceal it as his ingenuity could devise. Accordingly large
sums of money were frequently buried underground, and in excavating
old houses, treasures of various kinds are oftentimes found underneath
the floors. The custom of making the earth a stronghold, and confiding
to its safe-keeping deposits of money, prevailed until a comparatively
recent period, and was only natural, when it is remembered how, in
consequence of civil commotions, many a home was likely to be robbed
of its most valuable belongings. Hence every precaution was taken, a
circumstance which accounts for the cunning secretal of rich and
costly relics in old buildings. According to an entry given by Pepys
in his "Diary," a large amount was supposed to be buried in his day,
and he gives an amusing account of the hiding of his own money by his
wife and father when the Dutch fleet was supposed to be in the Medway.
Times of trouble, therefore, will account for many of the treasures
which were so carefully secreted in olden times. Many years ago, as
the foundations of some old houses in Exeter were being removed, a
large collection of silver coins was discovered--the money found
dating from the time of Henry VIII. to Charles I., or the
Commonwealth--and it has been suggested that the disturbed state of
affairs in the middle of the 17th century led to this mode of securing
treasure.
This will account in some measure for the traditions of the existence
of large sums of hidden money associated with some of our old family
mansions. An amusing story is related by Thomas of Walsingham, which
dates as far back as the 14th century. A certain Saracen physician
came to Earl Warren to ask permission to kill a dragon which had its
den at Bromfield, near Ludlow, and committed great ravages in the
earl's lands. The dragon was overcome; but it transpired that a large
treasure lay hid in its den. Thereupon some men of Herefordshire went
by night to dig for the gold, and had just succeeded in reaching it
when the retainers of the Earl of Warren, having learnt what was going
on, captured them and took possession of the hoard for the earl. A
legend of this kind was long connected with Hulme Hall, formerly a
seat of a branch of the Prestwich family. It seems that during the
civil wars its then owner, Sir Thomas Prestwich, was very much
impoverished by fines and sequestrations, so that he was forced to
sell the mansion and estate to Sir Oswald Mosley. On more than one
occasion his mother had induced him to advance large sums of money to
Charles I. and his adherents, under the assurance that she had hidden
treasures which would amply repay him. This hoard was generally
supposed to have been hidden, either in the hall itself, or in the
grounds adjoining, and it was said to be protected by spells and
incantations, known only to the lady dowager herself. Time passed on,
and the old lady became every day more infirm, and at last she was
struck down with apoplexy before she could either practise the
requisite incantations, or inform her son where the treasure was
secreted. After her burial, diligent search was made, but to no
effect; and Sir Thomas Prestwich went down to the grave in comparative
poverty. Since that period fortune-tellers and astrologers have tried
their powers to discover the whereabouts of this hidden hoard, and,
although they have been unsuccessful, it is still believed that one
day their labours will be rewarded, and that the demons who guard the
money will be forced to give up their charge. Some years ago the hall
and estate were sold to the Duke of Bridgewater, and, the site having
been required for other purposes, the hall was pulled down, but no
money was discovered.
In Ireland, there are few old ruins in and about which excavations
have not been made in the expectation of discovering hidden wealth,
and in some instances the consequence of this belief has been the
destruction of the building, which has been actually undermined. About
three miles south of Cork, near the village of Douglas, is a hill
called Castle Treasure, where a "cross of gold" was supposed to be
concealed; and the discovery, some years ago, of a rudely-formed clay
urn and two or three brazen implements attracted for some time crowds
to the spot.
But such stories are not confined to any special locality, and there
is, in most parts of England, a popular belief that vast treasures are
hidden beneath the old ruins of many houses, and that supernatural
obstacles always prevent their being discovered. Indeed, Scotland has
numerous legends of this kind, some of which, as Mr. Chambers has
pointed out, have been incorporated into its popular rhymes. Thus, on
a certain farm in the parish of Lesmahagow, from time immemorial there
existed a tradition that underneath a very large stone was secreted a
vast treasure in the shape of a kettleful, a bootful, and a bull-hide
full "of gold, all of which have been designated 'Katie Neevie's
hoord,'" having given rise to the following adage:
Between Dillerhill and Crossford
There lies Katie Neevie's hoord.
And at Fardell, anciently the seat of Sir Walter Raleigh's family, in
the courtyard formerly stood an inscribed bilingual stone of the Roman
British period; the stone is now in the British Museum. The tradition
current in the neighbourhood makes the inscription refer to a treasure
buried by Sir Walter Raleigh, and hence the local rhyme:
Between this stone and Fardell Hall
Lies as much money as the devil can haul.
A curious incident happened in Ireland about the commencement of the
last century. The Bishop of Derry being at dinner, there came in an
old Irish harper, and sang an ancient song to his harp. The Bishop,
not being acquainted with Irish, was at a loss to understand the
meaning of the song, but on inquiry he ascertained the substance of it
to be this--that in a certain spot a man of gigantic stature lay
buried, and that over his breast and back were plates of pure gold,
and on his fingers rings of gold so large that an ordinary man might
creep through them. The spot was so exactly described that two persons
actually went in quest of the garden treasure. After they had dug for
some time, they discovered two thin pieces of gold, circular, and more
than two inches in diameter. But when they renewed their excavations
on the following morning they found nothing more. The song of the
harper has been identified as "Moiva Borb," and the lines which
suggested the remarkable discovery have been translated thus:
In earth, beside the loud cascade,
The son of Sora's king we laid;
And on each finger placed a ring
Of gold, by mandate of our king.
The loud cascade was the well-known waterfall at Ballyshannon, known
as "The Salmon Leap" now.
[Illustration: THERE CAME IN AN OLD IRISH HARPER AND SANG AN
ANCIENT SONG TO HIS HARP.]
It was also a common occurrence for a miser to hide away his hoards
underground, and before he had an opportunity of making known their
whereabouts he died, without his heirs being put in the necessary
possession of the information regarding that part of the earth wherein
he had kept secreted his wealth. At different times, in old houses
have been discovered misers' hoards, and which, but for some accident,
would have remained buried in their forgotten resting-place. This
will frequently account for money being found in the most eccentric
nooks, an illustration of which happened a few years ago in Paris,
when a miser died, leaving behind him, as was supposed, money to the
value of sixty pounds. After some months had passed by, the claimant
to the property made his appearance, and, on the miser's apartments
being thoroughly searched, no small astonishment was caused by the
discovery of the large sum of thirty-two thousand pounds. It may be
noted that in former years our forefathers were extremely fond of
hiding away their money for safety, making use of the chimney, or the
wainscot or skirting-board. There it frequently remained; and such
depositories of the family wealth were occasionally, from death and
other causes, completely forgotten. In one of Hogarth's well-known
pictures, the young spendthrift, who has just come into his
inheritance, is being measured by a fashionable tailor, when, from
behind the panels which the builders are ripping down, is seen falling
a perfect shower of golden money.
There can be no doubt that there is many an old house in this country
which, if thoroughly ransacked, would be found to contain treasures of
the most valuable and costly kind. Some years ago, for example, a
collection of pictures was discovered at Merton College, Oxford,
hidden away between the ceiling and the roof; and missing deeds have
from time to time been discovered located in all sorts of mysterious
nooks. In a set of rooms in Magdalen College, too, which had been
originally occupied by one of the Fellows, and had subsequently been
abandoned and devoted to lumber, was unearthed a strong wooden box,
containing, together with some valuable articles of silver plate, a
beautiful loving-cup, with a cover of pure gold. When, also, the
Vicarage house of Ormesby, in Yorkshire, required reparation, some
stonework had to be removed in order to carry out the necessary
alterations, in the course of which a small box was found, measuring
about a foot square, which had been embedded in the wall. The box,
when opened, was full of angels, angelets, and nobles. Some of the
money was of the reign of Edward IV., some of Henry VI., and some,
too, of the reigns of Henry VII. and Henry VIII. It has been suggested
that when Henry VIII. dissolved the lesser monasteries, the monks of
Guisboro' Priory, which was only about six miles off, fearing the
worst, fled with their treasures, and, with the craft and cunning
peculiar to their order, buried a portion of them in the walls of the
parsonage house of Ormesby.[52]
To quote another case, Dunsford, in his "Memories of Tiverton" (1790),
p. 285, speaking of the village of Chettiscombe, says that in the
middle of the 16th century, in the north part of this village was "a
chapel entire, dedicated to St. Mary. The walls and roof are still
whole, and served some years past for a dwelling-house, but is now
uninhabited." It appears that not only was there some superstition
attaching to this building, which accounted for its untenanted
condition, but certain money was supposed to be hidden away, to
discover which every attempt had hitherto been in vain. "It was
therefore proposed," says the author, "that some person should lodge
in the chapel for a night to obtain preternatural information
respecting it. Two persons at length complied with the request to do
so, and, aided by strong beer, approached about nine o'clock the
hallowed walls. They trembled exceedingly at the sudden appearance of
a white owl that flew from a broken window with the message that
considerable wealth lay in certain fields, that if they would
diligently dig there, they would undoubtedly find it." They quickly
attended to this piece of information, and employed a body of workmen
who, before long, succeeded in bringing to light the missing money.
A similar tradition was associated with Bransil Castle, a stronghold
of great antiquity, situated in a romantic position about two miles
from the Herefordshire Beacon. The story goes that the ghost of Lord
Beauchamp, who died in Italy, could never rest until his bones were
delivered to the right heir of Bransil Castle. Accordingly, they were
sent from Italy enclosed in a small box, and were for a considerable
time in the possession of Mr. Sheldon, of Abberton. The tradition
further states that the old Castle of Bransil was moated round, and in
that moat a black crow, presumed to be an infernal spirit, sat to
guard a chest of money, till discovered by the rightful owner. The
chest could never be moved without the mover being in possession of
the bones of Lord Beauchamp.
Such stories of hidden wealth being watched over by phantom beings are
not uncommon, and remind us of those anecdotes of treasures concealed
at the bottom of wells, guarded over by the "white ladies." In
Shropshire, there is an old buried well of this kind, at the bottom of
which a large hoard has long been supposed to lie hidden, or as a
local rhyme expresses it:
Near the brook of Bell
There is a well
Which is richer than any man can tell.
In the South of Scotland it is the popular belief that vast treasures
have for many a year past been concealed beneath the ruins of
Hermitage Castle; but, as they are supposed to be in the keeping of
the Evil One, they are considered beyond redemption. At different
times various efforts have been made to dig for them, yet "somehow the
elements always on such occasions contrived to produce an immense
storm of thunder and lightning, and deterred the adventurers from
proceeding, otherwise, of course the money would long ago have been
found." And to give another of these strange family legends, may be
quoted one told of Stokesay Castle, Shropshire. It seems that many
years ago all the country in the neighbourhood of Stokesay belonged to
two giants, who lived the one upon View Edge, and the other at Norton
Camp. The story commonly current is that "they kept all their money
locked up in a big oak chest in the vaults under Stokesay Castle, and
when either of them wanted any of it he just took the key and got
some. But one day one of them wanted the key, and the other had got
it, so he shouted to him to throw it over as they had been in the
habit of doing, and he went to throw it, but somehow he made a mistake
and threw too short, and dropped the key into the moat down by the
Castle, where it has remained ever since. And the chest of treasure
stands in the vaults still, but no one can approach it, for there is a
big raven always sitting on the top of it, and he won't allow anybody
to try and break it open, so no one will ever be able to get the
giants' treasure until the key is found, and many say it never will be
found, let folks try as much as they please."[53]
Amongst further reasons for the hiding away of money, may be noticed
eccentricity of character, or mental delusion, a singular instance of
which occurred some years ago. It appears that whilst some workmen
were grubbing up certain tree at Tufnell Park, near Highgate, they
came upon two jars, containing nearly four hundred pounds in gold.
This they divided, and shortly afterwards, when the lord of the manor
claimed the whole as treasure trove, the real owner suddenly made his
appearance. In the course of inquiry, it transpired that he was a
brassfounder, living at Clerkenwell, and having been about nine months
before under a temporary delusion, he one night secreted the jars in a
field at Tufnell Park. On proving the truth of his statement, the
money was refunded to him.
FOOTNOTES:
[52] "Journal of the Archæological Association," 1859, Vol. xv., p.
104.
[53] "Shropshire Folklore" (Miss Jackson), 7, 8.