OS1/24/9/12

Continued entries/extra info

ANCIENT GOLD AND SILVER COINS FOUND HERE [Kingside]

In the year 1794, a Pot Containing a great quantity of Gold and Silver Coins was dug in the Courtyard of the farm of Kingside. The silver was in a state of great decay, and crumbled into Powder on being removed. The gold was more Entire. The exact quantity found Could never be Correctly ascertained, as various fingers had been in the pot before it was delivered over to the Lord Chief Baron, the late Sir James Montgomery. After retaining possession of it for a considerable time, and probably not thinking it worth while to report it to the Exchequer, he gave part of it to the finder, and to the poor of the parish, and distributed a few pieces as curiosities among his friends. Several of these Coins, it is believed, are now in the possession of Sir James Montgomery and Mr MacKenzie the proprietor. The tenant of Kingside has two of them one bearing the inscription "Jacobus S Scotorium Rex" but the date is effaced; the other is apparently a foreign coin but the Inscription is altogether illegible.
New Stat: Acct: [Statistical Account] of Peebles-shire Page 147

Transcriber's notes

This entry relates to the information on previous page (p11)