170 DR. BENJAMIN ALLEN, OF BRAINTREE.
our Hundred, as far as I could hear, but many dyed. It was in April 1708.
Feavers : I was ill Marci) II,
1712.—. . . The beginning of August, the time for autumnal diseases,
came a universal seizure in London, chiefly of a short three-days illness, of pain
in the back and bones and great heavyness. They used bleeding and sweating,
with Venice treacle. So [treated, it] went off and none held longer.1
1714.—A wonderful dry year and fair, and mostly mild and warm : so long
a summer and summerlike weather not known in memory.
1715.—Ended in a winter that had the longest continuous hard frost since
1683. Thames froze over. Much snow.
1716.—A very cold [spring] season and north winds. No grass grew, or
began to grow, till about the 8 of June.
1717.—[A very high tide, causing floods.] At Manningtree, [there were] 2
tides and half in one day.
1720.—Dec. 1. a violent tide in Holland, and Dec. 20 [another] at Harwich
and that sea coast ; spoyled the pastures.
1721.—Began with a mild winter and growing. Rosemary, burrage, &c.
blew Jan. 1. I had a nosegay. . . .
1736.—Feb. to. A high tide next day after full moon. . . . : Mr
Copper drowned . . . : not such a tide since 130 years ago.
Among miscellaneous memoranda scattered throughout the
volume, there are a few which seem worthy of passing notice :—
On the title-page, there is a drawing (fig. 4) and elsewhere a
FIG. 4.—ANCIENT BRITISH GOLD COIN FOUND AT WETHERSFIELD IN 1723
(From a drawing by Dr. Benjamin Allen).
description (p. 282) of "A gold coyn dug up in a field at the
Motts, at Blackmore End [in Wethersfield], July 29, 1723."
The coin is of the Early British period, about 100-150 B.C.,
having a horse on one side and what Allen took for a
whale on the other.2 Soon after, we meet with this informing
1 Probably the modern influenza in some form.
2 Through the kindness cf the, officers of the Coins and Medals Department of the
British Museum, I am enabled to state that, though the coin is assignable to the period
indicated, it is not possible to attribute it to any particular British Prince. Somewhat
similar coins are figured by Evans (Coins of the Ancient Britons, pl. A: 1864). The device
on the obverse Allen, by a curious misconception, drew as though it represented a whale
springing out of the waves and rubbing its nose against a fir-tree. It really represents, in
a debased and conventional manner, a princely bust, with flowing locks of hair restrained
by a jewelled diadem and band !