But though these singularly interesting tokens of intercourse with the Phœnician and Greek maritime colonies long prior to the era of the Roman occupation of Britain abound, as might be anticipated, only in the localities where mineral wealth tempted the sojourn of the ancient trader, yet some few remarkable traces of the same communication with the elder empires of the world have been found within our more northern limits. Occasionally Greek coins have been discovered in Scotland; as, for example, a gold didrachm of Philip of Macedon, three Greek silver coins, including one of his son, and a brass of the Brutii in Magna Græcia, found on the estate of Cairnbulg, Aberdeenshire, in 1824; and a very fine gold coin of Alexander the Great, at Ecclefechan, Dumfriesshire.[236] In the year 1845 a still more remarkable hoard was discovered on the farm of Braco, in the parish of Shotts, Lanarkshire, only a very small portion of which was rescued from the usual fate of such recovered treasures. I have examined a few of these, in the hands of John Henderson, Esq., Queen's Remembrancer for Scotland. They include of Greek coins: one of Athens, obverse Archaic head of Pallas; reverse: _Α Θ_, owl in deep indented square, an olive branch behind. One of Phocis, obverse: laureated head of Apollo; reverse: full-faced head of bull. One of Bœotia, obverse: Bœotian shield; reverse: vase. Also one Parthian coin. (Eckhel, vol. i. p. 254. Arsaces XV.) A correspondent from whom I first received information of this important discovery, saw several more of the Athenian type; some with the Greek scarabæus or tortoise, and others, which from the description appear to have been Parthian coins. But on inquiry being made after them, nearly the whole disappeared, and it is to be feared were immediately consigned to the melting pot. This remarkable hoard, unequalled in historic value, as far as I know, by any discovery of coins yet made in Scotland, may perchance after all have only been the treasure of some Roman auxiliary, as Braco is on the line of the iter which came from the south, towards the station of Castlecarry, on the wall of Antoninus Pius. Only the year after, a most valuable hoard of undoubted Roman treasure was found on the same farm. According to the account of their discoverer--a farm servant--"nearly a barrowful" were recovered, but they were squandered and lost before information of the discovery could reach those who were competent to appreciate their value as anything but old metal. An intelligent correspondent, to whom I am indebted for some particulars of this last discovery at Braco, succeeded in securing a few of the coins, comprehending Vespasian, Titus, both the Antonines, Lucius Verus, both the Faustinas, Trajan, Hadrian, and Commodus. These, however, lay entirely apart from the former hoard, and apparently much nearer the surface, so that we need not necessarily assume the deposition of the former coins, belonging to a period so long prior