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