To my Sons and Daughters

To My Sons and Daughters

To my Sons and Daughters,

During the course of my own life I have liked to imagine myself as an honest man, and I hope you will still remember me as one, despite what I am about to tell you. This concerns that £10 million pounds worth of  gold which I supposedly found on my farm back in the late 1940's. I have, for so many, many  years  now told you all, or anyone who cared to ask, that I found the treasure myself with a metal detector. I've told you all that I brought a metal detector from a junk sale, since I had an interest in metal detecting, and whilst using it on my farm I was fortunate enough to stumble across £10 million pounds worth of Celtic gold. The truth is however, that I  never brought a metal detector, and nor did I find the treasure myself. It was found, not by me as I regrettably always told you, but by some treasure hunter whom I had allowed onto my land. He was a slightly unusual fellow, who said his name was Jimmy.

It was during the winter of 1949 when  I first met Jimmy. I was having a morning tea break besides one of the outbuildings on my farm. I was quietly musing to myself about life I suppose, it was Friday and I was wondering what was in store for the weekend ahead; when I first spotted  him standing about a dozen feet away from me at the front gate.  We stood there regarding each other for a second, I was taken aback by surprise at his sudden and unexpected appearance, all I did was stare back at him in surprise. He was slightly below average height, but with a strong set of shoulders  with sincere brown eyes,  and he had a great big metal detector slung casually over his shoulder. 'Mind if you let me in?' he asked, with a chirpy voice and a casual smile. I put my tea down on a window ledge and unhinged the gate for him, allowing him into my farmyard. 'Nice place you have here' he commented. 'My name's Jimmy by the way' he added, extending his hand to shake mine. I slowly took his hand and shook it guardedly. 'I'm Mr Miller' I replied. 'I take it you have have come to seek permission to use that thing' I said, pointing to the metal detector over his shoulder.
'Yes I have....well, may I?' he asked.
'I take it you know the laws concerning this?' I asked firstly.
He nodded confidently. 'I would appreciate it if you would show me which fields I may use'
'Yes, yes' I replied. I saw no reason why I should not allow him to do a bit of metal detecting on my land, he looked harmless enough. 'You may do so' I said. 'Come, and  I will walk you around my fields' I said, gesturing to  him to follow me.

We walked and we talked as I showed him the extent of the my land, pointing out to him which fields were mine and which were not. Our conversation was light and easy as we strolled across the frozen winter earth,  reminding me that soon would be time to plant the years crop.
'Is this a family farm?' he asked me.
'Yes, it's been in my family for as long as anyone can remember' I replied, with a touch of pride.
He nodded, and as he clambered over a gate I watched him as he surveyed the land around him. The sky was cold blue and clear, towards the end of my fields was a thick line of snow coated trees. For a moment we both admired the view, but when I looked back to him, sitting atop the gate,  that I attention was drew to a thin, pale pink scar which was slashed along his jaw line.
'Are you a war veteran?' I asked him.
He looked at me, surprised, and then he realised I must have spotted his scar. 'Yes' he replied. 'I was a fighter pilot'
'Wow' I replied, I never saw that coming. As we walked on back towards the farm house I  couldn't help but persistently ask him about his war experiences, but he did not seem to mind, and answered by questions evenly and modestly. It turned out he had been a hurricane pilot in the Battle of Britain, and then flew typhoons, a type of ground attack aircraft, during the Normandy Invasion. He had even volunteered to transfer to the pacific as a seafire pilot. He had been shot down twice, once over Britain and another time over France, where he had crash landed during the middle of a fire fight between the Germans and some Canadian forces. He never explained how he got the scar however, but I decided I should not persist, perhaps he wished not to talk about the wound. However, that said, the scar did not look that traumatic.
My tour of the fields lasted about an hour, and by the end of it I had explained that he could walk on any of my fields between the hours of nine and five o'clock. He seemed satisfied by this, and said he would visit every day of the weekend, leaving on Sunday evening. I nodded, and told him to come and find me in the farm kitchen at five oclock when it was time to leave. He nodded, and said he would begin now if that was alright with me. I said that was fine, and left him too it.

That evening, bang on five oclock he reported to the farm kitchen. 'Found anything?' I asked.
'Just a few old coins' he remarked, placing the mud-coated things on my table. 'You can have them'
'Oh well, better luck next time' I said polity. 'bye now'.
He was about to depart when the back door opened and my wife entered the kitchen. The last thing she was expecting was a stranger in our kitchen, 'Who's this!?' she asked,  wide eyed with surprise.
'Erm, dear, this is Jimmy' I replied. 'Jimmy, meet my wife' I said to him. Jimmy stepped forward to shake her hand. 'Pleased to meet you' he said,  but in doing so getting his muddy boots all over the kitchen floor. She frowned and then she noticed the  the metal detector slung over his shoulder, she shook his hand lightly.
'So..well Jimmy I suppose you better be off, see you tomorrow' I lightly remarked.
Jimmy nodded.'Bye Mr and Mrs Miller' he said, and hastily made his exit.
'Who is this Jimmy?' my wife demandingly asked as soon as he had gone.
'I don't know, he's-
'What do you mean you don't know?'
'He's just an amateur treasure hunter, he looks harmless'
My wife grumbled to herself as she brushed the dirt on the floor onto the door mat. 'He's a waste of time in my opinion, he won't find anything, and  I wouldn't let unusual people onto your land'
'He's not unusual' I remarked. 'He's a war veteran'
'Hmm....I could sense there is something different about him' she grumbled. 'And what are those things?' she pointed to the grubby coins on the kitchen table.
'The coins he found' I replied.
'Some treasure hunter' she scoffed. 'He's probably hoping to find the Holy Grail or something, he's a bit of a nutter for thinking he could find anything on our land'
'I don't know what he's hoping to find, but he's not harming anybody, and so i'm content to let him do as he wishes'
'How long will be coming here for?' she asked.
'Three days' I replied.
That seemed to settle it with her, but that conversation planted some questions in my mind. What was he hoping to find? I remembered him saying that he was  living in rented room at the pub in the local village, so he had obviously come here with some sort of purpose. I decided that tomorrow I would have to find out.


The next day I found him strolling through my field, the metal detector swinging to and fro before him, looking absorbed in his work. He spotted me as I walked over and he cheerfully greeted me. 'Hows things?' he asked me.
'Alright I suppose'  I replied. 'Found anything?' I asked casually.
'Nope' he replied, nonplussed.
'Jimmy' I asked him. 'I was just wondering, you said that you planned to to spend three days here looking for treasure here. Well, to me that suggests your after something specific, so...what are you hoping to find?'
He took a moment to answer that question, but he spoke. 'There was a battle near here in ancient times, im just hoping to see what I can find' he replied.
'Oh, what kind of battle? I asked.
'Roman' he replied. 'At least I suspect so...' he added, pausing and then continuing. 'I'm looking for any physical evidence of it happening'
That answer seemed reasonable enough to me. 'Oh well, good luck then' I replied, and left him to his work. 

That evening he managed to avoid my wife, but he said he had come empty handed. No matter, I had told him, and said i'll see him tomorrow. Over dinner I remember we read a letter sent by Mary telling us about how you were finding training as a sectary, and how Marian was settling in with her new husband. Those letters you all sent us always gave us so much happiness, we loved to hear from you. So, as you would expect the mood at the dinner table was generally positive, well, until my wife asked.
'So what of this Jimmy...has he found anything of importance?
'No, and I doubt he will, tomorrow is his last day anyhow'
That seemed to be that, she did not question me further. That was until I foolishly added. 'He said there was a battle here once, and he's looking for remnants of that' I said, hoping to make his presence here sound more legitimate.
She took one last bite from the shepherds pie,  and looked at me inquisitively. 'A battle, here?'
'I think so' I replied.
She got up from her table and went towards the bookshelf, picking up one of the books, she then flicked through the pages muttering to herself as she searched through its pages. 'If its the Battle of Nantwich then he is clearly in the wrong place, Nantwich is ten miles away!'
'He said it was in ancient times' I told her.
She flicked through the various pages. 'Well, The closest thing to a battle here was the Norman devastation of the Cheshire countryside, but there is nothing regarding ancient battles here. Unless you want to count Chester,  but that is ten miles in the opposite direction from Nantwich, and no particular battles happened at Chester until the Dark Ages.' She said sounding rather sceptical.
'Well, maybe he's a history professor who knows something new that your book doesn't.'
'Jimmy, a history professor!? ' she scoffed. 'He's far to young and far to stupid for that if he thinks he can find treasure here.
'Well, maybe he's being employed by a history professor to look for evidence here' I suggested. 'When was that book published?'
She turned to the front of the book. '1935' she said.
'There, I would wager that the historians or archaeologists have found some new evidence that suggests there was a battle here, and they have sent one of their professors over to investigate'
She scowled at me. 'This Jimmy better not find anything, i'm not having bulldozers digging up our fields in the name of historical research! What if we are not adequately compensated!? Can you imagine all the hassle it would cause!?'
'Well, maybe he won't find anything...' I meekly suggested.
She huffed. 'Well I will tell you one thing, you are not letting archaeologists dig up our land, I won't have it!' she ordered, scooping up her dinner plate and strode into the kitchen. I cupped my head in my hands. She had a point, if he does find something, what would happen to my land? However, tomorrow, Sunday, would be his last day, I thought, and  if he has not found anything yet, then perhaps chances are he will not find anything tomorrow either.
'If he's working for a  professor, why don't you ask him which university he's from? Ask to see his credentials!' came her voice from the kitchen.
'I will, dear!' I shouted back. I seriously doubted he had any, he just looked like a young history enthusiast. Still, I had to follow the orders of my wife and ask him.

And ask him I did, finding him soon after I had ate Sunday dinner. I  went out into the fields and sure enough I found him, patrolling the boarders of my hedges with his metal detector. 'I'm going for a new tactic today' he told me as I approached him. 'Yesterday I covered all the fields, so now i'm searching the borders'
'Oh aye' I replied. 'Found anything so far?'
He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out something dark and muddy. 'Looks like its part of some sort of hoe' he said, handing it to me. 'I thought I had found something at first,  but I was a bit disappointed when it turned out to be this piece of rubbish'
'Yeah, because your hoping to uncover evidence of a battle here?' I asked.
He nodded and straightened up, and surveyed the landscape around him, with a hint of frustration in his eyes. 'Yes' he replied. 'Ain't found nothing at all...'
'So...what evidence have you got to suggest that there was a battle here?'
'Maps and books, that kind of thing'
'Oh right...' I asked, wondering where I should take this, I needed to get him to be more specific about were his evidence came from, or if he had any. He began walking away, metal detector sweeping too and fro before him.
'Do you have an interest in history?' I eventually asked, as I caught up with him, trying to sound as casual as possible. 'Are you working for some university or society or something?'
'Hmm..I would call myself an independent researcher as it where, but I certainly have an interest in history, why? Do you Mr Miller?' he asked me, turning to face me.
'History's alright I suppose' I replied. 'I'm just wondering how your research has led you to believe there might have once been a battle on my land'
'Well..' he replied, regarding me thoughtfully. 'Some new archaeological evidence has cropped up, and I then found it in some historical journal whilst down in London. They have apparently found some Roman accounts which suggest there was a battle here'
'Quite recently then I presume?'
'Oh yes' he said, grinning. 'Very recent stuff, it won't be published in your usual history text books for a while yet' he affirmed.
'Ah, I see' I replied.
'Yes' he affirmed once again. He then glanced at his wrist watch. 'I am running out of time, I really should get on with this, see you tonight Mr Miller'
'Bye Jim' I replied, and watched him stroll off.


'He's an independent researcher dear' I later told my wife as we stood in the kitchen late that afternoon.
'And knows there was a battle here all by himself then?' she replied sourly.
'He said he had been reading some historical journals, and mentioned some archaeological evidence. All very recent stuff, it won't be in that book of yours'
She looked at me as she evaluated this information. 'Well, that doesn't solve the problem over if he finds anything. I presume that if he does find anything, you can stop archaeologists from digging up our land' she said, looking at me.
'Yes dear...' I replied, bitterly.
She seemed satisfied with that answer, and walked towards the window and looking outside into the gathering  winter darkness.
'Chances are he won't, so don't worry dear' I added.
'The sooner he gets here empty handed the better' she complained. 'It's gone five oclock, and he's late. What you going to do if he finds anything?'
'See how much compensation they will be willing to offer me' I replied.
'What do you mean? I thought I told you not to allow anyone to dig up our land!?' she scowled at me.
'You know its my land as well you know!' I snapped back. 'I can have an opinion too you know!'
She looked at me, surprised, unused to my comeback. However, before she could reply we heard running footsteps outside. A second later the door swung open, Jimmy ran into the kitchen, panting, wearing a big huge grin.
'Oh for the love of..' my wife said, but Jimmy cut her off.
'I've found it, i've...found what I was looking for! Grab a shovel Mr Miller and follow me!'
I shot one look at my wife, whom was stood there with her arms folded across her chest scowling at me. It was that look of disgust that got to me, and I felt a surge of burning annoyance. I walked over to the cupboard, opening it under her glare I reached for a shovel. I then turned to face her.
'This is my farm, and while I respect your opinion, i have decided that I will now and assist Jimmy with his find.' I told her, and drew a breath, taking this opportunity to unleash my suppressed frustrations .'And while I'm at it, I'll let you know that I am fed up with you walking over me! There is nothing wrong or unusual about Jimmy, and I think you are being just being overly paranoid! Stop telling me what I need to do, i'm not your servant, i'm a free man!' I snapped at her. 'We will talk more about this later..' I added.

I turned away from her, and stormed out of the kitchen, slamming the door behind me. Jimmy was outside waiting for me, and he led me into the fields. After a five minute jog through the gathering mist,  he jumped into a ditch beside boarder of my field. I clambered down tiredly and spotted a small hole he had dug, the metal detector leaning against the nearby hedge.
'Look inside' he told me, grinning.
I leaned over him, and in the darkness I saw something glittering in the earth. 'What's tha-'
'Gold' he instantly replied, brushing away the soil with his hands, and gradually eased this mud coated shiny thing out of the ground, rubbing the dirt away I began to make sense of its shape.
'It's a torque' he told me, and gently he eased it out of the soil placed it on the ground. 'I want you to take the top layer of soil off right here' he said, pointing to the ground beside him.
I nodded, and slowly began digging, he too also dug as well to my opposite side. After five minutes  of careful digging my shovel scraped something metal. 'Found something' I said.
Jimmy stopped digging and leaned over my shoulder. 'We should have brought hand shovels and a torch...no matter, dig it out with your hands' he instructed. 'Or i'll dig it out if you want'
'No, no, its fine..' I said, staring at this shiny thing in the ground which lay at my feet. 'Is it...gold?' I asked again dumbly.
'Yes it is, now dig deeper, they'll be more of it.'
I fell to my knees and clawed at the dirt beneath me, gently easing out these golden objects from the ground, and putting them in a pile beside me. I dug deeper with my hands, and more glints of gold peeked above the soil. I couldn't believe my eyes, how much was this worth? I asked myself. The more I dug the more gold I would find, and I would ease out each precious object out of the ground, and add it to the gathering collection beside me and Jimmy. I found gold coins, jewelry, figurines, even a swords hilt, although  its blade had corroded to the extent that it was merely iron shards in the soil which broke away in my hands. I eventually reached a layer where there was no gold left, but decayed fragments of wood and iron. I turned to my pile of gold, and then to Jimmy, In a state of astonishment.'This is...amazing' I breathed.
He looked at me over his shoulder, he seemed to share my wonderment but with a bit more sobriety 'It is isn't it?' he said, carefully placing two golden goblets onto the pile. 'Right, thats everything from the chest' he said.
I looked at the pile of golden jewelry before us. 'How much is this worth?' I asked him.
He shrugged. 'You'll find out soon enough' he told me, and began to sort through the pile. I watched him for a few moments, picking through each item of jewelry, rubbing away the soil and examining each one separately. 'What are you doing?' I eventually asked.
'I'm looking for something'
I watched him in sorting through each gold item, it was difficult making out the shape of each object in the darkness, and I began to sense his frustration as he went through the pile with an increasing sense of urgency. 'Where is it, where is it?' he kept asking himself under his breath. I watched him with ever growing curiosity, which then snapped me out of my delusional delight, and a question hit me. 'Wait, is this what you were looking for all-along?'
'Hold on' he replied impatiently. His hand settled on something, and his hole body froze. He grabbed it and held it up to the moon above, wonderment written all over his face. 'How did I miss this..' he whispered, and then a giggle erupted from his mouth. 'I dug this one out myself, how did I miss this?'
'What is it?' I persisted.
He looked at me. 'All this at your feet is Cornovii gold.' He saw my blank facial expression. 'Celtic gold' he said.
'Ah!' I exclaimed. 'Is this what you really came here for? I asked. 'But if that is the case, how did you know it was here?' I then asked. Jimmy sat down, tenderly holding this piece of jewelry in his hand, he didn't reply. I leaned over his shoulder and peered at what he was holding. It was some sort of amulet, a solid gold disk with a golden chain threaded through it.  The chain's links intertwining with one another, and on the disk itself I again saw these swirling, intertwining twisting patterns decorating the amulet. In the middle of the gold disk however I could see something imprinted on it, and I struggled to see what it was, my eyes straining to make out what it is through the specs of dirt. Was It an animal?Yes, yes it was, it looked like a mouse. There was an engraving of a little mouse on the golden disk. I smiled, it looked cute once I realised it was a mouse.

'This is what I have come for' he said, standing up and turning to face me. 'The rest of it is yours' he gestured towards the glimmering pile.
I nearly fell over in surprise. 'What? I thought...i thought it was to be divided equally between us!?'
'You and your wife can pretend you found it yourself, you can have my metal detector, tell the authorities you found it. I only came for this' he said, cradling the amulet in his hand.
'What, wait, why!?' I exclaimed.
'Consider all that gold my payment towards you to keep your silence about me' he said.
'Why, are some kind of  fugitive, a war criminal?!' I demanded.
'No, no, no' he said. 'Your government is not after me, it doesn't know I exist'
'Then who are you!?' I demanded, getting angry. He looked at me, and again refused to answer. 'Your not Jimmy are you?' I asked.
'No' he replied, with a tint of sadness. 'And I am not going to tell you who I am, because  would take weeks, and besides... you would not believe me'
'Try me' I said defiantly.
He just shook his head. 'I won't say. Look, Mr Miller,  just look at all that gold at you feet, that is all yours, you can have it... Or can no amount of knowledge be compensated?'
I looked at him blankly at him then, although now I suppose he had an interesting point. Instead I just asked him. 'Well tell me at least something!'
He looked at me, and then at the amulet in his open hand, he drew a breath, and spoke. 'This belonged to a woman called Catia.' he said soberly. 'I commissioned a goldsmith to make this for her.... she had always liked mice, because as a child she once caught and tamed one' he said with a sad smile. 'And then, when the Romans came, we, and the rest of the village buried our treasures out here in this forest..well what was once forest. He took a moment and brushed a tear from his cheek. 'I never saw her again since that night, but its only been now that I have been able to stand any chance of finding this last piece of her memory which we left behind... Catia is long gone... but i'm still here'
I looked at him in bewildered amazement. 'Who... who are you?'
'Someone who should have died a long time ago' he sadly replied. There was  a long pause. 'I wish to be alone now, Mr Miller.' he said. 'I don't mean to sound rude, but I want to be alone'  he reaffirmed, standing up, holding back the tears. He shook my hand and began to walk away from me. I didn't know what to say, I was left dumb and speechless, as I watched him depart.
'Goodbye Mr Miller' he shouted back to me, as I headed off into the mist. 'And thank you for your hospitality!'
I nodded and watched him go, watching him walk away into the night, his boots trudging softly in the soil, gradually fading away until he was nothing but a  faint a shadow in the gathering fog, and then, a second later,  he vanished forever.

I told my wife half the truth. I told her that he had allowed me to keep all the treasure. I made up some silly story about how he was a communist and didn't believe in material wealth. She believed this, citing how she had always suspected him of being a bit odd. I then reasoned to her that if he was a communist, it would be better if we did not tell the authorities. So  I would tell them that I had found the treasure by myself, using the metal detector I had supposedly brought. The press loved our story, but we put up with their hassle, since we were rich as kings as queens, we did not care. As you know, I soon passed on the farm onto my two sons Henry and Richard. I must say that you both ran the family farm to superb efficiency, you have made me proud as a farther. As for me and my wife, we of course moved into that cottage in the Lake District, were we lived a comfortable and quiet live for many years to come. Our wealth, and our early retirement from running a stressful farm had saved our failing marriage, I since then I have lived out the rest of my life in happiness with her.

I wrote this because I  could not take this secret to the grave, I need to clear my conscience before I go. This is why I have committed what happened all those years ago to paper, and put it, along with a few other precious things, in a chest of which I have placed on the coffee table near the fire-place. So you, my sons and daughters, may come and find it when I have died.  I wonder now as I write this, what they will make of this tale? I will not be surprised if you do not believe it, but so long as I have told you, then my conscience is clear. Now, the ambulance will be here soon to take me to hospital, I must hurry and end this letter. So let me tell you one final thing. I don't fear death, because if death was never to happen to me, why would I be glad that I am cursed to walk this Earth, while all my loved ones, such as my beloved wife, die around me, but I  myself lived on eternally? I don't envy that mysterious man who once visited me, all those years ago, and i hope he finds happiness, somehow.

November 16th, 1974.