of the present century a large proportion of the woods will be yielding profitable timber, provided the crops be duly protected from injury, which otherwise the rapidly increasing population of the neighbourhood will too surely occasion. Nine-tenths of the present stock are oaks; the rest are Spanish chesnuts, Scotch fir, larch, spruce, beech, and a few elms, sycamores, and horsechesnuts; birch grows spontaneously in most parts of the Forest.

The following Table exhibits the quantity of timber growing at different times in the Forest within the last two hundred years.

With respect to the rarer plants found in the neighbourhood, it may be observed that the walk by the side of the Wye from Ross to Chepstow is said to be the most productive in objects of botanical interest of any part of England. The following list, kindly furnished by Mr. Gee, applies chiefly to the north-east section of the Forest and its vicinity :—

Toothwort (Lathræa squamaria), at the Scowles above the Lining Wood.

Bog Asphodel (Narthecium ossifragum), in the Mitcheldean

Meand Enclosure.

Gentian (Gentiana amarella), Limestone Quarry near Silverstone, at the Hawthorns.

Winter Green (Payrola media), Hare Church Hill.

Bog Pimpernel (Anagallis tenella), Purlieu Road.

Sundews (Drosera rotundifolia and longifolia), Mitcheldean Meand.

Little Sallow (Salix repens), Mitcheldean Meand.

Viola lactea, Mitcheldean Meand.

Cotton Grass (Eriophorum angustifolium), Mitcheldean Meand. Petty Whin (Genista Anglica), the waste between the Dampoo and the Speech House.

Gromwell (Lithospermum officinale), throughout the Forest.
Bee Orchis (Ophrys apifera), road to Bishopswood.

Services (Pyrus pinnatifida and aria), Bicknor Rocks.

Barberry (Berberis vulgaris), Bicknor Rocks.

Cotyledon umbilicus, Purlieu Road.

Narcissus biflorus, Hope Mansel.

Mentha piperita, Bishopswood.

Mr. Bird has been so good as to supply the accompanying list of Forest Ferns:

Scolopendrium ceterach, and S. vulgare.

Polypodium vulgare.

phegopteris.
dryopteris.

Blechnum boreale.
Pteris aquilina.

Aspidium lobatum, and Filix mas and spinulosum, dilatatum, Ruta muraria, Trichomanes, Adiantum nigrum, Filix fœmina.

To which may be added the Polypodium calcareum, noticed by Mr. Anderson, of the Bailey Lodge, who further states that the Daphne Mezereon shrub, as well as the wood laurel, are indigenous in the Forest, especially in the coppices on the limestone.

CHAPTER XIV.

The Iron Mines and Iron Works in the Forest - Mr. Wyrrall's description of the ancient excavations for iron Their remote antiquity proved, and character described - Historical allusions to them The quality, abundance, and situation of the old iron cinders The early forges described Portrait of an original free miner of iron ore His tools Introduction of the blast furnace into the Forest Various Crown leases respecting them A minute inventory of them - Mr. Wyrrall's glossary of terms found therein - Mr. Mushet's remarks on the remains of the above works - First attempts to use prepared coal in the furnaces - Iron-works suppressed - Value of iron ore at that time - Dr. Parsons's account of the manner of making iron State of the adjoining iron-works during the seventeenth century- Revival of them at its close Their rise and prosperity since — At Cinderford, Park End, Sowdley, Lydbrook, and Lydney Character of the iron-mines at the present time.

"THERE are," writes Mr. Wyrrall, in his valuable MS. on the ancient iron-works of the Forest, dated in the year 1780, "deep in the earth vast caverns scooped out by "men's hands, and large as the aisles of churches; and "on its surface are extensive labyrinths, worked among "the rocks, and now long since overgrown with woods; "which whosoever traces them must see with astonish"ment, and incline to think them to have been the "work of armies rather than of private labourers.

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They certainly were the toil of many centuries, and "this perhaps before they thought of searching in the "bowels of the earth for their ore-whither, however,

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they at length naturally pursued the veins, as they "found them to be exhausted near the surface." Such were the remains, as they existed in his day, of the original iron-mines of this locality; and except where modern operations have obliterated them, such they continue to the present time. Beyond the inference of remote antiquity, which we naturally draw from the

fact of their presenting no trace of the use of any kind of machinery, or of gunpowder, or the display of any mining skill, we may cite the unanimous opinion of the neighbourhood, that they owe their origin to the predecessors of that peculiar order of operatives known as "the free miners of the Forest of Dean;" a view which is confirmed by the authentic history of the district. But the numerous Roman relics found deeply buried in the prodigious accumulations of iron cinders, once so abundant here as to have formed an important part of the materials supplied to the furnaces of the Forest, afford proof that the iron-mines were in existence as

The Devil's Chapel, in the Scowles, near Bream.

early as the commencement of the Christian era; so that the openings we now see are the results of many

centuries of mining operations, with which their extent, number, and size perfectly accord.

These mines present the appearance either of spacious caves, as on the Doward Hill, or at the Scowles near Bream, or they consist of precipitous and irregularly shaped passages, left by the removal of the ore or mineral earth wherever it was found, and which was followed in some instances for many hundreds of yards, openings being made to the surface wherever the course of the mine permitted, thus securing an efficient ventilation, so that although they have been so long deserted the air in them is perfectly good. They are also quite dry, owing probably to their being drained by the new workings adjacent to them, and descending to a far greater depth. In the first instance they were no doubt excavated as deep as the water permitted, that is, to about 100 feet, or in dry seasons even lower, as is in fact proved by the water-marks left in some of them. Occasionally they are found adorned with beautiful incrustations of the purest white, formed by springs of carbonate of lime, originating in the rocky walls of limestone around. Sometimes, after proceeding a considerable distance, they suddenly open out into spacious vaults fifteen feet in width, the site probably of some valuable "pocket" or "churn" of ore; and then again, where the supply was less abundant, narrowing into a width hardly sufficient to admit the human body. Occasionally the passage divides and unites again, or abruptly stops, turning off at a sharp angle, or changing its level, where rude steps cut in the rock show the mode by which the old miners ascended or descended; whilst sometimes the rounds of ladders have been found, semicarbonized by age. These excavations abound on every side of the Forest, wherever the iron makes its appearance, giving the name of " Meand" or mine to such places. Of the deeper workings, one of the most extensive occurs on the Lining Wood Hill above Mitcheldean, and is well worth exploring.

The earliest historical allusion to these underground works is made by Camden, who records that a gigantic