of it by John Talbot, who held the castle on Penyard as well as Goodrich. William de Staunton held the bailiwick there, and Reginald Abbenhall the woods. Walter Ivor held that at Blakeney, after Roger Flotman. The Abbot of Gloucester had ninety acres of land in Walmore, at eight pence an acre rent, for cultivation, but not for commonage. John Joice and his heirs had a grant of 116 acres in several parcels in the Forest, at the yearly rent of nineteen shillings and four

pence.

In the reign of Richard II. John Wolton obtained the grant for life of a place called Stowe. It was found that a monk from the convent of Grace Dieu was celebrating mass in the Forest for the souls of the King, his successors, and ancestors, holding two carucates of land, ten acres of meadow, and six acres of wood, a fact which may account for the name of " Church Hill,” at Park End. Thomas Hatheway was a chief forester. A bailiwick in the Forest, with lands in Lee-Walton and Lee in Herefordshire, were held in tail, remainder to Richard Curle, by Thomas de Brugg and Elizabeth his wife. The Castle of St. Briavel's and the Forest were given in special tail to the Duke of Gloucester, who was afterwards empowered by Parliament to constitute justices and other officers then usually attached to such properties.

In the time of Henry IV. William Warwyn held a certain bailiwick here by the service of being a forester in fee. Another office called "the forester's wyke" was filled by Henry de Aure. In the suceeeding reign this Forest was held in capite as the King's heir, by John Duke of Bedford, under a grant made by Henry IV.

Whilst the throne was occupied by Henry VI. we have chiefly to notice the complaint, which the traders of Tewkesbury made to the Government, that "their "boats and trowes conveying all manner of merchandise "down the Severn to Bristol, &c.," had been stopped at the coast of the Forest by great multitudes of the common people dwelling thereabouts, who seized their vessels, carried away the corn, threatened their lives if they

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resisted, and forbad any complaint being made, on their coming that way again. The petition caused letters of privy seal to be proclaimed in those parts to the effect that " no man of the said Forest should be so hardy to inquiet or disturb the people passing the "said river with merchandise, upon pain of treason." But the account proceeds to say that "the said trespassers came to the said river with greater routs and "riots than ever they did before, there despoiling at "divers times eight trowes of wheat, rye, flour, and "divers other goods and chattels, and the men of the "same cast overboard, and divers of them drowned, and "the hawsers of the same trowes cut away, and mainstrung the owners of the said goods, who should not be so hardy as to cause any manner of victuals to be carried any more by the same stream, much or little, "for lord or for lady, as they would hew their boats all to "pieces if they did so." More stringent measures were therefore evidently necessary, and in 1429 the Parliament passed an act, enforcing a restoration of the plunder, and amends for the injury done, within fifteen days, and the offenders to be imprisoned, or else the Statute of Winchester would be enforced against them.

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The singular perquisite of a bushel of coal, worth twenty pence, from each pit, at the end of every six weeks, was now attached to the office of “ capital forester of all the foresters," held at this period by Robert Greyndour. The King's lands, manors, castles, and other possessions in this Forest, were also granted to Henry Duke of Warwick, for one hundred pounds annual rental.

After the accession of Edward IV., and his unpopular marriage with Elizabeth Woodville, this Forest was the spot to which, upon the defeat at Edgecote (26th July, 1469), her father the Earl Rivers and her brother Sir John Woodville fled, where they were recaptured and carried to Northampton, their place of execution. A sergeantry, called woodward of the Lee Baile, was then held by John Throckmorton, Esq.

In the reign of Henry VIII. the office of Bleysbale and forestership of fee was filled by William Alberton.

A rental of sixty-five shillings and sixpence was paid to the Crown for certain lands in the Forest held by the priory of Monmouth; and others, called Cley-pitts, Litterfield, and Hill Hardwell, paid two shillings and four pence. Letters patent granted the custody of the Gablewood to Henry Bream.

Edward VI. farmed the Forest to Sir Anthony Kingston. How far the Forest population were interested in the stirring events of the Reformation, we are, unfortunately, left to conjecture; but the suppression of the adjacent Abbeys of Tintern and Flaxley, with their large possessions, must have brought the changes of the period visibly home to them.

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The reign of Elizabeth brings us to the date of an incident more generally notorious perhaps than any other in the history of Dean Forest, viz. its intended destruction by the Spanish Armada. Evelyn in his 'Sylva' thus mentions it:"I have heard that in the great expedi"tion of 1588 it was expressly enjoined the Spanish "Armada that if, when landed, they should not be able "to subdue our nation and make good their conquest, they should yet be sure not to leave a tree standing "in the Forest of Dean." Were it not that he particularly states that he had "heard" the report, we should conclude that he obtained his information from Fuller's Worthies,' published two years previously, where it is mentioned with this only difference, that "a Spanish "ambassador was to get it done by private practices " and cunning contrivances." Fuller had probably read this account in Samuel Hartlib, his Legacy of Husbandry,' published in 1655, where, speaking of the deficiency of woods at that time, he writes-"the State hath "done very well to pull down divers iron-works in the "Forest of Dean, that the timber might be preserved "for shipping, which is accounted the toughest in England, and, when it is dry, as hard as iron. The com"mon people did use to say that in Queen Elizabeth's days the Spaniards sent an ambassador purposely to "get this wood destroyed."

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As Mr. Evelyn writes that he "heard" what he states

of the matter, Mr. Secretary Pepys was probably his informant, who was told it by his friend Sir John Winter, who again heard it from his grandfather, Sir William Winter, vice-admiral of Elizabeth's fleet, but kinsman to Thomas Winter of Huddington, who at the close of this reign was constantly aiding the Spanish Romanists in their intrigues here, and eventually took part in the Gunpowder Plot. Such tradition is highly to the credit of the Forest timber of those days, if not to the iron as well. Both must have been renowned for supplying an important portion of the materials used in the Royal dockyards, which were at this time much enlarged, an increase of the navy being found necessary; whilst the stock of timber then standing in different parts of the kingdom was judged so insufficient for the wants of the Government, that recent acts of the legislature had directed that "twelve standils or storers likely to become timber "should be left on every acre of wood or underwood "that was felled at or under twenty-four years' growth," and prohibited the "turning woodland into tillage," and required that, "whenever any wood was cut, it must be "immediately enclosed, and the young spring thereof "protected for seven years." Moreover, no trees upwards of a foot in the square were to be converted into charcoal for making iron.

The returns from Sir Julius Cæsar's collection preserved in the Lansdowne MSS. recognise the above regulations, as well as the market for wood created by the Forest iron-works, now greatly enlarged; they possess considerable interest, and will be found in Appendix No. I.

CHAPTER II.

A.D. 1612-1663.

Grants in the Forest to Earl of Pembroke

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Foresters - Iron cinders of old workings re-smelted in the new furnaces - Last justice seat held in 1635, extending the limits of the Forest to those of Edward I. — Grant to E. Terringham Forest surveyed in 1635 - Sale of the woods to Sir J. Winter - Disturbances of the Civil War at Coleford, Highmeadow, Ruerdean Adventures of Sir J. Winter at Westbury, Little Dean, Newnham, Lydney Events on the north side of the Forest Incidents of the Protectorate, riots and devastations of the Forest - Sir J. Winter's patent restored Effects of a great storm Survey of the Forest in 1662 - Mr. J. Pepys and Sir J. Winter on the Forest The latter resumes his fellings Inhabitants suggest replanting and enclosing the Forest - Act of 20 Charles II., c. 3 - Sir J. Winter's licence confirmed.

On the 17th of February, 1612, William Earl of Pembroke obtained a grant "of 12,000 cords of wood yearly "for twenty-one years at 4s. per cord, being 24007., and "reserving a rent besides of 331. 68. 8d. per annum,” with "liberty to dig for and take within any part of the "said Forest, or the precincts thereof, such and so much "mine ore, cinders, earth, sand, stone, breaks, moss, sea "coal, and marle, as should be necessary for carrying on the iron-works let to him, or which he should "erect; no person or persons whatsoever other than the "said Earl to be permitted during the said term to take or carry out of the said Forest any wood, timber, mine ore, or cinders, without consent of the said Earl, except "such timber as should be used for his Majesty's shipping." The Earl obtained, on the 13th June of the same year, a grant of "the lordship, manor, town, "and castle of St. Briavel's, and all the Forest of Dean "with the appurtenances, and all lands, mines, and quarries belonging thereto, except all great trees,

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