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"bottom of a place called the Salley Vallett, and so along the same way between the two old enclosures "that did belong to Ruardean and Little Dean Walks "unto Cannop's Brooke, and down the said brooke to "Cannop's Bridge; and from thence along the road or highway to the Speech-house, and from thence along "the said highway to Foxe's Bridge, and from thence "down Blackpool Brooke to Blakeney."

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It is worthy of remark, that the same boundary line, with only a trifling difference, defines the two townships of East and West Dean, into which the Forest is now divided for the purposes of the Poor Law Amendment Act. The connexion of this division with the Court of Mine Law consisted simply in this, that the attendance of a free miner on the jury was regulated by the position of his works and habitation in one or other of them.

A 57. penalty was laid upon all miners who should send or carry any coals to Hereford or Monmouth by the Wye, except lime-coal at "the New Wears," at 4s. a dozen bushels. A similar fine was inflicted on any inhabitant of the Forest division of the county who should "presume" to carry coal otherwise than for their own use; so also no miner was to work more than two pits at one time; nor to carry coal for any person not a free miner; neither to sell fire-coal or stone-coal charks under 7s. a dozen bushels, or 5s. if smith's coal, at Redbrook, which, if refused there, a "forbid" shall be declared until the former coal should be accepted. This "Order" further enacted that if coal was found in any bargeman's boat, and he refuse to say from whom he had it, a general "forbid" shall be declared that no miner serve him with any more. A free miner is briefly defined to be "such as have lawfully worked at coal a year and a day." A foreigner selling coal at Hereford for less than 13s. per ton was to be summoned, or abide the consequences of a general "forbid." Should there be at any time more than a sufficiency of coal for the trade on the Wye, the barge-owners were to employ the services of the miners, or be fined according to their wages. horse-load to the Wye was fixed at 2 cwt. and a quarter for 6d., ten such making a ton, to be weighed, if required, under a forfeit of 2s. 6d. Miners beneath the wood were bound to sell not less than a cwt. of coal for 4d.; 3 bushels of smith's coal for 5d.; and 1 bushel of lime coal for 1d. at the pit. No team was to be served with less than 2 cwt. nor more than 21 cwt., to be weighed, if desired, or forfeit 57. This Order constituted Richard Clarke and Edward Tomkins Machen, Esqrs., free miners, and exhibits at the end the penmanship of only 18 of the jury, all the rest merely making their marks.

A

We now arrive at the seventeenth or last "Order" issued by the Mine Law Court. It dates 22nd October, 1754, and sat at the Speech House, before Maynard Colchester and Thomas James, Esqrs.

It records the election to free-minerships of the Right Honble. George Augustus Lord Dursley, Charles Wyndham of Clearwell, Esq., Rev. Roynon Jones of Monmouth, John Probyn of Newland, Esq., his son Edmund, Maynard Colchester the younger, Esq., Roynon Jones the younger, of Nass, Esq., Kedgwin Webley of London, Gentleman, Kedgwin Hoskins the elder, of Clearwell, Gent., William Probyn the younger, of Newland, Gent., Mr. Kedgwin Hoskins the younger, of Clearwell, Mr. Edmund Probyn the younger, son of the said William Probyn, Mr. Thomas James the younger, Mr. Thomas Baron the younger, son of Mr. Thomas Baron of Coleford, Herbert Rudhall Westfaling, of Rudhall in Herefordshire, Esq., John Clarke, of "The Hill," in Herefordshire, Esq., Thomas Foley the elder, of "Stoke Eddy," in the said shire, Esq., Thomas Foley the younger, of the same, Esq., John Symons, of the Mine, in the same county, Esq., Ion Yate, of Arlingham, Esq., William Lane, of " King's Standley," and Barrow Lawrence, of Bruen's Lodge, Gent.

So full a list of persons of position and influence as this Order exhibits, lending their names to the Free Miners' Society, indicates the existence of considerable importance in that body; and yet this was the last Court having forty-eight free miners on the jury whose proceedings have been preserved, the fact being that they failed to agree in their verdicts, and then gentlemen refused to attend, owing, it is said, to the violent quarrels and disputes which arose between foreigners possessed of capital, who now began to be admitted to the works, and the free miners. It is also reported that the decisions of the court were seldom observed, no Act of Parliament having passed to render them valid. The former protective distance between one mine and another was increased from 500 to 1000 yards of any levels, and enforced by a 5l. penalty. The order concludes with directing that

"The water-wheel engine at the Orling Green, near Broadmoor, be taken to be a level to all intents and purposes." This machine was evidently the first of its kind erected in the Forest, as was also the steam-engine which superseded it, each manifesting the improvements going on in the method of working the mines. The

signatures appended to this final "Order" show twenty-five marksmen, and twenty-three names written by their possessors.

The Benefaction-Boards of the Gloucester Infirmary record, in reference to this period, the following particular:-"A gracious benefaction from his Majesty "King George II. of 9,200 feet of rough oak timber "from the Forest of Deane."

CHAPTER V.

A.D. 1758-1800.

Mr. John Pitt suggested 2,000 acres to be planted The Forest surveyed

Great devastations and encroachments - The roads Act of 1786, appointing a Commission of Inquiry — New plantations recommended - Messrs. Drivers employed to report on the ForestCorn riots-Mitcheldean market.

REVERTING to the state of the woods and timber in the Forest, it appears that ere this the old enclosures had been thrown open, the trees planted early in this century having attained to considerable size, and some parts so far cleared as to suggest the formation of new plantations. In 1758 John Pitt, Esq., then Surveyor-General of Woods, &c., proposed to the Treasury that 2,000 acres should be enclosed, which was ordered to be done accordingly; but probably it was executed in part only, since Mr. Pitt was removed from his office five years afterwards, when a survey of the timber was made, and it was computed that there were 27,302 loads of timber fit for the navy, 16,851 loads of about sixty years' growth, and 20,066 loads dotard and decaying. To this period also belongs the first opening of the old Fire-engine colliery, or Örling Green coal-work, galed to "foreigners," but subsequently conveyed by them at different times in shares to various persons, including the gaveller, by whom the first fire-engine was put up about 1777, a date also memorable as being the one on which the Court of Free Miners wholly ceased to act.

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Mr. John Pitt was reinstated in 1763, and represented that he found "great spoil had been committed, and great quantities of wood and timber, amounting in "value to 3,2557., cut by order of Sir Edmund Thomas, "the late Surveyor-General, without warrant." The

year following, Mr. Pitt presented a second memorial to the Government, proposing that 2,000 acres more should be taken in, at an estimated cost of 2,0777. The usual warrant was issued for the purpose, authorizing wood-sales to that amount, although the expense ultimately came to 3,6767. 5s. 6d.

The attention of Parliament was directed at this time to the best means of increasing the supply of timber to the Royal dockyards. A committee formed for investigating the matter produced the clearest evidence of decrease of navy timber throughout the kingdom, to the extent of at least two-thirds within the last forty years, according to the experience of thirty different dealers. The annual amount of such timber supplied from Dean Forest is stated to have averaged at this time about 2,000 loads. Probably the most correct view of the disposition of the woods, plantations, &c., and of the district in general, is afforded by Mr. Taylor's map of the county of Gloucester, published in 1777. It indicates the enclosures formed since the beginning of the century, as well as a considerable extent of woodland; indeed we know, from the return made to a Parliamentary survey taken in 1783, that the Forest contained 90,382 oaktrees, amounting to 95,043 loads, besides 17,982 beechtrees, in which were 16,492 loads; to protect which more effectually, Mr. Pitt instituted the place of "watch"man," attaching to it a dwelling-house on Oaken Hill, and a small quantity of land, with a salary of 10%., and any fines or rewards obtained on the conviction of timber stealers.

Very mischievous devastations and encroachments were nevertheless still continued. For instance, Mr. Slade, the purveyor to the navy, stated to the Treasury, that "he had discovered and was informed of "most shameful depredations of the oak timber, which

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was cut every day by persons living round the Forest; "and that for some years it had been the custom to "steal the body of the tree in the night, and cut it into "cooper's wares, leaving the top part on the spot, which "the keepers took as their perquisite; and that whole trees