rted to for such purposes earlier than
1620, when some German miners, brought over by Prince Rupert, used it at
Ecton, in Staffordshire.

It is the unanimous opinion of the neighbourhood that these caves 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 the
authentic history of the district confirms.

They have the appearance either of spacious caves, as above Lydney and on
the Doward Hill, or of deep stone quarries, as 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 down, in some instances, for many hundreds of
yards.

[Picture: Ancient Mine Work near Bream]

Openings were made to the surface according as the course of the mine-ore
permitted, being softer to work than the limestone rock that contained
it, thus securing efficient ventilation. Hence, 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 place, they were excavated as far down, no doubt, as the
water permitted; that is, to a vertical depth of about 100 yards, or, in
dry seasons, even lower, as may be seen by the watermarks left in some of
them. Of these deeper workings, one of the most extensive occurs on the
Lining Wood Hill, above Mitcheldean, and is well worth exploring. They
are met with, however, on most sides of the Forest--in fact, wherever the
ore crops out, giving the name of "meand," or mine, to such places.

Generally speaking, those spots where the ore lay exposed to view, would
be apt to secure the notice of the earlier miners, and become the site of
their more ancient workings. Not until they were pretty nearly exhausted
would the severer labour involved in the lower diggings be resorted to.
The shallower but more capacious mine holes appear with greater frequency
on the south and west sides of the Forest, where, too, they were nearer
to the water carriage of the Severn and the Wye. In most instances they
are locally termed "scowles," a corruption, perhaps, of the British word
"crowll," meaning cave. Occasionally they are found adorned with
beautiful incrustations of the purest white, formed by springs of
carbonate