mes of forty-eight miners are appended to this "order,"
all written in the same hand opposite their respective marks.

The importance of securing a supply of timber for the navy led to
frequent Commissions of Inquiry, and the issue of Instructions, with
respect to the royal forests. The Marquis of Worcester, Warden of Dean
Forest, made a Return, on the 23rd of April, 1680, minutely describing
the condition of the older trees, as well as of those planted ten years
before, together with the state of the fences surrounding the new
plantations. Parts of several of the enclosures are reported to have
trees which were grown up out of the reach of cattle, and therefore fit
to be thrown open, an equal quantity of waste land being enclosed
instead, which was accordingly done by warrant, dated 21st July, 1680,
not more than eleven years from the time they were taken in: consequently
the young trees must have grown with rapidity, or else were left to take
their chance very early. With the design as it would seem of making room
for the new plantations, it is further stated that "there were remaining
about 30 cabins, in several parts of the Forest, inhabited by about 100
poor people, and that they had taken care to demolish the said cabins,
and the enclosures about them." It should be remarked that these poor
people must not be classed with the "free miners" of the Forest, although
"they had been born in it, and never lived elsewhere," but as "cabiners,"
who had to work seven years in the pits before they could become "free."

[Picture: The Speech House]

The _fourth_ Record of the Mine Law Court informs us that it sat before
Sir Baynham Throckmorton on the 27th April, 1680, at the Speech House,
yet barely completed, unless it were the spacious Court-room, devoted to
the public business of the Forest, for which it has been used ever since.
The "Order" then passed implies, that although the last Court had
appointed six "bargainers" to deal with the difficult question of valuing
the minerals offered for sale, inconvenience was yet experienced on this
head.

It was therefore decreed that a dozen Winchester bushels of iron ore
should be delivered at St. Wonnarth's furnace for 10s.; at
Whitchurch, for 7s.; at Bishopswood, for 9s.; at Linton, for 9s.; at
Longhope, for 9s.; at Flaxley, for 8s.; at Gunsmills (if rebuilt),
for 7s.; at Blackney, for 6s.; at Lydney, for 6s.; at those in the