on, was now enlarged
to 500 yards in all levels in all parts of the mines called "beneath
the wood," under the same penalty; and further, the giving away of
coals was forbidden under a fine of 5 pounds. Twenty-two original
signatures appear at the foot of this Order; the other names are
merely marked.

The extension of the Forest coal-works, in depth and underground
operations, as indicated by the enlargement of the protective distance,
effected a corresponding change in the kind of timber required for
propping the mine. That is, as the pressure from above increased, owing
to the workings being carried deeper, stronger stays and supports were
necessary than cordwood or saplings supplied. Nothing less than the
stems and main limbs of timber trees would suffice. How the colliers
obtained these requisites, the particulars given in the following
complaint, made in 1735 by the Surveyor-General, show:--"A practice has
prevailed among the colliers of boring large holes in trees that they may
become dotard and decayed, and, as such, may be delivered to them gratis
for the use of their collieries." The only notice, it cannot be called a
remedy, which this evil obtained, was that, for the future, directions
were given that "such bored trees as appeared to be dead and spoiled
shall be felled, taking care that none be cut down that may be of use to
the navy."

It is, however, further stated, that the colliers frequently obtained
from the keepers the best trees in the Forest, although their claims
merely extended to pit-timber. The existence of so serious an evil
proves that many things were going wrong, and we are prepared for the
representations made the next year (1736) to the Treasury by Christopher
Bond, Esq., Conservator and Supervisor of the Forest. He reported that
"after the Act of the 20th Charles II., 11,000 acres had been enclosed;
that the officers were duly elected, Forest courts held, and offenders
prosecuted and punished, to the successful rearing of a fine crop of
wood; but that within the last 30 years these elections had been
neglected, the Courts discontinued, and offenders left unpunished; the
Officers of Inheritance had grown remiss and negligent, so that some
enclosures, and those of only a few acres of the 11,000, were kept up,
and these not carefully repaired; a great number of cottages were erected
upon the borders of the Forest, the inhabitants whereof lived by rapine
and theft