the following chapters with the other objects of
inquiry which have been indicated.

CHAPTER IX.
THE ORIGINAL OCCUPIERS OF THE FOREST.

The inhabitants of the Forest--Its Aborigines--Celtic indications in the
names of persons and places--The forty-eight free miners' names appended
to their book of "Dennis," contrasted with the present roll of free
miners--Traces of Saxon and Norman influence--Early civilization
indicated in the methodical character of their mine laws, and in miners
being summoned to several sieges, qualified by their acts of
plunder--Successive notices of the inhabitants during the last 150 years,
with their present improved condition--Kitty Drew, the Forest
poetess--Mining usages described--Order for pit timber--Miners' Court and
Jury--Richard Morse's poem--Intelligence of the present race--Their
superstitions, self-importance, defects of
character--Occupations--Domestic
animals--Beverage--Dress--Dwellings--Diversions--Dialect--Christian
names--Former distribution of population--Present numbers.

The heading of this chapter refers to one of the most interesting
circumstances connected with the Forest of Dean, namely, the origin,
character, customs, and early condition of its people.

The original occupiers of this part of the kingdom, according to Richard
of Cirencester, a writer of the 14th century, were the Silures, an
offshoot of the immense Celtic family by which the middle and western
parts of Europe were overspread. The numerous remains left in the
district by the Romans indicate that there had been considerable
intercourse between them and the inhabitants; but the chief influences of
which any traces are left appear to have descended from the Welsh, with
whom the foresters of the present day still seem closely to assimilate.
Hence their somewhat impulsive temperament, and the occurrence of Celtic
or Silurian names, such as the following, indicative of the character of
the places they designate:--

Dean _i.e._ Woodland.
Lidney ,, Broadwater.
Awre ,, yellowish.
Bicknor ,, above the river.
Lydbrook ,, a river's shore.
Penyard ,, the hill-top, &c.

There are also many families bearing the Welsh names of Williams, Morgan,
Pritchard, Watkins, Roberts, Gwilliam, Hughes, Jenkins, Griffiths,
Lewellyn, &c. The list of the forty-eight free miners constituting the
jury who signed the Book of Mine Laws some 400 years ago, containing so
few of those which are now most common i