et Tuft and Aures Glow, almost up
to Little Stapleage. These are the works which do the greatest mischief
to the Forest. There are some others on the Coleford side, from which a
great deal of coal is raised. Very little timber is growing in any of
these Delves; and enclosures might be made in the Forest, so as to
exclude all the principal coal-works. The coal-works in the Forest
supply with fuel the lower parts of Gloucestershire beyond Severn, and
some parts across the Severn about Berkeley, the greatest part of
Herefordshire, the town of Monmouth, and part of the county of Monmouth."

The existing remains of the coal-works of this period, combined with the
traditions of the oldest surviving colliers, enable us to form an
accurate idea of the way in which the workings were carried on.
"Levels," or slightly ascending passages, driven into the hill sides till
they struck the coal seam, appear to have been general. This was no
doubt owing to the facility with which they effected the getting of the
coal where it tended upwards into the higher lands forming the edge of
the Forest Coal Basin, since they required no winding apparatus, and
provided a discharge for the water which drained from the coal-beds. The
usages observed at the works entitled the proprietors of their respective
levels to so much of the corresponding seam of coal as they could drain,
extending right and left to the limits awarded by the gaveller. So far
this mode of procedure was satisfactory enough, and would no doubt have
long continued to go on amicably, had not the principle, highly judicious
in itself, that no workings were ever to intersect one another, but
always to stop when the mattocks met, been abused by driving "narrow
headings" up into different workings, whereby the rightful owner of the
coal was stopped, and the other party enabled to come in and take it from
him. Timber of considerable strength was required throughout the
underground excavations to support the roof, hence proving a serious
source of spoliation to the woods. Large slabs of it were also needed
for the flooring, in order that the small coal-trams might be the more
readily pushed forward over it, a space being left beneath for air to
circulate, and for the water to run out.

If the vein of coal proposed to be worked did not admit of being reached
by a level, then a pit was sunk to it, although rarely to a greater depth
than 25 yards, the water being raised in buckets,