wall, before Sir George Probert, deputy
constable of St. Briavel's Castle, chiefly with the design of raising a
fund for defending in a legal way the rights of the free miners, and
affording them support when injured at their work.

To these ends a payment of 6d. per quarter was levied upon each
miner, digging for or carrying mineral, if fifteen years of age, as
also upon every horse so used, payable within fourteen days, under a
fine of 2s. Six collectors were to receive the above payments, to be
remunerated at the rate of 1s. per quarter for each pound they
gathered. Twice a year they handed in their accounts, under a
penalty of 5 pounds, and perpetual exclusion from any office of
trust, if such were found defective. It appears therefore that the
free miners valued their rights, and not only took thought for the
morrow, but provided for it. They added a proviso that the servants
of the Deputy Constable should have the benefit of always being
supplied first at the pits, showing that they knew something also of
public diplomacy. This "Order" has the names of forty-eight miners
attached, all severally sealed, but written in one hand.

In this year also (1674) it was suggested that if the King would put the
old iron-works of the Forest in repair, and also build one furnace and
two forges, all which might be done for 1,000 pounds, a clear profit of
2,190 pounds could be made upon every 8,000 long and short cords of wood,
of which the Forest was in a condition to supply a vast quantity. This
proposal was nevertheless not acted upon, it being judged desirable
rather to pull down the old iron-works than erect new, lest the waste in
supplying the necessary quantities of wood should ultimately prove
destructive to the Forest, now in a flourishing condition. Accordingly
the iron-works then standing were ordered to be pulled down, and the
materials sold. The greatest attention is admitted by the commissioners
of 1788, who examined the office papers relating to this period, to have
been given by the then Ministers of State, by Sir Charles Harbord,
surveyor-general of the Crown lands, and by his son and successor Mr.
William Harbord, to the protection of the young wood and the enclosures;
and they affirm that "it is chiefly in those parts of the Forest which
were then enclosed that the timber with which the dockyards have been
since furnished from this Forest has been