rian which was found in
the old Roman portion of the Lydney-Park Iron Mine in 1854,
with a number of other silver coins, some of them earlier
in date; but when we speak of the "mines," the very ancient
ones in the Forest were rather deep quarries than what would
now be termed mines. As we drive along we now and then notice
near the roadside, nearly hidden by the dense foliage of the
bushes, long dark hollows, which are locally known as _"scowles,"_
another Celtic word meaning gorges or hollows; something like
ghyll in the Lake District, "Dungeon Ghyll," and so on. These
were Roman and British Hematite mines. If we had been schoolboys
I would have taken Senator Hoar down into a scowl and we should
both have come back with our clothes spoiled, and our arms
full of the splendid hartstongue ferns that cover the sides
and edges of the ravine. But they are dangerous places for
any but miners _or_ schoolboys; and I shrank from encouraging
an enthusiastic American to risk being killed in a Roman pit,
even with the ideal advantage of afterwards being buried with
his own ancestors in England! So I said but little about
them.

The Miners' Court is presided over by another government
officer, called the "Gaveller"; from a Celtic word which means
_holding;_ as in the Kentish custom of "Gavelkind."* These
courts are held in "Saint Briavels" (pronounced "Brevels")
Castle: a quaint old building of the thirteenth century,
on the western edge of the Forest, where it was placed to
keep the Welsh in check. It looks down on a beautiful reach
of the river Wye at Bigswear; and it was just on this edge
that Wordsworth stood in 1798, when he thought out his "Lines
composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey," etc.

Five years have passed; five summers, with the length
Of five long winters; and again I hear
These waters rolling from their mountain springs
With a soft inland murmur. Once again
Do I behold these steep and lofty cliffs.

Senator Hoar will recall the scene from the railway below:
the

"Plots of cottage ground" that "lose themselves
'Mid groves and copses";

and he will say how exactly the words describe

These hedge-rows; hardly hedge-rows; little lines
Of sportive wood run wild,

for they cover yards in width in some places, as he will
remember my pointing out to him. The castle is placed on
the outside of the Forest and close on the Wye, to guard what
was seven centuries ago the frontier of W