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oak at Newland far exceeds this in size, being nearly GO feet in girth at the base, 

 and is probably above a thousand years old. Mr. Nicholls, in mentioning the 

 present aspect of Dean Forest, says there are five very large beech trees 

 growing about two iniles from Coleford on the road to Miteheldean, and reports 

 the finest of all the beeches in the forest to be near the entrance to Whitemead 

 Park, and measuring 17 feet in girth at six feet from the ground. 



The plantations now preserved, all belonging to the present century, and 

 intended in time to yield profitable timber, are now under careful supervision, 

 Sir James Campbell having been appointed the chief verderer. 



Nine-tenths of the present trees are oaks, the rest are Spanish chestnuts, 

 Scotch fir, larch, spruce fir, beech, with a few elms, sycamores, and horse chestnuts. 

 Birches grow spontaneously in most parts of the forest, and holly in several 

 places — perhaps the oldest forest denizens. 



Dean or den is a Celtic word signifying a wooded region, and with a 

 prefix it appears as the name of a vast tract of forest country in Belgium, the 

 Ardennes, and there was the Forest of Arden in Warwickshire. All monarchs 

 and chieftains from the time of Nimrod appear to have been great hunters 

 or devoted to field sports, and hence they reserved the most extensive woods 

 for sporting ground, and exacted laws and appointed officers for the preser- 

 vation of the game, and to assist in its capture when they hunted in these 

 appropriate places. The Forest of Dean, situated between the Severn and the 

 Wye, has always been a royal forest since the reign of Edward the Confessor, 

 and probably long before. William the Conqueror of course seized upon the 

 forest, and is recorded to have hunted there, and in the reign of his son, Henry I., 

 the castle of St. Briavel's was built and a court established there, the constables of 

 the Castle being constituted Wardens of the Forest. 



Mining for iron ore was carried on even in the ancient British times, and 

 the customs and franchises claimed by the free miners and still enjoyed by them, 

 are declared in the book of "The Miners' Laws and Privileges," a manuscript of 

 the date of Edward I.'s reign, to have been granted " tyme out of mynde." But 

 to go into the particulars of these privileges would occupy too much time, and be 

 not sufficiently interesting. 



Traces of the ancient iron works in the forest are evident in abandoned 

 caverns and deep excavations, some of which are open to-day, and bear the curious 

 name of Scowles.* On my first visit to the Forest of Dean a friend, residing 

 near Coleford, directed my attention to the remarkable excavations called the 

 Scowles, at Bream, about two miles from Lydney. 'i he place being hidden by 

 bushes is not easily found by a stranger, and on making enquiries of persons I met 

 on the road the term Scowles did not seem familar to them. At last, addressing 

 some colliers, one of them said, "He must mean the devil's chapel," and this 

 proved to be the fact, and so I was guided to the devil's oratory. These Scowles 



*A corruption of the British Ceaxvl, signifying a cavern or excavation. 



