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caster, Cumberland, Westmorland. Cornwall, Devon, Gloucester, 

 Worcester, and the principalities of Wales, as well within Her 

 Majesty's own grounds as others, on payment of a royalty. In the 

 same year a patent was granted to Mr, Humphrey, and Christopher 

 Shutes, a German, with similar powers within England and the 

 English pale in Ireland, except the places before granted. Under 

 the first patents no doubt the working and smelting at Keswick 

 was carried on. Seventeen years later we find a letter from Mr. 

 George Needham to Sir Francis Walsingham, setting forth in 

 considerable detail the operations which were carried on under the 

 directions of one Jochim Gaunse, Ganse, or Gans, for his name is 

 spelled three different ways. This letter is of a most interesting 

 character, and contains, I believe, distinct indications of the first 

 introduction of the system of copper smelting which has been ever 

 since that date so largely practised in this district, and which is 

 now more or less adopted in almost every copper producing district 

 in the world." 



" I gather from this that the Keswick works were managed by 

 Mr. Daniel Hogstetter and Mr. Steinberger up to 1581, when 

 Jochim Gans went there, and that this practice had been to roast 

 and smelt the oar and regulus. 



"On the 2 1 St July, 1584, Thomas Smith writes to Ulrick Frosse 

 saying that Mr. Weslin is going to Cornwall through Wales, and 

 that he will take measures for transporting the copper ores to the 

 new smelting house at Neath in Wales, 'which house I understand 

 is ready, and we have taken order that against he shall be ready 

 to make copper, we shall have from Keswick one of our copper 

 makers and withall an under melter, and the Dutch carpenter for a 

 time to serve and ready him in these causes.' 



Now this fixes the exact date of the commencement of copper 

 smelting in South Wales, viz., the autumn of 1584; and it shows 

 that the skilled workmen came from Keswick." 



I have quoted Sir H. Hussey Vivian's remarks at length because 

 he is a great authority, and stands at the head of the copper 

 smelting industry of the world. 



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