135 THE ANCIENT INDUSTRIES OF CANNOCK CHASE. 
chimneys was a marked feature of the 16th century. An old writer 
of that period regarded this as a bad sign for England. 
‘“Now,” he observes, ‘‘we have many chimneys, and yet our 
“‘tenderlings complain of rewmes, catarres, and poses; then had we 
“‘none but reredoses, and our heads did neverake. For as the smoke 
““in those days was supposed to bea sufficient hardening for the timber 
“of the house, so it was reputed a far better medicine to keep the good 
*“man and his family from the quacke or pose, wherewith as then very 
“‘few were acquainted.” 
William Paget, the first Baron of Beaudesert, was raised to the 
Peerage by King Edward VI. in 1552. He was an Ambassador and 
statesman, and was one of the group of men of ability and learning 
whom King Henry VIII. had attached to himself, and of whom he 
formed a new aristocracy, enriching them with the lands which 
became vacant at the dissolution of the monasteries. The reigns of 
Henry VIII., Edward VI,, Philip and Mary, and Elizabeth were 
difficult times and dangerous, as many found to their cost, and the 
man who could steer his way through without losing his head must 
surely have been possessed of rare cleverness and tact. Yet this 
difficult feat Baron Paget succeeded in accomplishing ; but, although 
he kept his head, he lost—on one occasion, at any rate— his estates. 
They were forfeited by the Crown in King Edward VI’s. reign 
and restored by Queen Mary in 1553, and a list of the Paget 
Estates at that time contains the statement that there were in 
Beaudesert Park ‘‘mines of coal and iron,” and it also states 
there were “6,000 acres of wood upon the Chase.” Thirty years 
later, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, 1583, these estates were 
again confiscated, owing to the third Lord Paget having taken 
part in a conspiracy in favour of Mary Queen of Scots. A 
document in the British Museum states that his lordship left a 
“great stocke of myne and coale readie caryed and layde at the 
“‘mylles there.” And it appears that Good Queen Bess was only too 
ready to profit by these minerals so carefully stocked. Her agents 
were fully aware of the profitable nature of the industries in Beau- 
desert Park and reaped much benefit from them. Documents exist 
o 
