143 THE ANCIENT INDUSTRIES OF CANNOCK CHASE. 
commentary on the value of good roads, canals, and railways for 
equalising prices. 
There was another very curious industry on Cannock Chase, 
which was noticed by that close observer Celia Fiennes in 1695 : 
“In Kankwood,” she says, ‘‘ there is quantetys of fferne, wch tho’ 
“it runs over their ground and so spoils ye grass, yet ye usefullness 
‘‘of it renders it necessary to be preserved ; when it is at its maturity 
‘“‘weh happens just before harvest or haytime, ye whole country are 
“‘employd in cutting it up and burning it in heapes for ye sake of ye 
‘Cashes, wch they make fine and rowle them up in balls, and so sell 
‘‘them or use them all ye year for washing and scouring and send much 
‘up to London, ye ashe balls being easily sent about, without wich 
“they would have no ashes in the country for such uses; for their 
‘« fewell is altogether «oales wch indeed are very good and plenty.” 
Such, then, are some of the Industries which have from small 
beginnings grown into mighty undertakings. It is well sometimes 
to remind ourselves of the antiquity of our employments, and of the 
persistent labour with which our forefathers carried on their primi- 
tive methods. Our present developments are built up on their 
efforts. Mr. Rider Haggard says in the “ Farmer’s Year”: 
“The crown and charm of Rural England isits antiquity! A man 
‘who has lived in new countries turns home again with a quickened 
‘appetite for things hoar with age, and with a gathered reverence 
“towards that which has been hallowed by the custom of generations, 
‘The lives of us individuals are so short that we Jearn to take a kind 
‘of comfort in the contemplation of communities linked together by 
‘Cone unbroken bond of blood and moulded to a fixed type of character 
‘by surroundings and daily occupations which have scarcely varied 
“since the days of Harold!” 
ERC GRC TH, Tha 
