248 FOREST OF DEAN. 



large proportion will be in their prime about thirty 

 years hence, and the remainder at later dates. 



Unlike the New Forest, that of Dean is a very rich 

 mineral district, where coal and iron mines are worked. 

 A large population is engaged in these mines, residing 

 on inclosures of land, which have in past times been 

 taken from the Forest, dispersed about in very 

 irregular order. There is a very ancient and well- 

 recognised custom that the inhabitants of the Hundred 

 have the right to search for and to work the minerals 

 within the Forest, subject to certain customary 

 ro} T alties to the Crown a right not dissimilar to what 

 exists in many parts of Europe, notably Spain, but 

 not elsewhere known in England. 



The iron mines were worked in very early times, 

 as far back as the Romans, and this was doubtless 

 facilitated by the Forest providing fuel for smelting 

 the ore. There existed till within recent years vast 

 heaps of partially smelted ore, called cinders, which 

 had been left by early workers, who had not sufficient 

 knowledge to extract the ore, and which it was worth 

 while to smelt again. These testified to the extent 

 of the industry in former times, and to the fact 

 that there must have been a large population residing 

 within the precincts of the Forest.* The town of 



* Andrew Yarranton, in his work on the " Improvement of 

 England by Sea and Land," printed in 1G77, says : " In the Forest 

 of Dean and thereabouts the iron is made at this day of cinders, 

 being the rough and offal thrown by in the Romans' time ; they 

 then having only foot blasts to melt the ironstone ; but now, by the 



