42 THE FORESTS OF ENGLAND. 



C. Dean Forest. 



" The Royal Forest of Dean," according to a paper in the 

 Journal of Forestry (vol. v. p. 689-699, 761-776), " situ- 

 ated in the south-western angle of the county of Gloucester, 

 adjoining Hereford and Monmouthshire, like most of our 

 ancient Chaces, boasted in olden times of a far more 

 extended range than it at present commands, . though in 

 this respect it has perhaps suffered less than any of its 

 greater relatives ; the river Severn on the east, the Wye 

 on the west, and the Leadon on the north and north-east 

 formed its natural boundaries, while the line of the high- 

 way from Newent to Ross, following the most convenient 

 level in the gap between the Leadon and the Wye, 

 defined its almost equally natural limits on the north and 

 north-west. 



" Speaking broadly, it comprised the upland country 

 within the three rivers ; a triangular area with its apex 

 at Beachley below Chepstow, where the Wye discharges 

 its stream into the Severn, and its base extending from 

 Ross through Newent to Gloucester. It was famous for 

 its iron mines and oaks in the days when the Caesars held 

 sway in Britain ; when the illustrious Second Legion, after 

 building the massive stone walls and gates of Gloucester 

 (Glevum), was pushed forward into the heart of the 

 territory of their ever- restless foes, the fierce Silures, and 

 entrenched at Caerleon-upon-Usk (Isca Silurum), where 

 it was stationed for three hundred years, to stop the 

 devastating raids made by the warlike and unconquerable 

 border tribes of Wales upon the fat and fertile Severn 

 valley and the rich western slopes of the Cotswolds, within 

 the Roman pale. 



" In A.D. 420 the eagles of Rome finally retired : the 

 coins of Claudius, Gallienus, Victorinus, Domitian, Nerva, 

 and Trajan, found in extraordinary numbers at Whitchurch, 

 Bollitree, Lydney, Coppet Wood Hill, at Lydbrook, Perry 

 Grove, and Crab Tree Hill ; the vast mounds of cinders 



