DEAN FOREST. 49 



scramble.* They are also allowed to cut wood, but not 

 timber, in any part of the forest. It is said that a 

 Countess of Hereford procured for them their privileges by 

 the performance of a feat similar to that of Lady Godiva. 



" Gamden informs us that the destruction of the Forest 

 of Dean was prescribed in one of the instructions given to 

 the Spanish Armada. Evelyn also relates a fact not very 

 unlike that mentioned by Camden. An ambassador, he 

 says, in the reign of Elizabeth, was purposely sent from 

 Spain to procure the destruction, either by negotiation or 

 treachery, of the oaks growing in it. The same author, in 

 his Sylva, states that a dreadful hurricane occurred in his 

 time which caused great devastation among the trees, 

 'subverting many thousands of goodly oaks, prostrating 

 the trees, laying them in ghastly postures, like whole 

 regiments fallen in battle by the sword of the conquerer, 

 and crushing all that grew beneath them. The public 

 accounts/ he adds, 'reckon no less than three thousand 

 brave oaks, in one part only of the forest blown down.' 



" The population of the Forest of Dean is about eight 

 thousand, and is almost entirely composed of free miners. 

 They are a fine, athletic, independent race of men, fond 

 of boasting that the produce of their own county is 

 sufficient for all their wants, without being obliged to any 

 other part of the kindgom. Their chief employment is 

 mining, in the exercise of which they could formerly earn 

 more money than any common labourers in England 

 besides. They have a proverb amongst them, which is 

 their favourite saying' Happy is the eye betwixt the 

 Severn and the Wye/ " 



The salary of the constable of St Briavells, in the reign 

 of Edward VI., was 9 8s Id per annum, and that of the 

 keeper, ranger, and beadle, 9 2s 6d each. " The govern- 



* At Twickenham and Paddington, and other parishes, it was formerly the custom 

 to throw bread from the church-steeple to be scrambled for. It is supposed that the 

 custom was derived from largesses bestowed on the poor by the Romish clergy on 

 occasion of the festival, and that it has been continued since the Reformation ; and 

 therefore, since the institution of poo prates, without due regard to its original object 



E 



