i68 A. D. 158 1. 



' of Coventry is decayed, and thereby the town likewife. So Briftow 

 ' (Briftol) had a great trade by making of points, and that was the 

 ' chief myftery (manufacture) that was exercifed in the town.' 



This author is moft jufl: in his opinion of keeping up the purity, 

 parity, and quantity or weight, of the filver coin ; alfo in pleading for 

 the eafy admiflion of foreign artificers into our cities and towns, &c. 



Several good laws were made in the reign of Queen EUzabeth for 

 the prefervation of the timber of England, and more efpecially of the 

 woods growing within a certain diftance from London, or the river 

 Thames, both for the ufe of Ihipping and of buildings at land. As 

 iron-mills, or works near London, were the great dellroyers of timber 

 and woods, it was now enadted that no new iron-work fhould be ere6t- 

 ed within twenty-two miles of London, nor within fourteen miles of 

 the river Thames, nor in feveral parts of SufTex, near the fea, therein 

 named ; neither fhould any wood, within the limits defcribed, be con- 

 verted to coal or other fuel for making of iron. [23 Eliz. c. 5.] 



A fubfequent ad [27 Eliz. c. 19.] prohibited the eredlion of any new 

 iron-works in Surry, Kent, and Suflex ; and ordered that no timber of 

 one foot fquare from the ftub fhould be ufed as fuel for any iron-work. 



We find in Camdeti's Annals, that Mr. Thomas Randolph was at this 

 time in the office of chief poftmafter of England ; but how it was ma- 

 naged does not fo clearly appear ; though from King Charles I's efla- 

 blifhment of the pofts, in the year 1635, it fhould feem there were but 

 very few regular poft-carriages till then in England *. 



By an ad of parliament [23 Eliz. c. 9] for abolifhing certain deceit- 

 ful fluff ufed in dying of cloth, &c. ' logwood, or blockwood, of late 

 ' years brought into this realm, is exprefsly prohibited to be ufed by 

 ' dyers, the colours thereof being falfe and deceitful to the queen's fub- 

 ' jeds at home, and difcreditable beyond fea to our merchants and 

 ' dyers.' In the fequel we fhall fee the reputation of logwood fully 

 eftabhfhed. 



The queen having fettled preliminaries at Conflantinople two years 

 before for the trade to Turkey, fhe now incorporated a number of emi- 

 nent merchants for that end, viz. Sir Edward Ofburn, an alderman of 

 London; Thomas Smith, Efq. Richard Staper, and William Garrett, 

 merchants. In their charter of incorporation fhe fets forth, ' that Sir 

 ' Edward Ofljurn and Richard Staper had, at their own great cofts and 

 ' charges, found out and opened a trade to Turkey not heretofore in 

 ' the memory of any man now living, known to be commonly ufed 

 ' and frequented by way of merchandize, by any the merchants, or any 

 * fubjeds of us or our progenitors : Whereby many good offices may 



* Camden fays nothing further of Randolph's office, than merely calling him * eqiiorum difpofuo- 

 jum prscfcftus.' M. 



