BOOK IV. 85 



explained more fully above. In this case, however, he measures the meers 

 with a cord, not only forward and backward from the ends of the head- 

 meer, as he is wont to do in the case where the owner of a vena profunda has 

 a meer granted him, but also from the sides. In this way meers are marked 



regalian right to the minerals. In the two centuries subsequent to their advent there are 

 on record numerous inquisitions, with the recognition and confirmation of " the customs 

 and liberties which had existed from time immemorial," always with the reservation to the 

 Crown of some sort of royalty. Except for the High Peak in Derbyshire, the period and 

 origin of these " customs and liberties " are beyond finding out, as there is practically no 

 record of English History between the Roman withdrawal and the Norman occupation. 

 There may have been " liberties " under the Romans, but there is not a shred of evidence 

 on the subject, and our own belief is that the forms of self-government which sprang up were 

 the result of the Roman evacuation. The miner had little to complain of in the Norman 

 treatment in these matters ; but between the Crown and the landlord as represented by the 

 Barons, Lords of the Manor, etc., there were wide differences of opinion on the regalian rights, 

 for in the extreme interpretation of the Crown it tended greatly to curtail the landlord's 

 position in the matter, and the success of the Crown on this subject was by no means universal. 

 In fact, a considerable portion of English legal history of mines is but the outcropping of 

 this conflict, and one of the concessions wrung from King John at Runnymede in 1215 was 

 his abandonment of a portion of such claims. 



The mining communities of Cornwall and Devon were early in the 13th century 

 definitely chartered into corporations — " The Stannaries " — possessing definite legislative 

 and executive functions, judicial powers, and practical self-government ; but they were 

 required to make payment of the tithe in the shape of " coinage " on the tin. Such recog- 

 nition, while but a ratification of prior custom, was not obtained without struggle, for the 

 Norman Kings early asserted wide rights over the mines. Tangible record of mining in 

 these parts, from a legal point of view, practically begins with a report by William de Wrotham 

 in 1198 upon his arrangements regarding the coinage. A charter of King John in 1201, while 

 granting free right of entry to the miners, thus usurped the rights of the landlords — a claim 

 which he was compelled by the Barons to moderate ; the Crown, as above mentioned did 

 maintain its right to a royalty, but the landlord held the minerals. It is not, however, until 

 the time of Richard Carew's " Survey of Cornwall " (London, 1602) that we obtain much 

 insight into details of miners' title, and the customs there set out were maintained in broad 

 principle down to the 19th century. At Carew's time the miner was allowed to prospect freely 

 upon " Common " or wastrel lands (since mostly usurped by landlords), and upon mineral 

 discovery marked his boundaries, within which he was entitled to the vertical contents. 

 Even upon such lands, however, he must acknowledge the right of the lord of the manor to a 

 participation in the mine. Upon " enclosed " lands he had no right of entry without the 

 consent of the landlord ; in fact, the minerals belonged to the land as they do to-day except 

 where voluntarily relinquished. In either case he was compelled to " renew his bounds " 

 once a year, and to operate more or less continuously to maintain the right once obtained. 

 There thus existed a " labour condition " of variable character, usually imposed more or less 

 vigorously in the bargains with landlords. The regulations in Devonshire differed in the 

 important particular that the miner had right of entry to private lands, although he was not 

 reheved of the necessity to give a participation of some sort to the landlord. The Forests of 

 Dean, Mendip, and other old mining communities possessed a measure of self-government, 

 which do not display any features in their law fundamentally different from those of Cornwall 

 and Devon. The High Peak lead mines of Derbyshire, however, exhibit one of the most pro- 

 foundly interesting of these mining communities. As well as having distinctively Saxon names 

 for some of the mines, the customs there are of undoubted Saxon origin, and as such their 

 ratification by the Normans caused the survival of one of the few Saxon institutions in 

 England — a fact which, we believe, has been hitherto overlooked by historians. Beginning 

 with inquisitions by Edward I. in 1288, there is in the Record Office a wealth of information, 

 the bare titles of which form too extensive a list to set out here. (Of published works, the 

 most important are Edward Manlove's " The Liberties and Customs of the Lead Mines within 

 the Wapentake of Wirksworth," London, 1653, generally referred to as the " Rhymed 

 Chronicle " ; Thomas Houghton, " Rara Avis in Terra," London, 1687 ; William Hardy, 

 " The Miner's Guide," Sheffield, 1748 ; Thomas Tapping, " High Peak Mineral Customs," 

 London, 1851.) The miners in this district were presided over by a " Barmaster," " Bargh- 

 master," or " Barmar," as he was variously spelled, all being a corruption of the German 

 Bergmeister, with precisely the same functions as to the allotment of title, settlement of 

 disputes, etc., as his Saxon progenitor had, and, like him, he was advised by a jury. The 

 miners had entry to all lands except churchyards (this regulation waived upon death), and a 

 few similar exceptions, and was subject to royalty to the Crown and the landlord. The dis- 

 coverer was entitled to a finder's " meer " of extra size, and his title was to the vein within 

 the end lines, i.e., the " apex " law. This title was held subject to rigorous labour con- 



