LIFE OF 



iron-master from Shropshire, of the name of Knight, was, with 

 many others, expected to be present at the sale. He remained 

 incognito, and in the back ground, till the sale was nearly 

 over, yet he managed to become the successful competitor ; but 

 from his shabby appearance the auctioneer hesitated to accept 

 him, from a doubt of his responsibility to pay the amount. 

 The sum which he cleared by this transaction is said to have 

 been extremely large. 



At another time, he lost his way in the dark on a common near 

 Stourbridge, when he was conveying a very large sum of money 

 in his saddle-bags, and he was at length himself admitted into 

 the cottage of a collier, and his horse and bags, which he said 

 were filled with nails, were placed in an adjoining shed. A 

 we'dding feast, which is always an occasion of much more 

 gaiety among colliers than it is with agricultural labourers, was 

 bein^ celebrated in the cottage, when Mr. Knight joined the 

 party, and danced in his boots, till the return of daylight 

 enabled him to proceed on his journey. At parting he pre- 

 pared to present a gratuity to his host for his entertainment, 

 but it was declined on the ground that nothing was expected 

 from so poor a man. He then made himself known, and pre- 

 sented the collier with five guineas. 



Mr. Richard Knight removed to Bringewood Forge about the 

 year 1698, of which he had taken a lease for twenty-one years 

 from the second Lord Craven, and on the improvement of which 

 he immediately expended between 20,000 and 30,000. Lord 

 Craven's predecessor had, about thirty years before, purchased 

 an extensive tract of land, including the forest of Mocktree and 

 the chase of Bringewood, from the Earl of Lindsey, to whose 

 father, the first earl, it had been granted by Charles L* in 

 reward for the services Lord Lindsey had rendered to the Royal 

 cause during the struggle between the king and the parliament. 



* In a paper, No. 354 of the Harl. MSS. in the British Museum, is a survey 

 of the forests and chases of Mocktree and Bringewood, made in the reign of 

 James I. from which the following is an extract : " These forests are stately 

 grounds, and do breed a great and large deer, and will keep of red and fallow 



