256 FOREST OF DEAN. 
under his lease. Whether it was that he had already 
exhausted all his power of cutting timber, or that he 
had influential friends at Court, in consequence of his 
efforts for the monarchy during the rebellion, it is clear 
that he was treated with great consideration. 
The Act of 1668 has ever since been the charter 
of the Forest, and to the present time determines the 
relative rights of the Crown and the commoners. 
Immediately after it was passed, 8,400 acres of the 
waste were inclosed and planted, and the residue of the 
11,000 were dealt with in the same manner a few years 
later. From that time till a comparatively recent date, 
there were constant complaints of encroachments on the 
Forest, and of illegal cutting of trees, mainly for the 
purpose of supplying timber to the miners. 
Meanwhile the mining industry was continually 
increasing. ‘Till relatively recent times, the iron mines 
were by far the most important, and for these the sup- 
ply of wood from the Forest, for smelting, was most 
necessary. There is mention of coal so far back as the 
year 1300, but it was for long a subordinate industry. 
In 1610, a grant was made by James I. to the Earl of 
Pembroke of “ liberty to dig for and take within any part 
of the Forest, or the precincts thereof, such and so much 
sea-coal as should be necessary for carrying on the 
iron works.” This is the earliest notice of coal being 
used in the iron works. Coal was included in the grant 
by Charles I. to Winter, who, we learn from Pepys, was 
interested in a project for charring it so as to render it 
fit for the iron furnace—but apparently without success. 
