bout the year 1802, {87} in which he says: "Nothing in it can grow
self-sown, for the deer bark all the young trees. Vast droves of hogs
are allowed to go into the woods in the autumn, and if any fortunate
acorn escapes their search, and takes root, then flocks of sheep are
allowed to go into the Forest, and they bite off the tender shoot." He
speaks of "a set of people called Forest free miners, who consider
themselves as having a right to dig for coal in any part they please,"
adding that "trees which die of themselves are considered as of no value
to the Crown. A gentleman told me," (he says,) "that in shooting on foot
(for on horseback it cannot be seen, being hid by the fern, which grows a
great height), the trees of fifty years' growth, fit for buildings,
fencings, &c., are cut just above ground entirely through the bark, and
in two years die," so becoming a perquisite to the authorities. Lord
Nelson calculated that the Forest would sell for 460,000 pounds. He
forcibly concludes: "The reason why timber has of late years been so much
reduced has been uniformly told me--that, from the pressure of the times,
gentlemen who had 1000 to 5000 pounds worth of timber on their estates,
although only half grown (say fifty years of age), were obliged to sell
it to raise temporary sums--say to pay off legacies. The owner cannot,
however sorry he may feel to see the beauty of his place destroyed, and
what would be treble the value to his children annihilated, help himself.
It has struck me forcibly that if Government could form a plan to
purchase of such gentlemen the growing oak, it would be a national
benefit, and a great and pleasing accommodation to such growers of oak as
wish to sell."

Mr. Fordyce's second report, as Surveyor-General of the Land Revenues of
the Crown, appeared on the 14th of December, 1802; but neither this nor
his third, dated the 4th of March, 1806, says anything about the Forest
of Dean. In 1807 the free miners of the district held a meeting, at
which a resolution was passed, earnestly requesting the wardens of the
Forest to hold a Court of Mine Law, as soon as possible, with the view of
regulating the levels, pits, and engines.

Mr. Fordyce's fourth and final report appeared on the 6th of April, 1809,
but it only speaks of the Forest so far as related to the lands called
"Whitemead Park," hitherto in the occupation of Lord Berkeley, but whose
lease would expire in January, 1808, and was sought