Bishopswood.

Mr. Bird has been so good as to supply the accompanying list of
Forest Ferns:--

Scolopendrium ceterach, and S. vulgare.
Polypodium vulgare. Blechnum boreale.
,, phegopteris. Pteris aquilina.
,, dryopteris.
Aspidium lobatum, and Filix mas and spinulosum, dilatatum, Ruta
muraria, Trichomanes, Adiantum nigrum, Filix foemina.

To which may be added the Polypodium calcareum, noticed by Mr. Anderson,
of the Bailey Lodge, who further states that the Daphne Mezereon shrub,
as well as the wood laurel, are indigenous in the Forest, especially in
the coppices on the limestone.

CHAPTER XIV.

_The Iron Mines and Iron Works in the Forest_--Mr. Wyrrall's description
of the ancient excavations for iron--Their remote antiquity proved, and
character described--Historical allusions to them--The quality,
abundance, and situation of the old iron cinders--The early forges
described--Portrait of an original free miner of iron ore--His
tools--Introduction of the blast furnace into the Forest--Various Crown
leases respecting them--A minute inventory of them--Mr. Wyrrall's
glossary of terms found therein--Mr. Mushet's remarks on the remains of
the above works--First attempts to use prepared coal in the
furnaces--Iron-works suppressed--Value of iron ore at that time--Dr.
Parsons's account of the manner of making iron--State of the adjoining
iron-works during the seventeenth century--Revival of them at its
close--Their rise and prosperity since--At Cinderford, Park End, Sowdley,
Lydbrook, and Lydney--Character of the iron-mines at the present time.

"There are," writes Mr. Wyrrall, in his valuable MS. on the ancient
iron-works of the Forest, dated in the year 1780, "deep in the earth vast
caverns scooped out by men's hands, and large as the aisles of churches;
and on its surface are extensive labyrinths, worked among the rocks, and
now long since overgrown with woods; which whosoever traces them must see
with astonishment, and incline to think them to have been the work of
armies rather than of private labourers. They certainly were the toil of
many centuries, and this perhaps before they thought of searching in the
bowels of the earth for their ore--whither, however, they at length
naturally pursued the veins, as they found them to be exhausted near the
surface." Such were the remains, as they existed in his day, of the
original iron-mines of this locality; and except