inaccessible, it had all the appearance at the time of my survey
of having remained in the same state for nearly two centuries. The
quantity of slags I computed at from 8,000 to 10,000 tons. If it is
assumed that this furnace made upon an average annually 200 tons of pig
iron, and that the quantity of slag run from the furnace was equal to one
half the quantity of iron made, we shall have 100 tons of cinders
annually, for a period of from 80 to 100 years. If the abandonment of
this furnace took place about the year 1640, the commencement of its
smeltings must be assigned to a period between the years 1540 and 1560."

The oldest piece of cast iron which Mr. Mushet states he ever saw,
exhibited the arms of England, with the initials E. R., and bore date
1555, but he found no specimen in the Forest earlier than 1620. He also
observes, that, "although he had carefully examined every spot and relic
in Dean Forest likely to denote the site of Dud Dudley's enterprising but
unfortunate experiment of making iron with pit coal," it had been without
success, and the same with the like operations of Cromwell, who was
partner with Major Wildman, Captain Birch, and other of his officers,
Doctors of Physic and Merchants, by whom works and furnaces had been set
up in the Forest, at a vast charge.

In 1650 a Committee of the House of Commons ordered that all the
iron-works in the Forest, formerly let on lease by the Crown, should be
suppressed and demolished, partly perhaps with the view of checking the
consumption of wood, and also to put a stop to the making of cannon and
shot, lest when the occasion invited they should be seized by the adverse
party and turned against them. The Royalists had already found here a
valuable store of such things at the time they were defending Bristol
against Fairfax.

How far the above mandate was obeyed does not appear, but ere the year
1674 a general decay seems to have fallen on the Forest works, as in that
year the expediency of repairing them, and building an additional furnace
and two forges, at the cost of 1,000 pounds, was suggested. The opposite
course was, however, recommended, that is, of demolishing them all, lest
they should ultimately cause the destruction of the wood and timber, a
course which it seems was followed, since in the 4th order of the Mine
Law Court, dated 27th April, 1680, they are stated to have been lately
demolished. The same "Order" fixes the following prices as t