rietors about six times as much, and
is not yet effective; nor can any man rationally predict when it will
be. I know since you left it your son undertook it, and this winter
shamefully left his undertaking." Yarranton's friends immediately
replied in a four-page folio, entitled 'England's Improvements
Justified; and the Author thereof, Captain Y., vindicated from the
Scandals in a paper called a Coffee-house Dialogue; with some
Animadversions upon the Popish Designs therein contained.' The writer
says he writes without the privity or sanction of Yarranton, but
declares the dialogue to be a forgery, and that the alleged conference
never took place. "His innocence, when he heard of it, only provoked a
smile, with this answer, Spreta vilescunt, falsehoods mu st perish, and
are soonest destroyed by contempt; so that he needs no further
vindication. The writer then proceeds at some length to vindicate the
Captain's famous work and the propositions contained in it.

[20] This work (especially with the plates) is excessively rare. There
is a copy of it in perfect condition in the Grenville Library, British
Museum.

[21] Dr. Nash, in his History of Worcestershire, has thrown some doubts
upon this story; but Mr. Green, in his Historical Antiquities of the
city, has made a most able defence of Yarranton's statement (vol.i. 9,
in foot-note).

CHAPTER V.

COALBROOKDALE IRON WORKS--THE DARBYS AND REYNOLDSES.

"The triumph of the industrial arts will advance the cause of
civilization more rapidly than its warmest advocates could have hoped,
and contribute to the permanent prosperity and strength of the country
far move than the most splendid victories of successful war."--C.
BABBAGE, The Exposition of 1851.

Dud Dudley's invention of smelting iron with coke made of pit-coal was,
like many others, born before its time. It was neither appreciated by
the iron-masters nor by the workmen. All schemes for smelting ore with
any other fuel than charcoal made from wood were regarded with
incredulity. As for Dudley's Metallum Martis, as it contained no
specification, it revealed no secret; and when its author died, his
secret, whatever it might be, died with him. Other improvements were
doubtless necessary before the invention could be turned to useful
account. Thus, until a more powerful blowing-furnace had been
contrived, the production of pit-coal iron must necessarily have been
limited. Dudley himself does not