What success attended this application, or the enterprise which it was intended to promote, does not appear. Wealth flowed in from other quarters, so that the great philosopher was relieved from the necessity of trying to make money by making iron. Tyntern, however, and also Whitebrook, have ever since been connected with that kind of manufacture.
A third “bargayne,” and corresponding with the two previous ones, was agreed to on the 3rd May, 1615, with Sir Basil Brook, from whom rent in kind was thus retained:—“iron, 320 tons p. annum, wch att xiill xs the tonn, cometh to 4000 per an.: the rent reserved to be payd in iron by 40 tonns p. month, wch cometh to 500ll every month; so in toto yearelye 4000ll.”
A proviso was added that—“The workes already buylt, onlye grantted wth no power to remove them, but bound to mayntayne and leave them in good case
and repayre, wth all stock of hammers, anvils, and other necessarys received att the pattentees’ intyre,” as also that “libertye for myne and synders for supplying of the workes onlye, to be taken by delivery of the miners att the price agreed uppon.”
Great confidence was reposed in Sir Basil Brook, since he, with Robert Chaldecott, obtained a contemporary grant of the office of clerk or overseer of the iron works in the Forest for fifteen years. [31a] But so much did they abuse it, that ere three years had elapsed, a commission was issued, 17 July, 1618, to Sir Thos. Brudnell, Sir John Tracy, Sir William Cooke, and others, [31b] “to survey and examine the wastes made in the Forest of Dean by Sir Basil Brooke and others, farmers of iron works there.” In their report, one item states that “His Majestie, since the erecting the iron works, had received a greater revenue than formerly.” They were to proceed on interrogatories prepared by Sir Wm. Throgmorton, Bart., who was himself engaged in the like manufacture, [31c] being associated therein with Sir Sackville Crowe, Bart., John Taylor, and John Guernsey, of Bristol, merchant farmers of his Majesty’s iron works. Sir Edward and Sir John Winter, of Lydney, and Henry, Lord Herbert of Ragland, had iron works as well.
In April, 1621, [31d] Messrs. Richd. Challoner and Phil. Harris, tenants to Lord Robartes, appear to have succeeded to the works formerly held by Sir Basil Brook. Within four years, however, one Christ. Bainbridge obtained judgment against them
for cutting down 1200 trees for their own purposes, but they were ultimately pardoned, as likewise their predecessors, who had become liable for £33,675 16s. 8d.
The name of Sir Edwd. Villiers now appears [32] as renting iron works in the Forest; then that of Sir Richd. Catchmay, having Wm. Rowles and Robt. Treswell for his overseers.
Amidst these successive changes, the only person who seems to have continued in uninterrupted possession of his works for making iron, was William Earl of Pembroke, Lord Steward. In 1627 he had the lease of them renewed to him for twenty-one years. By him, probably, the 610 guns were cast, as ordered by the Crown for the States General of Holland, A.D. 1629. The spot where they were made was, it would seem, ever after called “Guns Mills,” and by which name it is still known. Guns Pill, on the Severn, was the place, doubtless, where they were afterwards shipped.
An inventory, unique, probably, in its singularly explicit description of the buildings and machinery used by the above-named manufacturers, and bearing the date of 1635, happily came under Mr. Wyrrall’s observation, and was by him carefully transcribed. We learn from it that the stone body of the furnace now used in the neighbourhood was usually about 22 feet square, the blast being kept up by a water-wheel not less than 22 feet in diameter, acting upon two pairs of bellows, measuring 18 feet by 4, and kept in blast for several months together. Such structures existed at Cannop, Park End, Sowdley, and