It was in the month of January following (1688) that a riotous assemblage of the people pulled down
Worcester Lodge and York Lodge, besides much defacing and spoiling the Speech House; an outrage connected probably with the unpopularity of James II., after whom the Speech House and York Lodge were called. With reference to the general feeling of the neighbourhood respecting the principles of the Revolution, Mr. Pyrke, of Dean Hall, states that the release of Lord Lovelace, a supporter of the Prince of Orange, out of Gloucester prison, was effected by “a young gentleman of that county,” an ancestor of his, “who took up arms for the Prince, and drove out all the Popish crew that were settled in that city,” and that the exploit has been handed down in the following rude lines, sung by his haymakers at their harvest supper:—
“A health to Captain Pyrke, who in Little Dean was bred,
And of a thousand men he was the head;
He fought for the truth and the Protestant faith;
We drink his good health, and so do rejoice.He down in the West King William did meet,
And to him he sent both oxen and sheep,
Till he had an order which from him did come,
And with honour to Gloucester he brought him along.When he came to Gloucester he had but forty men,
The city of Gloucester all barred unto him;
The city was guarded with soldiers about,
But he brought Lord Lovelace from his prison quite out.With sword in his hand he before them did go;
He was not ashamed his face for to show:
‘They who have anything to say to Lord Lovelace,’ said he,
‘O then, if they have, let them speak it to me.’Then up to the Mayor away he did get,
And his wooden god to pieces did beat;
And the big golden chair where King James sate
He threw in the fire, which made a brave heat.Then up into Oxfordshire away he did ride,
To bring Lord Lovelace safe home;
He plundered the Papists along as he goes,
He could not endure to see us abused.”
Two years later than the date of the above outrages, wood-fellings to the extent of 6,186 short cords were made, pursuant to their Majesties’ letters of Privy Seal.
They were sold, it is said, for six shillings a cord, which was considered a good price for the county of Gloucester.
A period of about five years from the time that the last was held brings us to the date of the eighth record of the Mine Law Court, viz. the 17th of January, 1692. It was held at Clearwell, before the three deputies of the Constable of St. Briavel’s Castle, i.e. Tracy Catchmay, John Higford, and George Bond, Esqrs.
The Court levied a further contribution of 12d. upon every miner, with an additional 1s. on every mine horse, with which to clear off certain charges incurred in a recent suit in the Court of Exchequer at Westminster. It extended the protective distance of 100 yards, within which every pit was guarded from being encroached upon by any other work, to 300 yards. It also provided that no iron ore intended for Ireland should be shipped on the Severn or Wye for a less sum than 6s. 6d. for every dozen bushels. This order was signed by sixteen out of the forty-eight miners with their own hands, the rest making their marks only.
To this period is assigned Dr. Parsons’s quaint remarks on the Forest. “It abounds,” he says, “with springs for the most part of a brownish or umber colour, occasioned by their passage through the veynes of oker, of which there is a great plenty, or else through the rushy tincture of the mineralls of the ore. The ground of the Forest is more inclined to wood and cole than corn, yet they have enough of it too. The inhabitants are, some of them, a sort of robustic wild people, that must be civilized by good discipline and government. The ore and cinder wherewith they make their iron (which is the great imployment of the poorer sort of inhabitants) ’tis dug in most parts of ye Forest, one in the bowells, and the other towards the surface of the earth. But, whether it be by virtue of the Forrest laws, or other custome, the head Gaviler of the Forrest, or others deputed by him, provided they were born in the Hundred of St. Briavel’s, may go into any man’s grounds whatsoever, within the limitation of the Forrest, and dig or delve for ore and cinders without any molestation. There are two sorts of ore: the best ore is your brush ore, of a blewish colour, very ponderous and full of shining specks
like grains of silver; this affordeth the greatest quantity of iron, but being melted alone produceth a mettal very short and brittle. To remedy this inconvenience, they make use of another material which they call cinder, it being nothing else but the refuse of the ore after the melting hath been extracted, which, being melted with the other in due quantity, gives it that excellent temper of toughness for which this iron is preferred before any other that is brought from foreign parts. But it is to be noted that in former times, when their works were few and their vents small, they made use of no other bellows but such as were moved by the strength of men, by reason whereof their fires were much less intense than in the furnaces they now imploy; so that, having in them only melted downe the principal part of the ore, they rejected the rest as useless, and not worth their charge: this they call their cinder, and is found in an inexhaustible quantity throughout all the parts of the country where any glomerys formerly stood, for so they were then called.”