"One excellent Furnace called the Park Furnace, and one Forge called Whitecros Forge. The later is in good repre, but the Furnace wants a Roofe to ye Cole hous, and some other Reprs, wch we compute may cost us circa 40li, and care must be taken whensoever his Maty shall take them into his own handes, that all the Implemts the late psons intrusted wth the managemt thereof had deliv'd to them by inventory or otherwise, be forthcoming, or else it will be a great prjudice to his Maty." It was also pointed out that, besides "the greate yearely pfitt" likely to accrue to the King, should he take the Iron Works into his own hands, they were "capable to serve his Navey both wth beter Iron and at much Easier Rates then now he payes for all sorts, and wee conceive that Iron Ordinance might be cast here for ye Service of ye Navey also at ye same rates." Some of the Forest iron, in the form of iron hoops, had already found its way to the navy store at Woolwich. {46} Even the last winter's great storm (18th of February, 1662) is made to support their counsels, for the Commissioners affirmed that--"500li, together with the young beechen timber lately blowne downe in the Lea Bayley, will sett the workes a goeing." Lastly, the same officials suggested that a check should be put to the practice of sending iron ore and cinder out of the Forest, lest the supply to the king's works, as proposed, should run short. They suggest a tax "6d. at first, for fifteen bushells," adding "that they were informed that there is carryed out yearly at least 4000 dozen; and there is now lying at Newnham a small vessell to transport some for Ireland. There must needs be a Prohibition to carry out of the Forrest any cinders, least his Maty's owne works should need them in tyme." {47a} Reasons so carefully analyzed for inducing the Crown to take in hand iron making at Park End, deserved a better fate. But the king had irons enough in the fire, without becoming a manufacturer of iron in the Forest of Dean. Its timber was rather wanted for the navy, which the Duke of York longed to render more effective. Besides, places more convenient of access, in Surrey and Sussex, were supplying the iron trade. Hence, when in 1683 the above-named proposal was renewed by Sir John Erule, the Forest supervisor, it was rejected, although he promised a profit of 5390 pounds per annum. {47b} The authorities went further than this, in refusing, as they thought, to sacrifice the timber for the iron. They even directed, about this time, the demolition of the Forest furnaces, thus reducing its iron works to such a degree as almost to annihilate them for the next hundred years. What their recent state of prosperity had been, Andrew Yarranton, in his book of novel suggestions for the "Improvement of England by Sea and Land," printed in 1677, describes as follows:--