In all England's territory there is no district more interesting than the Forest of Dean. Historically it figures in our earliest annals, as borderland and bulwark of the ancient Silures, who, with Caractacus at their head, held the country around, defending it on many a hard-fought field against the legionaries of Ostorius Scapula. Centuries after, it again became the scene of sanguinary strife between the descendants of these same Silures--then better known as Britons--and the Saxon invaders; and still farther down the stream of time another invasion wasted it--Norman and Saxon arrayed on the same side against Welsh-- still the same warlike stock, the sons of Siluria. This conflict against odds--commencing with the Norman William, and continued, or renewed, down through the days made illustrious by the gallant Llewellyn--only came to an end with those of the equally gallant Glendower, when the fires of Welsh independence, now and then blazing up intermittently, were finally and for ever trodden out. Many a grand historic name is associated with this same Forest of Dean-- famed warriors and famous or infamous kings. The Conqueror himself was hunting in it when the news reached him of the rising in Northumberland, and he swore "By the splendour of God, he would lay that land waste by fire and sword!"--a cruel oath, as cruelly kept. In its dark recesses the wretched Edward the Second endeavoured to conceal himself, but in vain--dragged thence to imprisonment in the dungeons of Berkeley Castle, there to die. And within its boundaries was born that monarch of most romantic fame, Harry of Monmouth, hero of Agincourt. And the day was approaching--had, in fact, come--when other names that brighten the page of England's history were to fling their halo of illumination over the Forest of Dean--those of the chivalrous Waller, the brave but modest Massey, Essex, Fairfax, and greatest, most glorious of all, that of Cromwell himself. It was to be darkened too, as by the shadow of death--ay, death itself--through many a raid of marauding Cavaliers, with the ruffian Rupert at their head.