This ebook was transcribed by Les Bowler. [Picture: Portraits of two Iron-Miners] [Picture: Title Page] THE FOREST OF DEAN; AN HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE ACCOUNT, DERIVED FROM PERSONAL OBSERVATION, AND OTHER SOURCES, PUBLIC, PRIVATE, LEGENDARY, AND LOCAL. BY H. G. NICHOLLS, M.A., PERPETUAL CURATE OF HOLY TRINITY, DEAN FOREST. John Murray, Albemarle Street. 1858. PREFACE. Disappointment expressed by others and felt by myself that a History of the Forest of Dean should never have appeared in print, and an impression that a considerable amount of interesting information relative to it might be brought together, combined I may add with the fact that there seemed no probability of such a work being otherwise undertaken until old usages and traditions had passed away, have induced me to attempt its compilation. I here venture to publish the fruit of my labours, in the hope that the reader may derive some portion of that pleasure which the prosecution of the work has afforded me, and trusting that the same indulgent consideration which led the officers of the Government, the gentlemen of the neighbourhood, and many of the intelligent Foresters to aid in the execution, will by them and the public be extended to the work itself. I have endeavoured to make it as complete as possible by supplying every known circumstance, mostly in the words of the original narrator, and yet trying so to harmonize the whole as to engage the attention of the general reader, but more particularly of the residents in the district, by acquainting them with the past and present state of one of the most interesting and remarkable localities in the kingdom. H. G. N. _July_, 1858. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.