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should be duly looked after and punished, and the great neglect of Swain- <mote-courts reformed, &c. -See Consuet. & Afsis. Forest. Pannagium, orPastura Pecorum & de Glandibus; Fleta; Manwood ? s Forest-laws;Coke pla. lib. viii. fol. 138, 366.
Finally, that the exorbitance and increase of devouring iron-mills werelooked into, as to their distance, and number near the seas, or navigablerivers,—and what if some of them were even removed into another world,
the Holy Land of New-England-for they will else ruin Old-England.
It were better to purchase all our iron out of America , than thus to exhaustour woods at home, although (I doubt not) they might be so ordered as tobe rather a means of preserving them. There was a statute made by QueenElizabeth to prohibit the converting of timber-trees to coal, or other fuel,for the use of iron-mills, if the tree were of one foot square, and growingwithin fourteen miles of the sea, or the greater rivers. It is pity some ofthose places in Kent, Sufsex, and Surrey were excepted in the proviso, forthe reason exprefsed in a stature made 23 Elizabeth, by which even the em-ploying of any under-wood, as well as great trees, was prohibited withintwenty-two miles of London , and many other navigable rivers, creeks,and other lefser distances from some parts of Sufsex-Downs, Cinque-Ports, Havens, &c.
One Simon Sturtivant had a patent from King James I. 1612, pretend-ing to save 300 , 0001 . a year, by melting iron ore, and other metals, withpit-coal, sea-coal, and brush-fuel: it is pity it did not succeed
There are several acres of wood-land, of no mean circuit, near Rochester ,in the County of Kent , extending as far as Bexley, and indeed for manymiles about Shooter’s hill, near the river Thames , which, were his Ma-jesty owner of them, might in a few years be of an invaluable improve-ment and benefit, considering how apt they are to grow forest, and howopportune they lie for the use of the Royal Navy at Chatham.
But yet to prove what it is to manage woods discreetly: I read of oneMr. Christopher Darell, of Nudigate, a Surrey Gentleman, that had a
1 In the neighbourhood of Sheffield, and other places, they now smelt iron ore with char-red pit-coal, which answers equally well with charcoal, and comes much cheaper.