which that sovereign constructed about the year 760, to prevent the Welsh from invading his kingdom of Mercia; but they are not sufficiently uniform or continuous to warrant such a conclusion.  They seem rather to be connected with the incident which the Chronicles of Florentius Vigorniensis relate as taking place a.d. 912:—“The Pagan pirates, who nearly nineteen years before had retired from Britain, approaching by the province of Gaul, called Lydivinum, return with two leaders, Ohterus and Hroaldus, to England, and, sailing round West Saxonia and Cornubia, at length reach the mouth of the river Sabrina (Severn), and, without delay, invade the northern lands of the British, and, exploring all the parts adjoining the bank of the river, pillage most of them.  Cymelgeac, a British bishop who occupied the plains of Yrcenefeld (Archenfield), was likewise taken; and they, not a little rejoicing, carry him off to their ships, whom, not long after, King Edward ransomed for forty pounds of silver.  Soon after, the whole force, leaving their ships, return to the aforesaid plains, and make their way for the sake of plunder; but suddenly as many of the inhabitants as possible of the adjoining towns of Hereford and Glevum (Gloucester) assemble, and give them battle.  Hroaldus, the leader of the enemy, and his brother Ohterus, the other leader, with a large part of the army, are slain.  The rest are put to flight, and driven by the Christians into a certain fence (septum), where they are at length besieged, until they give hostages, so that as fast as possible they depart King Edward’s realm.”  Mr. Fryer, of Coleford, ingeniously supposes that Symmond’s Rock was the scene of the above contest, which may possibly be correct.

Edward the Confessor is stated in Domesday Book to have exempted the Forest of Dean from taxation, with the object apparently of preserving it from spoliation. 

The exact terms used are, “has tras c’ cessit rex E. quietas a geldo pro foresta custod,” manifesting an interest in its protection on the part of the Crown, to which no doubt it had now become annexed.  Probably in those early days the King possessed the right to all lands not under cultivation or already apportioned, just as the Sovereign of our own day exercises the right in our colonial territories, and makes specific grants to private individuals.  Thus, Mr. Rudder, in his ‘History of Gloucestershire,’ remarks that “originally all the lands of the subject are derived from the Crown, and our forests may have been made when the ancient kings had the greater part in their own hands.”  Agreeably with which principle, combined with the attractions which the Forest of Dean possessed as a hunting ground, it was sometimes visited for the sports of the chase by William the Conqueror, who in the year 1069 was thus diverting himself when he received information that the Danes had invaded Yorkshire and taken its chief city.  Roused to fury by these tidings, he swore “by the splendour of the Almighty” that “not one Northumbrian should escape his revenge;” an oath which he put into prompt and terrible execution.  It seems not improbable that upon one of these royal visits the miners of the Forest applied for and obtained their “customes and franchises,” which, even in the less remote days of Edward I., were granted, as the record of them declares, “time out of minde.”  The demand which the Conqueror made upon the citizens of Gloucester for thirty-six “Icres” of iron yearly, each of which comprised ten bars, made at their forges, six in number, wherewith to furnish his fleet with nails, was procured doubtless from this Forest, for which impost the above-named grant was possibly designed as a compensation.

The ‘Annals’ of Giraldus, relative to the reign of Henry I., inform us that the Castle of St. Briavel’s, or Brulails was now built by Milo Fitz-Walter, with the design of confirming the royal authority in the neighbourhood, and of checking the inroads of the Welsh;

but, extensive as its ruins still are, they seem to contain no trace of so early a period.  The only vestige of that age is seen in the Parish Church, which stands opposite the north entrance of the castle.  Henry created Fitz-Walter Earl of Hereford, and committed the castle of St. Briavel’s, and the district adjoining, to his care.  The ‘Itinerary’ of the same writer speaks of “the noble Forest of Dean, by which Gloucester was amply supplied with iron and venison.”  Tithes of the latter were given by this King to the Abbey there.

In the fifth year of the succeeding reign of Stephen, by whom the gifts just mentioned were confirmed, the Forest of Dean, that is, its royal quitrents, were granted to Lucy, Milo Fitz-Walter’s third daughter, upon her marrying Herbert Fitz-Herbert, the King’s chamberlain, and progenitor to the present Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery.  So profuse a gift on such an occasion may seem almost incredible; but its tenure, we must remember, was precarious, the Forest itself being continually exposed to danger by its proximity to the Welsh border.  Mahel was this lady’s youngest brother, of whom Camden records that “the judgment of God overtook him for his rapacious ways, inhumane cruelties, and boundless avarice, always usurping other men’s rights.  For, being courteously treated at the Castle of St. Briavel’s by Walter de Clifford, the castle taking fire, he lost his life by the

fall of a stone on his head from the highest tower.”  It should be observed, however, that, according to Sir R. C. Hoare, Camden is mistaken in placing the scene of Mahel’s catastrophe in the Forest of Dean; Brendlais, or Bynllys, as mentioned by Giraldus, being a small village on the road between Hereford and Hay, where a stately tower marks the site of the ancient castle of the Cliffords, in which most likely this tyrant lost his life.

In this year also, a.d. 1140, the Abbey of Flaxley was founded by Roger, the Earl of Hereford’s eldest son, by whom it was partially endowed, and who named it “the Abbey of St. Mary de Dene,” the site being formerly included in the precincts of the Forest.  The institution of the Abbey was confirmed by Henry II., who further enriched it by granting permission to the monks to feed their cattle, hogs, &c., in the Forest, repair their buildings with its timber, and have an iron-forge there.  In course of years the Fitz-Herbert interest in the Forest and Castle of St. Briavel’s, passing through the families of Henry de Bohun and Bernard de Newmarch, was released by the former to King John, who granted them at the close of his reign to John de Monmouth.  The ‘Itinerary’ of this monarch shows that he often visited the neighbourhood, no doubt for the diversions of the chase, viz.:—