in the open lands of the Forest, and to open mines in the other lands within the Hundred (except in churchyards, gardens, and orchards, and in certain enclosures made by the Crown, or in cases where the minerals have been granted to subjects), and to work the said mines and minerals according to certain usages and customs (Preamble to Mines Act of 1838).

The "free miners," as to mines of coal or iron ore and stone quarries, are all male persons born and abiding in the Hundred of St. Briavels who have or shall have attained twenty-one, and have worked for a year and a day in a coal or iron mine within the Hundred (ib. s. 14); and, as to stone quarries alone, who shall have worked for the same period in some quarry within the Forest (ib. s. 15). Such miners must be registered (ib. s. 16), and are to have the exclusive right of obtaining gales, or grants, from the gaveller1 or his deputy.2 A " gale" may be defined as the grant to a free miner of a tract of coal, iron ore, or stone within boundaries set out by the gaveller or his deputy, and the interest of the galee is in the nature of a fee simple, conditional on the payment of the rents and performance of the regulations for the time being in force (24 & 25 Vict. c. 40, s. 1).

payable.

The ancient right of the Crown appears to have been to put a fifth man in every gale and receive the profits of his working. This right was commuted by the Act of 1838, and by Royalties or rents the subsequent awards, galeage, or fixed rents, and also royalties were reserved to the Crown in respect of the then existing gales. Similar rents and royalties are reserved in subsequent gales and are required to be specified in the grants. The amounts are settled by agreement or determined by arbitration (Mines Act of 1838, s. 56). The rents and royalties are to be readjusted at the end of every twenty-one years, if the gaveller or his deputy, or the person or persons entitled to the gale, shall so elect (ib. s. 46). Owners of enclosed lands in the Hundred not within the Forest are entitled to receive a moiety of the net rents or royalty in respect of the minerals taken from their lands (ib. s. 67); though this provision would not appear to apply to owners who gave the notice under section 68 of the Act of 1838 referred to in note 3 on p. 25, such persons being apparently entitled to deal with their minerals independently of the Crown.

Galees may use all necessary pits, &c., and roads with the sanction of the Gaveller or his deputy, subject to some restrictions with respect to enclosed lands, and making compensation for rights and damage done to the surface of enclosed lands within the easements. Hundred (ib. s. 68), and the Commissioner of Woods, &c.,

Surface

The office of Gaveller is now held by the First Commissioner of Woods, &c., for the time being (Mines Act, 1838, s. 13).

2 The deputy must be a person skilled in mining.

may grant leases for thirty-one years of small portions of land for any purposes connected with the working of any mine or quarry (ib. s. 25, and 24 & 25 Vict. c. 40, s. 6), and the Commissioners of Woods, &c., may grant licences for surface or underground easements through any of the Crown lands in the Forest, or under any mine or work comprised in any existing gale, subject to compensation to be made for any damage or injury caused thereby (Mines Act, 1838, s. 65, and 24 & 25 Vict. c. 40, s. 15).

Applicants for new gales must be "free miners," and must make their applications in writing to the Gaveller or his deputy, describing the situation of the proposed gale and the Gales, how name of the vein or veins of coal or iron-ore proposed obtained, &c. to be worked. The gales are to be granted in the order of application, entry in the Gavellers' or Deputy Gavellers' books being evidence of priority; if more than one application is made on the same day for the same gale, the choice is determined by lot. In setting out the metes and bounds to any new gale the Gaveller or his deputy must have regard to probable cost of winning the coal or ore in the spot galed, and the estimated quantity of coal or ore to be obtained by such winning. The size of the gales therefore does not appear to be limited; but it is provided that no free miner is to have more than three gales granted to him at any one time. No person is to be entitled to any other vein or veins of coal or ore than those galed to him, and underlying or other veins may be galed to other parties, but not so as to impede or injure the tracts previously galed (Mines Act of 1838 and awards).

Persons holding gales must open the mines within five years from the date of the grant, but the time may be extended by the Gaveller in certain circumstances; and must work Conditions them in a fair, orderly, and workmanlike manner, and of gales. must not cease from working for a space of five years; they must pay the rents and royalties, keep books showing production and plans of workings, permit inspection, and leave barriers where required by the Gaveller or his deputy, and otherwise conform to the rules laid down in the awards.

The free miners are at liberty to sell, transfer, assign, and dispose of the gales and works to which they are entitled either

gales.

by deed or will to each other, or to any other person or Transfer of persons whomsoever (Mines Act of 1838, s. 22); all transfers must however be registered in the books of the Gaveller or his deputy within three months (which time limit may be dispensed with for reasonable cause). As a fact the gales are not often worked by the galecs, but are sold to private adventurers or companies.1

See Report of the Select Committee on Woods, &c., held in 1889, when the practical working of the system was fully dealt with.

Union and

It follows from the free power of transfer that gales may practically become united and consolidated by purchase (though there appears to be doubt as to whether they can be consolidation formally united by the Commissioners of Woods, &c.); of gales. and power is given to the Gaveller or his deputy, with the consent of the owners, to alter the boundaries of any adjoining gales, and he may also license the working of barriers (Act of 1861', ss. 23, 24).

The Gaveller or his deputy may, by the wish of the owner or Subdivision owners of any gale, divide the same and apportion the of gales. rents (24 & 25 Vict. c. 40, s. 21).

And for that purpose may accept surrenders; and surrenders may be also made of any gale, or part of a gale, by giving notice Surrender in writing to the Gaveller or his deputy without any donment of deed, but the Gaveller is only required to accept such gales. surrender upon such terms and conditions as he shall deem expedient and proper (ib. ss. 19-20, and Act of 18712, s. 33).

and aban

Gales are liable to forfeiture on non-payment of rent or Forfeiture breach of the other rules and regulations in the same of gales. way as a lease may be forfeited for breach of conditions. (Act of 18383, s. 29).

ministration

tion.

In ancient times the practices of the free miners, as regards the opening and working of mines and the carrying of coal or Mining ad- iron ore, were regulated by a Court or Jury of free and regula- miners, who met at the Speech House, in the centre of the Forest, and adjudicated on all such matters;" but this Court appears to have become obsolete, and the workings of the mines appear to be subject to the general supervision of the Gaveller or his deputy, in accordance with the awards of 1841, and subject to such further special rules as the Gaveller or his deputy may, with the approval in writing of the Commissioners of Woods, &c., in each case think necessary.

Derbyshire Custom.

From time immemorial there appear to have existed special customs with respect to the lead mines in the districts of Derbyshire, known as the King's Fields, within the Hundred History of Mining of High Peak and within the Hundred or Wapentake Law. of Wirksworth (belonging, subject to such rights, to the Crown in right of the Duchy of Lancaster) and in certain private manors both in the High Peak and Low Peak districts of the same county. These customs were formerly administered by the local mineral "Bar-mote" Courts, but having in course of

1 24 & 25 Vict. c. 40.

2 34 & 35 Vict. c. 85. 4 M. Sopwith's preface to the awards of 1841.

31 & 2 Vict. c. 43.

time been found to be confused or ill-defined, and unsuitable to modern mining requirements, they were finally established and defined by two Acts of Parliament, viz., the 14 & 15 Vict. c. 94, relating to the King's Field in the High Peak, and the 15 & 16 Vict. c. 163, relating to the King's Field in Wirksworth and to several of the private manors before referred to. The provisions of the two Acts are very similar, and in both the customs established are set out by way of schedule forming part of the Acts. From these Acts the following short sketch of the special customs as established by the Acts has been prepared.

Any subject of the realm may search and dig for mines of lead on all lands within the scope of the Acts other than the sites of buildings, burial grounds, orchards, gardens, Searches. pleasure grounds, and highways, and with certain rights of following veins and making searches even under such excepted sites on making compensation for damage. If no vein of lead is found, and the person making the search discontinues it for fourteen days, he must make good the land, and the landowner has power to remove and sell all other minerals except lead when the lead ore has been extracted from them.

The finder of a new vein is entitled to have two meers in length of the vein (a meer=32 yards in length in the High Peak) set out to him by the Bar-master, with the assistance of two grand jurymen (practical miners), on the surface of the ground within six days after giving notice of the discovery and on delivery of a dishful of ore called the "freeing dish"; the third meer is then allotted to the Crown or other person entitled to the mineral duties, and the finder is entitled to each subsequent meer in the vein which he may claim at the time of setting out the first two meers (not exceeding in the Low Peak 50 meers), to be set out in one direction or the other, as the finder may choose; and if the Crown or other person entitled to the mineral duties neglect or refuse to work the third meer, the finder has a right to purchase it at a price to be determined by the Bar-master, or he may work through it, setting aside the ore gotten from it.

The duties called Lot and Cope are payable to the Crown, in respect of the Duchy lands, or to the persons for the time being entitled to receive them, in respect of the private manors. The former is one-thirteenth part of the ore raised (except in the Manor of Crish, where it is oneninth), to be taken by the Bar-master, who is to measure all ore before it is removed; the latter is 4d. for every

Duties payable by lead miners.

1 The Lot has been for a long time in fact taken at lower rates than those specified in the Acts. See evidence of the Bar-masters to the Mining Royalties Commission, 3rd Rep.

load of ore (a load=9 dishes of a capacity to hold usually 15 pints of water).

Surface

Lead miners are entitled to a way either for foot passengers or carts from the nearest highway to the mine, and also from the mine to the nearest running stream of water, rights and to be set out by the Bar-master in as short a course as easements. may be practicable or reasonable. No compensation is to be claimed by the landowner or occupier for such ways, but they are not to be considered public, and are only to be used for purposes connected with the mines. Every lead miner is also entitled, so long as his mine is worked, without making any payment for the same, to the exclusive use of so much surface land as may be thought necessary by the Bar-master for his mining purposes. He must, however, fence off the land and keep the fences in repair.

Conditions of holding mines.

Transfer of mines.

Mines must be worked continuously under pain of forfeiture if not worked after three weeks' notice from the Bar-master, except in certain cases of difficulty.

Any person may effectually transfer his interest in any mine to any other person by causing an entry to be made in the Bar-master's book. Any person having two or more veins lying contiguous to each other, or connected by any shafts, gaits, or ways, may, with the consent in writing of the Bar-master, consolidate the titles to such veins, and on an entry being made in the Bar-master's book, the titles are to be considered as consolidated, and the working of any of the mines or veins is to be considered the working of the whole.

Union and consolidation of mines.

Mines are liable to forfeiture on neglect to work as before Forfeiture mentioned, or on sale or removal of ore without of mines. payment of duties after notice; and partners may be held liable in the Bar-mote Courts to forfeit their shares to their partners on neglect or refusal to pay their proportion of the expenses of working the same after demand.

Special provisions are made to prevent difficulties arising in the case of veins intersecting each other, in which case the party Special who first reaches the intersection may work therein as provisions. far as he can reach with a pick having a shaft threequarters of a yard long, standing within his own vein. Veins running alongside, but three feet apart, are considered as distinct veins; but if they meet, the older or prior vein takes the whole. In questions of priority of title, the date of setting out by the Bar-master of the mine is to be considered the origin and commencement of the title. If any person, by means of any sough, engine, or other means, unwater or give relief to any mine, the owner of the mine must deliver to the person giving such