The attempt to prohibit the burning of coal was not, however, very successful, for in the reign of Edward III. a license was again granted to the freemen of Newcastle to dig for coals.  Newcastle was thus the first town to become famous as the home of the coal-miner, and the fame which it early acquired, it has held unceasingly ever since.

Other attempts at prohibition of the article were made at various times subsequently, amongst them being one which was made in Elizabeth’s reign.  It was supposed that the health of the country squires, who came to town to attend the session of Parliament, suffered considerably during their sojourn in London, and, to remedy this serious state of affairs, the use of stone-coal during the time Parliament was sitting was once more prohibited.

Coal was, however, by this time beginning to be recognised as a most valuable and useful article of fuel, and had taken a position in the industrial life of the country from which it was difficult to remove it.  Rather than attempt to have arrested the growing use of coal, Parliament would have been better employed had it framed laws compelling the manufacturers and other large burners to consume their own smoke, and instead of aiming at total prohibition, have encouraged an intelligent and more economical use of it.

In spite of all prohibition its use rapidly spread, and it was soon applied to the smelting of iron and to other purposes.  Iron had been largely produced in the south of England from strata of the Wealden formation, during the existence of the great forest which at one time extended for miles throughout Surrey and Sussex.  The discovery of coal, however, and the opening up of many mines in the north, gave an important impetus to the smelting of iron in those counties, and as the forests of the Weald became exhausted, the iron trade gradually declined.  Furnace after furnace became extinguished, until in 1809 that at Ashburnham, which had lingered on for some years, was compelled to bow to the inevitable fate which had overtaken the rest of the iron blast-furnaces.

In referring to this subject, Sir James Picton says:—­“Ironstone of excellent quality is found in various parts of the county, and was very early made use of.  Even before the advent of the Romans, the Forest of Dean in the west, and the Forest of Anderida, in Sussex, in the east, were the two principal sources from which the metal was derived, and all through the mediaeval ages the manufacture was continued.  After the discovery of the art of smelting and casting iron in the sixteenth century, the manufacture in Sussex received a great impulse from the abundance of wood for fuel, and from that time down to the middle of the last century it continued to flourish.  One of the largest furnaces was at Lamberhurst, on the borders of Kent, where the noble balustrade surrounding St Paul’s Cathedral was cast at a cost of about L11,000.  It is stated by the historian Holinshed that the first