way soever it was, he procured his pardon for it, and had it, as I am certified from the mouths of those who had seen it.”  Webster further adds:  “While old Basby (a chemist) was with me, I procured some of the ore, which yielded after the rate of twenty-six pounds of silver per ton.  Since then, good store of lead has been gotten; but I never could procure any more of the sort formerly gotten; the miners being so cunning, that if they meet with any vein that contains so much ore as will make it a myne royall, they will not discover it.”

Dr Whitaker, in his History of Craven, says:  “The following papers, lately communicated to me from the evidences of the Pudsays, put the matter out of doubt:—­’Case of a myne royall.  Although the gold or silver contained in the base metalls of a mine in the land of a subject be of less value than the baser metall, yet if gold and silver doe countervaile the charge of refining, or bee of more value than the baser metall spent in refining itt, this is a myne royall, and as wel the base metall as the gold and silver in it, belongs to the crown.

“’Edw.  Herbert, Attorney-General.  Oliver St John, Solicitor-General.  Orl.  Bridgman.  Joh.  Glanvill.  Jeoffry Palmer.  Tho.  Lane.  Jo.  Maynard.  Hdw.  Hyde.  J. Glynn.  Harbottle Grimstone,’ &c.

“So favourable at that time were the opinions of the most constitutional lawyers (for such were the greater part of these illustrious names) to the prerogative.  But the law on this head has been very wisely altered by two statutes of William and Mary.—­Blackstone, iv. 295.

“The other paper is of later date:—­’To the King’s most excellent Majestie.  The humble petition of Ambrose Pudsay, Esq., sheweth, that your petitioner having suffered much by imprisonment, plunder, &c., for his bounden loyalty, and having many years concealed a myne royall, in Craven, in Yorkshire, prayeth a patent for digging and refining the same.’”

[58] Hist, of Whalley, p. 504.

[59] This lady, whose attractions or good fortune must have been uncommon, says the historian of Craven, was daughter to Henry Pudsay of Bolton.  She married, first, Sir Thomas Talbot of Bashall, who died 13 Henry VII.; after which she became the second wife of Henry, Lord Clifford, the shepherd; and, after his decease, by the procurement of Henry VIII., gave her hand to Richard Grey, youngest son of Thomas, Marquis of Dorset.

END OF VOL.  I.

Printed by Ballantyne and Company Edinburgh and London