an alchemist waited upon the Duke of Brunswick during the Seven
Years' War, and offered to communicate the secret of converting iron
into gold, the Duke replied: -- "By no means: I want all the iron I
can find to resist my enemies: as for gold, I get it from England."
Thus the strength and wealth of nations depend upon coal and iron,
not forgetting Men, far more than upon gold.

Thanks to our Armstrongs and Whitworths, our Browns and our Smiths,
the iron defences of England, manned by our soldiers and our sailors,
furnish the assurance of continued security for our gold and our
wealth, and, what is infinitely more precious, for our industry and
our liberty.


CHAPTER II.

EARLY ENGLISH IRON MANUFACTURE.

"He that well observes it, and hath known the welds of Sussex, Surry,
and Kent', the grand nursery especially of oake and beech, shal find
such an alteration, within lesse than 30 yeeres, as may well strike a
feare, lest few yeeres more, as pestilent as the former, will leave
fewe good trees standing in those welds. Such a heate issueth out of
the many forges and furnaces for the making of iron, and out of the
glasse kilnes, as hath devoured many famous woods within the
welds,"-- JOHN NORDEN, Surveyors' Dialogue (1607).


Few records exist of the manufacture of iron in England in early
times. After the Romans left the island, the British, or more