for me, and a man to work by the piece, but
no maid nor woman in my house; and then
I so thrived that, within two years and a half, I
got back all that I had lost before, so that by
the time I came to twenty-one years of age I
had lost £150 and got it again, and I began to
be looked upon as a thriving man; and so I was,
for all the time I kept a smith's forge I laid by
£100 a year, one with another, and having
gotten enough to keep me well, and being
burdened with free quartering of soldiers, I left
off, and came down into Sussex, after one Spur,
who owed me between £40 and £50, and he
being in a bad capacity to pay me, though he
did afterwards pay me all. Before I went home
again I took St. Leonard's forge, and so kept a
shop to sell iron, and let out the smith's forge.
I had not been in the country one year but Mr.
Walter Burrell, whom I looked upon as my
mortal enemy, sent to speak with me, and when
I came to him he told me he heard a very good
report of me, and desired to be acquainted with
me, and he told me if I would let his son Thomas
come into partnership with me, he would help
me to "sows" nearer, and better, and cheaper
than I had bought before. I told him I wondered
to hear such things from him, for I heard he
was my mortal enemy because I took that forge,
and I told him that if he would let me go
partners with him in the furnace, he should go
partners with me in the forge. He desired time
to consider of it, and he rode presently into
Kent to inquire of me, and found such an
account of me, that he told me I should go
partners with him in all his works."

This partnership lasted about fifteen years, and
the trade in iron falling off, it was dissolved, and
Leonard Gale became the sole proprietor of
Tinsloe forge. "Considering," he says, "that
I had got about £5000 or £6000, having traded
about thirty years, and being about forty-six
years of age, and having neither brother, sister,
nor child in the world, I bethought myself about
taking a wife, and chose this woman, your
mother, the daughter of Mr. Johnson, with
whom I had £500 and one year's board with
her; and now, at the writing of these lines, I
have attained unto the age of sixty-six years,
having been married about twenty years, in
which time, as God hath been pleased to send
me five children, so hath He improved my estate
to at least £16,000, which is £500 a year, one
year with another, which is a very great miracle
to me how I should come to so great an estate,
considering my small dealings, the bad times,
and my great losses by bad debts, suits of law,
and by building; which enforces me to extol
the name of the great God, for He was always
my director in all good ways, and when I was
in distress I called upon Him, and He heard
me, and gave me more than ever my heart
desired; for I had no man in the world that would
stand by me, either for advice or for money when
I wanted, which enforced me to be careful not
to run beyond my own substance, and always
resolved 'to keep a good conscience towards
God and towards man,' and not to do to others
that which I would not have them do to
me." . . . "Thus, my son, I have set down a
short breviate of my life unto this day, and
what the Almighly hath bestowed on me, in the
sixty-sixth year of my age, in all which time I
hated idleness and vain-gloriousness, and I never
boasted of anything but to the glory of God, and
my own comfort. I always held the Scriptures
for the rule of life to walk by; and I always
counted it to be a deadly sin to be in any man's
debt longer than they were willing to trust
me." . . . "My son, Leonard, I pray you to
have a tender respect unto your brothers and
sisters, for few men would have left so great an
estate to you, and so little to them, when I have
gained it all by the blessing of God and my own
industry; therefore grudge not anything that I
may give them; and next have a tender respect
to your mother, who hath been very tender over
you in bringing you up, and who nourished you
with her own breast." ..."Next I advise you
to have a care and be not too familiar with your
vile neighbours, as I have been, and you now
see how they hate me; indeed, they are but a
beggarly and bastard generation, and whom I
have been at great charges with. Next, suffer
no man to inclose my land, nor build houses on
the waste, for there is Denshies, and Bowmans,
and Finches, which are cottages which will be a
perpetual charge to you and yours, and so with
Piggotts. Next, I charge you never to suffer that
lane to be inclosed by Woolborough Scars, who
took delight to damn up highways to his own
ruin; and so it was observed by his neighbours,
for he never thrived after he took in Langly-
lane, and burned the Crawley footway, and to
my knowledge he never thrived since he took in
this lane. Next, I advise you to have a great
care of ill and debauched company, especially
wicked and depraved priests, such as are at this
present time about me, as Lee and Troughton,
of Worth; never give any of them any
entertainment, nor none of their companions, for they
are most vile and wicked men to my knowledge.
Next, my advice is, that whatever estates either
of you ever attain to, yet follow some employment,
which will keep you from abundance of
expenses and charges, and take you off from evil
thoughts and wicked actions; and observe the
mechanic priests, which have nothing to do but
to come to church one hour or two on a Sunday,
and all the week besides they will eat and drink
at such men's houses as you are, but avoid them;
but love and cherish every honest godly priest
wherever you find them; and, above all, hold
fast the ancient Prolcstant religion, for a better
religion cannot be found out than that is, only I
could wish the abuses were taken away, and
wicked men found out, or punished, or turned
out. Next, my advice is, that above all things
you avoid swearing, lying, drunkenness, and
gaming, which are the ruin of all men's estates
that are ruined in this nation, and pride of
apparell, which is a great consumer of men's
estates in this kingdom."

Pride of apparel, denounced by this Puritan
ironfounder was one of the vices which