Sir Gilbert Pickering"-- Pickering being then, it would seem, President of Cromwell's Interim Council of Thirteen (see Vol.
IV.

pp, 498-499); and it is headed "_A Brief Narration of my Transactions concerning some Woods in Scotland_." From this statement of Sandelands it appears that he had first broached his scheme of obtaining masts and tar for the English navy from the woods of Scotland to Cromwell himself in August 1652, and that it was in consequence of Cromwell's recommendation of the scheme to the Council of State then in power that the business had been referred to the Commander-in-chief in Scotland and Sandelands had gone to Scotland ("at my own charge," he says) and had the conferences with Major-General Dean and Colonel Lilburne described at pp.

490-491 of Vol.IV.The result had been that detailed written explanation of his scheme to Lilburne the substance of which has been quoted in the same pages--"the copy whereof," adds Sandelands, "now remains in Mr.
Thurloe's hands." He means, of course, the copy he had enclosed to Milton in his letter of Jan.

15, 1652-3, and which Milton had duly delivered to the Council of State.

More had come of the matter than we knew at that date; for Sandelands proceeds thus in his statement:--"The Council of State, having received this information (recommended by the Commander-in-chief), gave order that Colonel Lilburne should prosecute the design effectually.