THE MANAGEMENT OF EPPING FOREST, 55 



the Conservators. In describing what was seen, it may be well to quote from 

 the report by the editor of "The Essex Times," which is in the main a fair 

 account, and which, appearing in a paper at first strongly inclined to condemn 

 the action of the Conservators, cannot be accused of partiality: — " It was found 

 that a considerable number of trees had been cut down here — some of them trees 

 of no mean size — but it was generall}' agreed that the thinning actually done had 

 been by no means so rigorous as the uutcry in some of the London papers hud 

 led people to suppose. And at every stump Mr. Buxton was able to impart to 

 inquirers a full statement of the reasons for choosing to remove that particular 

 tree. ' In some cases it was obvious that the tree which had been removed ha 1 

 begun to affect injuriously a finely-grown tree near it— or, in one instance at 

 least, two trees. Some had been cut down because they were disseminating 

 disease. And in fact for every considerable tree that had been cut down, there 

 was a good reason to give. But none was given for the denuding of the slopes, 

 which at one time bore a large number of beech saplings ; nobody put any 

 questions on this, and it therefore remained unexplained. The saplings on the 

 slopes, the thorns and hornbeams along the course of the rivulet at the bottom, 

 used to lend a peculiar loveliness to this part of the wood. Their removal leaves 

 the ;view unobstructed right across the valley and into the heart of the wood on 

 the further slope.' Doubtless the saplings could not have been left for ever ; bi t 

 a grace has departed from the wood, and we must wait three or four years before 

 we can quite see the effect of the present ' forestal operations.' There were many 

 members of the party who were not disposed to approve what ha i been done, 

 though they were certainly the minority ; and they had their confidence shaken 

 in the next minute or two. By an excellently planned walk the party was taken 

 in the next minute into the thick of a patch of pollard trees, which had been left 

 unthinned. Short, shabby, scrubby, indescribably mean and ugly they were — 

 something like very warty railway sleepers with a shock head of twigs. The 

 contrast was dramatic. From that moment the Conservators' case was won. 

 Other parts of the wood were visited, and everywhere Mr. Buxton gave detailed 

 I explanations, as to which it must be sufficient to say that they proved that no 

 1 tree was cut down without great and careful consideration. But nothing could 

 I add to the effect produced by the rapid transformation scene we have just 

 described." 



Judging from our own knowledge of the past and present of the woods, and 

 from the remarks of those present, many of whom came to the meeting with 

 minds somewhat biassed by what they had read in the papers, we think that the 

 observations made in the report in " The Essex County Chronicle " very well and 

 truthfully sum up the position : " If we were asked to state the sum and sub- 

 stance of our conclusions upon the examination of the Forest, we should say at 

 once that we think there has scarcely been any justification for the fierce attack 

 which has been made upon the Verderers. It may be that here and there a tree 

 has been cut down which should have been allowed to stand, but it was impos- 

 sible not to see that on the whole the work of thinning had become highly 

 necessary, has been carried out upon intelligible and sensible principles, and will 

 tend to the preservation, beauty, and public uses of the Forest. At various 

 • points en route Mr. E. N. Buxton, in his capacity as a verderer, explained what 



I I M r. Buxton informs us ibat ihis is a complete misapprehension, no saplings v\hatever h''J'' 



been removed in Monk Weed, nor any thorns or hornbeams, excepting a small number of pollai " 

 hornbeams at ihe end of the weed towards Bread Strccd Ledge, and ihc-^e were all of a \ety 

 inferior character. — Ed. 



