68 THE MANAGEMENT OF EPPING FOREST. 



to whom the care of the Forest has been entrusted by Parliament, concur in this 

 view. It trusts, therefore, that no more cutting or thinning of the trees and 

 shrubs will be permitted in future than is considered necessary for the preser- 

 vation of the Forest in its natural sylvan beauty." 



I do not intend to move this resolution as an amendment to Professor 

 Boulger's, which I propose to support ; but I own I should have much preferred 

 something of the kind I have indicated being passed instead of this in order to 

 meet the views and reconcile the differences of opinion of those who are 

 assembled here this evening. 



Mr. Bernard Gibson said that, as he started the discussion by a letter which 

 appeared in "The Times ' of 23rd of March last, he would like to make a few 

 remarks, but at that late period of the evening he would be brief. He alluded to 

 Mr. E. N. Buxton without any intention of making a personal attack upon him 

 (for he, Mr. Gibson, deplored anything personal), but solely because he looked 

 upon Mr. Buxton as the dominant controlling spirit upon the Committee. All 

 lovers of Epping Forest owed a deep debt of gratitude to Mr. E. N. Buxton, and 

 Mr. Gibson trusted that he might be spared many years to take an active part in 

 preserving the beautiful forest which he loved so well. Mr. Gibson said that 

 there were two practical suggestions he would like to make, that — as in thinning 

 the Forest no consideration of profit in stripping the bark need influence the 

 management — no oak tree should be felled in the spring. Felling oaks when the 

 sap is up is sure to result in more damage to the undergrowth than if they were 

 felled in the dead season, when the woods were leafless and dormant. When an 

 oak wood on a private estate is to be thinned, the underwood was cut in the 

 winter, and the wood thus prepared for the felling of the oaks in the spring, as 

 soon as the sap is sufficiently up for the " barking " to begin. This point had 

 not received proper consideration from Mr. Buxton and the Superintendent of the 

 Forest, and he (Mr. Gibson) would ask the meeting to try and realise the state 

 that the beautiful undergrowth of Hawk Wood would be in theii^ if the 600 oak 

 trees marked and sold had been felled in April. It was, moreover, a certainty 

 that they would have been felled had not his letter started the agitation which 

 had resulted in experts being appointed to report, and those oak trees were in 

 consequence reprieved until winter, when probably 100 will be felled instead of 

 6oo ; that recult was ample justification for the agitation. He much regretted 

 that Hawk Wood was not visited that day, and he would earnestly beg any of 

 those present, who could do so, to visit that wood, and judge for themselves what 

 the result would be of clearing away the 600 oak trees marked with a white ring. 

 Lastly, he would suggest that before marking any timber tree, if there were any 

 doubt as to the wisdom of removing it, and the advantage the neighbouring 

 tree or trees would derive from its removal — that the tree should have the benefit 

 of the doubt. Not all the wealth of the Corporation could replace the noble 

 beeches felled in Monk Wood. 



Mr. Walter Crouch mentioned that he had known the Forest well at all seasons 

 for over thirty years, and could compare its condition then, with the time when it 

 was acquired by the Corporation, and at the present moment. He had recently 

 walked over the woodlands where thinning had been done, and in his opinion the 

 Forest was in a more natural condition than it had ever been under the old 

 system. It had been mentioned in one newspaper that the old chestnut, which 

 formed an arch by the great lake in Wanstead Park, had been cut down. There 

 was a suppression of fact in this statement, the cutting having been in conse- 

 quence of the limb being blown down by a heavy wind last January. The whole ; 



y 



