12 THE AREA OF EPPIN(; FOREST FOR FAUNISTIC PURPOSES. 



The perambulation was made in pursuance of the Statute 16 

 Car. I. cap. 16, intituled "An Act for the certainty of Forrests and 

 of the Meetes, Meeres, Limits and Bounds of Forrests," by which it 

 was declared that the meets, meers, limits and bounds of all the 

 Forests should be those used or taken in the 20th year of the reign 

 of James I. The perambulation was fully set out in the Appendix 

 to the " Prc'liminary Report of the Epping Forest Commissioners," 

 1875, and was accompanied with a map showing the lines of the 

 perambulation. This map is reproduced on Plate I. to this volume, 

 and we append a transcript of the main portion of the perambula- 

 tion, excluding the mere formal words, &c. This will not only be 

 useful as precisely defining the limits of the area we propose to 

 adopt as the " Epping Forest District " in faunistic publications, but 

 it is very interesting in itself as giving the ancient names of many 

 places in the district. It should be observed that the perambulation 

 includes Hainault Forest, and we have indicated the *' meets and 

 bounds " of this now desecrated region by enclosing the words 

 descriptive thereof within [ ]. The map on Plate I. does not 

 include Hainault, the southern boundary line running only as far 

 as Ilford, then turning north along the course of the Roding to 

 Abridge. 



The northern and north-western portion of the area has been 

 but little explored by naturalists, and steady work in those districts 

 will possibly bring to light many interesting additions to our forest 

 flora and fauna : — 



PERAMBULATION OF THE FOREST OF WALTHAM, IN THE 

 COUNTY OF ESSEX, IN THE SEVENTEENTH YEAR OF 

 KING CHARLES THE FIRST (1641). 



E3s^x,to ) iNQursiTlON taken at Stratford Langthorne, in the county of Essex, on 

 ' Wednesday, being the 8th day of September, in the 17th year of the 

 Reign of our Lord Charles, by the Grace of God, King of England, Scotland, 

 France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, &c. 



Before &c [Commissioners] and forty and eight good and lawful 



men, &c [Jurors]. 



" Which same jurors, as well by view upon their perambulation as by the 

 oaths of divers witnesses worthy of ere Jit produced and sworn upon the inqui- 

 sition aforesaid, in the presence of the same Commissioners, jurors, and officers 

 of the Forest aforesaid, say, upon their oath, that all and singular the mears, 

 metes, bounds, and limits of the said Forest of Waltham, otherwise the Forest of 

 Essex, in the county aforesaid, which were commonly known to have been the 

 meares, metes, bounds, and limits of the same Forest, in the aforesaid 20th year 

 of the reign of the said Lord James, late King of England, &c., were in the same 



