MOKK KPI'IXG KORKST. I43 



Esq for inclosing and stubbing up part of the Sale adjoining to his P^ields also 

 for securing or making up the remainder of the fence round the cover called the 

 Sale so as to prevent the Deer passing the said cover." 



Notwithstanding the efforts of the verderers to enforce the law 

 and prevent these encroachments on the open forest, money or Court 

 influence appears to have prevailed, and at a Court held on July 24th, 

 1797, a licence was entered on the Rolls to permit John Harman, of 

 Higham, in the parish of Walthamstow, to enclose the Sale, but not 

 so as to prevent the deer leaping over the fences, and with no rights 

 of building on the enclosed lands. The record is interesting, because 

 it shows that the lake forming part of the recent purchase is in reality 

 the Ching stream, artificially widened out, and also that the acquired 

 land is, in a sense, a restoration, it having been formerly land under 

 forestal rights. The record also determines the date of the forma- 

 tion of the '' Driftway " : 



The Licence gives power to John Harman, as Lord of the Manor of Higham 

 Hills or Higham Benstead, "to enclose and continue enclosed a piece of Ground 

 at the North Corner of the said Wood called Little Sale Wood containing about 

 si.xty yards and no more one way and fift}' yards and no more the other wa)' lying 

 adjoining to and at the Head of a piece of Water made by the said John Harman 

 by widening an Old Brooke at or on the West side of his Lands called Hill Mead 

 and Flatt Mead for the purpose of planting only . . . (provided that no Cottage or 

 other Erection or Building was erected or built thereon or anj-part thereof). And 

 to make put or place down a Ditch or other sunken Fence in the long slip of 

 Ground situate on the West side of the said piece of Water such Ditch or 

 sunken Fence to run parallel and coextensive with the said piece of Water on the 

 West or outward side thereof leaving a passage on the outside of such fence One 

 Hundred feet in width at the least for the Deer and all persons having right 

 thereto to pass and repass through the said long slip of land. . , (Provided that 

 such last mentioned Fence was not made or constructed so as to hinder his 

 Majesty's Deer from passing and repassing to and from the said piece of Water 

 and to the said lands adjoining thereto called the Hill Mead and Flat Mead on 

 the East side thereof in such manner as they were before the granting the said 

 Licence by Law entitled to do but no farther or otherwise or was in any other 

 manner to the hindrance or prejudice of such Deer)." The Licence contained 

 other clauses sanctioning further enclosures, but always providing that " his 

 Majesty's Vert and \'^enison of the said Forest received no prejudice by the said 

 enclosures." [To the Licence there were attached plans showing the extent of the 

 enclosures ; it would be very interesting to examine these, if now in existence]. 



The Rolls contain no further reference to the Sale, and we can- 

 not therefore tell when the Lord of the Manor assumed full rights 

 over the property, but it must have been some time between 1848 

 and the sittings of the Epping Forest Commission. 



The dedication of the land and water by the Duke of Connaught 

 (as Ranger of the forest), was made the occasion of a festival by the 



