lOO THE COMING OF AGE OF 



the Club and that our fighting forces will be always found ready 

 to take the field should any similar dangers threaten the Forest 

 in the future. 



More in harmony with the work of a Society such as ours is 

 legitimate criticism, discussion and advising in connection with 

 the management of the Forest in so far as forest management is 

 a question of applied science. Very early in the history of the 

 Club we had occasion to take alarm at certain indications of 

 policy with respect to the management, and a discussion was 

 held at a meeting in February, 1882, when the general question 

 of the management of the Forest and the necessary measures for 

 the protection of its animals and plants were considered by many 

 experts, the Verderers being represented on that occasion by 

 Mr. Andrew Johnston [Proc. III., Appendix No. I., pp. ix. et seq.). 

 A conterence with Mr. E. N. Buxton and his brother Verderers 

 was subsequently held in June, 1882, at Knighton (Thid. III., 

 xxviii.) The full report of the discussion and the papers com- 

 municated at the meeting in February, together with the 

 opinions of experts and the statement prepared in connection 

 with our opposition to the railway scheme of 1883 were all 

 brought together as a contribution to the general subject of the 

 Forest management in an Appendix {No. I.) to the third volume 

 of our Proceedings. That Appendix contains an Editorial 

 introduction giving an excellent historical summary of the state 

 of affairs down to that period and papers by Dr. M. C. Cooke, 

 Prof. Boulger, Mr. Harting, Mr. Burrows and myself. 



A few years later, in i88g, the management of the Forest 

 formed the subject of a series of virulent attacks in certain 

 newspapers. Without committing the Club collectively to any 

 action in connection witli this anonymous and irresponsible 

 agitation, a meeting was held in April of that year in order to 

 inspect the portions which had undergone thinning, and a dis- 

 cussion took place, in the course of which Prof. Pioulger made 

 some valuable criticisms and suggestions concerning certain 

 details of the operations of which the results had been inspected. 

 No formal action of the Clul) was considered necessary on that 

 occasion, and the general policy of gradually removing the old 

 pollards and allowing them to be replaced by young trees 

 was in no way opposed (Essex Naturalist III., 164). In 

 1894 the thinnmg operations again drew forth newspaper 



