THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB. Ill 



purchased the plot of land in question and had presented it to be 

 kept as part of the Forest for ever. This generous addition was 

 acknowledged by a resolution passed by the Club at the meeting 

 held at Writtle Park in that same month (Essex Naturalist III., 

 57). Again, in 1890, Mr. Andrew Johnston announced at a meeting 

 held in Epping Forest on May 17th, that Sir Fowell and Mr. 

 E. N. Buxton and a relative had made an offer of contributing 

 towards a fund of ^6,000 which was required for the acquisition 

 of a portion (over 30 acres) of Highams Park at Woodford {Ibid. 

 IV., 127). Of the total amount required the sum of ^3,000 was 

 provided by the Corporation of London, and of the ^3,000 

 which it was required to raise locally the Buxtons offered ^1,800, 

 the remainder having been subsequently raised as set forth in the 

 history of this addition to the Forest printed in full in the Essex 

 Naturalist (V., 137). It was again the pleasant duty of the 

 Club in Dec, i8go, to pass a resolution thanking the Buxtons 

 for their munificent action in connection with this matter {Ibid. 

 IV., 230) and a meeting was held in March, 1891, to enable our 

 members to see this latest addition to the Forest {Ibid. V., 129). 

 Once again, in October, 1S98; Mr. E. N. Buxton presented as a 

 further contribution to the Forest the picturesque elevation 

 known as Yardley Hill, an addition of some 28 acres in extent 

 {Ibid. XI., 78 ; see also p. 268). A meeting held in June, 1899, 

 enabled our members to realize the extent of public indebted- 

 ness to Mr. Buxton, to whom a vote of thanks was again 

 accorded on behalf of the Club {Ibid. XL, 129)/ 



A few papers concerning the history and topography of the 

 Forest district have been contributed to the Club, such, for 

 example, as Mr. \V. C. Waller's notes on the old track from 

 London to Epping (Essex Naturalist VL, 206), on old 

 Loughton Hall {Ibid. VII., 14), on the Epping Hunt {Ibid. 

 VIII., 31), and on the Barclay-Johnston MSS. and Papers 

 relating to Epping Forest {Ibid. IX., 157), and Mr. I. C. 



4 With reference to the history of the rescue of the Forest for the public, Mr. E. N. 

 Buxton writes to me under the date of February 27th : — " My services are as nothing to my 

 brother Powell's. By backing up Willingale against the Lords of Manors long before the 

 City came in, and when the cause was unpopular, he not only did a thing which required the 

 highest moral courage, but without it there would have been no Forest to preserve. Single- 

 handed he arrested the wave of enclosures of the little bits I have been able to 



add the Highams Park was the most difficult transaction and the most interesting." While 

 this Address was passing through the press it was announced at the Court ot Common 

 Council that Mr. Gerald Buxton had purchased and presented as another addition to the 

 Forest, the greater part of Bell Common, Epping, and the waste land along the Ivy Chimnies 

 Road. 



