154 QUEEN ELIZABETH S LODGE, EPPING FOREST. 



I may state at the outset, that in my opinion, based upon 

 actual observation, the Lodge was erected to serve as a kind of 

 " Grand Stand " to view the game, or possibly to witness sports, 

 and not as a dwelling house. Of this fact I am as well assured 

 as though I had been foreman of the works during the erection 

 of the building. 



The stripping off of the plaster during our recent operations 

 revealed the fact that originally the Lodge had no windows on 

 the staircase, nor any on the first and second floors. The only 

 windows in the building were on the ground floor. Indications 

 were discovered during our work of six original windows on this 

 floor. Three were situate on the west side of the building — one 

 of these being in the position of the west doorway, and one on 

 either side, right and left, of this door. Then there were two 

 windows on the north "return," and one in the position of the 

 present front doorway. Formerly the entrance to the staircase 

 was by a door on the east side, to the left of, and at a right angle 

 to, the present front door. The door frame was of the same size 

 and construction as the frame of the door leading from the stair- 

 case to the large room on the first floor. 



The ground floor at one time consisted of three rooms, the 

 entrance to which must have been on the east side, where the 

 garden is now situate. I could discover no indications of there 

 ever having been a doorway on any other side of the building, 

 nor any evidence of a chimney in the position of the present 

 one ; this chimney, I take it, was a later addition. In the place 

 under the stairs, which has served as a coal-cellar, I discovered 

 in the wall -sill on the west side, five holes, seven -eights of an 

 inch in diameter, and about three inches apart, which probably 

 at one time contained u'on bars. Also a number of holes about 

 the same size and at the same distances apart, on the ground-sill 

 at the front, and lower end of, the square shaft into which the 

 stairs are framed. This would have converted the bottom of the 

 square shaft into a kind of cage or "lock-up," the use of which 

 can only be conjectured. 



As I have above stated, the first and second floors were in 

 my opinion built as open platforms or stands, whence an exten- 

 sive view could be obtained in every direction. Readers of the 

 Essex Naturalist will remember Mr. W. C. Waller's interest- 

 ing paper on " Two Forest Lodges " (vol. vii., pp. 82-86). In 

 this he prints a report, dated June 23rd, 1589, on a survey made 

 on two of Her Majesty's houses in Waltham Forest. One of 



