EPPING FOREST. 253 



EPPING FOREST.! 



" Epping Forest, and How best to deal with it," is an article 

 by Mr. Wallace in the " Fortnightly Review " for November, 

 also separately issued, which should not be passed over as a 

 matter of local concern. All Mr. Wallace's writings, even 

 the most casual, will be found to touch and to illustrate some 

 interesting question. A recent act of Parliament having de- 

 creed that one of the ancient woodland wastes, Epping For- 

 est, which lies upon the very borders of London, shall be pre- 

 served forever as " an open space for the recreation and 

 enjoyment of the public," the question what to do with it be- 

 comes a very practical one. It is not enough to say rejoic- 

 ingly : " Here at length every one will have a right to roam 

 unmolested, and to enjoy the beauties which nature so lavishly 

 spreads around when left to her own wild luxuriance. Here 

 we shall possess, close to our capital, one real forest, whose 

 wildness and sylvan character is to be studiously maintained, 

 and which will possess an ever-increasing interest as a sample 

 of those broad tracts of woodland which once covered so 

 much of our country, and which play so conspicuous a part 

 in our early history and national folk-lore." Unfortunately 

 much of it has been spoiled in all senses of the word. But 

 Englishmen know how to plant, and the native trees which 

 once covered the domain, with the undergrowth which of old 

 accompanied them, could be made to flourish again. Prob- 

 ably the ancient forest could be essentially reproduced in all 

 its former vigor, and former monotony. Mr. Wallace has 

 something better than this in his mind, and his inspiration is 

 caught from Professor Asa Gray's Harvard lecture on " For- 

 est Geography and Archaeology," which was published last 

 summer in the " American Journal of Science," the ideas of 

 which he adopts, happily summarizes, and applies to the case 

 in hand. In re-foresting the open waste portions of Epping, 

 he proposes to establish several distinct portions or broad 

 tracts, each composed solely of trees and shrubs belonging to 

 1 The Nation, No. 704, December 26, 1878. 



