104 EPPING FOREST. 



there are open spaces of heath or grass. The trees 

 are for the most part of hornbeam, beech, and oak, 

 which have from early times been pollarded, and 

 which were lopped for firewood during the winter 

 months, for the benefit either of the Commoners or 

 of the inhabitants of certain districts, in a manner 

 greatly interfering with their growth and beauty. 

 But there are several groves of fine beech trees to 

 which this process has fortunately not been applied, 

 and some well-grown oaks near to Queen Elizabeth's 

 Lodge. 



The Forest was in olden times a part of the much 

 wider raDge of Waltham Forest, a district which ex- 

 tended over 00,000 acres in Essex, to which Manwood's 

 definition of a royal forest applied : " a territory of woody 

 grounds and fruitful pastures, privileged for wild beasts, 

 and fowls of forest chase and warren, to rest and abide 

 there in the safe protection of the King, for his delight 

 and pleasure." This wide district was not all un- 

 inclosed land or waste. Probably not more than one- 

 fourth or one- fifth of its area, even in very early times, 

 was in this condition. The remainder was either 

 cultivated land or inclosed woodlands, and was forest 

 only in the sense that the forest laws applied to the 

 whole of its area. These laws were framed with a view 

 to sustain the exclusive right of the Sovereign to sport 

 over a wide district. No fences within it could be 

 maintained high enough to keep out a doe with her 

 fawn ; the farmers were not allowed to drive the deer 

 from their crops, on which they fattened ; no buildings 



