EPPIXG FOREST. Ill 



consequently issued a proclamation setting forth that 

 "yt hathe byne much brutyd and noysed" among 

 diverse of his loving subjects that he intended to 

 disafforest the Forest and to destroy the deer and game 

 there, whereby many of them had been encouraged to 

 destroy the rest and to hinder and disquiet the deer 

 and game "sembleably to murdre and kyll a nombre 

 of the said deere not a lyttle to our dyspleasure ; " and 

 informing the people that he intended to maintain 

 the forest laws as his lather or any other of his pro- 

 genitors had done, under which every offender was liable 

 to imprisonment for three years, and to pay a fine at the 

 King's pleasure and to find sureties or abjure the realm. 



Queen Elizabeth, before she came to the throne, 

 is said to have hunted in the Forest, probably riding 

 over from Hatfield, which was her permanent residence 

 and which was at no great distance; she was also, when 

 Queen, occasionally at Chingford, if we are to believe 

 the local traditions. 



James I. appears to have valued the right of sport- 

 ing in the Forest. A short time after coming to the 

 throne he violently scolded his subjects for their ill 

 manners in interfering with the sport of himself and 

 his family ; and threatened not only to enforce the 

 Forest laws against all stealers and hunters of deer, and 

 to exempt them from his general pardon, but to debar 

 any person of quality so offending from his presence, 

 and to proceed against those who provoked his dis- 

 pleasure, by martial law ! * 



* Fisher's " Forest of Essex," p. 197. 



