118 EPPING FOREST. 



Epping and Hainault Forests. It recommended the 

 inclosure of the latter, where the Crown was the 

 Lord of the Manor, and with respect to Epping Forest 

 advised that it should be disafforested, and that the 

 Crown should sell its forestal rights to the Lords of 

 Manors. It accompanied this, however, with a recom- 

 mendation that something should be done to preserve a 

 portion of the Forest for the enjoyment and recreation 

 of the public. In the following year a Royal Com- 

 mission on the subject of the Crown Lands, presided 

 over by the late Lord Portman, took a different view 

 from that of Lord Duncan's Committee. It emphatic- 

 ally recommended that the Crown rights over Epping 

 Forest should be defended, observing that no injustice 

 would result from such a course to private owners, 

 inasmuch as they held their lands under original 

 grants from the Crown, with the full knowledge of the 

 existence of such rights. 



Two years later the Legislature sanctioned a course in 

 pursuance of the recommendations of Lord Duncan's 

 Committee, and opposed to those of Lord Portman's Com- 

 mission, by agreeing to a measure for the disafforesting of 

 Hainault Forest. This Forest, like that of Epping, had 

 been divided among several distinct Manors, some of 

 which in very early times had been granted by the 

 Crown to the Abbey of Barking. On the dissolution of 

 the Abbey by Henry VIII., these Manors were re- 

 tained by the Crown, and were not re-granted to private 

 owners. A large part of Hainault Forest, therefore, 

 was practically the property of the Crown, subject to 



