146 EPPING FOREST. 



Courts. The Commission therefore withheld their 

 report pending the decision in the Eolls Court. 



Finally, on the 24th of July, 1874, exactly three 

 years from the commencement of the suit, after a most 

 protracted inquiry into the history of the Forest, and 

 of the several Manors within it, and into the rights 

 of the Commoners, involving a stupendous amount 

 of evidence, the Master of the Eolls, Sir George Jessel, 

 gave judgment. The arguments occupied twenty-three 

 days, and the ablest men of the Bar were engaged on 

 either side; but on the conclusion of the Defendants' case, 

 Sir George Jessel, without calling upon the Corporation 

 to reply, or taking time for consideration, and speaking 

 without a note, summed up the case in a masterly 

 manner,* and, in a most elaborate judgment, affirmed 

 the case of the Corporation on all its main points of 

 contention, and granted an injunction against the 

 Lords of Manors, prohibiting them from inclosing in 

 the future, and requiring them to remove all the fences 

 erected within twenty years before the commencement 

 of the suit. 



The Lords of Manors had contended for two main 



* Sir George Jessel, when at the Bar, had held a brief for some 

 of the Defendants in the early stages of the proceedings, and had 

 argued their case on the demurrer. But at the request of all the 

 parties to the suit, he agreed to hear it. In the course of the trial 

 he said: "I objected to hear this case because I had a prejudice 

 against the Plaintiffs' case, and I told them so in Chambers. I had 

 been Counsel for the Defendants, not on the merits. In the first 

 instance I declined to hear it on that ground ; but it was very 

 much pressed upon me, and I was told that it could not be heard 

 at all unless I consented, and therefore I reluctantly consented." 



