148 EPPING FOREST. 



A few months later, in March, 1875, the Eoyal 

 Commission on Epping Forest also made their first 

 report, and having waited for the decision of Sir George 

 Jessel, they came to the same conclusions as that great 

 judge, as to the legal position of the Commoners and 

 the illegality of the acts of the Lords of Manors. 

 They had sat for 102 days, had examined 239 witnesses, 

 and had collected together a vast number of documents 

 bearing on the Forest. They found that the inclosures 

 made within twenty years before the passing of the 

 Epping Forest Act were unlawful against the Crown 

 where the forestal rights had not been released, and 

 were unlawful against the Commoners 'where the 

 forestal rights had been released. They stated that the 

 wastes of the Forest consisted of 6,021 acres, of which 

 3,006 acres had been unlawfully inclosed. They found 

 that the inhabitants of Loughton had, from time 

 immemorial, exercised the right of lopping the trees for 

 firewood in that parish during the winter months, and 

 they expressed their opinion that this right was valid at 

 law. They also stated that although the public had been 

 in the habit of using the Forest without objection on 

 the part of the Crown or of the Lords of Manors, the}' 

 were unable to say that a legal right had been acquired 

 by such user. 



In 1877 the Commission made their final report. 

 In this they recommended the disafforesting of the 

 Forest, and the preservation and management of the 

 waste land, still uninclosed, as an open space for re- 

 creation. With regard to land which had already been 



