EPPING FOREST. 



bigger than Colchester is now, and the population 

 was everywhere sparse, there was not the demand 

 for cultivated ground which arose at a later period. 

 Even as late as the time of Camden, who wrote 

 at the end of the i6th century, we learn that 

 " Near the Ley . . . spreads out a chase of vast 

 extent, full of game, the largest and fattest deer 

 in the kingdom ; called heretofore, by way of 

 eminence, the Forest of Essex, now Waltham 

 Forest, from the town of Waltham, in Saxon 

 Wealdham, i.e. a dwelling in the woods." But 

 that it was not all barren we learn from Norden, 

 who, writing at about the same period, said, " This 

 shire is most fatt, fruitful!, and full of profitable 

 thinges. . . . This shire seemeth to me to deserve 

 the title of the Englishe Goshen, the fattest of the 

 lande : comparable to Palestina that flowed with 

 milke and hunnye. But I cannot comende the 

 healthfulnes of it : and especiallie nere the sea 

 coastes . . . which gave me a moste cruell quar- 

 terne feuer." 



In the reign of King John the grievances of the 

 people against the Forest laws became intolerable, 

 and he was compelled to limit the Royal Forest to 

 what was known as the Forest of Waltham, and 

 although he sought to evade the consequences of 

 this concession, it was subsequently confirmed by 

 Edward I. Its boundaries extended from the 

 river Lea on the west, to the Romford Road on 

 the east ; and its northern limit passed through 

 Nazing, Abridge, and Havering-atte-Bower. Three 

 centuries later King Charles I. attempted again to 

 enlarge, not only this Forest, but pretty nearly all 

 the Royal Forests. His object was not so much 

 to extend his hunting grounds as to extort ex- 



