ITS HISTORY. 



Our business, however, lies chiefly with that 

 part known as Epping Forest, which, having been 

 divided by the Crown among many favoured per- 

 sons, descended from them, by patrimony or pur- 

 chase, to the eighteen lords of manors who held 

 them until they were recently acquired by the 

 Corporation of London. 



For the proper understanding of the history of 

 the Forest it is desirable to divide it into three 

 periods, during which three distinct influences or 

 ideas prevailed as to the use to which it should 

 be put. During the first, which lasted at least 

 from pre -Norman times until the last century, 

 the maintenance of the sporting rights of the 

 sovereign was paramount, and to this every other 

 interest was subordinate. About the time that 

 this function of the Forest had lapsed by disuse, 

 though the right still existed, a new idea began to 

 lay hold of the public mind, and a very true one 

 within proper limits, that "he is a benefactor who 

 makes two blades of grass grow where one grew be- 

 fore," and that to bring waste land into cultivation 

 was a public duty. Subsequently the growth of 

 population forced upon the minds of far- sighted 

 people the new truth that fresh air and recreation 

 are not less necessary than food, and of peculiar 

 importance to those who live in great cities. 



Each of these influences had a notable effect 

 on the Forest, and combined to make it what it 

 is. I propose to trace briefly the condition of 

 things during the three periods when these separate 

 currents of opinion prevailed. 



The Norman kings, as well as their predecessors 

 and successors, were great hunters, and of one of 

 them — William the Conqueror — the Saxon Chron- 



