ITS HISTORY. 



Works, which would have given the public only a 

 paltry 600 acres, with leave to purchase at full 

 market -value 400 more, which were allotted as 

 compensation to the commoners, the whole of 

 the remaining 5000 acres being absolutely made 

 over to the manorial owners. I well remember 

 the meeting, which was held at this crisis, of the 

 " Commons Preservation Society," at that time 

 the only organised body which seemed to care for 

 the interests of the public. So dark was the out- 

 look that it was seriously debated by the com- 

 mittee whether this so-called compromise should 

 be accepted. It is not too much to say that the 

 fate of the Forest trembled round the table where 

 this committee sat. If weak-kneed counsels had 

 then prevailed, the Bill would probably have 

 passed without opposition, and the Forest, as we 

 know it, would have ceased to e.xist. Happily a 

 spirited policy carried the day. The Bill was 

 vigorously opposed, and dropped, and Mr. Cow- 

 per - Temple subsequently carried against the 

 Government an address to the Crown, calling 

 upon it to preserve those parts of Epping Forest 

 which had not been enclosed by legal authority. 

 The immediate result of this was the passage in 

 the next session of a Bill appointing a Royal 

 Commission to inquire into the rights of the 

 Forest, and prepare a scheme for its future 

 management. 



Public attention was now fully aroused, and a 

 new body was formed, called the " Forest Fund 

 Committee," who assisted in forcing the question 

 to the front ; but the public without a champion 

 is powerless. Happily in the Corporation of the 

 city of London a doughty one was at hand, able 



