64 EPPING FOREST. 



of this part of the building left it in the open 

 air, and the stone which marked the spot was 

 removed by depredators. It is said that in the 

 reign of Queen Elizabeth, a gardener digging 

 came upon the stone coffin itself, which being 

 opened the bones were discovered, but crumbled 

 to dust on exposure to the air. The monks for 

 many generations continued to exercise the powers 

 and privileges granted to them, with varying for- 

 tunes, dependent on the favour or the contrary, of 

 kings, whose resort this monastery frequently was. 

 Their influence was no doubt in many ways bene- 

 ficent, and it is probable that we enjoy even at the 

 present time some of the fruits of their arbitrary 

 power. It was to the special permission to en- 

 close, referred to on p. 105, and to the fore- 

 sight often shown by the religious orders, that we 

 probably owe the preservation as timber trees of 

 the fine groves of beeches in the Forest, known 

 as Monk Wood and High Beach Grove. Their 

 relations with the surrounding people were not 

 always of the most friendly character. Then, as 

 now, rights of pasturage caused differences of 

 opinion, though the following extract seems to 

 show that they were not always so successfully 

 championed as at the present day. Farmer, the 

 historian, relates how, " when Simon de Seham 

 was abbot, in the 30th Henry III. (1245), a dispute 

 arose between the abbot and the townsmen of 

 Waltham about the common lands. The men of 

 Waltham came into the marsh, which the abbot 

 and his convent formerly enjoyed as several to 

 themselves, and killed four mares, worth forty 

 shillings sterling at least, and drove away all the 

 rest ; the abbot was politely pleased for the pre- 



