io8 EPPING FOREST. 



these remarks lest some, seeing the axes at work, 

 should assume that the conservators are rashly 

 interfering with the natural growth. The pollards, 

 while in their present state they are almost value- 

 less either from a picturesque or a financial point 

 of view, are artificial, and must be partly removed 

 to assist nature. Some of them have assumed 

 strangely weird and contorted shapes, the result 

 of the torturing they have undergone. These, 

 together with the soundest boles, ought certainly 

 to be preserved, and allowed to develop their 

 lateral branches. The lowest branches of the 

 beech and hornbeam are cropped close by the 

 deer and commoners' cattle. This causes a dense 

 hedge-like growth late in the summer, which holds 

 its withered leaves throughout the winter months, 

 until they are pushed off by the young growth, 

 and shows rich masses of brown in the dull 

 season. 



Much devastation has unfortunately been 

 caused, especially in the neighbourhood of the 

 Wake Arms and Theydon, by fires accidentally, 

 or I fear in some cases mischievously, kindled, 

 many acres of charred stems and blackened ground 

 showing a melancholy record. I would invite the 

 co-operation of all visitors in averting this serious 

 evil, and remind them that the careless dropping of 

 a cigar-light, when the herbage is dry, may irrepar- 

 ably destroy many acres of copse, and that wrong- 

 doers may be deterred by a word of caution or 

 by information given to the keepers. 



Considerable areas of Forest land, which were 

 wrongfully enclosed, were cleared of trees and 

 cultivated for several years before they were again 

 thrown open. In such places some replanting is 



