EPPING FOREST. 



and with the saffron yellow of the birch and 

 maple ? No leaf-colouring can be found to surpass 

 this in brilliancy, unless it be in the gean tree or 

 wild cherry of Scotland, which I am endeavouring 

 to establish in some parts of the Forest. And yet 

 these beauties are mostly wasted on the desert air. 

 Let me then invite the cockney to extend his 

 migratory periods at both ends. In the following 

 list I have described only those trees which are 

 native to the soil. There are many others, such 

 as the horse chestnut, Spanish chestnut, poplar, 

 elm, walnut, sycamore, Scotch fir, willows of 

 various sorts, etc., of which a few individual 

 specimens may be found in the Forest ; but as 

 they are not indigenous, but have either been 

 planted or have seeded themselves from cultivated 

 ground, I take no particular notice of them here. 

 I have also omitted the hazel, as, although we learn 

 that Gilbert de Ecclesia of Chingford " was obliged, 

 by the tenure of his lands, to find a man to gather 

 nuts for the lord of the manor," he would find it 

 impossible to fulfil his bargain at the present day. 



The Odik.{Quciriis Rol>ur). — There are two varieties of the com- 

 mon oak in England — sessili flora z.r\d fednnculata. It is 

 the former which abounds in the Forest. It is distinguished 

 from the latter by the acorns being borne close to the 

 stalk instead of on footstalks, and by smaller foliage. 

 The largest trunk on the Forest ground stands just 

 within the enclosure by Fairmead Lodge. It has been 

 pollarded up to comparatively recent times, so that the 

 spread of branches is not great, but it has a grand rugged 

 stem 22 ft. 7 in. in circumference at 3 feet from the 

 ground. On the rising ground beyond Connaught Water 

 there is a fine tree of wide spread sometimes known as 

 Sotheby's but more generally as Grimston's Oak, so 

 named after the Hon. Robert Grimston, who first called 

 attention to it, and at whose suggestion a space was 

 cleared around it. There are many picturesque oak 

 pollards of great age in Lord's Bushes, but not only 



