CHAPTER XXIII 

 THE FOREST OF ESSEX 



A "/THOUGH the forest of Essex was one of the most im- 

 portant in England, not only in extent, but in con- 

 sequence of its nearness to the metropolis, the chapter 

 concerning it will be about the briefest in the book. The 

 reason for this is that Mr. Fisher, in 1887, published a learned 

 and almost exhaustive work on The Forest of Essex, based 

 on researches among a great variety of original documents 

 and authorities. Moreover, Mr. E. N. Buxton has written a 

 most admirable handbook to that " superb fragment of natural 

 forest," of which under its new rule he is the verderer the 

 forest of Epping. 



The forest of Essex was known from the beginning of the 

 fourteenth century as the forest of Waltham. It is only in 

 comparatively modern days that it has taken its name now 

 that its area is so much more restricted from the little town 

 of Epping. It was the custom in this county not only to call 

 the whole forest by the names of principal places, such as 

 Waltham and afterwards Epping, but also to write of the out- 

 lying parts, such as Kingswood, Writtle, and Hatfield, as 

 well as integral portions such as Theydon, Loughton, Ching- 

 ford, Havering, and Hainault, as though they were indepen- 

 dent forests. But they were all ancient Crown demesnes, 

 under the same forest regulations, and administered by the 

 same chief officers. The whole, as late as Henry III.'s reign, 

 was, more usually, rightly spoken of as the forest of Essex. 



The whole county was brought under forest law, save per- 

 haps a portion on the north-west beyond the great Roman 

 road, by the Conqueror and his immediate successors. A 

 small amount of disafforesting was carried out by Henry II. 



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