CHAP, iv EPPING FOREST 75 



which anybody has a right- to roam at will l Every 

 supposed common is said by the lawyers to belong abso- 

 lutely to some body of individuals, to a lord or lords of 

 the manor and the surrounding owners of land who have 

 rights of common over it ; and if these parties agree 

 together, the said common may be enclosed, and the 

 public shut out of it for ever. The thousands of tourists 

 who roam every summer over the heathy wastes of Surrey 

 or the breezy downs of Sussex, who climb the peaks or 

 revel on the heather-banks of Wales or Scotland, are every 

 one of them trespassers in the eye of the law ; and there 

 is, perhaps, no portion of these favourite resorts of our 

 country-loving people that it is not in the power of some 

 individual or body of individuals to enclose and treat as 

 private property. 



How far this legal assumption accords with justice or 

 sound policy, it is not our purpose now to inquire ; that 

 question having been treated by many able pens, and 

 being one which will assuredly not become less important 

 or less open to discussion as time goes on. We have now 

 a far pleasanter task, that of calling attention to one of 

 our ancient woodland wastes, Epping Forest, which, in the 

 words of an Act of Parliament passed at the end of last 

 session, is to be for ever preserved as <; an open space for 

 the recreation and enjoyment of the public." Here at 

 length every one will have a right to roam unmolested, 

 and to enjoy the beauties which nature so lavishly spreads 

 around when left to her own wild luxuriance. We shall 

 possess, close to our capital, one real forest, whose wildness 

 and sylvan character is to be studiously maintained, and 

 which will possess an ever-increasing interest as furnish- 

 ing a sample of those broad tracts of woodland which 

 once covered so much of our country, and which play so 

 conspicuous a part in our early history and national folk- 

 lore. Unfortunately the spoilers have been at work, and 

 much of the area now dedicated to the people has been 



1 "Although the public have long wandered over the waste lands 

 of Epping Forest without let or hindrance, we can find no legal right 

 to such user established in law." (Preliminary Report of the Epping 

 Forest Commissioners, 1875, p. 12.) 



