78 STUDIES, SCIENTIFIC AND SOCIAL CHAP. 



the Corporation of London, and four verderers, chosen by 

 the commoners of the twelve parishes in which the forest 

 is situated. 



Condition of the Forest when Acquired. 



Let us now take a brief glance at the present state of 

 the land thus dedicated to the public, before proceeding 

 to discuss the question how it may be made the most 

 of. First, and nearest to London, we have the open 

 expanse of Wanstead Flats, not half a mile from the 

 Forest Gate Station of the Great Eastern Railway, and 

 which, together with some illegally enclosed ground north- 

 wards towards the village of Wanstead, comprises an area 

 of nearly five hundred acres. Crossing it from north to 

 south opposite Lake House is an avenue of lime-trees, 

 never very fine, and now rapidly dying from the combined 

 effects of want of shelter and the smoky atmosphere. 

 With this exception almost the whole of the Flats is de- 

 nuded of trees, and offers a drear expanse of wiry grass 

 interspersed with a few tufts of broom, stretching for more 

 than a mile in length and not far short of half a mile 

 wide. On the northern side considerable excavations have 

 been made for brickfields, and here, where the ground 

 rises somewhat, there is a very nice turf, with fern, 

 broom, and even heather, in considerable patches. North- 

 westward is a large piece of recovered land, about fifty 

 acres in extent, dotted over with oaks and bushes, and 

 intersected by a fine double avenue of limes a third of a 

 mile long, but many of the trees, in the part nearest 

 London, are rapidly dying. Planes are probably the only 

 trees which would now thrive well here. This is, on the 

 whole, a rather pretty piece of half- wild woodland, well 

 worth careful preservation for the use of the dense popu- 

 lation surrounding it. 



To the west of Wanstead and Snaresbrook, and north- 

 ward towards Woodford, is a fine expanse of unenclosed 

 land, nearly a mile long, and from a quarter to half a mile 

 wide ; and when some illegal enclosures are thrown open, 

 this will be continued uninterruptedly to Woodford 

 Green. The southern portion of this tract between Wan- 



