EPPING FORES'^. 35 



unimpeded by the stagnant air ; the skeletons of the ferm 

 natural of the forest, unlucky victims of these fateful traps, 

 which crack beneath our feet as we tread the dubious 

 floor and cautiously venture into the gloom — all these lend 

 romance to the descent into these ancient caverns. Such 

 are the mysterious ' Danes' Holes,' as they are called by 

 the peasantry around — sacred and safe places of refuge for 

 the scared inhabitants at the time when old sea-rovers, 

 the predatory Siguards and Thonds, were wont to ravage 

 the shores of the Thames. To-day these immemorial 

 ' earthworks,' if we may so call them, have yielded up their 

 secrets. The archaeologist has at length learned the objects 

 of their excavators. Suffice it for the present that even 

 Turpin's Cave in Epping Forest, as viewed by antiquairian 

 eyes, can scarcely rival the ' Danes' Holes ' in interest. This 

 is not, nor ever was, a subterranean cavern. It is an open pit. 

 The roof of wattles and boughs has long since vanished, 

 but once they sheltered the most renowned of modern 

 knights of the road, when the inns of Epping— those 

 favourite haunts of the highwaymen of the Newmarket 

 road at the beginning of the eighteenth centuary — were 

 closed to his visits. Such at least are the cherished 

 traditions of the old settlers round the forest. Certain it 

 is that the memory of Turpin is cherished at Epping, as 

 at Chadwell Heath. Turpin's Cave is as much one of the 

 exhibitions of Epping Forest as Turpin's Oak is of Finchley 

 Common ; and who shall begrudge to the admirers of each, 

 in these unromantic and prosaic days, the indulgence of 

 their tastes ! 



The essential character of a forest, in legal and technical 

 phrase, we have found to be its being a Royal hunting- 

 ground ; and we have mediaeval records of Epping Forest 

 being so used, and notices , of permission to make such 

 use of it at specified times being, by Royal favour, granted 

 to the citizens of the metropolis. 



The first circumstantial mention of the rights of the 

 City of London is in a charter of Henry I., and in this 



