208 OUR WOODLAND TREES. 
1871, under the auspices of the Forest Fund Com- 
mittee. A prosecution was accordingly instituted 
in October of that year, and the offender was 
summoned before the Justices at the Ilford Petty 
Sessions. The case, however, did not come on 
for trial. The defendant restored the right of 
way before the day for hearing the complaint, and 
he also made an ample apology for his illegal act. 
The prosecution was therefore withdrawn. Many 
similar cases of encroachment were also dealt 
with in the same way. The wrong-doers, con- 
scious of guilt, gave up their ill-gotten property 
as soon as their proceedings came to the light. 
To trace in detail the history of the struggle 
for the preservation of Epping Forest, during the 
seven years which elapsed from the commence- 
ment of the public movement—against enclosures 
—initiated in 1871, to the year 1878, would re- 
quire the space of a volume. The story must 
here be briefly told. In the month of May, 1871, 
the Corporation of London, with great and com- 
mendable public spirit, resolved to commence the 
defence of public rights against private encroach- 
ment, by an appeal to the courts of law. In the 
