AT MIDNIGHT. 227 
with all its picturesque associations, is, for a 
reason that will presently appear, extinguished 
by the Epping Forest Act of 1878; but an ac- 
count of its supposed origin, together with some 
relation of the interesting circumstances con- 
nected with its exercise, will not, perhaps, prove 
unentertaining. 
Good Queen Bess had a fondness for Epping 
Forest, and often used to hunt there. It was a 
grand forest then—a truly royal forest indeed— 
far grander and larger than the Epping Forest of 
to-day—beautiful as that remnant of greenwood 
is, and highly as it is prized by poor, half-stifled, 
toil-worn Londoners, pent for so many weary 
hours, through so many weary days, in close 
work-rooms and squalid homes. The poor, alas! 
are always with us; and there were poor in the 
days of good Queen Bess. During one of her 
visits to Epping Forest the maiden Queen is said 
to have been particularly grieved at witnessing 
the misery of the poor inhabitants of the forestal 
manors; and it occurred to her to devise some 
means whereby she could relieve them of their 
distress. It being winter—and the cold in all 
i) 
