228 OUR WOODLAND TREES. 
likelihood intense, it seems to have occurred to 
her that an abundant supply of firewood would 
be a welcome gift to the poor. She accordingly 
gave permission to the poor inhabitants of the 
four manors—Loughton, Theydon Bois, Epping, 
and Waltham—surrounding her forestal residence 
—of which a remnant, under the name still of 
‘Hlizabeth’s Lodge,’ may be seen by visitors at 
picturesque Chingford—to cut wood for fuel from 
the forest, durmg four winter months of every 
year; namely, from November to March. But 
this privilege of wood-cutting—given, it is said, 
in the form of a Royal Charter—was subject to 
a very curious condition. The cutting was to 
commence each year at midnight of the 11th 
of November. The condition indeed was very 
precise and very binding. The axes of the wood- 
cutters were to be first struck into the Trees, at a 
height of not less than seven feet from the ground, 
at the moment which was exactly between the 
11th and 12th of November. If this prescription 
were closely followed, then wood-cutting—which 
was to be the ‘top-lopping’ of the smaller 
branches in such a way as not to destroy or per- 
