AT MIDNIGHT. 235 
which was actually made upon it. It came down, 
ere long, with a thud and a crash, and with a wild 
shout of triumph, waving their hatchets high in 
the air, the dauntless woodmen made for the lonely 
forest glades to exercise their curious midnight 
custom. 
Curious, however, as was this custom of wood- 
lopping in Epping Forest, and singularly strange 
and picturesque as were the scenes attending its 
annual initiation, the effect of its exercise—con- 
tinued as it has been for so long a period—has 
been to spoil vast numbers of the forest Trees, 
and give to them a dwarfed, stunted, and weird 
appearance. It is for this reason that it has been 
incumbent, in the public interests, to extinguish 
the custom, due provision having been made for 
the rights of the commoners by compensation. 
