EPPING FOREST. 111 
consequently issued a proclamation setting forth that 
‘“‘yt hathe byne much brutyd and noysed”’ among 
diverse of his loving subjects that he intended to 
disafforest the Forest and to destroy the deer and game 
there, whereby many of them had been encouraged to 
destroy the rest and to hinder and disquiet the deer 
and game “sembleably to murdre and kyll a nombre 
of the said deere not a lyttle to our dyspleasure ;” and 
informing the people that he intended to maintain 
the forest laws as his father or any other of his pro- 
genitors had done, under which every offender was liable 
to imprisonment for three years, and to pay a fine at the 
King’s pleasure and to find sureties or abjure the realm. 
Queen Elizabeth, before she came to the throne, 
is said to have hunted in the Forest, probably riding 
over from Hatfield, which was her permanent residence 
and which was at no great distance; she was also, when 
Queen, occasionally at Chingford, if we are to believe 
the local traditions. 
James I. appears to have valued the right of sport- 
ing in the Forest. A short time after coming to the 
throne he violently scolded his subjects for their ill 
manners in interfering with the sport of himself and 
his family; and threatened not only to enforce the 
Forest laws against all stealers and hunters of deer, and 
to exempt them from his general pardon, but to debar 
any person of quality so offending from his presence, 
and to proceed against those who provoked his dis- 
pleasure, by martial law ! * 
* Fisher’s “Forest of Essex,” p. 197. 
