114 EPPING FOREST. 
ever. It will be seen later that he authorised the 
disafforesting of Malvern Forest by Cornelius Ver- 
muyden, and probably received a very large sum 
for it. 
The Forest of Waltham was in even greater danger 
of extinction during the Commonwealth. On the 22nd 
of November, 1653, the then Parliament passed an Act. | 
vesting all Forests and all honours and lands within 
their precincts and perambulations, belonging to the 
late King, his relict or eldest son, and all royalties, 
privileges, etc., belonging to them, in trustees, to be 
sold for the benefit of the Commonwealth. But 
Cromwell in the following year took the matter out of 
the hands of the Parliament, and soon afterwards we 
hear less of the Commonwealth and more of the Pro- 
tector. In 1654 an ordinance was made by ‘“ His 
Highness the Lord Protector, by and with the advice 
and consent of his Council,” that Commissioners should 
be appointed by His Highness under the Great Seal to 
survey all the late King’s Forests, according to the 
perambulations made in 17 Car. I., and to consider how 
the same might, both for the present and the future, be 
best improved and disposed for the benefit and advan- 
tage of the Commonwealth. They were directed to 
make minute inquiries into the situation of the Forests, 
and the public and private rights in them, includ- 
ing rights of wood and pasture; to hear and deter- 
mine claims of rights and interests; to make allot- 
ments in satisfaction of them, and for highways, and 
to treat for the disafforesting of all forest lands. 
