122 EPPING FOREST. 
London that they should be deprived altogether of 
such open spaces. 
In 1863, Mr. Peacocke, one of the members for the 
County of Essex, induced the House of Commons 
to pass an address to the Crown, praying that thence- 
forward there should be no further sales of its forestal 
rights in Epping Forest. 
In the same year a Committee of the House of 
Commons inquired into the subject of the Forest 
and reported upon the inclosures. It was of opinion 
that to employ the forestal rights of the Crown to 
obstruct the process of inclosure to which Lords of 
Manors and their Commoners were entitled, would be 
of doubtful justice, and would probably fail in effect. 
It recommended the sanction of Parliament for the 
inclosure of the residue of the Forest, and for the 
ascertainment of rights, and that partly by these 
means, and partly by purchase, an adequate portion 
of the waste should be secured for the purposes cf 
health and recreation, for which the Forest had been 
from time immemorial enjoyed by the inhabitants of 
the Metropolis. 
In the Committee on London Commons in 1865, 
Epping Forest again formed the subject of inquiry. 
In its report, already referred to, the recent inclosures 
of the waste were described, and the opinion was 
expressed that they would prove to be illegal if 
challenged in the Courts of Law. The report of this 
Committee was followed by still further and larger 
inclosures of the Forest, the Lords of Manors being 
