126 EPPING FOREST. 
so as to maintain their rights. One man, however, 
kept his head clear of liquor, and stole from the feast 
at midnight, perambulated the Forest, and exercised 
his right by lopping some trees, and having done so 
returned to the feast, where he found his friends still 
being plied with drink; the lord, thereupon, angry 
at the failure of his scheme, bid them begone with 
many curses. Whether the story be true or not, the 
tradition as to the necessity for observing the mid- 
night programme on St. Martin’s Eve was firmly planted 
in the minds of the people. 
After Mr. Maitland’s great inclosure, when the day 
arrived, in 1866, for the annual assertion of the custom, a 
labouring man named Willingale, with his two sons, 
who had in past years made a living, during the winter 
months, by lopping wood for their neighbours, went 
out as usual at midnight, broke in upon the lord’s 
fences, perambulated the Forest, and lopped the trees 
in accordance with the custom. For this act in 
vindication of their rights, the three Willingales were 
summoned afew days later by the Lord of the Manor 
before the local justices; and although they protested 
that they were only asserting their rights according to 
the custom, which should have ousted the jurisdiction 
of the magistrates, they were convicted of malicious 
trespass on property, and were sent to prison for two 
months with hard labour. It turned out that one at 
least of the magistrates had received an allotment of 
the inclosed lands in compensation for his rights. One 
of Willingale’s sons was put into a damp cell in the 
