EPPING FOREST. 137 
might have created that right. If, at the time when the Forest 
was originally formed, the land was the property of the Crown, 
I cannot see why the King, when he formed the Manors, might 
not have granted to the Lord of each Manor, for himself and his 
tenants, a right of common over all the wastes of the Forest. 
Or if the lands were not the lands of the Crown at the time 
when the Forest was formed, then the Forest might have been 
formed with the consent of the owners of the land over which the 
Forest was formed, because in point of law the King could not 
make a man’s land into Forest without some agreement or 
consent from him. Then it may have been part of the arrange- 
ment by which the Forest was formed that all the owners of 
lands within the Forest were to have rights of common over 
the wastes of the Forest.” * 
This important preliminary legal point being deter- 
mined, it remained to investigate and decide the issues 
of fact. Before, however, describing the result of the 
suit, it is necessary to point out other proceedings in 
Parliament on the subject of the Forest. 
The continued inclosures in the various Manors of 
Epping Forest, and the consequent rapid shrinkage of 
its area, at last thoroughly aroused the attention of the 
public, and there were loud complaints against the 
Government for not enforcing the Crown rights, for the 
purpose of abating the inclosures and preserving the 
Forest. Especially had the action of a Mr. Hodgson 
excited indignation. This gentleman had within very 
recent years inclosed upwards of 300 acres of Forest in 
the Manor of Chingford, over which the Crown still 
retained its forestal rights, had cut down all the trees 
* Glasse v. Commissioners of Sewers. L.R. 7, Ch. £56. 
