148 EPPING FOREST. 
A few months later, in March, 1875, the Royal 
Commission on Epping Forest also made their first 
report, and having waited for the decision of Sir George 
Jessel, they came to the same conclusions as that great 
judge, as to the legal position of the Commoners and 
the illegality of the acts of the Lords of Manors. 
They had sat for 102 days, had examined 239 witnesses, 
and had collected together a vast number of documents 
bearing on the Forest. They found that the inclosures 
made within twenty years before the passing of the 
Epping Forest Act were unlawful against the Crown 
where the forestal rights had not been released, and 
were unlawful against the Commoners where the 
forestal rights had been released. They stated that the 
wastes of the Forest consisted of 6,021 acres, of which 
3,006 acres had been unlawfully inclosed. They found 
that the inhabitants of Loughton had, from time 
immemorial, exercised the right of lopping the trees for 
firewood in that parish during the winter months, and 
they expressed their opinion that this right was valid at 
law. They also stated that although the public had been 
in the habit of using the Forest without objection on 
the part of the Crown or of the Lords of Manors, they 
were unable to say that a legal right had been acquired 
by such user. 
In 1877 the Commission made their final report. 
In this they recommended the disafforesting of the 
Forest, and the preservation and management of the 
waste land, still uninclosed, as an open space for re- 
creation. With regard to land which had already been 
