164 EPPING FOREST. 
went down to Loughton, with Mr. Burney, as represen- 
tatives of the Society, and joined in the demonstration. 
The whole population of the district turned out at 
midnight to the number of 5,000 to 6,000. They 
perambulated the Manor by torchlight, and then held 
a meeting previous to commencing the lopping. I 
addressed this midnight meeting in the Forest, and in- 
formed the people that it would be the last occasion on 
which such lopping would be permissible by law. I 
explained their position to them, and the effect of the 
Epping Forest Act. I said that Counsel had been 
instructed by the Commons Society to argue their claims 
before the Arbitrator, and expressed the utmost confi- 
dence that the decision would be in their favour. 
On the hearing of the case before Lord Hobhouse, 
the Corporation appeared also by Counsel, and did their 
best to resist the claim of the Loughton people, arguing, 
as Mr. Maitland had done, that such a custom could 
not be enjoyed by so uncertain a body as the inhabit- 
ants of a parish, and that they could not prescribe for 
a right of a profitable character. Lord Hobhouse in his 
decision brushed away these miserable technicalities. 
He held that, in view of the evidence that the people 
had in fact, from time immemorial, enjoyed and exercised 
this right, he was justified in admitting it, and indeed 
was bound to find a legal origin for it. 
«‘ The oral evidence,” he said, “‘ appears to me to establish the 
following propositions :—That in point of fact the practice has 
been for the inhabitants of houses to lop trees on the waste ; 
that the lopping is limited to begin at a given instant of time, 
