158 EPPING FOREST. 
probably been taken from the folk-land for the purpose 
of a Royal Forest, and the Forest was dedicated for 
ever to the use and enjoyment of the public. It has 
been stated that the total cost of the proceedings of 
the Corporation, in vindication of their rights, in the 
purchase of the interests of the Lords of Manors, 
and in the extinction of the rights of lopping and other 
rights held to be detrimental to the Forest, was about 
£240,000. Of this, £33,000 was spent in litigation, 
and in the expenses incurred in Parliamentary Com- 
mittees and before the Epping Forest Commission. 
There was recovered as costs from the Lords of Manors 
the sum of £4,000, which, it is understood, represented 
but a fraction of the real outlay. The amount thus 
paid for the purchase of the rights of the Lords of 
Manors was an unnecessary expenditure. ‘There was 
no reason why those rights should not have been 
allowed to exist, subject to proper regulations. 
The whole of the outlay was provided for out 
of the metage of grain duty, which was specially con- 
tinued and appropriated by Parliament for such purposes, 
and not out of the general funds of the Corporation. 
Out of the same fund there was paid the sum 
of £8,000, the balance due on the purchase by the 
Corporation of Wanstead Park, formerly the resi- 
dence of Lord Mornington, with 184 acres of land, a 
most valuable addition to the Forest. Some outlying 
portions of the Forest, of little importance to it, but of 
great value for building purposes, were given in exchange 
for the Park. This Park had in 1545 been inclosed 
