NATURE NOTES. 
64 
champion of common rights, pointed out, in an interview 
with one of the staff of tlae Pn/l Mall Gazette, that the rights 
of the cottagers on the eastern side of the Forest, where the 
800 acres are situate, would be practically ruined. That the 
proposed range was the only large extent of commonable 
land on the eastern border, and that the larger the com- 
mon the greater were the opportunities and value of the 
small holdings, because the cattle could migrate according to 
the seasons, the quality of the pasture, and, what was very 
important, the supply of water, all of which happened to 
be abundant at a bottom across which the range was to pass, 
and that any interference with the water-supply would spoil 
much of the whole waste. The same gentleman gave it as his 
opinion that it was a delusion to think the fullest compensation 
could ever make up for the loss of common rights — a loss which 
deprived the small holder of the hope of bettering his condition ; 
and that compensation was but a snare, since its recipient could 
onl}" devote to his personal or temporary uses the poor equiva- 
lent of his right in the land — a right that he could have handed 
down to his posterity. l\Iay not we be permitted to add that 
the system of small holdings, as it at present prevails in the 
New Forest, is the greatest possible antidote to the over- 
crowding of large towns, and unwieldy extension of their 
suburbs, more e.specially in the case of the metropolis ? If there 
were a few more New Forests all over England there would be 
a million less people in London. 
To charge the opponents of, and petitioners against, the 
New Forest scheme with want of patriotism would be simply 
absurd. All that is desired is to protest against the violence 
done by the \\’ar Office and Woods and Forests Commissioners 
to the principle of the rights of way and open spaces questions 
in the unjust and unpopular choice of ground they have made.'" 
These are questions the importance of which is in the highest 
degree significant, from their being non-political. Men of ad- 
vanced, of moderate, and even of re-actionary opinions in 
general politics can join issue in them, and therein lies the 
greatest hope that the cloud of this threatened encroachment 
on public and private rights will be scattered by the winds of 
popular indignation. At the same time no words can be too 
strong to condemn the action of those who would degrade 
this matter of national importance to the level of a party 
question. 
l\Iost of the readers of N.^ture Notes are acquainted with 
* It may he news to some of our readers to learn that part of Epping Forest is 
used as a practising ground for one of the Hertfordshire militia companies. The 
tract of ground thus employed, or rather mis-employed, lies on the left-hand side 
of the road from High Beech to Epping town, in the direction of Waltham Abbey. 
How this arose we have not been able yet to ascertain, but it is indeed surprising 
that the Corporation of the City of London and the Verderers, who have done so 
much to restore parts of the Forest from the possession of land-grabbers, should 
permit it. 
