XXV111 
Appendix No. 1. 
societies and field clubs of the metropolitan districts have already declared 
their views on former occasions, and it is chiefly with the object of 
attempting to define the respective attitudes of the parties concerned that 
I have entered the arena on this occasion. 
There are at the present time more than twenty Natural History Clubs 
in the environs of London, and of these many have long been in the habit 
of making collecting excursions to our Forest. Our own Society and our 
Walthamstow colleagues have their head-quarters in the Forest district. 
Some of the East-end clubs are entirely composed of working men, and 
have done excellent work in fostering a healthy taste for the study of out¬ 
door natural history among this class of the community, a matter of 
considerable importance to us when we so often hear that the Forest has 
been acquired as a recreation-ground chiefly for the working men of East 
London. In addition to these numerous local clubs there are the great 
London societies, which, like the Linnean, Zoological, Entomological, 
Royal Microscopical, and Quekett Club, are all interested in promoting 
the study of biology in its various branches. Now, in face of the rapid 
destruction of all the truly wild tracts of country in the vicinity of 
London, it must assuredly be of the greatest importance to the natural- 
history public as a body to watch with the most jealous eye the dealings 
of those in authority with this the largest, wildest, and most accessible 
of all the open spaces in the metropolitan district. To naturalists gene¬ 
rally such a tract of primitive country as that which has come under the 
management of the Corporation is something more than a mere picnicking- 
ground ; to all students of Nature it is a biological preserve. Nay, I will 
even go so far as to declare that forest management is essentially a 
scientific subject in itself—a natural-history question in the broadest 
sense. Now, with the exception of our esteemed members the Verderers, 
by whom we were invited to a conference some months ago, it appears to 
me that the Conservators as a body, and a confessedly unscientific body, 
are not aware that scientific counsel is necessary to enable them to faith¬ 
fully carry out the Act of Parliament, i. e., to keep the area committed to 
their charge in its “ natural aspect ” as a forest. I will therefore take the 
present opportunity of pointing out that scientific criticism would have 
been disarmed and the fears of natural-history students allayed if the 
Epping Forest Committee had only recognised the claims of Science by 
consulting, let us say, the Directorate of Kew Gardens, or by appealing 
to the councils of some of the London Scientific Societies. 
If we consider the actual work done during the period that the Forest 
has been under the jurisdiction of the Corporation, we may fairly say 
that the energies of this body have hitherto been developed in the direction 
of landscape gardening; i. e., of artificialising certain portions of the 
Forest. The great hotel at Chingford has been made the centre of con¬ 
vergence of a number of roads, some of which have been newly cut, even 
at the risk of being superfluous. The aquatically-disposed holiday-maker 
may hire boats in which he can paddle about on “ ornamental water,” or 
can embark on a floating machine turned by hand-paddles, and possibly 
constructed with a Mew to delude the occupants into the belief that they 
are on board a steamer. The exhausted East Londoner, whose vitality 
appears to require that recuperation which seems to be derivable from 
swinging, steam-roundabouts, and throwing sticks at cocoa-nuts, has 
been amply provided for, and his wants have in every way been attended 
to. In 1881 the Forest was threatened by a railway, in 1882 by a tram¬ 
way, and again this year another railway bill is about to be introduced 
into Parliament. To all these schemes the Committee, no doubt with 
the best motives, gave and still give their support, and one has to seriously 
ask what is the meaning of the word “ Conservator,” and how far this 
