THE DEER OF EPPING FOREST.
47
It is worth noting, in connection with this subject, that if it had not
been for the deer in this forest, Waltham would never have been
where it now stands. According to Camden, our great antiquary,
the first mention of Waltham occurs about the latter times of the
Saxons, when Tovi, a man of great wealth and authority, standard-
bearer to King Canute, induced by the abundance of deer, built a
number of houses there, and peopled them with sixty-six inhabitants.
After his death his son Athelstan squandered the estate; where-
upon King Edward the Confessor, into whose hands it had come,
bestowed the village on his brother-in-law Harold, son of Earl
Godwin, who built an abbey there. The Abbot of Waltham was one
of the twenty-eight in this kingdom who were styled mitred abbots,
and sat the twentieth in order in the Great Council of the nation.
He was thus a person of much importance, and, as I shall presently
show, was one of the few residents in the neighbourhood who,
besides the king, were privileged to kill deer in this forest, although
mediaeval records contain notices of royal permission given at times
to the citizens of London to use the Forest of Epping as a hunting
ground for their recreation.
The first circumstantial mention of the rights of the citizens of
London is in a charter of Henry I. (1100-1135), and in this, mention
is made of the privilege of hunting in Chittro, Middlesex, and Surrey ;
but this privilege was afterwards commuted to a day's hunting in
Epping.
Henry III., in 1226, granted to the citizens of London privilege to
hunt once a year, at Easter, within a circuit of twenty miles of the
City, and until within comparatively recent times, the Lord Mayor,
aldermen, and corporation continued annually to avail themselves of
this privilege. The annual "meet" at Epping, known in modern
times as "The Epping Hunt," after degenerating sadly as regards the
way in which the hunting was pursued (the deer being "uncarted"
instead of being "roused" in the forest) was eventually discontinued
altogether.
Sometimes, as a special favour to an individual, the king gave him
a general permission to hunt in the royal forest near which he resided,
as in the case of Henry de Grey, of Codnor (the manor of Turrock,
in Essex), who had a grant from Richard I., afterwards confirmed by
King John, which gave him liberty to hunt the hare and fox in Epping
Forest and other crown lands, excepting the king's own demesne parks.1
1 Carta 1 John, m. 29.