68 THE MANAGEMENT OF EPPING FOREST.
to whom the care of the Forest has been entrusted by Parliament, concur in this
view. It trusts, therefore, that no more cutting or thinning of the trees and
shrubs will be permitted in future than is considered necessary for the preser-
vation of the Forest in its natural sylvan beauty."
I do not intend to move this resolution as an amendment to Professor
Boulger's, which I propose to support; but I own I should have much preferred
something of the kind I have indicated being passed instead of this in order to
meet the views and reconcile the differences of opinion of those who are
assembled here this evening.
Mr. Bernard Gibson said that, as he started the discussion by a letter which
appeared in "The Times'' of 23rd of March last, he would like to make a few
remarks, but at that late period of the evening he would be brief. He alluded to
Mr. E. N. Buxton without any intention of making a personal attack upon him
(for he, Mr. Gibson, deplored anything personal), but solely because he looked
upon Mr. Buxton as the dominant controlling spirit upon the Committee. All
lovers of Epping Forest owed a deep debt of gratitude to Mr. E. N. Buxton, and
Mr. Gibson trusted that he might be spared many years to take an active part in
preserving the beautiful forest which he loved so well. Mr. Gibson said that
there were two practical suggestions he would like to make, that—as in thinning
the Forest no consideration of profit in stripping the bark need influence the
management—no oak tree should be felled in the spring. Felling oaks when the
sap is up is sure to result in more damage to the undergrowth than if they were
felled in the dead season, when the woods were leafless and dormant. When an
oak wood on a private estate is to be thinned, the underwood was cut in the
winter, and the wood thus prepared for the felling of the oaks in the spring, as
soon as the sap is sufficiently up for the "barking" to begin. This point had
not received proper consideration from Mr. Buxton and the. Superintendent of the
Forest, and he (Mr. Gibson) would ask the meeting to try and realise the state
that the beautiful undergrowth of Hawk Wood would be in then, if the 600 oak
trees marked and sold had been felled in April. It was, moreover, a certainty
that they would have been felled had not his letter started the agitation which
had resulted in experts being appointed to report, and those oak trees were in
consequence reprieved until winter, when probably 100 will be felled instead of
600 ; that result was ample justification for the agitation. He much regretted
that Hawk Wood was not visited that day, and he would earnestly beg any of
those present, who could do so, to visit that wood, and judge for themselves what
the result would be of clearing away the 600 oak trees marked with a white ring.
Lastly, he would suggest that before marking any timber tree, if there were any
doubt as to the wisdom of removing it, and the advantage the neighbouring
tree or trees would derive from its removal—that the tree should have the benefit
of the doubt. Not all the wealth of the Corporation could replace the noble
beeches felled in Monk Wood.
Mr. Walter Crouch mentioned that he had known the Forest well at all seasons
for over thirty years, and could compare its condition then, with the time when it
was acquired by the Corporation, and at the present moment. He had recently
walked over the woodlands where thinning had been done, and in his opinion the
Forest was in a more natural condition than it had ever been under the old
system. It had been mentioned in one newspaper that the old chestnut, which
formed an arch by the great lake in Wanstead Park, had been cut down. There
was a suppression of fact in this statement, the cutting having been in conse-
quence of the limb being blown down by a heavy wind last January. The whole