98 THE OAK TREE IN ESSEX.
Fig. 5.—"Pulpit Oak'' and "Poachers Pocket," Epping Forest.
Forest from the encloser. It is yet only 12 ft. 8 in. in circumference,
but as it is a vigorous tree, so we may hope it will, in the centuries
to come, continue to be an ornament to the Forest, and serve to
remind many generations of the good work done by the worthy
Councillor Bedford.
At Theydon Garnon there is an oak (fig. 6) which, previous
to its partial decay, probably measured 16 feet round its trunk.
In Lodge Bushes, a charming portion of Epping Forest, we have
also the "Pulpit Oak," and the tree called the "Poacher's Pocket,"
both of them picturesque specimens, but comparatively small (fig. 5).
When we recollect the many thousand acres of this ancient
woodland, one cannot but wonder that it does not contain more
fine oaks than exist in many a private park of not more than a
dozen acres. Perhaps the explanation given by Fisher in his
"Forest of Essex," is the correct one. He says :—
" The comparative scarcity of large trees in the Epping division
of the Forest arose from the continual felling of timber, and from
treating new growth as coppice wood. This was much practised in
the eighteenth century."
It is also possible that the right of lopping which prevailed in