2 THE EASTERN BOUNDARY STONES
to further search, and the results are submitted in the present paper.
At the meeting of the Essex Field Club, on July 28th, 1894 (see
vol. viii., p. 217), the members were taken to see this stone, the history
of the discovery of which was given on the spot by the writer.
It will add to the completeness of this account if the history of
the Perambulation of 1641, is here briefly set forth. It appears
that prior to this period the king had found it to his advantage to
afforest as much land as possible, because the enforcement of the
Fig. 1.—"Richard's Stone" on Curtis Mill (or Courtmill) Green, one of the Old Boundary
Marks of the Forest of Waltham.
Forest Laws added considerably to the Crown revenues. The
extension of Royal Forests all over the country was attempted to an
extent that led Strafford to state in a letter :
" The Justice Seat in Essex hath been kept this Easter week, and all Essex has
become Forest ; and so they say will all the Counties in England but three -Kent,
Surrey, and Sussex." (Letters, I.. 415. Quoted from Fisher's "Forest of Essex,"
note to p. 46).
In 1640 when large sums had been raised, "it is said by Ranke