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OBSERVATIONS ON THE MANAGEMENT OF
THE WOODLAND IN EPPING FOREST.
By E. N. BUXTON, J.P., Verderer (Vice-President).
[Being Abstract of an Address given at the Meeting on the Forest on October 21st, 1896.]
I HAVE been asked to make some remarks to the Club on the
subject of the principles that govern the management of the
woodland in Epping Forest. It would be out of place to go too
much into detail, but I will lay down for your consideration what I
consider the most important general principles that should guide us.
Without exhausting the subject I will name four (1) Variety; (2)
Preservation of natural features; (3) Restoration of a natural
aspect where this has been interfered with in the past ; (4) Repro-
duction with a view to the future.
(1.) VARIETY. We have been peculiarly favoured in Epping
Forest by the fact that the various manors of the district have been
under distinct management in the past. This, combined with
great diversity of aspect, soil, and degree of moisture, has given us
more contrasts of vegetation than can be found in any other English
Forest. Our aim should be to preserve this variety, which con-
stitutes one of the chief charms of our Woodlands.
Beginning at the north end, the Lower Forest, north of the town
of Epping, contains the finest specimens which we possess of
pollard hornbeams with splendid buttressed stems. The naturally
heavy and wet soil seems to favour this species. The individual speci-
mens have always had more room here. Our purpose here is to select
the finest trees and groups, and give them the chance of developing
still further, till in the future they may even vie with the splendid
groups of old pollard hornbeams at Hatfield. Coming south of
Epping, we find in Epping Thicks a far drier soil, naturally drained
by the deep little valleys which cross it. This not only furnishes a
new and very beautiful feature, but favours, on the dry ridges, a
splendid undergrowth of holly in conjunction with the finest
beeches which the Forest can show. On the opposite side of the
valley there is a totally different character. A part of Theydon
Manor has been entirely cleared a generation or two back, and
has developed a fresh young growth of holly and birch, with a surface-
growth of heather. In another part of the same Manor the trees
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