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careful examination certainly tended to the conclusion that the
plague of caterpillars last spring first attacked the overcrowded
hornbeams, and only in the second instance the oaks in their
vicinity, and especially those that were suffering visibly from
overcrowding.
If this be so, it is not nature, but our interference with
nature, that has done the mischief. Nay more, it may be that
our sudden cessation of interference has left a state of things
more unnatural than it was before.
Pardon me if I once more recall to you what was the treat-
ment of the forest from time immemorial. To many here present
it was very familial", and yet just because it is familiar to our
minds, we must remember that already it is a forgotten dream to
many who, without having known or studied the woodlands, are
quite prepared to speak unhesitatingly as to forest management.
We must always bear in mind that Epping Forest is but the residue
of the great Forest of Essex the boundaries and extent of which
have been so carefully studied by our members, and about which
our proceedings contain such invaluable papers.1 The process of
more or less authorised enclosure has been going on from the
beginning, the temporary use of a bit of forest land growing by
lapse of time into a freehold, and the freehold growing and grow-
ing, the process from time to time rudely interrupted by those in
authority, but in the long run establishing a claim of right.
It is a process familiar enough to any one who has experi-
ence of waste land, and gives a meaning to the Mosaic curse
against him who removes his neighbour's landmark that is not so
apparent to those accustomed to well-defined boundaries.
Of course, the parts of the forest that were thus stolen were
naturally the richest and best land, and thus the existing forest
is certain to represent the worst soil in the original extent of the
forest.
The last idea that would have presented itself to those who
managed forest matters was to provide a beautiful recreation
ground for London. The public and its rights were unknown
quantities ; those wandering out of their parish were rogues and
vagabonds, and the object in view was not to provide for their
enjoyment, but to cherish deer for the Royal Chase and to grow
1 This remark is doubtless intended to apply only to the extent of the Forest in
comparatively remote times. As we have elsewhere pointed out (Flor. E.F.C, vol. iv„
p. ciii. and Essex Nat., vol. vi., p. ii.), Epping Forest proper (of course excluding Hainault
Forest) has not greatly diminished in extent since Charles I.'s time.—Ed.