154 QUEEN ELIZABETH'S LODGE, EPPING FOREST.
I may state at the outset, that in my opinion, based upon
actual observation, the Lodge was erected to serve as a kind of
"Grand Stand" to view the game, or possibly to witness sports,
and not as a dwelling house. Of this fact I am as well assured
as though I had been foreman of the works during the erection
of the building.
The stripping off of the plaster during our recent operations
revealed the fact that originally the Lodge had no windows on
the staircase, nor any on the first and second floors. The only
windows in the building were on the ground floor. Indications
were discovered during our work of six original windows on this
floor. Three were situate on the west side of the building—one
of these being in the position of the west doorway, and one on
either side, right and left, of this door. Then there were two
windows on the north "return," and one in the position of the
present front doorway. Formerly the entrance to the staircase
was by a door on the east side, to the left of, and at a right angle
to, the present front door. The door frame was of the same size
and construction as the frame of the door leading from the stair-
case to the large room on the first floor.
The ground floor at one time consisted of three rooms, the
entrance to which must have been on the east side, where the
garden is now situate. I could discover no indications of there
ever having been a doorway on any other side of the building,
nor any evidence of a chimney in the position of the present
one ; this chimney, I take it, was a later addition. In the place
under the stairs, which has served as a coal-cellar, I discovered
in the wall-sill on the west side, five holes, seven-eights of an
inch in diameter, and about three inches apart, which probably
at one time contained iron bars. Also a number of holes about
the same size and at the same distances apart, on the ground-sill
at the front, and lower end of, the square shaft into which the
stairs are framed. This would have converted the bottom of the
square shaft into a kind of cage or "lock-up," the use of which
can only be conjectured.
As I have above stated, the first and second floors were in
my opinion built as open platforms or stands, whence an exten-
sive view could be obtained in every direction. Readers of the
Essex Naturalist will remember Mr. W. C. Waller's interest-
ing paper on "Two Forest Lodges" (vol. vii., pp. 82-86). In
this he prints a report, dated June 23rd, 1589, on a survey made
on two of Her Majesty's houses in Waltham Forest. One of