THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB. 109
criticisms, at first from writers whose opinions were worthy
of serious consideration, but who were apparently unin-
structed as to the true condition of the Forest, and ultimately
from the Press at large, fomented into rancorous activity by
irresponsible scribblers and condemning the action of the
Verderers with that vehemence and assurance which are so
generally found in association with a profound ignorance of the
subject under criticism. It appeared that the time had arrived
for formal intervention by the Club on behalf of the Verderers,
whose case had been so grossly misrepresented in the course of
the newspaper controversy, and the great meeting of April 28th,
1894, will always remain memorable in our annals as having
been the occasion for the free discussion of the action of the
Verderers after having given our members and the public the
opportunity of seeing for themselves the places where thinning
had been going on, and of hearing from Mr. Buxton on the spot
the reasons for carrying out these operations (Essex Naturalist
VIII., 52—71). That meeting as you all know resulted in what
was practically a vote of confidence in the Conservators, and
marked the beginning of the turn of the tide of popular opinion.
In this we may, I think, take credit for having done a good piece
of work for the benefit of the Forest, for if the ignorant clamour
that had been raised had been allowed to take practical form by
paralysing the hands of the Conservators, the Forest would have
lost the valuable supervision of the best informed and most skil-
ful of its Verderers to its everlasting detriment. The first report
of the experts appointed by the Corporation of London to
examine into the operations in progress was made on June 4th,
1894 (Essex Naturalist VIII., 117) and in substance shows
that the vote of confidence passed at our meeting in April was
justified (see Nature, July 5th, 1894). The agitation was renewed
the following year, and resolutions passed at a public meeting of
the complainants held at Wanstead were presented to the Epping
Forest Committee of the Corporation of London by a deputation
on May 13th, 1895. It was not thought necessary on this
occasion to bring further organised resistance from the Club to
bear upon the controversy as no new arguments or facts had
been adduced by the agitators, but I ventured to collect on my
own responsibility a large body of expert evidence and of
opinions from representative men, all of whom had personally
inspected the Forest, and also from many leading inhabitants of