2 THE RE-AFFORESTATION OF HAINHAULT.
Forest of Hainhault for public use and enjoyment. The scheme
which had then been initiated by Mr. Edward North Buxton's
far-sighted enthusiasm has now been carried through by his
determination and energy. The necessary Act of Parliament
has been obtained, the financial contributions promised by the
Essex County Council, the Corporation of West Ham, and the
District Councils of Leyton, Wanstead, and Ilford have been
paid, £2,500 has been privately subscribed, and the London
County Council, which contributed the balance of the cost, have
now taken over the control and management. Our present con-
tribution deals with the steps that have been taken to re-afforest
Foxburrows Farm and to reproduce to some extent those condi-
tions of thicket, woodland and open glade which existed previous
to dis-afforestation, and which form the great beauty of the
adjoining woods which escaped that disaster.
I.—HISTORY OF THE FOREST.
A brief account of the history of Hainhault Forest may not
inappropriately serve as an introduction to the account of its re-
afforestation under the care of the London County Council,
which is here recorded. Nor is the history of the old Forest
customs and laws of merely archaeological interest, for that part
of the present Forest which still survives in something nearly
approaching to its original state, and which it should be
the object of the Conservators to reproduce as nearly as possible
on the greater part of Foxburrow Farm, owes its character,
not to the unrestricted play of the forces of Nature, but rather
to the forces of Nature as modified and checked by the enjoy-
ment and use, for countless generations, of those rights of
Common of Wood and Pasture which we shall endeavour to
describe.
Hainhault Forest then, as established by the Hainault Forest
Act of 1903, is, as may be seen from the accompanying map,
a roughly square block of open ground and old woodland
containing 801.5 acres, of which, at the time it was acquired,
about 540 acres were arable land, the remaining 261 acres being
still in more or less their original condition of waste; and is
a part of what was formerly the great Forest of Essex, which
once covered a large portion of the south-west corner of the
county. In its origin the Forest of Essex was simply no doubt
the primeval waste, dotted here and there with the settlements