THE RE-AFFORESTATION OF HAINHAULT. 3
of the early inhabitants. No record exists to show exactly how or
when the primeval waste became private property, or how it came
under that form of special jurisdiction which constituted a Royal
Forest; all we can say is, that by the earliest Norman time the
primeval waste had become what was known as a Royal Forest,the
soil and the timber on the wastes being the property of the Lords of
the various manors created within its bounds, subject only to the
rights.of vert and venison, which belonged to the Crown and which
it was the object of the Forest Laws to protect, and subject to the
immemorial customary rights of the tenants of each manor, the
descendants of the inhabitants of the ancient vill or township, to
depasture their cattle on the waste, and to cut firewood for the
use of their households. Under the earlier Norman Kings the
Forest Laws were strictly enforced, and were the source of
much complaint from those who were brought within their
jurisdiction. Ostensibly and primarily intended for the protec-
tion of the King's deer and the rights of the chase, they were
frequently used for the purpose of exacting a revenue by the
imposition of fines for breaches of Forest Law, such as the
enclosure or felling of private woods within the bounds of the
Forest. By the time of King John these bounds had been
arbitrarily extended, so as to cover the greater part of the
county. One of the measures for the redress of grievances which
was the object of the Great Charter was the restriction of the
Bounds of the Forest within its earlier limits, and we have still
the record of the Perambulation of 1301, which delineated the
ancient bounds as existing at the time of the coronation of the
King's grandfather, 1154. It was not until 1641 that the
exactions of Charles I. made it necessary to lay down the
boundaries once more, and a Perambulation of that date
re-affirms the ancient boundaries of the Forest of Waltham,
which remained the boundaries till the Dis-afforestation Act of
1851, to which reference will be made later.2 As lime went on
and population and wealth increased, much of the ancient waste
2 The text of this last perambulation is set out in a paper entitled "The Area of Epping
Forest for Faunistic Purposes," by W. Cole, Essex Naturalist, vol. vi., pp. 10-16, and
further information is given in an addendum, "The Limits of the Old Forest of Waltham for
Faunistic Purposes," with a sketch map (E.N., xiii., pp. 75-77). The ancient boundaries of the;
Forest were treated of by Prof. R. Meldola, F.R.S., in his paper on "The Eastern Boundary
Stones of the Forest of Waltham" (E.N., vol. ix., pp. 1-10), with drawings of the stones by
H. A. Cole; a "Supplemental Note" on the same subject is given by Prof. Meldola in E.N.,
vol.-xv. pp. 126-129. The Club is empowered under a grant from the Essex County Council:
to re-erect these ancient mere-stones, and the work is now (April, 1909) proceeding. A full
account will appear in our journal,—Ed.