THE WILLINGALES OF LOUGHTON.
157
connection it may be mentioned that on each occasion when the
phenomenon here described was seen, the sun, although rather
low, was strongly illuminating the water at the red end of the
pond, the other parts being shaded by the surrounding trees.
To those who may be interested in this subject and in that
of the remarkable group of sulphur bacteria in general, a most
useful German pamphlet may be recommended. Its title is
"Die farblosen und roten Schwefelbakterien des Suss-und Salz
wassers" by Dr. W. Bavendamm. (Jena, G. Fischer, 1924).
Another very interesting paper on these forms is "Studies on
the Sulphur Bacteria," by Dr. L. G. M. Baas-Becking in the
Annals of Botany, vol. xxxix., July, 1925.
THE WILLINGALES OF LOUGHTON:
TO WHOM DO WE OWE EPPING FOREST?
BY PERCY THOMPSON, F.L.S.
[Read 28th November, 1925.]
(With 3 Plates.)
WITH the beginning of the second half of the nineteenth-
century enclosures of Epping Forest waste, which had
been on a scarcely noticeable scale before that time, suddenly
became so alarmingly frequent, and so extensive, by reason
of the rise in land values caused by the rapid expansion of
London, that genuine public alarm was felt that, unless this
action was checked, the Forest would within a few years cease
to exist except in name.
No less than 3,600 acres out of 6,021 acres were illegally
enclosed between the years 1851 and 1875 ;1 whereas prior to
1851, barely 600 acres in all had been enclosed during two
centuries and a half !
Local protests were made, but were unheeded : public opinion
at the time was not organized for interference, and the manorial
lords, countenanced, and even prompted, by the Government
of the day, continued their policy of enclosure of the waste within
their respective manors.
1 Rept. of Epping Forest Commission, 19 March, 1875.