THE WILLINGALES OF LOUGHTON. 161
was claimed as having been granted by Queen Elizabeth to the
parishioners, and that such a grant alone would be sufficient
incorporation of the inhabitants to satisfy the rule of law. This
important technicality having been decided, the case was relegated
to its further proceedings, which involved questions of fact.
It was not destined, however, to be concluded. Poor Willingale
died, and his suit terminated with his death."
Mr. Shaw Lefevre went on to say (loc. cit.), "I have told
this story, of some interest I hope, notwithstanding its length,
because few, besides myself, have the clue to the whole of it."
And indeed, Mr. Shaw Lefevre was justified in his claim to
be acquainted with the ins and outs of the case, he being then
(and for many years after), Chairman of the Commons Preser-
vation Society, which newly-formed body was taking a leading
part in supporting Willingale's action ; and his account, as given
in the letter above quoted, is correct in most, though not in all,
particulars. Yet we find that, five years after, when possibly
his memory of the details was becoming somewhat dulled, he gave
a different version of the story. In a speech made by him in the
Forest to the loppers of Loughton on the night of November
11th-12th, 1879 (reported in the City Press for November 15th
of that year), he said "You recollect, probably, that one of your
villagers, old Willingale, determined to resist this invasion of
your rights, and, with his two sons and another man, he broke
down the fence and lopped the trees as usual. For this his sons
were arrested and convicted by the magistrates of malicious trespass
to property, and were sent to gaol for three months with hard labour.4"
We may note that in this second account there is no mention
of a nephew being one of the sufferers, as Mr. Lefevre had stated
in his letter to The Times of 1874 : the sons only are referred to.
Also, the term of imprisonment has increased from seven days
to three months !
In his book, English Commons and Forests, published in
1894, Mr. Shaw Lefevre is responsible for yet a third version
of the story. He says (p. 126), "After Mr. Maitland's great
inclosure, when the day arrived, in 1866, for the annual assertion
of the custom [of lopping], a labouring man named Willingale,
with his two sons, who had in past years made a living, during
the winter months, by lopping wood for their neighbours, went
4 The italics are mine.—P.T.
L