the old furrows are still visible today. The lodge, at which
refreshments were provided by the enterprising tenants, was a
popular resort for picnic parties and visitors to the forest who
would arrive on summer weekends in every conceivable conveyance.
In 1878 the lodge was vested in the Corporation of London as
Conservators for all the estate and interest of the Crown under
Section 8 of the Epping Forest Act which charged them to preserve
and maintain it is an object of public and antiquarian interest. It
entered the present phase of its existence when it was restored
and established as a local museum of natural history and antiquities
of the forest area at the end of the 19th century. This project
had first been considered in 1883 when a number of prominent
and public spirited local gentlemen under the chairmanship of
Edward North Buxton met in his home at Buckhurst Hill. Later
meetings of the same group were chaired by the Rev. A. F.
Russell, Rector of Chingford. After several years of effort the
Museum, managed by the Essex Field Club, was opened in
glowing late autumnal sunshine on 2nd November, 1895 by R. C.
Halse, Chairman of the Epping Forest Committee of the Corpora-
tion of London. The guests were assembled at Butler's Retreat
which had been loaned for the occasion and after the ceremony
tea was served at the Royal Forest Hotel which at one time had
been known as the Forest Lodge Hotel.
The Museum was an immediate success and it was soon
necessary to consider the repair and restoration of the lodge both
for the preservation of the building and to afford more space for
the exhibits. The essential repairs and the restoration were under-
taken by the Corporation of London and carried out mainly during
the winter of 1899-1900.
THE ORIGIN OF THE LODGE
It is not known when the lodge was built. The limited
documentary evidence available and the architectural features of
the building make it clear that it was erected early in the 16th
century. There is extant a warrant of 1543 issued by Henry VIII
to Sir Richard Riche to arrange payment of £30 to a certain
George Maxey 'towards the ffynyschinge as wall of(f) on great
stondeinge'. This is the earliest substantiated reference to the
lodge, and I take George Maxey to be the same official (a Forest
Woodward) who, with William Mildmay, is elsewhere recorded as
5