of the Gothic period. Each spandrel is decorated by a triple-lobed
leaf incised in outline after the fashion of the same period. The
Banqueting Room on the top storey, a single compartment of three
bays, is notable for the very fine carpentry of the open roof
structure which is generously contrived with moulded four-centred
arched braces, purlins, collar beams, queen posts and wind braces.
According to the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments
1921 the curved and moulded principals appear to have been
inserted late in the 16th century though the moulded wallplates
and posts are original. The same report draws attention to the
fact that the roof trusses appear to have originally had tie beams
now cut back to the walls and that the collars have the mortices
of a former central purlin. The size of the timbers should be
observed for although the span is only twenty feet the principal
rafters are over a foot thick and all the timbers are laid flat in
the contemporary style rather than on their edges which is the
normal manner nowadays.
The flooring timbers will be found, as on the second storey,
to slope gently downwards from the centre of the room. The
joisting was so arranged to allow the rainwater to run off when
at the time the lodge was constructed these floors were exposed
to the elements. The fireplace on this floor was fitted in 1882
to mark the opening of Epping Forest by Queen Victoria.
THE LODGE IN LEGEND
In a previous section we have considered the uses to which the
lodge has been put and as has been observed this is to some extent
necessarily conjectural. There is a further range of information
about the lodge which we must regard as no more than legend.
However modern research has authenticated much that was
previously regarded as legendary and it is surprising how far the
essential elements of local lore, allowing for due embellishment,
have been accurately preserved in oral tradition.
The best known legend attached to the lodge is, perhaps
inevitably, the feat attributed to the great Tudor Queen. It is
said that she used to ride up the fine broad staircase to the upper
storey on her white palfrey. The first occasion, it is reported, in
her elation at the news of the defeat of the Spanish Armada. It
is also said that she had a mounting block on the top floor
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