2 EPPING FOREST.
bigger than Colchester is now, and the population
was everywhere sparse, there was not the demand
for cultivated ground which arose at a later period.
Even as late as the time of Camden, who wrote
at the end of the 16th century, we learn that
" Near the Ley . . . spreads out a chase of vast
extent, full of game, the largest and fattest deer
in the kingdom; called heretofore, by way of
eminence, the Forest of Essex, now Waltham
Forest, from the town of Waltham, in Saxon
Wealdham, i.e. a dwelling in the woods." But
that it was not all barren we learn from Norden,
who, writing at about the same period, said, " This
shire is most fatt, fruitfull, and full of profitable
thinges. . . . This shire seemeth to me to deserve
the title of the Englishe Goshen, the fattest of the
lande : comparable to Palestina that flowed with
milke and hunnye. But I cannot comende the
healthfulnes of it: and especiallie nere the sea
coastes . . . which gave me a moste cruell quar-
terne feuer."
In the reign of King John the grievances of the
people against the Forest laws became intolerable,
and he was compelled to limit the Royal Forest to
what was known as the Forest of Waltham, and
although he sought to evade the consequences of
this concession, it was subsequently confirmed by
Edward I. Its boundaries extended from the
river Lea on the west, to the Romford Road on
the east; and its northern limit passed through
Nazing, Abridge, and Havering-atte-Bower. Three
centuries later King Charles I. attempted again to
enlarge, not only this Forest, but pretty nearly all
the Royal Forests. His object was not so much
to extend his hunting grounds as to extort ex-