18
EPPING FOREST.
or was stimulated by the impending danger, and
I am happy to think that I am now entering on
the third period, when a truer and a juster view of
the needs and rights of the public began to pre-
vail. Opinion was at the same time influenced by
the fact that, as the markets of the whole world
had been thrown open to us by Sir Robert Peel,
the importance of laying every available acre under
the plough was diminished.
We now reach the great legal contest which
MONK WOOD.
lasted fifteen years, and resulted in the pre-
servation of the 5500 acres which the public now
enjoys.
A society, called " The Commons Preservation
Society," was formed for the purpose of resisting
encroachments on this and other open spaces.
It has included such names as Mr. Cowper-
Temple, now Lord Mount-Temple, Mr. W. H.
Smith, Mr. John Stuart Mill, Sir Charles Dilke,
Mr. Fawcett, Mr. Shaw-Lefevre, Mr. Charles Eux-