72 EPPING FOREST.
Arms, and the tracks of some of the larger bucks can
generally be found in soft places, within a short distance
of Chingford Station. South of that point they do not
now go. The visitor who wishes to get a glimpse of them
may generally succeed in doing so, especially when the
trees are leafless, by traversing the Forest noiselessly, at
dusk, and up wind in the neighbourhood of Monk
Wood, St. Thomas's Quarters, or the Theydon Thicket,
especially the latter.
It may be said that in olden times the Forest was pre-
served for the sake of the deer, for the king to take his
pleasure in hunting, and that without them it would
probably have ceased to exist centuries ago. As I have
explained elsewhere, the Forest laws, which were of un-
exampled severity, were mainly directed to this end.
Although the deer were thus reserved for the king, there
were some exceptions, and fee deer were allowed to
certain persons, as the following very interesting frag-
ment of an ancient Royal Roll, preserved in the British
Museum, shows. The date is uncertain, but it is at
any rate anterior to the dissolution of the Monasteries.
The first paragraph is rendered unintelligible by muti-
lation :—
" Item. That the Lieu tenant, Rydyng forester,
ye Ranger of the same Forest, certyfy at ... .
particulerly in a byll, the certentie of the deer kyllyd
and servyd by every of them with the ... to them
directyd and gyvyn.
"It. The Clerke of the Swanymote every yere within
xii days next after the fest of Saynt Michell, and within
convenyent tyme after to make relacion to the kyng's
hyghnes of the certentie of the deer kyllyd in the same
forest in the sayd yere and byfore him presentyd as ys
aforsayd.
" It. Yf any deer be kyllyd by chaunce and recovered
so that the ffleshe be of any goodnes, then the keper in
whose walke any such deer be recovered dilyver and
bryng the same to the Lieu tenant, in his absens, to the
Rydyng forester and Ranger to th'entent that yf the
sayd deer be mete for the Kyng's Hyghnesse then that
yt be sent to his hyghnes, and yf convenyent tyme serve
not, then that it be distrybutyd by the discretion of the
lieu tenant, and in his absens by the sayd Rydyng for-
ester or Ranger, best for the savegarde of the kyng's
game.
"ft. The sayd Lieu tenant Rydyng forester or
Ranger to certyfy at the next Swanymote to the Clerke