108
EPPING FOREST.
these remarks lest some, seeing the axes at work,
should assume that the conservators are rashly
interfering with the natural growth. The pollards,
while in their present state they are almost value-
less either from a picturesque or a financial point
of view, are artificial, and must be partly removed
to assist nature. Some of them have assumed
strangely weird and contorted shapes, the result
of the torturing they have undergone. These,
together with the soundest boles, ought certainly
to be preserved, and allowed to develop their
lateral branches. The lowest branches of the
beech and hornbeam are cropped close by the
deer and commoners' cattle. This causes a dense
hedge-like growth late in the summer, which holds
its withered leaves throughout the winter months,
until they are pushed off by the young growth,
and shows rich masses of brown in the dull
season.
Much devastation has unfortunately been
caused, especially in the neighbourhood of the
Wake Arms and Theydon, by fires accidentally,
or I fear in some cases mischievously, kindled,
many acres of charred stems and blackened ground
showing a melancholy record. I would invite the
co-operation of all visitors in averting this serious
evil, and remind them that the careless dropping of
a cigar-light, when the herbage is dry, may irrepar-
ably destroy many acres of copse, and that wrong-
doers may be deterred by a word of caution or
by information given to the keepers.
Considerable areas of Forest land, which were
wrongfully enclosed, were cleared of trees and
cultivated for several years before they were again
thrown open. In such places some replanting is