4
EPPING FOREST
Crown. Later on they were again granted to
various persons for services received, with the
exception of those which related to the section
which lay to the north-east of the river Roding,
called the Forest of Hainault, which had belonged
to the Abbey of Barking, and which unfortunately,
as I shall presently show, remained in the hands
of the Crown.
Our business, however, lies chiefly with that
part known as Epping Forest, which, having been
divided by the Crown among many favoured
persons, descended from them, by patrimony or
purchase, to the eighteen lords of manors who
held them until they were recently acquired by
the Corporation of London.
For the proper understanding of the history of
the Forest it is desirable to divide it into three
periods, during which three distinct influences or
ideas prevailed as to the use to which it should
be put. During the first, which lasted at least
from pre-Norman times until the eighteenth century,
the maintenance of the sporting rights of the
sovereign was paramount, and to this every other
interest was subordinate. About the time that
this function of the Forest had lapsed by disuse,
though the right still existed, a new idea began to
lay hold of the public mind, and a very true one
within proper limits, that " he is a benefactor who
makes two blades of grass grow where one grew
before," and that to bring waste land into cultiva-
tion was a public duty. Subsequently the growth
of population forced upon the minds of far-sighted
people the new truth that fresh air and recreation
are not less necessary than food, and of peculiar
importance to those who live in great cities.
Each of these influences had a notable effect
on the Forest, and combined to make it what it
is. I propose to trace briefly the condition of
things during the three periods when these separate
currents of opinion prevailed.
The Norman kings, as well as their predecessors
and successors, were great hunters, and of one of
them—William the Conqueror—the Saxon Chron-