ITS HISTORY
In most royal forests there is another close time,
called Winter Heyning. This extends through
the winter months, and is for the purpose of
reserving the food, which is then scarce, for the
deer; but I cannot find any record of this having
been enforced in Epping Forest.
The same persons who enjoyed the privilege of
commoning cattle had also the right of pannage,
i.e. of turning out their pigs at Michaelmas to eat
acorns and beech-mast. The amount of pannage
varied in different seasons, but it was always a
valuable right, woods being often considered
rather by the number of pigs they could feed than
by the timber.
The right of lopping was enjoyed in some manors
by persons to whom special assignments had been
made of so many acres, and in Loughton the right
extended to all the householders of the parish.
This right had an important influence on the fate
of the Forest, as I shall presently show. The
object of the forestal laws being to maintain the
status quo, it is not surprising that the condition
of the Forest, as I have described it, remained
without material alteration for many centuries;
but I now come to what I have called the second
period—the utilitarian age—when it was sought to
absorb the waste for cultivation and building. The
earliest expression of the idea that this was bene-
ficial which I can find is contained in Harrison's
" Description of England," written in the 16th
century—" Certes, if it be not one curfe of the
Lord, to haue our Countrie conuerted in fuch fort
from the furniture of mankind, into the walks and
fhrowds of wild beafts, I know not what is anie.
How many families alfo thefe great and fmall
games haue eaten vp, and are likelie hereafter to
deuoure, fome men may coniecture * * * they
fhall faie at the lad, that the twentith part of the
realm is imploied vpon deere and conies alreadie,
which feemeth verie much, if it be dulie con-
fidered of." The development of this idea is the
dark page in my history, when the Forest was
despoiled of many a beautiful glade. Let us pass