12
EPPING FOREST
over the bad quarter of an hour as rapidly as
possible.
The machinery of the Forest laws existed in full
force until near the end of the eighteenth century,
and was effective in preventing encroachments.
Such enclosures as were allowed were all recorded
in the Court Rolls, and were exceedingly minute
both in number and in quantity. But Mr. Wellesley
Pole, who, in his wife's right, became Lord Warden,
saw that more profit was to be made in breaking
his trust than in keeping it, and by refusing to
support the authority of the verderers, but on the
contrary by his example encouraging persons to
defy the Forest law, and in other ways, designedly
brought the Forest laws into abeyance so that
he might himself infringe them with impunity.
This he proceeded to do by selling the rights he
was appointed to guard. At the final settlement
of the Forest question, the office was abolished
by Act of Parliament, which directed that com-
pensation should be given to its then holders, the
trustees of Lord Mornington, for being deprived of
this hereditary trust. They claimed £1000, and
were awarded £300 in the arbitration.
The use for sporting purposes by the Crown
having all but ceased, and its chief representative
seeking to turn his office to profitable account, it
is not surprising that the Forest laws were laxly
administered, and that the machinery became
rusty. Concurrently the growth of London in-
creased the demand for produce of all kinds,
and, while the supply was artificially limited by
protective laws, put a premium upon the extension
of cultivated ground, and enhanced the value of
land for building. The term " waste" of the
Forest seemed to imply that it was of no value
to anybody while it remained in that condition,
and tempted those who had the power, or thought
they had, to turn it to account. Naturally those
parts adjacent to the metropolis were the first to
fall into the hands of speculators, and a glance
at the map shows that the southern half of the
Forest, even now that such large restitutions