ITS HISTORY 17
funds having been raised, an action was com-
menced in support of the lopping right, and
this step, involving a legal claim, resulted in an
order by the Court for the maintenance of the
status quo in Loughton Forest pending the decision
of the case. Although this case dragged its slow
length for several years, and was never finally de-
cided, it had the most important consequences.
The time gained, during which the Forest was
practically saved from further inroads, allowed
public interest in the question to grow, and brought
into the field more powerful combatants, whose
resources were used to raise wider and more far-
reaching issues. Still the attitude of the lords of
the manor was so confident, and the combined
front which they showed was so firm, that they
succeeded in persuading the Government of the
strength of their case, and a Bill was actually intro-
duced into Parliament by the First Commissioner
of Works, which would have given the public only
a paltry 600 acres, with leave to purchase at full
market value 400 more, which were allotted as
compensation to the commoners, the whole of the
remaining 5000 acres being absolutely made over
to the manorial owners. I well remember the
meeting, which was held at this crisis, of the
Commons Preservation Society, at that time
the only organised body which seemed to care
for the interests of the public. So dark was the
outlook that it was seriously debated by the com-
mittee whether this so-called compromise should
be accepted. It is not too much to say that the
fate of the Forest trembled round the table where
this committee sat. If weak-kneed counsels had
then prevailed, the Bill would probably have passed
without opposition, and the Forest, as we know it,
would have ceased to exist. Happily a spirited
policy carried the day. The Bill was vigorously
opposed, and dropped, and Mr. Cowper-Temple
subsequently carried against the Government an
address to the Crown, calling upon it to preserve
those parts of Epping Forest which had not been
enclosed by legal authority. The immediate result