20
EPPING FOREST
effect of reminding the holders of this land of their
precarious position under the decision of the
Master of the Rolls if some scheme or compromise
were not presently devised. Under stress of this
dread, and under the skilful pilotage of Sir H.
Selwin Ibbetson, M.P.,1 the Act of 1878 was passed
without opposition, and finally settled the whole
question. It provided for the disafforestation of
Epping Forest, which is henceforth to be under
the charge of the Corporation of London as con-
servators. It is therefore no longer a Royal Forest,
except that the Crown appoints the Ranger, in
pursuance of which provision the late Queen ap-
pointed His Royal Highness the Duke of Con-
naught. The deer were ordered to be transferred
to the conservators, and the rights of the commoners
were preserved intact. It restored to the Forest
the whole of the lands in the hands of the lords
of the manors, and, with regard to those which had
been purchased and on portions of which houses
had been erected, it appointed an arbitrator, Sir
Arthur Hobhouse,2 to determine how much land
should be allowed to be retained in each case as
" curtilage " to the house, and what payment should
be made for it. He had also to award compensa-
tion to the lords of the manors, the dispossessed
grantees, and the possessors of lopping rights, now
put an end to for ever, and to settle divers other
questions. Many of these proved to be of great
difficulty and delicacy, and it was only after the
lapse of several years and the exercise of great
industry and judgment, combined with tact, on the
part of the arbitrator, that their intricacies were
at length unravelled. The final result was that
5542 acres were preserved to the public.3
The management of the Forest was vested in
a committee, called the " Epping Forest Com-
mittee," which has all the powers of the Con-
servators, and which consists of twelve members of
1 Now Lord Rookwood. 2 Now Lord Hobhouse.
3 The most important subsequent additions to the Forest
have been—Oak Hill, Theydon, 11 acres ; and part of Highams
Park, 30 acres.