54 EPPING FOREST
time both the men and the women of the town
repaired to the gate of the abbey to receive the
abbot's final answer.
" He put them off with the information that he
was preparing for a journey into Lincolnshire to
meet the justices itinerant, and said that he would
settle the affair at his return. Not satisfied, they
went into the pasture, and, in driving out the
abbot's mares and colts, drowned three worth
twenty shillings, spoiled ten more to the value of
ten marks, and beat the keepers, who resisted
them, even to the shedding of blood. Fearing,
however, that they should be prosecuted on the
return of the abbot, they desired a ' love day,' and
offered to pay damages for the injuries committed ;
but, instead of doing so, they went to London and
accused the abbot to the king of having wrongfully
taken away their common land, and bringing up
new customs, adding that he would ' eat them up
to the bone.' The abbot then excommunicated
the men of Waltham, and they impleaded him at
common law for appropriating their common land
to himself. They were unsuccessful, and after a
long suit in the King's Bench, were glad to confess
that they had done wrong, and they were amerced
twenty marks, which the abbot remitted, and, on
their submission, he assoykd them from the ex-
communication."
Waltham Abbey did not escape the heavy hand
of Henry VIII., but, along with the rest of the
monasterial foundations, the canons, abbots, and
monks passed away, and their rich lands and
forestal rights were surrendered to the king in
1540. The present abbey, which is a conspicuous
feature from the high ground of the Forest over-
looking the valley of the Lea, is but a fragment of
the splendid old abbey, enriched and embellished
by a long line of kings. As has been already
shown, a sanctuary of some sort stood here from
very early times. The abbey was completed in
the nth century, but many additions continued to
be made to it by pious worshippers, until it was
shorn of its glories at the time of the surrender.