166
EPPING FOREST
combing process was due to the fact that the
gravel often lies in " pot holes." The pits being
narrow and deep were dangerous, and an attempt
was generally made to fill them up partially by
sloping the sides to resemble the inside of a pie
dish, and by filling them with the top spit removed
from the roots of the trees for many yards around.
The ultimate result of this process was a noxious
black swamp with unpleasant exhalations. Where
gravel-digging is still allowed, the pits should be
continuous, even if a few inferior pollard trees are
thereby sacrificed, and above all no attempt should
be made to formalise their steep edges, the deeper
and more rugged they are left the better will they
ultimately harmonise with their surroundings. I
do not object to an extensive gravel-pit in a suitable
position left with its original rough edges and
clothing itself anew with gorse and broom in the
shade of which lies a clear pool of water. Such
an opening in the Forest is a beautiful feature, and
very different from the destructive delving against
which I protest.
Games.—There is a remarkable increase in the
number of football and cricket clubs who apply
for the use of grounds on the Forest. The taste
for athletics grows apace, and I trust the Com-
mittee of Management will always endeavour to
satisfy this aspiration as far as possible. Large
amounts have been spent at Wanstead Flats by
outside associations, like the London Playing
Fields Committee, on the preparation of grounds.
I hope that the Conservators will not be content
with an attitude of benevolent neutrality towards
such associations, but will actively promote them.
Even now no more beautiful sight can be seen on the
Forest than when thirty or forty cricket matches,
comprising some five hundred cricketers, are being
played at once on a Saturday afternoon. Chingford
Plain, though somewhat farther from London,
will obviously be utilised in the same way before
long. The golf players are already in possession,
but it ought not to be difficult to define the
respective spheres of influence, the more hilly