Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1882-08-18
EPPlNG FOREST.
A Famous Piece OF Woods.


Within a few miles of the great throb-
bling heart of London there still remains
a portion of the royal Forest of Waltham,
which in ancient times covered great
tract of country and extended to the very
walls Of the city. Its vast area included
the Forests of Hainault and Epping, OF
which some 5000 acres OF picturesque
woodland have, after much opposition
and many difficulties, been secured for
public health and recreation. By the
new charter of forest rights, not only
wide stretches of land, after years of cul-
tivation, have been redeemed from en-
closure and restored to the forest limits,
but nearly thirteen miles of almost un.
broken woodland scenery, forming per-
haps the most extensive pleasure ground
in Europe, have been formally dedicated
by the Queen to the use and enjoyment
Of her people for all time.
So far back as the twelfth century, in
the reign of King Stephen, and again by
charter of King John, much of the out
lying land was disafforested. Edward
/. 3 "Charta de Foresta" still further re-
duced its bounds, which were again de-
termined by Charles l. and since that
time they have been diminished year by
year by illegal encroachments. Not only
the residents of East London, but the
nation at large must feel grateful to the
corporation Of the city for preserving and
restoring as far as possible to its ancient
limits landmark, grand in itself, and
interesting by right Of its connection with
splendid and historic memories.
Strange indeed was the aspect pre-
sented by the ancient Forest at the inau-
gural ceremony on that bright day in
May, when the cheers and shouts nnd
merriment of half million of people
broke the classic stiffness of the woods
where gaudy uniforms of guards of hon
or, military bands, and civic dignitaries,
made n charming contrast with the gold
en- gorse and broom, and the green
background of the wooded slopes. In
contrast, too, with the overcrowded popu-
lation which presses so closely on the
borders Of the Forest, we are reminded of
those days in "Green England when,
even in the last century, the red and fall
low deer haunted her endless glades and
vistas, and drank ut the rush grown pools !;
when the venerable oaks and beeches
harbored birds, which the denudation of
heathlands have made so rare-the kite,
the great bustard. and the bittern when
picturesque Gypsy encampments lent an
other charm to the sylvan scene. The
ambitious life Of civilization has banish-
ed also from this cool green Forest bar
rier the primitive hamlets and homesteads
that nestled under the grand old trees !;
the rustic cottages, built of wood, or mud
and clay, hardened by the smoke that es-
capped from an aperture in the roof, and
which Hollinshed tells us was considered
n medicine to keep the goodman md his
family from the quack." But in these
$50 homely cottages, which could not
boast the luxury Of a glazed window. the
Spaniards in Queen Mary's reign saw
with amazement "what large Diet was
used," and reported that "the English
have their houses of sticks and dirt, but
they fare commonly as we'll as the King"
For many centuries Waltham was
hunting-ground for ourkings. It's woods
have echoed with the mellow horn and
the baying of the hounds, as over the
soft, thick turf many gallant cavalcade
has swept in the splendid pageantry of
royal hunts. With the old hunting tow
er still standing in the Forest, is assoca-
ted the name of England's greatest queen,
who, inheriting some part of her fathers
rough masculine spirit, displayed pas
sion for the chase. The legend runs that
Elizabeth on one occasion rode her horse
up the broad staircase into the dining
hall of the old lodge at Chingford, whose
walls have listened to the romantic gal
lantry that distinguished the court of the
Maiden Queen they have witnessed,
too, the lovesuit of the magnificent Lei
cester, whose noble form was seen to the
greatest advantage in hunting-suit of
gold-embroidered Lincoln green, crossed
by the iewelled baldric, from which were
suspended the bugle-horn and forest
knife; and who in the reflected light of
Elizabeth's favor, was sovereign all but
i'll name.
Indeed, every portion Of the ancient
Forest is suggestive of une1hausted in
terest to those who know something of its
history. Around its annals group the
figures of many royal personages, from
Elizabeth in her stately ride to meet her
troops at Til5ury Fort, at the period of
the Spanish Armada TO Anne, who came
to visit the famous oak Edward ILL.,,
and Johanna of Navarro, who alike re-
tired amidst its solitudes; Richard III.
starting from Havering -atte- Bower on his
treacherous ride to Pleshy, the DOVER
house of many queens-away back to
that name dear to the hearts Of English
men, Harold, last of the Saxon kings.
We read how he loved Waltham-"the
town in the weald or wood"-the estate
given him by his brother-in-law the Con-
lessor how as conqueror after STAN
ford Bridge, he came to pay his final VOWS
PROSTATE before the miraculous cruel
fix how its name became his battle-cry
OF "Holy Cross !" at Hastings and how
he was laid beneath its shadow in the
Abbey Church-the simple inscription,
"Hic jacet Haroldus infelix, " marking his
resting place.
This far-famed Abbey for Augustin
canons was reared by Harold on the site
of an old hunting-seat at Waltham, built
by Toig the Proud, great Danish
Theyn, in the time of Canute. 1t was
endowed by Richard l. with the manor of
Waltham and "the Great Wood" and its
mitred abbot possessed unusual right,
over the adjoining country and Forest
for in days of old, particularly under the
Anglo-Saxon kings, the recesses of the
Forest were kept ms sacred as the groves
of the Druids, by laws harsh and terrible.
One of Edwards laws declares: 81 will
that all men do abstain from hunting in
my woods, and that my will shall be
obeyed under penalty Of life" Tradi-
tion says that the Confessor's favorite
residence was Havering, "because soil
tary, shrouded in woods, and fitted for
devotion ! also because here he could
follow his only pastime OF hunting the
wild-deer in the forest, which at that time
abonnded with wild beasts, the bull and
the boar"
From gentle eminence, half-veiled in
trees, can be seen a vast expanse of virgin
forest, and the borders OF six counties.
Here are Buckhurst Hill and Goldings
Hill, where the adjacent keepers lodge
still looks over the resort Of the deer /:
there Staplea Hill the acapa of tho mil