Morning journal and courier., 1893-08-19

eaucers for their service. There were other toothsome tid-bits which would have done honor to the real quality; along with cold tea by the jug full, and few dark looking, chunky bottles of ale, tribute to Jem's affection for Becky and a cunning
 provision for himself; for on this point he had approached me with confidence, genu- inc feeling and wiee insight into the eociAl requirements of @ London East End coster girl.
 ,'W'st's the use," he said, with almost & | tinge of bitterness in his sturdy plea,
 "w'at's the use 6 leavin' out the wetl A real London lady's no more good at a hout-
 in, 'thout wettin' CT up bit, than a COW
 'thout runnin' water. Wy, 'n' all them | constitushun inter kindlers afore night
 'thout 6 sup O wet. At 'Ampstead CT Hopping, give a oomsn wat she's used ter, an' plenty hof 1t, n no fear, she'll make
 'arppy were she bidesl"
 Jem was 6 sight In his new "clobber,S . | gleaming rows of buttons and stunning
 "kingsman." Becky was no less sight in her grand gown and feathers. Bolivar | was even & more interesting sight in his
 sleek coat and wonderful decoration, a portion of which comprised feathers way ing from his trembling ears, set of false whiskers depending from his shaggy chin, with bright ribbons crossed and reorossed about his nimble legs; and Sprst, a tiny ooster lad without recorded anceatry, who often accompanied us on our daily hawk ing adventures and slept in our cart at night, who was this day to be our ''coachy and vally" combined, clad in Jem's every day jacket, waistcoat and ''kingsmAn" was @ sight of stom-like hsbilitated matter one seldom in a whole lifetime beholds.
 Indeed we were altogether such a sight that, as we finally sallied forth, the deni- zens of Bell lane, Snoreditch, were so pleased with our appearance and 50 enthu- sisstic over our various gracious returns of their hearty encomiums, which included occasional showers of half pennies among the Bell lane rsgamuffn youths, that this admiration for our spirit in so gsily up holding the gsllantry of the thoroughfare was at length expressed In enthusiastic cheers. These encouraged Sprat to lar rup Bolivar far beyond his wont or de- serts. The donkey thereupon took most of his uhiskers and all of his bit firmly between his teeth. Then, after lifting Sprat out of his temporary box with his nimble heels, he straightwsy broke into a fierce canter, never checking his furi- ous pace until he ran hesd-foremost into the old Stoke-Newington church wall. After slighting here over each others heads we took time to reassure Bolivar of the peaceful nature of our expedition, read our ambitious coachman a highly spiced coster warning, made some slight necessary repairs, gathered together our distributed hampers and their contents, and then proceeded with greater cAlmnsss and eiroumspection, but none the less merrily, on our pleatant holiday way. As we logged along at sn easy gait in the fine May morning there was much in- teresting to see and know through the medium of my coster friends sources of information. While they quaintly told me of this and that, to them, familiar object along or upon the highway, I gave them, in return, a bit of the Forest history: Some of these things my readers may care to know as we'll as Jem and Becky and Sprat. In ancient times 1t was known as
 Waltham forest, and in those days com prised sixty thousand acres. It was eI- clusively used ss the royal hunting ground, with most cruel foresters iu charge, who usually settled the cases of poschers with | their darts, scsrcsly troubling the hard | justices in Eyre, who, until 1870, held | their justice seat here in the Forest every three years. In later though still olden times the annual Epping hunt was one of | the most famous stag g-hunts of England. Even to day this ancient custom is still ob-
 served by unloosing, every Easter Monday, II h IAk, DcElUppncN t&hk, NlbCh hLublcc hlAAn- | bly, about the Forest, followed by hun dreds of London qussi-huntsmen, lot of
 happy. friendly CUTS and perhaps ten thou
 sand East End ragsmufins who fall over | each other merrily and madly in the gene
 rsl scramble through the shadowy forest
 glades.
 Henry the Third wAs the first sovereign | to give the mayor and citizens of London
 the privilege of sporting in the royal for | sl,,. : all, f.. aas | common. But there were no legally de
 fined rights. By 1871 suburban sncroach | ments and enclosures had extended so rap | idly that less than four thousand acres of | Epping Forest remained. A great popu' | lar agitation against Its diminution fol | lowed. This resulted in the corporation | of London, under authority of an act of
 parliament, and at sn expense 10 the present time of about three-quarters of g
 million pounds, by purchase of msnorial
 Iights-and other procedures, recovering
 several thousand acres which had been en
 closed.
 The entire area, amounting to about si,
 thousand acres, which stretches away tC
 the northeast of London on the westerr
 border of Essex, from Wspstead to th'
 town of Epping, a distance of about twelve
 miles, was publicly declared forever ire
 to the people" by the queen, who sp
 peared at the forest in person, before [
 corcourse of fully two hundred thousand Londoners, on May 6, 1882. Since tha 1 time portions of the tract have been meas I urably beauti6ed and improved; but th'
 chief glory of Epping forest Is in its ac
 tual primeval character. Scarcely an acr'
 of its surface has ever been touched bl
 within 1t shaded by the eelf-ssme tree which clustered about them nearly tw' thousand years SEQ; and the turf upon tn earthwork where Bosdices, queen of tn , Iceni, was defeated by Suetonius, witt eighty thousand Britons slain, since 1t re
 ceived that mighty feast of blood, gave fo
 the prodding of sntiquarisns, has neve
 been disturbed.
 At Chingford, on the western slope c the forest, we gave Bolivar as famous sts , bling as could be found; left Sprst to brin on the hampers at & sessonable hour to tn woods between Quesn Elizabeth's lodg B and Connaught lake and set out for genr inc coster's enjoyment of the forest. Bsc towards London for several miles We hs , only seen patches of woods and coppics t to our right. Here at Chingford the rei r forest begins.
 , Jem and Becky, already within Its st
 customed spell, pressed forward to il
 heights with increasing spsed, outstretehe 1, | hands and radiant faces; and as I ss 8 | them far in advance I could not but thin - of the old prints of Pilgrim when his bu :. den fell.
 We were at once h the thickest of 1
 not of the forest, but of the might 6 throng. Avenues upon avenues of Ea l. Endsrs stretched In every direction.
 was now afternoon, the Saturday ha Y holiday, a joyous, glorious day withal, ar 1t seemed that from all ways leading fro Il tides of humanity came sweeping on, esS IT one greater than the one before 1t, and g r finally merging at the edge of the woot IA and over the open. spaces In seethir IT masses of motion and color. It was III n the action of incoming sea-tides brsskir s upon @ shallow, shingly beach. No ol can understand the oomplexity, the irr 7, possibility, the vastness of London hC t idsy crowd until the greater portion ,r these one hundred thousand or one hu n dred and fifty thousand souls can be SC, :. here at a glance moving upon and almo u stormipg this ancient Epping forest D. masse. Far back as the eye can req y hundreds upon hundreds of outlandI ,- Essex shandrydans, as many traps al gigs, Whitechapel omnibuses, millers' al 'o butchers carts, brewers vans and coste es carts, are moving towards you, around &, ys between which countless thousands of fo o. afoot, concentrating from highways, fro
 lanes and from footpaths across the felc as are massed in seemingly inextricable co ar fusion. For an instant there is somethi of like terror in such 6 scene. I cannot t
 why, but in 1t and through if, sgain a