advisable, there can, I think, be little doubt that the smaller scale here suggested should be adoped. This would give an internal diameter of 167 feet, and a scale of almost exactly a quarter of an inch to a mile, and would combine grandeur of general effect, scientific accuracy, and educational importance, with a comparative economy and facility of construction which would greatly tend to its realisation. It is with the hope of showing the importance and practicability of such a work that I have ventured to lay before the public this modification of the proposal of M. Reclus, to whom belongs the merit of the first suggestion and publication. Now that Great Wheels and Eifel Towers are constructed, and are found to pay, it is to be hoped that a scheme like this, which in addition to possessing the attractions of novelty and grandeur, would be also a great educational instrument, may be thought worthy of the attention both of the scientific and the commercial worlds.

CHAPTER IV

EPPING FOREST, AND THE TEMPERATE FOREST REGIONS

Introductory Note

THIS article is reprinted in its original form for two reasons. It describes the actual condition of Epping Forest from personal observation, when it was first secured for the public in 1877, and will thus enable residents or visitors to know how much has been done in the way of re-afforestation of the bare portions of it, and the im provement of the unsightly waste of gravel-pits near Whip's Cross and the dreary Flats of Wanstead. It also describes some of the most interesting phenomena of the distribution of the forest trees of the temperate zone, a matter of permanent interest to all lovers of nature, and makes suggestions for the formation of illustrative forests of three or four distinct types, which, though not adopted at Epping Forest as here proposed, might still be undertaken in the New Forest, where there are several thousand acres of open pastures or boggy heaths of dreary aspect, which could thus be rendered at once interesting and beautiful.

Epping Forest in the Past.

Our greatest legal authorities will not admit that the people of England have any right whatever to enjoy the beautiful scenery of their native land, beyond such glimpses as may be obtained of it from highways and footpaths. Legally there is no such thing as a "common," answering to the popular idea of a tract of land over which anybody has a right to roam at will 1 Every supposed common is said by the lawyers to belong absolutely to some body of individuals, to a lord or lords of the manor and the surrounding owners of land who have rights of common over it; and if these parties agree together, the said common may be enclosed, and the public shut out of it for ever. The thousands of tourists who roam every summer over the heathy wastes of Surrey or the breezy downs of Sussex, who climb the peaks or revel on the heather-banks of Wales or Scotland, are every one of them trespassers in the eye of the law; and there is, perhaps, no portion of these favourite resorts of our country-loving people that it is not in the power of some individual or body of individuals to enclose and treat as private property.

How far this legal assumption accords with justice or sound policy, it is not our purpose now to inquire; that question having been treated by many able pens, and being one which will assuredly not become less important or less open to discussion as time goes on. We have now a far pleasanter task, that of calling attention to one of our ancient woodland wastes, Epping Forest, which, in the words of an Act of Parliament passed at the end of last session, is to be for ever preserved as an open space for the recreation and enjoyment of the public." Here at length every one will have a right to roam unmolested, and to enjoy the beauties which nature so lavishly spreads around when left to her own wild luxuriance. We shall possess, close to our capital, one real forest, whose wildness and sylvan character is to be studiously maintained, and which will possess an ever-increasing interest as furnishing a sample of those broad tracts of woodland which once covered so much of our country, and which play so conspicuous a part in our early history and national folklore. Unfortunately the spoilers have been at work, and much of the area now dedicated to the people has been

"Although the public have long wandered over the waste lands of Epping Forest without let or hindrance, we can find no legal right to such user established in law.” (Preliminary Report of the Epping Forest Commissioners, 1875, р. 12.)

more or less denuded of its woodland covering and otherwise deteriorated. Before, however, we describe the present state of the forest, and discuss the important question of how best to restore its beauty and increase its interest, it will be well to give our readers some notion of its former extent and of the circumstances that have led to its preservation.

It appears by the Reports of the Epping Forest Commission (1875 and 1877) that in the reign of Charles I. the Forest of Essex, or of Waltham, as it was then called, comprised the whole district between the rivers Lea and Roding, extending southward to Stratford Bridge, thus including the site of the great Stratford Junction Station, and northward to the village of Roydon, a distance in a straight line of sixteen miles. Much of this wide area was, however, even at that early date, only forest in a legal sense, for it included many towns and villages and much cultivated land, and these seem to have left the actual unenclosed forest not much larger than in the first half of the present century. We are told, for example, that during the two centuries from 1600 to 1800 only eighty acres of the forest were enclosed, and that even up to 1851 barely 600 acres had been enclosed. The unenclosed forest at that date is estimated by the Commissioners at 5,928 acres. Then came the development of our railway system, and the discovery of Californian and Australian gold. The wealth of the country began to increase at an unprecedented rate; the growth of London became more rapid than ever, and its citizens more and more acquired the habit of residing in the country. Land everywhere rose in value; the wastes of Epping were temptingly near at hand; and illegal enclosures went on at such a pace that during the twenty years between 1851 and 1871 they amounted to almost exactly half the entire area, leaving only 3,001 acres still open.

This wholesale process of enclosure, which, if quietly submitted to, would soon have left nothing of Epping Forest but the name, roused the indignation of many who dwelt near the forest or felt an interest in it, and a powerful agitation was commenced, in which the Cor

poration of the City of London and many members of the Legislature took a prominent part. In 1871 the Epping Forest Commissioners ers were appointed by Act of Parliament, and they gave in their final report only in the spring of last year. But in the meantime a most important case had been decided in the courts. At the request of the Corporation of London, which supplied all the necessary funds, the Commissioners of Sewers (as freeholders in the forest) commenced a suit in Chancery against the lords of manors and persons to whom they had granted lands, claiming a right of common over all the waste lands of the forest, and that all enclosures made since 1851 should be declared illegal. The Master of the Rolls decided (on the 24th November, 1874) in favour of the plaintiffs, and against this decision the defendants did not appeal. It has therefore been made the basis of legislation in the Act just passed, which declares, that the whole 5,928 acres which the Commissioners found to have been open waste of the Forest in 1851 are to be treated as common lands, and (the lords of manors or their grantees being first duly compensated for their manorial rights and property in the soil) that the whole of this extensive area, with the exception of lands built upon before 1871, gardens, and pleasure-grounds, is to be preserved "uninclosed and unbuilt upon as an open space for the recreation and enjoyment of the public.'

دو

Large sums of money were, however, required to buy up the manorial rights, and although this might possibly have been done by public subscription, the necessity for this course was obviated by the liberality and public spirit of the City of London, which offered to supply all the needful funds, not only for this purchase, but also for all work that might be found necessary for the preservation, management, and replanting of the forest. This munificent offer was accepted, and the very reasonable desire of the Corporation to have the chief voice in the management of the newly acquired domain in trust for the public, was acceded to by the Legislature; and the Act accordingly declares that Epping Forest is to be managed by a committee consisting of twelve members of