Reminiscences of Epping Forest

During a great part of the last century, the ragged and romantic vicinage of the “Roebuck,” whose ferny brakes screened and protected the red and fallow deer which trooped on its verdant swards and grassy walks, was the hunting ground where the Earls of Tilney and the famous “rideing forester, Baron Suasso” hunted the stag for upwards of fifty years. Although these sylvan pursuits have partially fallen into disuse, and the woods no longer re-echo the sound of the horn, the London visitor will shortly hear the wild notes of the cuckoo and nightingale, and his senses be regaled by the fragrance of the flowers and the waving masses of verdant foliage around him.

There is one material fact which must be here mentioned respecting the probable fate of Epping Forest, and which ought to be known to the public, viz.: there are still 3,500 acres left, the greater part of which are adjacent to or plainly be seen from the “Roebuck;” and although (pending the Chancery Suit, which is now being proceeded with, viz.: The Corporation of the City of London versus the Lords of the different Manors) nothing in the way of improvement by Government can be expected, yet the people have a right to anticipate a proper drainage and good paths through these vast solitudes, and a restoration of the antlerred denizens of the woods.