3 JULY 1909, Page 32

London's Forest : its History, Traditions, and Romance. Written and

Illustrated by Percival J. S. Perceval. (J. M. Dent and Co.' 3s. 6d. net.)—" London's Forest" is, of course, Epping Forest, the remnant, though it is true a respectable remnant, of the great tract of Essex woodland in which our Kings of old delighted to hunt. It is to these Royal visitors that most of the associations of the place belong. Here Edward I. was tossed by his Queen's maids-of-honour till he had to buy them off with two pounds each ; here Edward IV. gave the Mayor and Aldermen of London a good day's hunting when he wanted a good subsidy from them ; here Henry VIII. spent the morning of the day when Anne Boleyn was to die. After the reign of Elizabeth the forest ceased to attract its Royal owners. In the last century it was almost lost to London. The manorial lords, helped by the Government of the day, were on the point of appropriating the whole, with the exception of a thousand acres with which the claims of the commoners were to be satisfied. Two private associations, "The Commons Preservation Society" and the "Forest Fuud Com- mittee," took up the case, and the Corporation of London inter- vened and carried it to a successful issue. On November 24th, 1874, Sir George Jessel, Master of the Rolls, said of the seventeen defendants :—" They have taken other persons' property without their consent and have appropriated it to their own use." It was an excellent paraphrase, just as home triura literarum stands for fur. Of these and other things Mr. Perceval tells us in pleasant fashion, illustrating his text with some attractive drawings.