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twenty-two days, before the Master of the Eolis, the
Court made a decree in favour of the plaintiffs,
declaring they had the right which they claimed, and
practically ordering all the unlawful enclosures
made within twenty years to be thrown open.
The effect of this decision was, that so far as the
Lords of Manors and the two owners and occupiers
of enclosed lands claiming by purchase from the
Lords who were made parties to the suit as repre-
sentative cases were concerned, all their enclosures
were thrown open, and in the result there are at this
moment some 5,000 acres of the Forest open, in place of
the 3,000 which was the quantity when the Cor-
poration took the matter up.
The Commissioners had in the meanwhile been
holding many sittings, and had taken much evidence,
not only as to the actual land of which the Forest con-
sisted and as to the unlawful enclosures therein, so as
to be able to prepare and publish an accurate map
and survey of the Forest, but also as to the rights in
Epping Forest. Their proceedings were very pro-
tracted, and the Commissioners did not present their
Preliminary Report to Parliament until after the
decision of the Master of the Eolis, when they were of
course obliged, as far as rights were concerned to follow
the decision of the authorized tribunals of the country.
It is as well to set out here what their actual
findings were : —