THE DOMESDAY SURVEY The only way in which to gauge the distribution of woodland at the time of King Edward's death is to mark down on a map of the county the amount, reckoned in swine, as given for each parish. The results of this tedious process are of interest if treated with that caution which is always so essential in dealing with Domesday figures. When one finds such estimates as 100, 500, 1,000 frequently made, it is obvious that the estimate can only be accepted as a very rude one. Moreover the number of swine has to be compared with the acreage, a most laborious task. Certain general conclusions are therefore the most that one can hope for. And the first of these to be attained is that the actual woodland was distributed very unevenly, and that we can trace it as most abundant, even at that remote date, in places where its remnants linger down to the present day. Mr. Miller Christy enumerates among the ' stretches of forest and woodland ' still existing in the county Epping Forest, Takeley or Hatfield Forest, and ' the woods around Thorndon.' ' When we apply to the Domesday figures the test of ascertaining the number of swine to every hundred acres (according to the modern acreage), we find the south-west of the county a heavily wooded district. Waltham (Abbey), which gave its name to the ancient forest of Waltham (now, corruptly, of Epping), owed its origin to a hunting lodge, estab- lished there before the Conquest on account of the multitude of its deer. The number of swine it was reckoned to feed in 1086 was 2,382, actually the largest in the county ; but the great area of the parish reduces the proportion to 2i| per 100 acres. In Loughton, adjoining Waltham, it was 23!, and in the three Theydons, next to Loughton, it was 223 taking them as a whole.* At Woodford it was 23^, at Leyton 22|, and at Navestock 25!- South of Waltham Abbey the proportion drops to 1 8 at Chingford and 13! at Walthamstow ; at Wanstead it is 15. On the other hand, if we pass north-eastward to the Ongars, there is a marked increase. On the two Ongars together it is 38, at Norton Mandeville 32|, while at Greensted it leaps to the high figure of 75. A remarkable belt of woodland appears to have connected that of the Ongars with the Thorndon woods, although it has long vanished. At Blackmore the proportion works out at 38^, which is as high as in the Ongars ; and although it falls to 17 in Mountnessing, it jumps suddenly to 60 at Hutton, and is as high as 41 at Little Warley, 29! at Bulphan, and 23! at Orsett. At Cranham, due south of Brentwood, it is 263. Leaving now the district round Brentwood, we may turn to what appears to have been the most densely wooded district in Essex. Takeley and Elsenham could feed between them 3,500 swine, Stansted to the west of them 1,200, Little Easton to the east 800, and Hatfield Broadoak to the south 820. At Elsenham the proportion is as high as 72*, at Takeley it is 65, at Little Easton 50, and at Stansted 28^. Hatfield (or Takeley) Forest and Little Easton Park are now the representatives of this tract of forest, which shaded off in the Dunmows to a ratio of 1 See p. 232 above.
- All these figures may be taken as correct within a unit, which is sufficient for practical purposes.
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