History
Hainault Forest is one of the remaining sections of the former Forest of Essex in England. Epping Forest and Hatfield Forest are other remaining examples. The forest belonged to the abbey of Barking until the dissolution of the monasteries; it extended northwards to Theydon Bois (bois, "woodland"), east to Havering-atte-Bower, on the south to Aldborough Hatch, and westwards to Leytonstone. In a survey made for Henry VIII in 1544 its extent was some 3,000 acres (12 km2).
The forest land was condemned as waste by an Act of Parliament, 1851, disafforested, the deer removed, the old growth forest cut down, and the land divided for building lots, for a growing London. This was deplored by Sir Walter Besant in his works on London: the forest is also the setting for his novel All in a Garden Fair.
Read more about this topic: Hainault Forest Country Park
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Regarding History as the slaughter-bench at which the happiness of peoples, the wisdom of States, and the virtue of individuals have been victimized—the question involuntarily arises—to what principle, to what final aim these enormous sacrifices have been offered.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)
“I am ashamed to see what a shallow village tale our so-called History is. How many times must we say Rome, and Paris, and Constantinople! What does Rome know of rat and lizard? What are Olympiads and Consulates to these neighboring systems of being? Nay, what food or experience or succor have they for the Esquimaux seal-hunter, or the Kanaka in his canoe, for the fisherman, the stevedore, the porter?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“All history and art are against us, but we still expect happiness in love.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)