But of all these early grants the most interesting is one relating to Monk Wood, the story of which we will trace back from the time when the Corporation of London acquired it, by purchase, from the lord of the manor, sometime in the seventies. Monk Wood you all know, and it may have occurred to some to wonder why it differs from the rest of the Forest round about it, from which it is not in any way separated. The fact is, that, although subject to rights of common of pasture, it was the lord’s wood; and from time to time be exercised his right of lopping in it. In a plan of the manor made one hundred and fifty years ago Great and Little Monk Wood are set out, with their bounds; and in a still earlier survey (1612) the rights over them of the lessees of the manor under the Crown are recognised. About thirty years before that date certain circumstances had led to the empanelling of a jury of the neighbourhood, which, as part of its verdict, found that Monk Wood—_i.e._ the timber therein—had been three times sold within the memory of man: one time by the Abbot of Stratford, and twice in Queen Elizabeth’s time. This intrusion of the Abbot of Stratford into what was pre-eminently the territory of his brother of Waltham, strikes one as a little singular, and it is here that our charters come in to help us to the explanation. We have already learned from Domesday that Peter de Valoines held two manors in Loughton, and, from a somewhat later authority, we find that among those holding of the Valoines barony in Essex were some subtenants called de Snaring (so called from Snoring in Norfolk), and from them a part of Loughton came to be called ‘Loughton Snarryng.’ In this part was a certain wood of 56½ acres, once the joint undivided property (in unequal shares) of Geoffrey Reyntot, Roger Fitz Ailmar, and Ralph de Assartis (a subtenant of de Snaring), who had given his three quarters to the Abbot and Monks of Stratford. The remaining fourth part, with their rights of cutting down and carrying away trees, and pannage, Geoffrey and Roger gave to the Abbot and monks of Waltham. To the 56½ acres seventeen were afterwards added, and credited to the share of Waltham. Trouble arose, as might be anticipated, between the tenants in common, and sometime in June, 1240—over six hundred years ago—the Abbots met at Chelmsford, in the mother church there, and settled their differences. The document containing the agreement they came to, doubtless after long parleying, is illustrative of the elaborate methods of the time. It was agreed that when Stratford owner of three-fourths, wished to fell timber, he was to send for Waltham’s bailiff, and then choose four trees of equal value. Of these Stratford had first chore as to two, Waltham next choice, and the fourth tree remained to Stratford. Vice versâ, if Waltham wanted to fell timber, he was to send for Stratford’s bailiff. If either Abbot did not want to fell his timber at the moment he was to