NEW JUNE 2021.  This book, entitled 'Walks in Epping Forest'', was published in 1885.

The book describes the Forest's geology, pre-history and history, and its special flora and fauna. Chingford is the main centre (with the Royal Forest Hotel getting a section to itself), but other towns such as Epping, Chigwell, Waltham Abbey, Loughton and Theydon Bois are included. You can see the full list in the index HERE. No map is present.

It is an oblong 100-page book with many line drawings. The editor is Percy Lindley, who produced several other guide books for the GER around this time. 

The copy scanned does not have its original covers. It has been professionally bound with the 1892 edition of his 'New Walks in Essex', which is available in the Files Emporium as File RG043. As was Mr Lindley's custom, the publisher is merely stated to be "123-125 Fleet Street", which is thought to be the address at the time for W H Smith. Clearly, like the others, the book had the backing of the GER. The details of their services from Liverpool Street are described, including to stations such as Buckhurst Hill and Ponders End. There is no GER advertisement present in this copy, but that is thought to be because some pages of adverts were removed before it was re-bound. (A single advert has survived, for the Chingford Rise estate which was being developed. Of course it would not be cheap to live there - "It consists of houses from £30 upwards"!)

The book is word-searchable and has bookmarks to all its main sections. The page numbers in the file match those in the index, which was quite some task. The original pagination was chaotic. The introductory pages are given Roman numerals, but page 'x' there is bafflingly followed by page 13 of the main text though nothing at all is missing between them. There are several blank pages in the book (not reproduced in this file), often but not always the backs of full-page drawings - for no apparent reason, some of these are included in the numbering sequence but others are not.

The file will be available to download as soon as payment has been made. You go to your account and click on ‘Downloads’. New customers create an account as they place their order.