Transcribed from the 1873 edition , email
ISSUEDBY
J. GREEN,
“THE ROEBUCK,”
BUCKHURST HILL.
1873.
It is most desirable that the above charming locality shouldbe better known to the inhabitants of London; but, to be fullyappreciated, it must be visited and explored from time to time,but especially during the fine months of the year.
The popularity of this place was enhanced considerably by theformation of the Loughton, Woodford, and Ongar branch of theEastern Counties Railway, although, prior to that, the p. 6prejudicesagainst Essex scenery had kept many persons, who now wander aboutits sunny slopes with unmixed delight, from seeking air andexercise North-east of the Metropolis; indeed, when we take intoconsideration the “barr’d up” and comparativelyexclusive character of the approaches to London in Kent, Surrey,and Middlesex, it is a matter of surprise and wonderment thatthere can be found people who prefer dusty roads (which are onlyenlivened by notices to trespassers of prosecutions with all therigour of the law) to the jolly freedom connected with ramblingin pure air only ten miles from London wherever theirinclinations may lead them.
The Roebuck Gardens and Groundshave always been historically associated with the adjacentForest, and p.7the quaint old edifice has been referred to chiefly asthe Foresters’ and Keeper’s Home for more than twocenturies, so much so, that it was under the consideration of thelate proprietors, Messrs. Green Brothers, at the suggestion oftheir neighbours and visitors to name it TheLord Warden’s Roebuck Hotel!
The situation (on the brow of a lofty hill), with two deepvalleys on either side of it, watered by the rivers Lea andRoding, is scarcely to be rivalled, as to scenery, even by thefar-famed contiguous eminence of High Beech.
In the extreme distance is the ancient town of Epping, fromwhich the Forest takes its name, and “ye wodes ofWaltham,” referred to in p. 8“Doomsday Book,” are onthe opposite heights. To the North-west is the cave of therenowned Turpin; and this haunt of the Essex freebooter may beseen from hence, and easily reached by descending a ravine andclimbing the high hill beyond it.
To the lovers of poetry this place will be interesting,inasmuch as at Fair Mead Bottom the author of the“Pleasures of Hope” lived in sedation, but so greatwas his love for the retreat we are now describing, that he(Thomas Campbell) half cut a way to it with a knife, and althoughthis vista was relinquished through his death, it was finished bya gentleman of the same name, who resided at the Hotel for years,he remarking, with emphasis, that “A Campbell began it, anda p. 9Campbellcompleted it.” Another great author, the late CharlesDickens, no later than about seven years since, in a conversationthat he had with the proprietors, Messrs. Green Brothers, statedthat it have him great pleasure to visit this house, inasmuch ashe had always considered it as the central rendezvous for allForesters from time immemorial.
During a great part of the last century, the ragged andromantic vicinage of the “Roebuck,” whose ferny brakes screenedand protected the red and fallow deer which trooped on itsv