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appendix.
Open Places.
The subject of Epping Forest having recently
given a special interest to the question of open places
in and around densely populated towns, I have thought
it my duty, with the permission of the Vestry, to state
very briefly my views upon the question.
There is no difficulty in conceding the truism that
air and light are necessary to human existence, it must
therefore be equally true that their value in this respect
bears direct relation to their purity and freedom, Any
cause which shall vitiate the one or obstruct the due
action of the other, must, in a corresponding degree, be
prejudicial to health.
If these simple but vital facts are applied to the
case of vast multitudes of people congregated together,
as in this Metropolis, without a single urban oasis of
any extent in the wilderness of bricks, the question
becomes one of so serious a nature as to be difficult of
exaggeration. The urgency of the question is greatly
enhanced by the present imminent danger of Epping
Forest being extensively enclosed, and so lost for the
purposes for which it has hitherto been used. There is
every indication that London will continue as hitherto
to increase in population and extend in area; imagine
the result, say, in only ten years, probably another
circle of two miles around the present circumference
would in that time be built upon; let this go on for an
indefinite period without interference, and the result to