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 great was his love for the retreat we are now describing, that he (Thomas Campbell) half cut a way to it with a knife, and although this vista was relinquished through his death, it was finished by a gentleman of the same name, who resided at the Hotel for years, he remarking, with emphasis, that “A Campbell began it, and a Campbell completed it.” Another great author, the late Charles Dickens, no later than about seven years since, in a conversation that he had with the proprietors, Messrs. Green Brothers, stated that it have him great pleasure to visit this house, inasmuch as he had always considered it as the central rendezvous for all Foresters from time immemorial.
During a great part of the last century, the ragged and romantic vicinage of the “Roebuck,” whose ferny brakes screened and protected the red and fallow deer which trooped on its verdant swards and grassy walks, was the hunting ground where the Earls of Tilney and the famous “rideing forester, Baron Suasso” hunted the stag for upwards of fifty years. Although these sylvan pursuits have partially fallen into disuse, and the woods no longer re-echo the sound of the horn, the London visitor will shortly hear the wild notes of the cuckoo and nightingale, and his senses be regaled by the fragrance of the flowers and the waving masses of verdant foliage around him.
There is one material fact which must be here mentioned respecting the probable fate of Epping Forest, and which ought to be known to the public, viz.: there are still 3,500 acres left, the greater part of which are adjacent to or plainly be seen from the “Roebuck;” and although (pending the Chancery Suit, which is now being proceeded with, viz.: The Corporation of the City of London versus the Lords of the different Manors) nothing in the way of improvement by Government can be expected, yet the people have a right to anticipate a proper drainage and good paths through these vast solitudes, and a restoration of the antlerred denizens of the woods.
At present the “Roebuck” is the only hotel near which these improvements will take place, and will, no doubt, be the head quarters of the public functionaries, surveyors, contractors, &c., under Her Majesty’s Commissioners, since the present proprietor and remaining partner of the firm, late Green Brothers, has, at a heavy outlay, made every arrangement for their comfort and convenience, as well as for that of the public at large.
Looking forward to the proximity of summer, and the near advent of thousands from Town, a short description of this establishment may not be uninteresting to the reader. This antique edifice, the Hotel, which is detached from the high road to Cambridge about a furlong, is approached by a semi-circular carriage way which diverges from the above road on the summit of Buckhurst Hill, re-entering the same further down towards Loughton. It is provided with an ample bar and airy and well ventilated apartments, overlooking prospects principally of immense tracts of forest, relieved by corn fields and undulating meads. Adjoining the hotel a Ball or Banquetting Hall has been erected, capable of dining 500 persons; indeed the proprietors found it necessary, to meet the continually increasing demands for large Annual Dinners, Masonic Banquets, Fetes, &c.
When it is borne in mind that these Grounds cover over 22 acres, and that the greater part of this area is laid out in Gardens, Terraces, Bowling Greens, &c., with a profusion of Flowers, some idea may be formed of the whole, but it must be visited and inspected, since no description can possibly convey an adequate idea of the place.
There is every accommodation for Horses, Carriages, &c., and the Buckhurst Hill Railway Station is little more than ten minutes’ walk from this ancient hostelry.