In reading Will Ashon’s book Strange Labyrinth:  Outlaws, Poets, Mystics, Murderers and a Coward in London’s Great Forest, I realised how little I know Epping Forest in spite of living within easy reach of it for nearly forty years.   So, I took the Central Line to Epping, the end of the line, past Theydon Bois where the underground runs alongside fields, and found my way, not without difficulty (it’s a while since I’ve had to rely not on Google, but the Ordnance Survey) out into the long rides of the forest, mostly deserted, apart from over-equipped runners, across the occasional road, to Chingford in the distant south where I was able to get a cup of coffee next to Queen Elizabeth’s Hunting Retreat:-