THIRTY-FIVE YEARS IN 
 THE NEW FOREST 
 
LONDON: r-.IJWA.RJ; ARNOLD. 
 
THIRTY-FIVE YEARS IN 
 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 BY THE 
 
 HON. GERALD LASCELLES, C.B, 
 
 DEPUTY SURVEYOR OF NEW FOREST; ALSO OF ALICE 
 
 HOLT, WOOLMER, BKRE, AND PARKHURST FORESTS 
 
 STEWARD OF THE MANOR OF LYNDHURST 
 
 THE " STIBEUP OP KUFUS " 
 
 LONDON 
 
 EDWAED ARNOLD 
 1915 
 
 [All rights reserved] 
 
TO 
 
 , MY DEAR WIFE 
 
 WHO BRIGHTENED FOR ME THE YEARS OF 
 WHICH I WRITE IN THIS BOOK 
 
 372700 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 I. INTRODUCTION 1 
 
 II. THE GROWN AND THB COMMONERS ... 7 
 
 III. THE FOREST IN DANGER 14 
 
 IV. THE COURT OP VERDERERS . .21 
 V. MAKING A START 25 
 
 VI. SOME VERDERERS, OLD AND NEW . 33 
 
 VII. MY WORK, MY STAFF, AND MY CHIEFS . 44 
 
 VIII. THE NEW FOREST DEER 64 
 
 IX. THE KING'S HOUSE 95 
 
 X. ROYAL VISITS .127 
 
 XI. FORESTRY .138 
 
 XII. HUNTING 177 
 
 XIII. SHOOTING IN THE NEW FOREST . . 246 
 
 XIV. FALCONRY .276 
 
 INDEX 298 
 
 yii 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 THE AUTHOR 
 
 GRITNAM WOOD ..... 
 THE VERDERERS' HALL, KING'S HOUSE . 
 NEW FOREST PONIES 
 
 THE KING'S HOUSE, 1904 (NORTH SIDE) . 
 THE KING'S HOUSE (SOUTH SIDE) . 
 
 1. AS RESTORED IN 1904 
 
 2. BEFORE RESTORATION 
 
 AN ANCIENT POLLARD BEECH . 
 A MEET OF THE NEW FOREST FOXHOUNDS 
 ROBERT ALLEN, HUNTSMAN TO THE BUCK- 
 HOUNDS, 1896 
 
 Frontispiece 
 
 Facing page 16 
 
 34 
 
 62 
 
 96 
 
 128 
 
 152 
 178 
 
 202 
 
THIRTY-FIVE YEARS IN 
 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 I WAS born at Goldsbrough in Yorkshire in 
 October 1849, and, like many other natives of that 
 county, especially those who bear the same name 
 as myself, I became keenly interested in sport 
 from my very early days. At the age of six 
 I was duly blooded by Charles Treadwell, who 
 was huntsman to the Bramham Moor hounds for 
 twenty-three years. 
 
 I went through the usual course of education 
 at Eton and at Magdalene College, Cambridge. 
 I was never without a ferret at Eton, and gene- 
 rally had at the least a share in a dog. My 
 Cambridge days were, perhaps, the happiest of my 
 life. We had then a very cheery sporting set at 
 Magdalene. Among them Sir Charles Fitzwilliam, 
 now Crown Equerry to His Majesty; the late 
 J. Maunsell Richardson, who, besides playing 
 
2 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 cricket for Harrow and Cambridge, distinguished 
 himself by training and riding the winners of 
 the Grand National for two years in succession ; 
 the present Lord Kesteven, and many others. 
 We all of us revelled in the drag, and at certain 
 times Newmarket Heath occupied much of our 
 leisure. 
 
 After leaving Cambridge, I had a spell of 
 about four years in the City at Lloyd's, and in 
 1875, in which year I was married, I joined a 
 manufacturing firm at Leeds. 
 
 The indoor life in the surroundings of Leeds 
 was unendurable, and I set to work, in earnest 
 to study Land Agency, as a more congenial pro- 
 fession, being helped thereto by being given a 
 seat in the office of Mr. Constantine Moorsom, 
 agent to the Harewood estates, and by having 
 much work thrown open for my study and in- 
 spection in the offices of other kind friends who 
 were members of my profession. 
 
 In 1880 I was appointed by Lord Beaconsfield 
 to the post of Deputy Surveyor of the New Forest 
 and the other Crown forests in Hampshire 
 five in all besides other properties. This en- 
 tailed, in addition to the work of the New Forest, 
 a tract of 92,000 acres, a good deal of travelling 
 about from one property to the other ; and from 
 the time of my appointment to that of my retire- 
 
INTRODUCTION 3 
 
 ment, my leisure hours, except when on leave, 
 were few, and had always to be made up for 
 by working double tides. My home, however, 
 was in the New Forest, at the old King's House 
 (the Queen's House for all the earlier years of 
 my service) at Lyndhurst ; and it is with my 
 experiences there, rather than with my other 
 work, that I propose to deal in these pages. I 
 do not propose to attempt anything in the shape 
 of a history of the New Forest that would be 
 a difficult and much more serious undertaking ! 
 
 I have only dipped into ancient records 
 where they served or, indeed, were necessary, in 
 order to correctly describe the condition of Forest 
 affairs as they presented themselves to me. It 
 took me years before I could find out the why 
 and wherefore of many of the customs and pre- 
 judices that I encountered. But there generally 
 was a reason, and, while it interested me to dig 
 out this concealed root, I also found that when 
 it was discovered it was often much appreciated 
 by my local friends, who had neither the time 
 nor the opportunity to hunt out these things 
 for themselves. If, then, I have been a little 
 diffuse in such matters as these, and perhaps 
 especially in what I may call Forest politics, 
 and the various storms that ever vex that 
 stormy sea on which the barques of Crown, com- 
 
4 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 moner, and British public alike contend in their 
 traffic, I trust the reader who has no occasion to 
 trouble himself with any of these things will 
 bear with me, mindful ever as I am of the local 
 foresters who love to discuss these matters. 
 
 Indeed, a large book might be filled with 
 such disputations, but I have restricted myself 
 solely to those which led to the events passing 
 in my brief space of thirty-five years, terminat- 
 ing with 1914. 
 
 Prosily no doubt, as is the wont of the gar- 
 rulus senex, who is invariably laudator temporis 
 acti se puero, and though I have laboured to 
 avoid those particular rocks, I doubt if anyone 
 attempting my task could steer his barque en- 
 tirely clear of them. 
 
 Lastly, I have written this book, because it 
 amused me to do so. Because it was pleasant 
 in my old age to recount, before memory slips 
 quite away, incidents of the best and happiest 
 years of my life. Because I liked just once 
 again to recall the old fights, the old hunts, the 
 old days of good hard work in the woods and 
 about them, planning their future, realising their 
 defects, and rejoicing when nature was propitious 
 and plantations flourished. 
 
 In this book, however, I have no single word 
 to say about politics, local or otherwise. 
 
INTRODUCTION 5 
 
 It is an unwritten rule of the Civil Service 
 that its permanent officials take no part what- 
 ever in politics. How others interpret this rule 
 I know not, but I do know that as far as I 
 was concerned I carefully abstained from all 
 political action even of the most trifling descrip- 
 tion, and took care that my subordinates acted 
 on the same lines. I never attended a meeting 
 of either party, or, in fact, gave any man a right 
 to say on which side I was likely to cast my 
 vote. 
 
 I have had the advantage of being able to 
 refer to various papers and records in my office 
 of official or semi-official character, but I have, 
 I trust, done nothing to infringe the Public 
 Secrets Act. In fact many of these papers 
 have appeared in print in various books be- 
 fore now. 
 
 Especially they were before the public in 
 those articles which I myself wrote on " New 
 Forest Sport and Forestry " in the Victoria County 
 History of Hampshire ; and I am much indebted 
 to Messrs. Constable & Co., the publishers of that 
 work, for their kind permission to make use of 
 some of the paragraphs which then appeared in 
 connection with the public papers which were 
 quoted therein. Especially on various memo- 
 randa connected with the King's House and 
 
6 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 Royal visits thereto, I have adopted the 
 Victoria History as my authority for the quota- 
 tions from sundry papers in the Land Record 
 Office, without appending, as is therein done, the 
 precise reference, and date of the particular 
 document quoted from. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 THE CROWN AND THE COMMONERS 
 
 IT is curious how little is known of the New 
 Forest except among those who either reside in 
 its neighbourhood or else visit it regularly. 
 People often say, "Oh! I know the New Forest 
 well I motored all through it the other day." 
 That is to say, they dashed to Bournemouth or 
 Ringwood and back along one of the few main 
 roads, and barely saw even the roadside as it 
 flashed past. There are only two ways really to 
 see the New Forest and realise what it is like. 
 One is to go on foot with a pair of extra stout 
 boots and a walking-stick, but this takes a long 
 time, and is a fatiguing process. The other 
 the only way fit for a gentleman is from the 
 back of a pleasant, well-mannered horse, with 
 good shoulders and a trained eye for ruts and 
 rabbit holes. With such a conveyance, the most 
 delightful summer's day imaginable can be spent 
 in rambling about the beautiful heaths and 
 woodland scenes of all kinds that make up this 
 beautiful Forest. 
 
8 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 This great tract of 92,000 acres is divided 
 into the following classes of lands : 
 
 Acres. 
 
 Open heath and pasture .... 39,678 
 
 Open lands with timber .... 5,300 
 
 Plantations enclosed 11,138 
 
 open 6,532 
 
 Freehold lands of the Crown . . . 2,089 
 
 Private property within the Forest . . 27,658 
 
 92,395 
 
 Over the whole of the 64,737 acres which are 
 Crown property, the members of public have the 
 privilege of roaming at will on horseback, or on 
 foot, with or without wheeled transport, so long 
 as they do no harm and infringe none of the 
 very few regulations that exist for the protec- 
 tion of the public property. 
 
 There are divided interests in various por- 
 tions of the lands described above. There is 
 first the right of the Crown, which is that of 
 the absolute owner of the whole 64,737 acres 
 that is to say, over the whole Forest less the 
 27,658 acres of private lands. 
 
 Secondly, there is the above-mentioned privi- 
 lege of all loyal subjects, amounting to a practi- 
 cal though not a legal right to wander in 
 right of the Crown, not as against it, over the 
 whole of the Crown property except those free- 
 
THE CROWN AND COMMONERS 9 
 
 holds which are in some cases demised tempo- 
 rarily to private individuals. 
 
 Thirdly, there are the rights of the com- 
 moners of the New Forest to exercise over certain 
 portions of the Forest conjointly with the Crown 
 certain defined privileges of pasture, of pannage, 
 and of estovers in respect of the ownership of 
 certain particular lands or houses. 
 
 Of these commoners there are two sections. 
 First, the landowner, often the proprietor of 
 a large estate, who is the possessor of the 
 lands to which as set forth and defined by the 
 statutory register, these rights attach. He is 
 the actual commoner, and the owner of the 
 rights. 
 
 Secondly, there is the exercising commoner 
 or the tenant to whom the large proprietor has 
 let his land, to farm it in the ordinary course 
 of English estate management. These form 
 the main body of the commoners who actually 
 breed and turn out cattle and ponies in the 
 right of their landlord, for the right attaches 
 solely to the land or the house, not to the indi- 
 vidual, and for these rights they pay a sub- 
 stantial amount in the form of additional rent 
 for each right, and may be termed vicarious 
 commoners. 
 
 There are also a number of small holders, 
 
10 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 living on their own land and in their own houses, 
 who own and exercise rights of common. They 
 are a very prosperous and praiseworthy commu- 
 nity. They represent the genuine commoner and 
 his interests far more than those landlords who 
 let out their rights, or those tenants who rent a 
 large farm and go in for pony ranching in the 
 Forest, even though they perhaps own the larger 
 proportion of the ponies running out. But the 
 small freeholder is the real pony breeder and cattle 
 and pig raiser on small but efficient lines, who 
 ought to be encouraged in every possible manner. 
 It will be obvious that these common rights con- 
 stitute a property of great value, and that there 
 is necessarily considerable friction between those 
 who own and constantly desire to increase and 
 enhance them, and the Crown as actual owner of 
 the soil over which they are exercised, and again 
 with the public exercising its privileges in right 
 of the Crown. 
 
 This constant state of conflict has existed 
 from time immemorial, and been the subject of 
 numerous inquiries by official committees and of 
 Acts of Parliament based on the results of these 
 inquiries. 
 
 It would be tedious to follow out these dis- 
 cussions in full, but for the purposes of this 
 present story it is necessary to go back as far as 
 
THE CROWN AND COMMONERS 11 
 
 the New Forest Act of 1851, generally known as 
 the Deer Removal Act. 
 
 This Act, which followed upon a comprehen- 
 sive inquiry by a Parliamentary Committee 
 known as " Lord Duncan's Committee," com- 
 pletely transformed the whole character of the 
 Forest. Up to that time it had been maintained 
 (at considerable cost, it is true) as a vast and 
 beautiful park, well stocked with deer and full of 
 woods of fine timber, and also others of more 
 scrubby and inferior trees which had no little 
 beauty of their own, if their money value was 
 small. The Crown's rights to enclose land for 
 the growth of timber had only been exercised to 
 the extent of some 2000 acres, and this had re- 
 sulted in the formation of oak woods of about 
 150 years old, equal in beauty to any part of the 
 Forest. The whole forest was maintained on 
 Royal lines as a beautiful domain, in a condition 
 now lost and ever to be regretted, but at that 
 date difficult to defend from the practical .point 
 of view. 
 
 The Sovereign had long ceased to make any 
 use of the Forest for purposes of sport. The 
 general public hardly knew of its existence, and 
 before the days even of railway accommodation, 
 visitors to the Forest must have been few indeed. 
 The commoners clamoured for the removal of the 
 
12 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 deer, under the impression that they would get 
 for their cattle all the pasturage absorbed by 
 them. The Treasury, from motives of economy, 
 lent a willing ear to the proposal. It was gene- 
 rally felt, from a practical point of view, that a 
 better use could be made of that part of this 
 great national property which consisted of timber 
 growing soil than was the case at that time ; and 
 after the fullest possible inquiry into the matter 
 by Parliament the Deer Removal Act was passed 
 in the year 1851, and the palmy days of the 
 beautiful old Forest came to an end. 
 
 The main points of the Act were (1) that 
 the deer should be removed within two years. 
 (2) That a Register of Common Rights should 
 be compiled, deciding once and for ever what 
 common rights should attach to the various 
 plots of land concerned. This was a most costly 
 volume to prepare ; it absorbed about six years 
 of time, and cost some 6000, but it was of 
 great value to the commoners as well as the 
 Crown, by securing all their rights against pos- 
 sible intrusion by any outside parties. 
 
 The Crown was to be compensated for the 
 surrender of the right to stock the Forest with 
 deer to the absolute limit of the animals it could 
 maintain by being given a right to enclose land 
 for the growth of timber as against the com- 
 
THE CROWN AND COMMONERS 13 
 
 moners, to the extent of 10,000 acres, in addition 
 to the rights conferred by previous Acts, amount 
 ing to 6000 acres, with the right to throw out 
 lands when the woodlands upon them were 
 thought to be of an age when they were safe 
 from damage by cattle and to enclose the like 
 quantity from the open Forest, but so that the 
 area under enclosure should never exceed 16,000 
 acres at one time. 
 
 At the time, this arrangement seemed to 
 satisfy all parties. The Crown gained a power 
 which practically in course of years would en- 
 able it to cover with timber the whole of the 
 Forest wherever the soil was sufficiently good 
 for that purpose. The commoners were protected 
 in so far that their cattle could never be ex- 
 cluded from more than 16,000 acres at one time. 
 And this safeguard appeared to content them at 
 the time if, indeed, contentment has ever been 
 known to that body. They looked forward to 
 enhanced profits by getting for their cattle the 
 whole of the feed which the deer to the number 
 generally of from 4000 to 6000 had hitherto 
 consumed. They also got their register, of im- 
 mense value to them, which settled all their 
 claims and gave them a statutory position. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 THE FOREST IN DANGER 
 
 FOR a while things went well, but in a short 
 time discontent sprang up. In the first place 
 the register, valuable as it is, had rather seriously 
 discounted the rights of the commoners and 
 others as they had imagined them to be, and as, 
 in some cases, they had actually exercised them. 
 Various customs, or alleged customs, were found 
 to be altogether outside the limits of the rights to 
 which, by ancient practice or grant, the commoners 
 were entitled. When all these matters were 
 carefully gone into by three gentlemen learned 
 in the law (one of whom subsequently rose to 
 the position of Lord Chief Justice of England), 
 the various claims of the commoners were con- 
 siderably boiled down, and a great number of 
 persons, who had been exercising rights of 
 common, were found to possess legally no such 
 rights at all. Altogether the register, useful as 
 it was to the genuine owner or exerciser of 
 these rights, was not altogether an unmixed 
 blessing to the whole countryside. 
 
 Worst of all, perhaps, was the discovery that, 
 
THE FOREST IN DANGER 15 
 
 instead of the pasturage being increased by the 
 removal of the deer, the contrary was the case. 
 The deer had been invaluable in keeping down the 
 growth of holly, more particularly, and of other 
 rough undergrowth, which after their removal 
 began to encroach upon the lawns, where alone 
 the best pasturage grows. It is indeed an actual 
 fact that there is less pasturage in the open 
 Forest now, when 6000 deer have been taken 
 off it, than there was when they were alive, 
 grazing alongside the cattle, because their valu- 
 able aid in keeping back the rough growth from 
 the pasture has been lost. This result was fore- 
 seen by neither side at the time. Further, as 
 the new plantations under the Act began to be 
 made, and the cattle excluded from consider- 
 able areas, the commoners began to grumble, 
 although this was absolutely in accordance with 
 the settlement they had agreed to. Altogether the 
 commoners and the local landowners began to 
 feel that they had made a bad bargain by the 
 Act which they had agitated for in 1851. 
 What they had petitioned for, and obtained, was 
 not as good a thing as they imagined, and, 
 moreover, they did not like to pay the price they 
 had agreed to give for it. 
 
 So agitations, local and political, were rife 
 within ten years after the passing of the 1851 
 
16 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 Act, and the condition of the Forest was just as 
 much one of discontent as it had been for the 
 previous hundred years, in spite of the efforts 
 that had been made to satisfy it. 
 
 These agitations continued until the whole 
 question of the operation of the Deer Removal 
 Act the discontent of the commoners, before 
 and since the passing of that remedial measure 
 was referred in 1868 to a Committee of the 
 House of Lords. 
 
 That Committee made a very full and judicial 
 inquiry into the rights and the wrongs of both 
 sides, and its report was much of the nature of 
 a judgment of Solomon, viz. that, since from time 
 immemorial grievances and disputes had been 
 rife on both sides, to which there seemed to be 
 no solution, the time had come to destroy the 
 bone of contention, and to disafforest and par- 
 tition up the whole Forest. This was the con- 
 clusion to which most people, having regard to 
 the precedents in other cases, had been driven 
 long before. Indeed, so long ago as 1789 the 
 same solution had been arrived at and carefully 
 considered by a Royal Commission, despairing, as 
 the House of Lords did in 1868, of arriving at a 
 reconciliation of the conflicting interests ; but for- 
 tunately they decided to postpone the evil day, 
 and try remedial measures first. 
 
THE FOREST IN DANGER 17 
 
 It was now considered as a settled thing that 
 the New Forest as a whole was to cease to 
 exist. Not that there would not still have been 
 a very large wild tract, or tracts of heath inter- 
 spersed with woodlands, left for the enjoyment of 
 the public, but large sections would also have 
 been allotted to the commoners in satisfaction of 
 their rights which would have been enclosed and 
 broken up, while the large allotment to the 
 Crown would for the most part have been culti- 
 vated as timber plantations enjoyable enough in 
 the future, but not when first planted. Anyhow, 
 the ancient New Forest, already curtailed as to 
 its amenities, would have ceased to exist from the 
 passing of the necessary Act. 
 
 A certain section of common right owners 
 were at first a good deal attracted by the pro- 
 posal, because of the large additions of freehold 
 lands which they would have gained for their 
 estates, in lieu of common rights, which, to a 
 good many of them, were not worth a great 
 deal. But the smaller commoners, and all the 
 large non-commoner population of the district, 
 were much opposed to the loss of the Forest. 
 The small commoner did not think that the com- 
 pensation he would receive would really make 
 up for the loss of his right. The bulk of the 
 local residents who are not commoners would get 
 
18 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 no compensation whatever for the loss of their 
 pleasure ground. So the agitation against the 
 recommendations of the Lords' Committee grew 
 until it might almost be said to be unanimous 
 locally, at any rate. 
 
 But the agitation of a number of private indi- 
 viduals, on behalf of their own profit or pleasure, 
 might not have availed against the arguments in 
 favour of the more profitable use of the public 
 property had not a far more powerful ally come 
 to their assistance in the shape of the public 
 itself, in whose interests it was supposed dis- 
 afforestation was necessary. 
 
 The Office of Woods and the Committee of 
 the House of Lords had overlooked the great 
 and growing craving for open spaces free to the 
 public. They quite forgot the increasing love of 
 beauty and of fine scenery which was becoming 
 implanted in the minds of the general public. 
 They altogether overlooked the force of the aes- 
 thetic movement, which may be said to have 
 started with the Great Exhibition of 1851 a 
 force which would induce the majority of the 
 public gladly to waive some thousands of pounds 
 of additional income rather than lose this mag- 
 nificent park to take their pleasure in. Last of 
 all, they forgot that at about even date with the 
 passing of the Deer Removal Act, the London 
 
THE FOREST IN DANGER 19 
 
 and Dorchester Railway was made right through 
 the Forest, and was bringing thousands of 
 people to explore it and to discover what it was 
 worth to them. Those thousands of visitors now- 
 a-days, with improved railway facilities and the 
 advent of mechanical traction on the roads, have 
 grown into millions, as all who know the Forest 
 will recognise, and it was well that the force of 
 the movement was realised in good time, and the 
 Forest, as it then existed, was preserved to be so 
 highly appreciated, as undoubtedly it now is. 
 Accordingly, in 1870, Mr. Fawcett induced the 
 House of Commons to pass a resolution prohibit- 
 ing further planting or enclosing pending legisla- 
 tion and until the whole New Forest question 
 had been further inquired into. 
 
 This gave the commoners and local residents 
 time to organise their forces, and especially to 
 combine with their new ally in the shape of 
 altered public opinion, and the movement in 
 favour of open spaces, which was being power- 
 fully worked by the Commons Preservation 
 Society. These adjuncts were organised for all 
 they were worth, and dovetailed into the plea 
 for preservation of local interests ably and well. 
 The Office of Woods missed making the point that 
 if the public desired to maintain the Forest as a 
 great public park, they were there and ready to 
 
20 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 do it, as servants of the public, if so instructed, 
 far better than by having their hands tied to 
 prevent economical management, and leave all 
 other policy to drift. However, the Parliamen- 
 tary Committee of 1875 was appointed, and con- 
 sidered the question ; and although the preservation 
 of the amenities of the Forest for the use of the 
 public was the underlying principle, yet on the 
 whole their report, and the Act of 1877 which 
 followed thereon, were a great victory for the 
 commoners, whose case was far more ably pre- 
 sented than was that for the Crown. 
 
 The net result was that the extensive powers 
 of planting for the sake of perpetuating and in- 
 creasing the national stock of timber which had 
 been conferred by the Act of 1851, were alto- 
 gether surrendered. Not an acre, beyond what 
 has been already dealt with, was ever to be 
 taken in and planted, and of the land already 
 taken in (some 17,600 acres) only 16,000 were 
 ever to be enclosed at one time. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE COURT OF VERDERERS 
 
 THE ancient Court of Verderers the oldest in 
 this country with the exception of that of the 
 Coroner was to be reconstituted so as "better 
 to represent the interests of the commoners." 
 The old Court had represented both Crown and 
 commoner alike, and assisted the Crown ably in 
 maintaining and preserving order in the Forest. 
 A verderer too, who was elected for life by the 
 full county, took an oath of allegiance -to the 
 Crown. This did not at all suit the book of the 
 promoters of the Act of 1877, whose object it 
 was to set up a body which should override and 
 oppose the Crown, and gain full power over the 
 Forest, in favour of the commoners alone. The 
 number of verderers was increased from four to 
 six they were to be elected on a popular basis 
 by a constituency consisting of the owners of 
 rights of common, and by persons holding the 
 parliamentary franchise for a property lying in 
 a parish any part of which lay within the Forest. 
 
 This at the time just nicely covered the com- 
 
 21 
 
22 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 moners, and they alone were to have a hold, by 
 an election held in rotation every two years, over 
 the Court that had hitherto dealt solely with 
 the Forest management. 
 
 These elections are, I believe, the only ones 
 left where open voting prevails. 
 
 This ingeniously devised constituency was en- 
 tirely upset by the revision and lowering of the 
 franchise, which took place in 1885. By that 
 alteration there became entitled to vote at a 
 parliamentary election, and consequently at that 
 of a verderer, an enormous number of persons 
 who were not qualified by the Act of 1877. In 
 fact, if a verderers' election were to arouse keen 
 interest and the whole constituency recorded its 
 vote, the commoners' vote, taken by itself, would 
 be completely swamped by that of the other 
 residents in and around the Forest who have no 
 common rights at all ! But, as a matter of feet, 
 there have only been two contested elections, 
 and hardly anyone but those interested in com- 
 moners' questions cared to record their votes, 
 the polls being very small ones, and the interest 
 taken in them very limited. 
 
 The powers of the verderers were increased in 
 several respects by the New Forest Act, 1877, 
 under which it is now governed, but at the 
 same time they are not very clearly defined. 
 
THE COURT OF VERDERERS 23 
 
 Some clauses of the Act are overridden by 
 others, and altogether it is a clumsily drafted 
 affair, difficult to understand, although many 
 counsels' opinions have been called in to en- 
 deavour to arrive at an interpretation on various 
 points, and one or two lawsuits have resulted. 
 Altogether this Act has cost a great deal of 
 money to interpret. 
 
 So impossible of administration was it that 
 two years later the New Forest Act of 1879 
 had to be passed in order to enable the new 
 authority over commoners' rights to escape the 
 responsibility of enforcing the terms of the 
 register of those rights, which was compiled in 
 1854 and regarded as so great a safeguard to 
 them. 
 
 By the terms of this Act the verderers were 
 authorised to issue licences to non-commoners to 
 depasture their cattle in the Forest in contra- 
 vention of the Forest laws, which was rather 
 an admission of weakness in the new regime. 
 
 The ancient oath of the verderer, which dated 
 back to Norman times and rather resembled the 
 the oath of allegiance taken by a member of 
 the House of Commons, was abolished, so that 
 the members of the new Court should be 
 troubled by no scruples when they attacked the 
 interests of the Crown. 
 
24 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 A new and nondescript member of the Court 
 was added, who was called the " Official Ver- 
 derer." He is nominated by the Crown, which 
 thereby gains a solitary representative in the 
 Court, provided that the Official Verderer takes 
 the view that he is in any way pledged to sup- 
 port the Crown. But his duties are entirely 
 undefined except that he is to act as the Chair- 
 man of the Court. Some Official Verderers have 
 interpreted their obligations in one way others 
 in quite a different manner. Those who con- 
 sider themselves bound to support Crown in- 
 terests and authority, and to confer on such 
 matters with the departments in charge of the 
 Forest still in charge of and wholly responsible 
 therefore to the public, in spite of the Act of 1877 
 usually have found themselves in a minority 
 of one, as against six other verderers who re- 
 garded no interests but those of their con- 
 stituents, the commoners. And this was the 
 natural and inevitable consequence of the recon- 
 stitution of the Court. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 MAKING A^START 
 
 IN this condition with novel experiments in 
 legislation on every hand, and with all the ill- 
 feelings and suspicions on both sides, engendered 
 by so prolonged and bitter a contest as had 
 been raging for the previous ten years I found 
 the Forest when I arrived in February 1880. 
 
 I was perfectly ignorant of all that had 
 been going on : marvellous as it seemed to my 
 new neighbours, I had actually never heard of 
 the " New Forest Question." I knew nothing 
 whatever of the storms that had been raging, 
 or why there should have been any storms at 
 all ! I found myself terribly ill-informed, and 
 set to work to study the various questions. 
 
 Beginning with recent occurrences, and read- 
 ing backwards, I studied the whole of the evi- 
 dence given before the Committee of the House 
 of Commons in 1875, and then examined the 
 outcome thereof in the form of the Act of 
 1877. Gradually I extended my readings and 
 study of correspondence, till I reached that best 
 
 25 
 
26 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 and most valuable history of the Forest, the 
 Report in 1789 of the Committee appointed to 
 inquire into all the Woods, Forests, and Land 
 Revenue of the Crown. 
 
 No one who desires to master all the 
 disputes and discussions of the last 120 years 
 should fail to study this most excellent and 
 comprehensive report, which deals in measured 
 judicial language with the troubles arising from 
 the various conflicting interests, which were just 
 the same in those days as they are now. A 
 first-rate map, on a large scale, known as 
 " Driver's Survey," formed one of the appendices 
 to the Act. 
 
 One factor only is left out the new one, 
 viz., the great and increasing interest now taken 
 in the amenities of the New Forest by the 
 public at large. It is this new point in the 
 argument that will ultimately nay even now 
 has become the dominant feature of the whole 
 question. 
 
 While I had plenty to read up, and all the 
 regular business of the office to transact, I had 
 also to learn to find my way about the Forest, 
 and to see for myself all that was going on. 
 To this end I imported a couple of thorough- 
 bred four-year-olds likely to make hunters, and 
 set to work with a pocket map to find my way 
 
MAKING A START 27 
 
 from place to place. For I always found that 
 if I had worked my way by map or plan it was 
 never forgotten, but the route that was shown 
 me by a companion was likely enough to slip 
 out of my head alone, with a map, is the way 
 to learn a new country. 
 
 I had a sad double reverse in the first 
 month of my office by the almost simultaneous 
 deaths of my first assistant, William Reed, who 
 had served the Crown for over thirty years, and 
 not only knew every stick and stone in the 
 Forest, but also had at his fingers ends all the 
 customs and habits of the residents, and in 
 most cases the character and antecedents of 
 every one of them. The loss of this mine of 
 information was irreparable ; and Harry Cooper, 
 who died in the same week, was by far the best 
 and most capable of the Forest keepers. He 
 was the son of George Cooper, keeper of Boldre- 
 wood Walk since the old deer removal days 
 and before them ; he was a well educated, highly 
 trained man, as was shown by the diary and 
 notes which he left behind. The loss of these 
 two men was a great blow, and it must have 
 taken me two years at least to pick up what 
 they could have told me in a month. 
 
 In addition to this, my second assistant, John 
 Holloway, who had some forty years' service in 
 
28 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 the Forest, had become very infirm, had in 
 fact tendered his resignation, and only consented 
 to carry on his duties in view of the awkward 
 position in which I found myself placed ; for 
 though I often got excellent advice from him he 
 was not able to get about the Forest with me 
 to any extent, and he lived eight miles away. 
 In short, I had to set to work to find out every- 
 thing for myself, and very hard work it was 
 for I found it too dangerous to go outside my 
 staff for information, after I made the discovery 
 that there were among the principal residents 
 some who were not at all above taking advan- 
 tage of the difficulties of my position in order 
 to gain for themselves small concessions, and en- 
 deavoured to persuade me that it was in accord- 
 ance with Forest customs that they should thus 
 profit by my ignorance. 
 
 Altogether I found that in the disturbed 
 state of local feeling it was better to trust 
 nobody, and the first two or three years in the 
 Forest were hard ones for me. In addition to 
 this I had hardly reorganised my staff and got 
 it into working order when my chief Mr. James 
 Kenneth Howard died, and I lost a most 
 kindly amiable friend, as well as a good guide. 
 He was succeeded by Sir Henry afterwards 
 Lord Loch, a most able administrator, who came 
 
MAKING A START 29 
 
 from the Governorship of the Isle of Man to the 
 Commissionership of Woods, but he only re- 
 mained with us a couple of years, and then went 
 as Governor to Cape Colony. 
 
 He was, however, long enough connected with 
 the New Forest to introduce and pass the New 
 Forest Highways Act, 1883 a most valuable 
 and necessary piece of legislation. 
 
 The position of the New Forest roads, par- 
 ticularly the main roads, was so bad as to be 
 almost unique. Prior to the year 1866, the 
 greater part of the New Forest was extra- 
 parochial. There were no rates ; no one was liable 
 to maintain any roads. The Crown did in the 
 way of repairs whatever was deemed necessary 
 for the mere haulage of timber. The main 
 roads were in the hands of turnpike trusts for 
 limited periods of years, and so long as the 
 trusts continued the roads were well maintained. 
 
 In 1866 an Act for the relief of the poor 
 was brought in, to deal with these extra-parochial 
 tracts. They were constituted into townships, 
 and it was intended that all the property within 
 them should contribute to all rural rates, as 
 in rural parishes, the Crown, though not liable 
 to rates, consenting to give an " ex gratia dona- 
 tion in ease of rates," based on assessment and 
 rateable values as in the case of other properties. 
 
30 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 A certain section of the residents of the New 
 Forest, with what they imagined to be astute- 
 ness, got up an opposition to the Bill, and suc- 
 ceeded in getting it so modified that, while the 
 relief of the poor was provided for, everything 
 in the shape of highway maintenance was struck 
 out. 
 
 The idea of these agitators was that the 
 Crown would be compelled for its own sake to 
 maintain the roads for them. Nothing of the 
 sort happened. The Treasury, having consented 
 to a contribution for the local poor rates, was 
 far less inclined than before to expend additional 
 money on local interests. So the roads were not 
 repaired at all except just so much as to enable 
 timber to be carted. Worst of all, as the turn- 
 pike trusts expired by the effluxion of time, the 
 main roads became impassable, and the greater 
 part of the New Forest was rapidly becoming 
 impossible for wheeled traffic. In other districts 
 it was provided that as the turnpike trusts ex- 
 pired the maintenance of the road should fall on 
 the rates. But here, in the New Forest, it had 
 been contrived that there should be no rates 
 for it to fall on. These great turnpike roads 
 became derelict. No one was responsible, and 
 the country suffered greatly. Surely such a 
 condition of things could never have happened 
 
MAKING A START 31 
 
 except in the New Forest. Nothing but an Act 
 of Parliament would suffice to get it out of the 
 muddle. 
 
 In introducing his Bill, Sir Henry Loch had 
 careful regard to the element in the Forest that 
 was so hostile to all or any proposals emanating 
 from the Crown, and induced the Treasury to allow 
 him to make a liberal offer with a view to obtain- 
 ing a settlement of the matter, without too strict 
 a regard to Crown interests. So he proposed to 
 the various local highway boards that all the 
 roads should be placed in good order by the 
 Crown, and certain new ones made, and that the 
 County Surveyor should be appointed arbitrator 
 to decide whether the work was properly done. 
 
 Most of the boards accepted this offer, and 
 the Act was passed. We set to work, and in 
 about two years we had good roads and new 
 roads over three-fourths of the Forest. But 
 alas ! on the western side, nothing would induce 
 the rural board to come to terms, led as they 
 were by a gentleman whose hostility to all 
 Crown action was very marked. 
 
 As the two principal main roads passed for 
 part of their course through this district, they 
 could only be repaired up to the boundary thereof, 
 and through communication was impossible. The 
 matter grew to be a considerable scandal. A 
 
32 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 man was upset in his cart owing to the condition 
 of the road, and killed on the spot. Luckily the 
 Deus ex machina arose in the form of the County 
 Councils, which at that time were constituted. 
 At the very first meeting of the Hants County 
 Council this scandal was brought up for discus- 
 sion. The representative of the obstructive 
 District Council attempted to carry on his old 
 line of argument, and to defend the action which 
 he had advised his Council to adopt. He met 
 with a short shrift. The County Council that 
 day took the main roads into its hands, and made 
 a proposal to the Crown to take over their main- 
 tenance on far more liberal terms than those 
 which the Crown had already offered to give. 
 Needless to say, with two authoritative bodies 
 involved free from petty local prejudice, the 
 matter was speedily settled, and with it the 
 vexed question of New Forest roads. The system 
 was complete. All existing roads were repaired, 
 and their maintenance was settled. The Crown 
 accepted all, and more than all, the obligations 
 of a liberal landowner, governing the largest pro- 
 perty of the district, and at last I was able to 
 contemplate " something attempted, something 
 done," to alleviate one, at any rate, of the vexed 
 questions of the locality, and to achieve a genuine 
 practical improvement. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 SOME VERDERERS, OLD AND NEW 
 
 DURING these years the newly constituted Ver- 
 derers' Court, having obtained the assistance of 
 an additional Act of Parliament to lighten its re- 
 sponsibilities, was beginning to find its legs and 
 form its policy. 
 
 By the Act of 1877, each of the then existing 
 verderers appointed under the ancient laws was 
 entitled to retain his seat on the new court if 
 he chose to do so. Only two of the number 
 elected to continue to act. The remainder of 
 the court was elected in manner prescribed, and 
 naturally was formed from the ranks of those 
 who had been the bitterest opponents of the 
 Crown and at the same time the keenest sup- 
 porters of the interests of the commoners. The 
 clerk of the court was newly appointed, and had 
 no experience of its work. For Official Verderer 
 Mr. Sclater Booth, a distinguished member of the 
 Conservative Government, was nominated, and he 
 filled the position with complete impartiality and 
 dignity. 
 
 33 
 
34 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 The two verderers of the ancient regime who 
 remained at their posts were Sir Edward Hulse 
 and Sir Henry Paulet. Of Sir Edward Hulse I 
 may say, vidi tantum. He was already in fail- 
 ing health when I met him, and only attended a 
 few meetings of the new court. As soon as it 
 might be said to be fairly on its legs, Sir Edward 
 retired. He was a fine specimen of the old 
 school of country gentlemen, and of unimpeach- 
 able fairness in his dealings between Crown and 
 commoner, and with all men besides. Sir Henry 
 Paulet's was a remarkable, if slightly eccentric, 
 personality. He was very well known and re- 
 spected in all circles in and around the Forest. 
 A keen sportsman, and chairman of the Hunt 
 Club, he was also a regular shooter in the Forest 
 of many years' experience. His appearance on 
 these occasions was remarkable. He was very 
 tall, and something rugged in appearance. He 
 invariably wore his shirt and coat sleeves rolled 
 up above his elbows. Putties were not then in 
 general use in this country, so Sir Henry used as 
 substitutes ordinary blue stable bandages. His 
 shoo ting- coat appeared to be about the same age 
 as himself, and was hung about with queer pockets, 
 dog whistles, dog whips, &c. Altogether the 
 the tout ensemble was such that it really was 
 not to be surprised at that when a certain timid 
 
SOME VERDERERS, OLD AND NEW 35 
 
 young lady, walking with her governess in the 
 Forest, came suddenly upon the worthy Baronet, 
 they became so alarmed, that they fairly took to 
 their heels, and never paused till they reached 
 home, and described the wild man they had met 
 in the woods. Of course a shout of laughter 
 arose, for their description was unmistakable. But 
 a more kindly, good-hearted gentleman than Sir 
 Henry never existed, in spite of appearances. 
 
 Sir Henry was always very friendly to me, 
 and gave me much good advice on which I knew 
 I might rely, for his sense of justice and impar- 
 tiality was very strong. He had, moreover, having 
 worked hand-in-hand with the Crown authori- 
 ties for many years, a strong feeling as to the 
 duty of the verderers to support the Crown and 
 its authority rather than to undermine it. While 
 he presided over the court, as in the absence of 
 the Official Verderer he frequently did, one was 
 perfectly certain that even-handed justice would 
 be dealt out whether it was the Crown or a 
 humble commoner constituent that was concerned 
 with the matter. 
 
 Sir Henry had some rather curious ideas 
 about shooting. His estate at Little Test wood 
 was only small, but he liked to rear a certain 
 number of pheasants there. But since he had so 
 little ground to shoot them on, he always began 
 
36 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 on October 1st, and in my first year he invited 
 me to come to luncheon with him and shoot the 
 pheasants afterwards. We sallied forth only the 
 two of us Sir Henry with his bandages and 
 bare arms, and two large and fat retriever dogs, 
 one brown, the other black. 
 
 The pheasants were mostly in turnips, and the 
 sport not of the highest class, but I have seldom 
 laughed so much in an afternoon's shooting. At 
 every shot both dogs invariably ran in, and as 
 invariably Sir Henry gave them the contents of 
 his remaining barrel at a range far shorter than 
 I have ever seen dogs shot for correctional pur- 
 poses before. When they ran in to my shot, he 
 gave them both barrels, impartially, right and 
 left. The dogs, which certainly had the most 
 curly and woolly coats imaginable, never seemed 
 to mind. Neither of them ever howled or ceased 
 to run in. I think he hit them quite often, but 
 the whole proceeding was irresistibly comical, 
 and I could not help thinking that if only 
 they could be sold by the pound, what with 
 the fat and the thick coats and the enormous 
 amount of lead that they must have accumulated 
 in their hindquarters, these dogs would have a 
 value surpassing that of the most valuable re- 
 trievers that ever ran at trials. 
 
 Sir Henry Paulet died in 1886, which severed 
 
SOME VERDERERS, OLD AND NEW 37 
 
 the last link between the ancient Court of Ver- 
 derers with all its historical associations and the 
 new and totally different court created in 1877. 
 
 As these older members passed away, their 
 places were filled by co-option from the ranks of 
 the party which had conducted the bitter cam- 
 paign against the Crown from which the new 
 court resulted. The character of the court, on 
 which Sir Henry Paulet had exercised a wise 
 and restraining influence, became much altered, 
 and it was rapidly degenerating into little more 
 than a committee of commoners, with no object 
 in view but to enhance their rights and attack 
 and impair those of the Crown. 
 
 While this policy might commend itself to 
 those who only desired to see the common rights 
 so exaggerated that they absorbed the whole 
 Forest, it completely destroyed the status of this 
 ancient and venerable court, and wiped out its 
 judicial position. It was inconceivable that cases 
 should be brought before a court nominally a 
 court of justice, when the members of that 
 court ceased not to proclaim on every house-top 
 that they were pledged to support one interest, 
 and one only. 
 
 So after several honest attempts to give the 
 verderers a chance to keep up the jurisdiction 
 of the court, and to deal impartially with all 
 
38 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 cases brought before it, the practice fell into 
 desuetude, and it is now a long time since a case 
 was brought before the verderers to deal with 
 judicially, save only minor offences, under their 
 own bye -laws. 
 
 Not long after the death of the last of the 
 old verderers, Lord Basing retired from the posi- 
 tion of Official Verderer. He made no secret at 
 all to me at least of his decision that he could 
 no longer continue to hold the position of Crown 
 representative on the Verderers' Court after they 
 had adopted a policy of attacking Crown interests 
 and undermining Crown authority on every pos- 
 sible plea. 
 
 There was no little difficulty in filling up 
 the vacancy caused by Lord Basing's resignation, 
 which, indeed, had been long decided upon, as 
 was matter of common knowledge for about two 
 years. 
 
 Finally, Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, a dearly 
 loved relative of my own, consented to step into 
 the breach and accept the position. A more un- 
 fortunate decision was never arrived at. Lord 
 Montagu was of all the men in the world the 
 last that should have taken up this burden. A 
 man at once the most amiable and high-minded 
 of English gentlemen, he had, as many a time 
 he told me, in our conversations on the impend- 
 
SOME VERDERERS, OLD AND NEW 39 
 
 ing retirement of Lord Basing, every disquali- 
 fication for the post he often refused and finally 
 was over-persuaded to assume. 
 
 He was, to begin with, already an elected 
 member of the new court. He was also the 
 largest owner of rights of common in New Forest, 
 and thus deeply interested in the business side of 
 the management of Forest politics. In the case 
 of such a man as Lord Montagu this mattered 
 but little to those who knew him intimately ; 
 but to the rest of the world it only appeared 
 that all men even peers of the realm were 
 very human, and that the chance of controlling 
 favourably his own and his friends' interests on 
 the Court of Verderers would appeal to the 
 practical view of an able man of affairs. But 
 besides this Lord Montagu had been, as Lord 
 Henry Scott, M.P. for South Hants, one of 1>he 
 leading spirits in the attack on the Crown's 
 ownership of the Forest in 1875. His colleagues 
 and intimate associates were gradually obtaining 
 the control of the court they at that time strove 
 to establish, and the overpowering loyalty of 
 Lord Montagu's disposition almost forbade him 
 to take any view hostile to theirs, although he 
 had become nominally the guardian of the very 
 interests which they and indeed he himself 
 had jointly attacked for so many years. 
 
40 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 Of course there could be only one ending to 
 this, and it came speedily. In one year's time 
 Lord Montagu resigned the position of Official 
 Verderer. He never ought to have accepted it. 
 So he said time and again, and the task he 
 essayed was too difficult a one for any man to 
 undertake. 
 
 Perhaps the best compliment paid to Lord 
 Montagu came from my official chief at that 
 period, Mr. George Culley, C.B., who had been 
 altogether outside the New Forest controversies, 
 and knew Lord Montagu personally only very 
 slightly. He was duly informed by the Treasury 
 of the appointment as Official Verderer of Lord 
 Montagu in lieu of Lord Basing, and naturally 
 was a little taken aback. 
 
 But in his reply (I quote from memory) he 
 said " that the appointment to that position of 
 the largest owner of common rights, who was 
 also a most active supporter of those rights as 
 against the Crown, would have created an im- 
 possible situation in the case of any person 
 other than Lord Montagu, in whose appoint- 
 ment he cordially acquiesced. " 
 
 Lord Montagu was succeeded by the Eight 
 Hon. Evelyn Ashley, who became chairman of 
 the court just at the time when the attitude of 
 the verderers had become most uncompromising. 
 
SOME VERDERERS, OLD AND NEW 41 
 
 Point after point was being raised by which it 
 was sought to oust the jurisdiction of the Crown 
 and to thwart its management. At last the 
 doctrine was formulated that, although the Forest 
 was the property of the Crown, and although its 
 management was vested in the Office of Works as 
 servants of the Crown, yet the interests of the 
 commoners were such that nothing might be done 
 by the Crown or any person thereby authorised 
 which could affect even technically one single 
 blade of glass that the animal of a commoner 
 might possibly have eaten if it came that way ! 
 
 This was, of course, a reductio ad absurdum. 
 Under this theory no man might ride a shod 
 horse across the waste, nor carry a stick with a 
 ferule on it. There was no remedy for it was 
 admitted that by no possibility could the ver- 
 derers give a consent to any act which, they 
 sought to contend, was a trespass against the 
 actual rights of the commoners. 
 
 Obviously such an absurdity did not really 
 exist, and the law officers ere long gave a de- 
 cided opinion that, although the Crown or its 
 nominees might not do any serious or even 
 tangible injury to the rights of any commoner as 
 de facto exercised, yet that small or technical 
 damage which did not actually, though techni- 
 cally it might, injure the genuine interest of 
 
42 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 such a commoner, was perfectly within the bounds 
 of the Crown's authority. 
 
 The verderers had, however, endeavoured, on 
 the plea of " technical damage," to restrain such 
 things as the placing of a telephone pole on the 
 waste, arguing that on the few inches of land it 
 occupied there might have been some blades of 
 grass. Making of holes on a golf green four 
 inches in diameter and the mowing of a cricket 
 pitch fell under the same ban, and all had to 
 be carried out in the teeth of the opposition of 
 the court. 
 
 Finally matters culminated in a lawsuit as 
 to whether the Crown, when felling or selling 
 timber, had the right (which it had exercised 
 from time immemorial) to cut it and convert on 
 the open Forest, sometimes perhaps depositing 
 temporarily a heap of sawdust caused by the 
 operation. 
 
 A considerable array of counsel appeared on 
 both sides, with piles of arguments dating from 
 Magna Charta at the least. There was every 
 prospect of a case dealing with innumerable his- 
 torical details and lasting many days, but at the 
 suggestion of one of the judges trying the case 
 (which, as he truly pointed out, affected an 
 alleged damage that after all could not amount 
 to 5 !) a compromise was attempted. It took 
 
SOME VERDERERS, OLD AND NEW 43 
 
 a long time to bring this about, and the law 
 officers were changed at least once during the 
 negotiations, but at last a settlement was effected 
 which, after some little trouble, has worked well 
 enough, and I do not think anyone, of late years, 
 has desired to revive or to hear any more of the 
 "sawing engine case." It is to be hoped that, 
 with the various changes of time, the feelings 
 which led to it have become greatly modified. 
 
 One good effect, however, was produced ; com- 
 promised as it was, this miserable case led to the 
 expenditure of a considerable sum by each side. 
 
 The amount which the verderers had to pay 
 used up nearly all the capital with which they 
 had been started under the Act of 1877, to hold 
 on behalf of the commoners. There was no little 
 disgust among that body when they heard that 
 their capital had vanished. But the lack of 
 funds to fight with had a wonderfully peace- 
 making effect, and was most serviceable in keep- 
 ing the litigious section of the verderers out of 
 court for a time at any rate. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 MY WORK, MY STAFF, AND MY CHIEFS 
 
 ONE of the first things I had to do was to set to 
 work to reorganise my staff. I was allowed 
 three assistants, one for each district of the 
 Forest, and, as I have said, I lost two of them 
 in the first year of office. I feared to go outside 
 the department and import strangers at a time 
 when I was so ignorant myself and so incapable 
 of teaching others. I was able, however, to fill 
 the vacancies by promotions in my own office. 
 These men were truly assistants to me, and with- 
 out their aid it would be impossible to carry on 
 the work over a large tract like the Forest, 
 especially for one who had in addition the charge 
 of four other forests or large woodlands, involving 
 in each case a journey by train, and a long day 
 often two days spent away from home. 
 
 I looked to my assistants to carry out all the 
 details of the various work we set out first for 
 the whole year, and again month by month as 
 the year progressed. 
 
 At the commencement of the year it would 
 
 44 
 
MY WORK, STAFF, AND CHIEFS 45 
 
 be settled exactly which sections of the various 
 plantations should be thinned or cut altogether, 
 and where the planting was to be done. A re- 
 view was taken of all the draining that required 
 cleaning or increasing. What sections of fencing 
 would have to be done, and how many new gates 
 were wanted. What cottages or lodges should 
 be repaired, and tender obtained for the work. 
 Having these returns from each of the three 
 districts, with estimates, moreover, of the amount 
 of produce that could be realised from the various 
 operations, and the value thereof, we set to 
 work to compile the totals of the three districts, 
 and to ascertain how much of the projected 
 work could be carried out with due regard to 
 economy and to the amount the Forest seemed 
 likely to earn. Of course we always wanted to 
 spend more money than we were likely to get. 
 The size of the Forest and its innumerable roads 
 and rides would absorb any amount of expendi- 
 ture, and dealing with them always seemed like 
 pouring money into a sack with a hole in it. On 
 the whole, I am bound to say that I was well 
 treated in this respect, and was not often refused 
 the grant of any money that I deemed it reason- 
 able to ask for. Especially I was allowed to put 
 in order and improve the bad cottages. 
 
 Once these figures were finally settled, and 
 
46 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 the exact amount decided that was to be spent, 
 or obtained, from each section of plantation or of 
 open Forest, the routine work was carried out by 
 my assistants, and very ably they did it. Each 
 month they produced the several pay lists and 
 sale books showing exactly what wages were due 
 to each man, and what money had been obtained 
 from the sales of minor produce, such as fern, 
 faggots and the like, and I then handed over the 
 cash that was due to each set of labourers. Pay 
 day, once a month, was always a very busy day. 
 
 In addition, I had to be constantly up and 
 down in the Forest giving my personal attention 
 to details I did not care to leave to any other 
 person, such as the marking of any good timber 
 that was rather more than mere routine thinning. 
 The repairs and improvements to cottages were 
 matters that I always kept under my personal 
 superintendence. I am bound to say that when 
 I came to the Forest in 1880, I found most of 
 the labourers' cottages in a very deplorable con- 
 dition. The accommodation was what we all term 
 now a scandal. It was quite normal in those 
 days, except on very well managed estates. 
 
 How the fine fellows that fought our wars 
 in the Peninsula, and in the Crimea, could have 
 been reared in such miserable overcroweded tene- 
 ments is really incomprehensible. It could only 
 
MY WORK, STAFF, AND CHIEFS 47 
 
 have been that the fittest alone survived the 
 hardships of their bringing up, and that men 
 who had endured such things could be destroyed 
 by nothing short of fire-arms. 
 
 I set to work at once to raise the standard 
 of these dwellings. It is not easy to get money, 
 when it shows no increase of income, to be ex- 
 pended by the Treasury, and in those days I 
 had no Rural District Bye-laws and no Housing 
 and Town Planning Act to wave in the face of 
 Whitehall as an indication of what were con- 
 sidered the necessary conditions for a labourer's 
 dwelling. 
 
 Luckily, however, the Ecclesiastical Commis- 
 sioners had recently laid down a rule as to the 
 minimum accommodation for a labourer's cottage. 
 Nor does it at all err on the side of extrava- 
 gance. 
 
 Practically, it is to the effect that no cottage 
 shall comprise less than a good kitchen and living 
 room if not indeed a kitchen and an indepen- 
 dent wash-house, and above stairs " three separate 
 bed rooms which do not communicate with one 
 another." 
 
 With this trump card up my sleeve, and 
 with the hearty backing of Sir Henry Loch, I 
 introduced an estimate for the improvement of 
 three cottages, and it passed muster for very 
 
48 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 shame they could not refuse with the autho- 
 rities of Whitehall. What has once been agreed 
 to in the Civil Service constitutes a precedent 
 which, as a rule, passes with but little inquiry 
 in future, and so I quietly introduced into my 
 estimates plans for the improvement and repair 
 of about three different cottages year by year, 
 dealing first with those that harboured the 
 longest families, and so on in succession. It 
 took some years to get through the list, but 
 many years before I left the New Forest I had 
 the satisfaction of knowing that all our employees 
 were housed in cottages that would bear any 
 reasonable test of inspection, and were, year by 
 year, kept in good order ; and I am bound to 
 say that, after the first, expenditure incurred on 
 the above lines was never cavilled at in White- 
 hall, provided that the necessity for it was clearly 
 explained. 
 
 All these estimates were, of course, laid before, 
 and approved of by, my chief, the Commissioner 
 in charge of New Forest, and I was always glad 
 when he found time to come down and see for 
 himself what I proposed to do. Of course, with- 
 out his backing and approval my figures had 
 no chance of passing the Treasury, and by bear- 
 ing in mind that " Chi va piano va sano" and 
 by never putting forward on my own initiative 
 
MY WORK, STAFF, AND CHIEFS 49 
 
 schemes so large as to frighten those apprehen- 
 sive birds that frequent Whitehall, I was able 
 generally to get all my estimates through. 
 
 The successor to Sir Henry Loch in the 
 Commissionership of Woods was Mr. George 
 Culley, C.B., a gentleman who owned considerable 
 property in Northumberland, and had already 
 done service under the Local Government Board. 
 
 A more kindly, considerate, and withal capable 
 chief no Civil Servant has ever had to serve 
 under. Mr. Culley had considerable tact, but 
 also very considerable firmness in dealing with 
 the troubles and disputes so rife in New Forest, 
 and he did very much to allay them. It was 
 only when the verderers had finally made up 
 their minds to go to law with the Crown that 
 he was driven to accept battle. 
 
 Mr. Culley had a very clear knowledge of 
 estate management generally, and was always 
 happy on the back of a nice hack looking over 
 the woods and property. He was able to pass 
 in review, in a short visit, the conditions and 
 main points of the woods he passed through, 
 and to give a sound and considered opinion 
 when he got home as to what was the proper 
 course, quite regardless of what my view might 
 be, but always kindly and gentle in explaining 
 
 why he had formed a different opinion from myself. 
 
 D 
 
50 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 Though not particularly like a bishop, Mr. 
 Culley would have rivalled any bishop that ever 
 dwelt in a palace in that he was " given to 
 hospitality" in a marked degree. He never 
 allowed me to come to London, as I very fre- 
 quently had to do, without insisting on my 
 dining with him, generally at the Oxford and 
 Cambridge Club (the cellar there is world- 
 famous). Not unfrequently he collected very 
 pleasant small bachelor parties on such occasions. 
 Some of these have been the pleasantest among 
 my reminiscences. It was at one of these small 
 parties that I first met Sir Edward Grey (who 
 was a ward of Mr. Culley's) when quite a young 
 man. I well recollect our host's remark to me, 
 when we were talking over business after the 
 others had gone away when he said, referring 
 to his late ward, " That young man is sure to go 
 to the top of the tree." He could hardly have 
 foreseen the time when the name of Sir Edward 
 Grey would become a household word in every 
 capital of Europe. Mr. Culley died when of no 
 great age. I always thought his life was short- 
 ened by the strenuous work he did at the time 
 of the Committee of the House of Commons 
 which sat in the sessions of 1889-90. His grasp 
 of the whole subject was marvellous. The multi- 
 tude of figures, schedules, returns, and Acts of 
 
MY WORK, STAFF, AND CHIEFS 51 
 
 Parliament that he had at his fingers' ends was 
 endless; but Mr. Culley kept mastery of it all, 
 and during all the early days of the Committee 
 met their every point, and, by his frankness in 
 producing and anticipating every possible return 
 or figure that could be asked for, became the 
 friend and ally of the Committee instead of an 
 hostile witness, as he was regarded when he first 
 entered the witness chair. 
 
 This Committee originated partly in a mare's 
 nest. There had just been a considerable scandal 
 with regard to the Board of Works, and certain 
 wiseacres had jumped to the conclusion that 
 something of the sort was to be unearthed with 
 respect to the office of Woods, especially with 
 regard to the management of the London pro- 
 perty, from which most of the income is derived. 
 
 In about two sittings the whole of this idea 
 was exploded. Mr. Culley so openly produced 
 every return, document, or account, that, as far 
 as those matters were concerned, the Committee 
 had everything in their hands, and had nothing 
 left to inquire into. 
 
 It was immensely to the credit of Sir John 
 Fowler, afterwards Lord Wolverhampton, that 
 directly he found that the theory of malad- 
 ministration, with which the Committee was 
 at first imbued, was an erroneous one, he com- 
 
52 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 pletely altered his tone and bearing, and for the 
 greater part of two sessions worked cordially and 
 in a friendly manner with all those connected 
 with the Office of Woods who could give him 
 any information to make a complete and thorough 
 investigation into the whole management of the 
 land revenue ; and in all this he met with the 
 heartiest support from all concerned. 
 
 Naturally the report of the Committee gave 
 the Department of Woods no cause for complaint. 
 
 I always recollect with pleasure and amuse- 
 ment Mr. Culley's kindly old-fashioned peculi- 
 arities. He never would come from London to 
 visit me without bringing with him a present 
 of a little parcel of the best and freshest fish to 
 be had that day from Groves*, whether we wanted 
 it or not. 
 
 He had made it a standing rule that he 
 always desired to have an interview with me in 
 London on the Monday in Derby week, just in 
 case we might have anything to discuss or 
 arrange ! And on those occasions he invariably 
 gave me the number of the box he had taken 
 in the Grand Stand at Ascot on the occasion 
 of that great summer festival, held annually on 
 the lands under the charge of the Office of 
 Woods ; and he was disappointed if I did not 
 pay him my respects there. Lastly he never 
 
MY WORK, STAFF, AND CHIEFS 53 
 
 possessed any thick boots ! and this always 
 caused me regrets whenever it was necessary 
 for him to go on foot through any wet wood- 
 lands where work was going on which he 
 wanted to inspect. But he went there just the 
 same, in spite of all I could say. 
 
 Mr. Culley was succeeded as Commissioner of 
 Woods by Sir Edward Stafford Howard, K.C.B., 
 though he had not then attained to his present 
 rank and titles. Sir Stafford is fortunately still 
 amongst us, so I cannot recount our transactions, 
 or relate anecdotes which might occur to me, 
 actually as it were to his face. Mr. Howard, 
 like his two predecessors, encountered at the 
 outset a tempestuous time. The verderers had 
 actually formulated their position as they desired 
 to establish it, with regard to what was practi- 
 cally the ownership of the Forest. The lawsuit 
 they were promoting was already in the list, 
 and Mr. Howard had to take charge of the 
 proceedings connected with that suit when he 
 was comparatively new to office. 
 
 Whatever could be done by conciliation and 
 kindly feeling, coupled with the most indefatig- 
 able pains, to bring about a better state of 
 things between the Crown and the verderers 
 (claiming to represent the commoners), was done 
 without sparing of himself by Mr. Howard. And 
 
54 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 his equanimity and patience when his cordial 
 advances met with little response, or were 
 countered by one or other section of the opposi- 
 tion, were certainly beyond all praise. As an 
 American Ambassador once said of a distin- 
 guished leader of the Tory party, "He had 
 often heard of the milk of human kindness, but 
 never before had he seen the cow." I often 
 used to think of that saying, when I fancied 
 that a little stimulant in the milk would make 
 it have better effect. 
 
 Sir Stafford and I worked together for some 
 twenty years with much contentment and good 
 friendship, and (I hope) mutual self-esteem. Of all 
 that he did in the matter of promoting Forestry 
 and Forest Protection I will speak later on. It 
 deserves a chapter to itself. 
 
 I found the condition of affairs as regards 
 the Forest keepers and the preservation of game 
 and of all wild fauna such as I conceived a 
 Royal Forest ought to be stocked with, was in 
 a very bad state. 
 
 In the Deer Removal Act it was set forth 
 that, with the abolition of the deer, the necessity 
 for so great a number of keepers would cease 
 there were then thirteen head keepers, so this 
 was obviously the case and that the lodges 
 occupied by these thirteen men, or some of 
 
MY WORK, STAFF, AND CHIEFS 55 
 
 them, might be leased by the Crown on certain 
 conditions. 
 
 In this way arose such mansions built on 
 the desirable sites of some of the keepers' lodges 
 as Malwood Lodge, built by Sir William Harcourt ; 
 Bramble Hill Lodge ; Whitley Ridge, Rhine- 
 field, and Lady Cross Lodges. The tendency of 
 the tenant, as one succeeded another, has been 
 to overbuild, and some of these houses have 
 rather outgrown their sites. But they represent 
 valuable property, all of which reverts to the 
 Crown at the expiration of the lease, and they 
 are all very lovely residences. 
 
 But as the lodges went, so also did the 
 keepers, regardless of the necessity for the pro- 
 tection of the Forest. Without doubt, soon after 
 the Deer Removal Act was seen to be a failure, 
 and long before the Report of the Lords' Com- 
 mittee of 1868, it had come to be looked on as 
 a foregone conclusion that disafforestation was to 
 overtake the New Forest, as it had done nearly 
 all the other forests of England. In those cir- 
 cumstances the area of the Crown property would 
 have been much reduced, its character would 
 have been materially altered, and a much smaller 
 staff would have been required. And so, in anti- 
 cipation of all this, the Office of Woods was 
 gradually letting the old out-door staff slip away. 
 
56 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 When I came to the Forest there were but 
 four responsible keepers left. As their colleagues 
 had died or retired, under keepers were appointed 
 in their places. These men were under no super- 
 vision but that of the Deputy Surveyor, and, as 
 they were as a rule merely promoted labourers, 
 they were not the class of man to be allowed to 
 act independently. No definite orders had ever 
 been given to them, and they seemed to think 
 that so long as they looked after the preserva- 
 tion of foxes and pheasants, and kept a mild check 
 on poaching, generally all the rest might be 
 allowed to slide. Rabbits were supposed to be 
 kept down by the keepers in the plantations, but 
 they never accounted for them when killed, and 
 everything in the shape of rare birds that they 
 could get hold of they regarded as perquisites. 
 With some trouble I discovered the Southampton 
 bird-stuffer who was in the habit of regularly 
 paying them 3s. 6d. per head for all kingfishers 
 he could get. Everything in the shape of a 
 bird of prey was, of course, looked upon as 
 vermin, killed, and if possible sold. Had it not 
 been for this laxity, the honey buzzard might 
 have continued to be a far more regular breeder 
 in the Forest than I have found it to be. 
 
 The four remaining head keepers, though they 
 had far higher pay and better houses than the 
 
MY WORK, STAFF, AND CHIEFS 57 
 
 under keepers, had in charge only one of the 
 thirteen " walks," or keepers' beats, in the Forest. 
 They had no authority over the under keepers, who 
 each had a similar " walk " which he considered 
 his own, free of supervision. 
 
 Everything was in a state of chaos, and I 
 set to work to clear out what was verily an 
 Augean Stable. First of all, I had to persuade 
 the Treasury to give me one other head keeper 
 at a somewhat lower salary than the four exist- 
 ing ones. Each of these, and they were all 
 excellent men, continued at their existing wage, 
 but their places were each cut down to the limit 
 I had decided on, as they fell vacant, and new 
 men were appointed at what was quite an ample 
 wage. I divided the Forest into five districts, 
 containing so many "walks" each, and placed 
 each of my five men in charge of one, with twelve 
 under keepers among them. Each man had so 
 many under keepers under his authority, and these 
 men had no defined districts, to the boundaries 
 of which they confined their energies as before, but 
 had to attend to whatever duties were set them 
 in any part of the district of the head keeper 
 wherever he chose to send them. He was en- 
 tirely responsible for their good work, and was 
 supported heartily if he had any well founded 
 complaint to make against any of his subordinates. 
 
58 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 Full instructions for all the keepers were 
 carefully drawn out ; each man had his printed and 
 signed copy, and realised that a deliberate breach 
 of those instructions meant instant dismissal. In 
 compiling this list of rules and orders, I had in 
 view the object of preserving all the fauna of the 
 Forest of every kind not merely, as gamekeepers 
 are apt to think, game birds and ground game 
 only. In a great wild National Park, where for 
 many reasons very high preservation of game is 
 neither possible nor desirable, there is room for 
 every kind of wild animal, and I had to make 
 my men understand that I desired the same care 
 taken of the nest of a buzzard or a fern owl as 
 of a pheasant. As to these instructions, I took 
 the advice of such able sportsmen and naturalists 
 as the late Lord Lilford and Professor Alfred 
 Newton. Special rules were made as to particular 
 care being taken of the rarer birds likely to 
 occur, and orders were given that every instance 
 of a strange visitor was to be reported to the 
 Deputy Surveyor at once. And there was 
 to be no killing of any birds save a few 
 scheduled ones. All bird's-nesting was to be 
 rigidly prevented. Of course these were rather 
 novel ideas to some of the men, but, after a 
 change or two had been made among them, they 
 all settled down well to their work, and in some 
 
MY WORK, STAFF, AND CHIEFS 59 
 
 cases became keen and intelligent observers of 
 wild life. 
 
 The old-fashioned head keepers, when in the 
 employ of the Lord Warden of the Forest an 
 office which fell into abeyance at the death of 
 H.E.H. the Duke of Cambridge in 1850 were 
 rather a different class of men to those now ful- 
 filling what is left of their duties. They drew 
 very good salaries and had good lodges (so have 
 the head keepers now), and had in the days of 
 the deer very responsible duties to perform, and 
 a good deal of money passed through their 
 hands. The Lord Warden provided a uniform : 
 green coat, gold-laced hat, white breeches and 
 top boots. Everybody always rode about the 
 Forest in those days and until recently. Even 
 the under keepers always had their rough pony 
 to get about upon. But the bicycle has done 
 much to knock minor horsemanship on the head. 
 In my time we found horses best, if we really 
 needed to get about in the Forest in all condi- 
 tions and to all remote places. 
 
 Altogether the Forest keeper of former days 
 was apt to be somewhat of a personage, and 
 many of them were much respected and looked 
 up to locally. 
 
 Some of them succeeded to their offices from 
 father to son for generations. Most people now 
 
60 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 living in the Forest recollect George Bumstead, 
 keeper of Ashley Walk and district, and, apart 
 from his abnormal proportions, quite the modern 
 prototype of the old-fashioned highly respected 
 New Forest " groom-keeper," as they were called 
 in old days in contradistinction to the " master 
 keeper," or gentleman of high repute, who held 
 appointment by royal favour as governors of 
 sundry " walks." 
 
 In 1789 Anthony Bumstead, groom-keeper of 
 Ashley Walk, gave his (recorded) evidence before 
 the Commission of that year to the effect, inter 
 alia, that he was appointed to that position in 
 1763. Whether he succeeded a forebear or not, 
 I have no record, but it is certain that George 
 Bumstead succeeded his father and grandfather 
 as keeper of Ashley Walk, and we may fairly 
 conclude that there was an unbroken succession 
 from 1763 up to the date of George Bumstead's 
 death about 1890 a record in one family of 
 not far from 130 years. 
 
 So again, William Cooper, keeper of Eye worth 
 Walk, comes 'before the same Commission in 1789 
 and says that he had been appointed some fifteen 
 years before that date. Whether he was the 
 father or grandfather of George Cooper of whom 
 I spoke above, I am not sure; but the latter 
 succeeded as keeper of Boldrewood Walk, and 
 
MY WORK, STAFF, AND CHIEFS 61 
 
 died at a considerable age about 1878. He again 
 was succeeded by his son Harry, who survived 
 to my time, and died in 1880. George Cooper 
 was quite one of the distinguished personalities 
 of the Forest. 
 
 These men were among the last of that rather 
 curious type that lived and throve on the New 
 Forest for centuries. Wholly deer-keepers, they 
 were also bailiffs, revenue collectors, and above all 
 sportsmen ; and on their efforts and never-failing 
 goodwill depended all the sport and enjoyments 
 of the whole Forest. Perhaps old James Coles, 
 about the last of the type, expressed their senti- 
 ments very well to me when, after a conversation 
 as to the hunting and the shooting, and inciden- 
 tally the proposed planting of trees in the planta- 
 tions, and the necessary extermination of rabbits, 
 he burst out with, " Rabbits, sir ! Why rabbits 
 is the bread of life for everythink ! " I ruminated 
 on that saying, and, taking into account all the 
 interests I had to serve, made up my mind that 
 when I planted I would also buy wire-netting. 
 I have found this both a preservative and a 
 keeper of peace James Coles's saying had a good 
 deal to commend it as far as New Forest, with 
 an abundance of foxes therein, is concerned. 
 
 A strong staff of keepers or whatever you 
 like to call them is a necessity in the New 
 
62 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 Forest, apart altogether from any questions of 
 preservation of game or of sport. They are the 
 custodians who do all the policing of the public 
 property, and their duties are manifold. The Gypsy 
 population at some seasons very numerous and 
 often very lawless almost require a staff to them- 
 selves. For many reasons it has not been found 
 practicable to banish them altogether from a 
 Forest that is practically open to all His Majesty's 
 subjects ; but there is a code of rules for the 
 regulation of their camps and other proceedings, 
 and a great deal of the time of the keepers is 
 spent in enforcing those rules and checking the 
 depredations of these semi-savages. Again, the 
 very fact that the Forest is open to all the 
 public needs a staff of men to guard against ad- 
 vantage being taken of this liberty. Were it 
 not for the watchers employed, there would be 
 endless damage done by cutting of trees, stealing 
 of timber and of any portable property that is 
 worth money. 
 
 The keepers also are in charge of the gravel 
 and sandpits which are all over the open Forest. 
 They measure the gravel dug ; regulate, under the 
 direction of the Deputy Surveyor or his assis- 
 tants, the ground where the gravel is to be dug ; 
 and render their accounts to the various High- 
 way Boards or other purchasers of gravel. Thus 
 
MY WORK, STAFF, AND CHIEFS 63 
 
 a New Forest keeper is now, and always has 
 been, something very different from an ordinary 
 gamekeeper, and, now that their numbers are 
 so reduced, they have as much work to do as 
 it is fair to ask anyone to perform. 
 
 In the old days, when there was a great 
 head of deer in the Forest, the keepers had, no 
 doubt, a great deal to do in looking after them. 
 But they were thirteen in number one for each 
 walk, and each of them had a man under him, 
 an assistant who was known as the "browser," 
 one of his principal duties being to cut the 
 holly, ivy, and similar underwood, for feeding the 
 deer in the winter. 
 
 The small enclosures round each lodge, fenced 
 with low posts and rails, were called the browse 
 pens ; the deer easily leapt in and out, but the 
 ponies and cattle could not, and thus could not 
 get at the fodder laid within the fence for the 
 benefit of the deer. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE NEW FOREST DEER 
 
 WHILE treating of the keepers and their former 
 vocations, it may be well to give some details of 
 the deer as they used to be, when the Forest 
 was a huge deer park full of half tame deer, 
 and as it is now when it contains a compara- 
 tively small number of quite wild deer. 
 
 There is no doubt that the New Forest 
 district did from very ancient times constitute 
 a Forest specially suited to deer. In the days 
 of Canute it was made into a Royal Forest, 
 conveniently situated to Southampton, where he 
 had a palace, and where also he tried the his- 
 torical experiment of seeing whether the tide 
 would or would not wet his feet. Like other 
 monarchs in more recent times, he discovered 
 that he was not superior to the forces of nature. 
 
 There was therefore without doubt a stock 
 of deer prior to the occupation of the Danes, or 
 Canute would not have enacted laws for their 
 preservation. The original stock of Great Britain 
 was no doubt the red deer. They were pretty 
 
 64 
 
THE NEW FOREST DEER 65 
 
 well everywhere, where the country suited them. 
 But on the New Forest they never greatly 
 throve or attained to a great herd, frequenting 
 only certain parts of the Forest, and, at any rate 
 during the last two hundred years, never increas- 
 ing beyond a head of seventy or eighty all told, 
 although practically nothing was done to keep 
 their numbers down, while all round them was 
 a numerous and ever increasing herd of fallow 
 deer, numbering at various times from 3000 to 
 8000 head; nor did the red deer ever attain 
 great size or carry very good heads. 
 
 A similar state of things formerly existed in 
 the adjacent forests of Alice Holt and Woolmer 
 both under my charge. In the former, growing 
 on a good clay and loam soil, with oak timber 
 and open furzy spaces, fallow deer were numer- 
 ous, but red deer never came there. 
 
 At Woolmer, a heathy, sandy country, with 
 no timber but the Scotch fir, there was always a 
 great herd of red deer. It is recorded by Gilbert 
 White, in his Natural History of Selborne, how 
 Queen Anne, on a journey from London to Ports- 
 mouth, diverged at Liphook into Woolmer Forest, 
 and there, stationed at a spot to this day known 
 as " Queen's Bank," saw the herd of red deer 
 driven past her to the number of some 500 head. 
 Yet these deer rarely put in an appearance at 
 
 E 
 
66 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 Alice Holt Forest, practically contiguous to Wool- 
 mer, but remained on their own barren wastes. 
 There they lived and throve until the arrival 
 of the "Waltham Blacks," and ultimately the 
 passing of the Black Act. 
 
 The " Waltham Blacks " were a gang or gangs 
 of desperadoes, who throve in the neighbourhood 
 of Waltham, in Hants, in the earlier days of 
 George I. It was their practice to disguise them- 
 selves by blacking their faces, and hence the 
 name of " Waltham Blacks." At first their depre- 
 dations ran chiefly in the line of deer-stealing, 
 which they practised with devastating effect in 
 Waltham Chase, among the deer of the Bishop of 
 Winchester, and they went far to clear the Royal 
 Forests of Woolmer and Alice Holt. They also 
 extended their practices to such matters as cutting 
 the dams of fish-ponds in order to secure the 
 fish, setting fire to houses, barns, and stacks of 
 corn and wood, maiming of cattle, and the like. 
 The Black Act (9 Geo. I, c. 22) was passed in 
 order to check the practices of these particular 
 gentry. It made all the actions in which they 
 habitually indulged into felonies, and the list was 
 a long one. In it was included, besides the crimes 
 I have recounted above, the cutting down or 
 destroying of any trees planted as an avenue, or 
 growing in a garden, orchard, or plantation in 
 
THE NEW FOREST DEER 67 
 
 fact, all the damage that these malefactors habitu- 
 ally committed. These stringent measures, and 
 the certain death penalty involved if any of the 
 " Blacks " was captured, appear to have stamped 
 out the gang. But the Bishop of Winchester 
 refused to restore the deer to Waltham Chase, 
 saying that " they had done enough mischief 
 already." 
 
 The deer in Woolmer Forest also were reduced 
 by these depredators to a shadow of the former 
 herd. It was deemed better for the peace of the 
 neighbourhood that they should be done away 
 with, and to that end came, as Gilbert White 
 recounts, the Duke of Cumberland, with "a hunts- 
 man and six yeoman prickers in scarlet jackets 
 laced with gold, attended by the staghounds ; 
 ordering them to take every deer in this forest 
 alive, and to convey them in carts to Windsor. 
 In the course of the summer they caught every 
 stag, some of which showed extraordinary diver- 
 sion. But in the following winter, when the 
 hinds were also carried ofi, such fine chases 
 were exhibited as served the country people 
 for matter of talk and wonderment for years 
 afterwards. 
 
 " I myself saw one of the yeomen prickers 
 single out a stag from the herd, and I must con- 
 fess that it was the most curious piece of activity 
 
68 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 I ever beheld, superior to anything in Mr. Astley's 
 riding school." 
 
 This settled the Woolmer red deer, and it 
 was not long before the fallow deer of Alice Holt 
 were also wiped out. 
 
 Both these properties were under my charge 
 as Deputy Surveyor for the whole period of my 
 residence in Hants, so it seems but natural to 
 put in a few words about matters that I was so 
 intimately connected with myself, though not in re- 
 spect of the New Forest. Although there was no 
 dividing line between the haunts of the red deer 
 and those of the fallow deer in the New Forest, yet 
 it was remarkable how they each kept to their 
 own particular ground. The red, as I have said, 
 were undoubtedly the indigenous deer of Great 
 Britain. It is always believed that the fallow deer 
 were introduced into England by the Romans, and 
 Mr. Millais (see British Deer and their Horns) 
 is of opinion that the New Forest deer are 
 descendants of Asiatic fallow deer from the shores 
 of the Sea of Marmora. At any rate, New Forest 
 deer, which are very fine, and often attain to very 
 good weights, differ in various ways from park 
 deer. In parks you see fallow deer, i.e. deer that 
 are of a pale red colour, with innumerable buff 
 or white spots on their sides. Again you see dun 
 deer nearly black on the back, but a lighter dun 
 
THE NEW FOREST DEER 69 
 
 colour on the under parts. Again one sees nearly 
 black deer, and those that are nearly red without 
 spots. Each one of these retains the same colour 
 both in summer and in winter. But in the wild 
 deer of the New Forest, just as in the case of 
 wild roe deer, there is, a complete alteration in 
 the colour of each individual deer in summer and 
 in winter. In summer every deer is a perfect 
 fallow colour that is to say a bright ground colour 
 with conspicuous white spots on the sides. That 
 is the true "fallow" colour, but in October they 
 change rapidly, and become in every single case 
 of the dun variety that is to say, of a very dark 
 brown colour on the back, coming low down on 
 the sides, and of a light dun on all the lower 
 and under part of the body. I have never seen 
 in a park a universal and a complete change such 
 as these wild deer go through. At any rate the 
 New Forest may heartily thank the Eomans for 
 three very desirable things. First (as many say), 
 the beech tree, the most beautiful object in the 
 Forest ; secondly, the fallow deer ; and lastly, the 
 pheasant. Long as it is since the tramp of the 
 Roman legions was heard in England, yet the 
 beautiful features which they introduced into the 
 New Forest remain and thrive, when other memo- 
 ries of that wonderful race have died away. 
 
 Of the deer, without doubt there were two 
 
70 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 varieties in the district when the Conqueror 
 afforested this great tract, where he desired to 
 take his pleasure near his capital of Winchester. 
 We read of him that he " loved the tall [i.e. 
 the red] deer, as if he had been their father," and 
 probably most of his personal hunting was the 
 pursuit of the noble stag. But the fallow deer 
 were certainly there in greater or in less numbers. 
 
 Of the roe deer we have no record. His only 
 appearances have occurred in recent years in the 
 form of solitary deer mostly old bucks, that have 
 probably been worsted in fighting and have 
 strayed up from Dorsetshire, where they are now 
 plentiful enough. They were, however, only in- 
 troduced into Dorsetshire about 1830, though they 
 have thriven so well there, and spread so greatly, 
 that it is strange that more of them have not 
 established themselves in the New Forest. 
 
 The first that came into my ken was about 
 the year 1880, when a solitary buck, wandering no 
 doubt out of Dorsetshire, tried to make his way 
 over to the Isle of Wight at low water by way 
 Hurst Castle, and its long approach over that 
 pebbly beach which leads to it. No doubt the 
 buck thought that the tongue of land he tra- 
 versed went all the way to the Island downs 
 that he could see far-off, but he was deceived. 
 First, he stuck in the mud, and then the tide 
 
THE NEW FOREST DEER 71 
 
 rose on him. He was taken alive by some fisher- 
 men, who reported the capture to me, supposing 
 that he belonged to the Forest. I hardly knew 
 what to do with him, and sent him off to the 
 Zoological Gardens, where I hope his life was a 
 happy one. Deer were in Norman times the be- 
 all and end-all of the forest. All legislation, 
 customs, and habits of the country were regulated 
 by their welfare. Many of these ancient laws 
 seem very barbarous to us, and, no doubt, when 
 first they were enforced were the cause of un- 
 speakable cruelty. The clause in the Charta de 
 Forestse of Henry III, enacting that " henceforth 
 no man shall lose life or member for taking our 
 deer," has a nasty sound in the ears of those who 
 live in the twentieth century. But for all that, 
 the penalties that remained to be paid, though 
 not so hideous in their barbarism, were terribly 
 severe. 
 
 One of the cruellest enactments was that con- 
 cerning the " expeditation " or "lawing" of dogs. 
 But even this was not quite so bad as it sounds. 
 By the laws of the Forest, a dweller within its 
 verges might keep a small dog "for the protec- 
 tion of his house and chattels." But he might 
 keep no hound or dog of such size that it might 
 chase a deer or fawn with any prospect of success. 
 
 Such a dog, then, by strict law had to be " ex- 
 
72 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 peditated," or to have his three front toes cut 
 off with an axe, so as to debar him for ever from 
 running fast enough to chase anything let alone 
 a deer. 
 
 And the test was whether he would pass 
 through a certain large stirrup which hung in the 
 Verderers' Hall at the King's House at Lyndhurst, 
 where the Forest courts were held. If the dog would 
 pass through the stirrup he was a little dog, only fit 
 to guard house and chattels, and free of all risks ; 
 if he would not pass, he was liable to the penalty. 
 
 The ancient stirrup used as this test still hangs 
 in the hall, and though it has not the antiquity 
 popularly assigned to it, being probably of Tudor 
 date, yet it was no doubt used for the practical 
 purpose I have described. 
 
 Such stirrups were not very uncommon, though, 
 I believe, this one is the last in existence. Such 
 an one is referred to in the records of the Forest 
 of Exmoor also, I believe, in those of the Forest 
 of Pickering but this I cannot verify. But the 
 actual lawing seems not to have been carried 
 out after the earliest times. The "jingling of 
 the guinea healed the hurt," that the dog never 
 felt. For this lawing or expeditation was a sub- 
 stantial source of income to the Crown, and 
 those who desired to keep big dogs must pay 
 for them or get rid of them. 
 
THE NEW FOREST DEER 73 
 
 In the Charta de Forestse of Henry III, it 
 is laid down : " Let the inquisition or view of 
 the lawing of dogs being within the Forest be 
 henceforth made when the regard ought to be 
 made to wit every third year . . . and let 
 him whose dog shall be found not lawed give 
 for mercy three shillings, and henceforth let no 
 ox be taken for the lawing." So you could keep 
 your dog uninjured at " a bob a year." These 
 were substantial payments, and the whole thing 
 was really a tax not a barbarity, though founded 
 on one and there were remissions, e.g. in the 8th 
 year of Edward I : " The foresters, verderers, re- 
 garders and other jurors of the New Forest say 
 upon their oath the men of the New Forest of 
 Lymitthorn (Lymington) are quit, and ought to be, 
 of expeditating their dogs of the same town up to 
 a certain number, to wit thirty-two dogs ; and if 
 there are more mastiffs in the said town they 
 ought to be expeditated, or expeditation shall be 
 given for them according to the custom of the 
 Assize of the Forest" 
 
 If this were not sufficient to prove that 
 the whole business was one of taxation " ac- 
 cording to the custom of the Assize of the 
 Forest," the following quotation will illustrate the 
 matter. 
 
 In the Pleas of Venison of the New Forest 
 
74 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 presented in the 4th year of Edward III (1339), 
 William de Bello Campo, Knight, keeper of the 
 Forest, presents under the heading of " Expedita- 
 tion " of dogs in the Forest aforesaid : 
 
 " From John, son of Richard de Wynton, 
 Knight, and Joan his wife from Edmond de 
 Kendall and Henry de Hainhulle, tenants of the 
 lands and tenements which were of John son 
 of Thomas at one time keeper of the Forest, for 
 two expeditations of dogs received by the said 
 John, son of Thomas in his time, 90. 
 
 " From the heirs and tenants of the lands of 
 Roger de Inkpenne at one time keeper of the 
 Forest, for one expeditation of dogs received by 
 him in his time, 50." 
 
 Presumably the keepers died without account- 
 ing for the money received by them, and their 
 heirs were held responsible. 
 
 But these, at the rate of the day, are sub- 
 stantial sums, and if each " regard " every third 
 year, by a single keeper of one district alone in 
 the Forest, was worth so much, expeditation 
 must represent a tangible income if properly 
 collected and accounted for. I don't know when 
 the custom died out, and the income was lost 
 to the Crown. Probably at the date of the 
 Commonwealth. But in one way or another, to 
 man or to beast, the deer were a source of trouble 
 
THE NEW FOREST DEER 75 
 
 if not severely let alone; nor was rank or 
 position always a protection. 
 
 In the pleas of juries and assizes held in the 
 fortieth year of Henry III (generally at Win- 
 chester), Nigel de Bokland, Simon de Ernewoode, 
 and John Ernys, verderer, and foresters, of the 
 New Forest, presented that Avice, Countess de 
 Insula, in returning from the Court of the Lady 
 the Queen, on Monday next before the Conversion 
 of St. Paul 37 Henry III took in the Forest 
 two deer [bestias], therefore let the matter be 
 discussed before the King." 
 
 Nor were the princes of the Church above 
 helping themselves to the venison of their 
 superior Lord the King, for at the same assizes 
 it was presented and found that " On the vigil 
 of Saints Tyburcius and Vallerianus, William 
 Russel, with a horse carrying the saddle of a 
 convert of Beaulieu named William, then keeper 
 of the Grange of the Abbot of Beaulieu of 
 Harisforde (Hertford), with three grey hounds, 
 entered the Forest and slipped them [amissavit] 
 after the game of the Lord the King. The 
 foresters arrived, and William fled, leaving the 
 horse and greyhounds, to a spinney. The 
 foresters delivered the horse and greyhounds to 
 John de Buttesthorn, steward of the Forest. 
 The Sheriff is ordered to cause the Abbot to 
 
76 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 come that he may produce his servant, William 
 Eussel, on the Friday before Ash Wednesday." 
 The Abbots of Beaulieu seem to have been 
 peculiarly troublesome neighbours to the adjoin- 
 ing Crown Forest, and indeed up to the present 
 day they have one after another been actively 
 tenacious of what they, with wide views, con- 
 ceived to be their rights. But the following 
 incident is a very delightful instance of the 
 royal economy in dealing with the Church 
 subscriptions which existed then, and are now 
 always with us. 
 
 " The Abbot of Beaulieu was indicted at the 
 Pleas of the Forest held at Winchester on the 
 morrow of St Hilary 8 Edward I, for receiving 
 Brother Richard his convert and Richard de 
 Rames his servants \_familiarum] indicted for 
 trespass of venison with snares and other engines 
 in a close, made fine with the King for forty 
 marks, came and brought the Queen's writ by 
 which the Queen pardoned the Abbot and 
 convert for the trespass aforesaid and gave the 
 forty marks for the work of his Church. There- 
 fore he is quit." Good and businesslike. This time 
 the worthy prelate seems to have been fairly 
 caught out and condemned to pay. But how 
 cunningly he got out of the fix, and with what 
 sound feminine economy did the Queen com- 
 
THE NEW FOREST DEER 77 
 
 promise for the inevitable subscription towards 
 the building of the new Abbey. These royal 
 personages and great churchmen were infinitely 
 human ! 
 
 But the deer and the care of them, at an 
 assize held shortly after the date last mentioned, 
 led to a very serious charge and conviction 
 against a prominent Forest official for it was 
 presented " that John le Espaniell yeoman 
 [valetus] to the Queen took in the Forest in 
 55 Henry III, twenty does for the behoof of the 
 Queen, and Walter de Kane' took in the same 
 year one hart [cervus] and six bucks [damos] for 
 the behoof of the Queen. And the said John le 
 Espainell was in the same year with the Queen 
 in foreign parts. The verderers and foresters 
 being asked present this. They say that Walter 
 de Kane' caused this to be so enrolled and well 
 they recollect that the said John took the said 
 bucks though they erred in their presentation. 
 But they say that Walter took venison at his 
 own will at all times of the year when he was 
 steward. The verderers are amerced for a bad 
 presentation concerning John. Concerning Walter 
 the verderers and foresters being asked as to 
 the destruction which the said Walter made for 
 venison in the Forest, say that he and John 
 de Buttesthorne and William de Barthon, and 
 
78 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 John de Ponte, and others who were under him 
 when he was steward of the Forest, despoiled 
 the Forest of five hundred beasts [ferasi] and 
 upwards, and sent the venison where they 
 wished to different parts for the said Walter 
 de Kane'. 
 
 "For the trespass of the 500 beasts taken by 
 him at his precept taken 5000, namely, for each 
 beast 10. For other beasts which he caused to 
 be taken without number and without warrant, 
 and for the waste made by him of his bailiwick 
 as well of venison as of vert because it is not 
 possible to estimate it at the will of the King 
 and Queen. And for the trespass of the afore- 
 said malefactors by him placed there, for whom 
 he is held to answer, because they have nothing 
 at the will of the King and Queen." 
 
 A more appalling condemnation and sentence 
 could hardly be faced by mortal man. To be 
 " at the will of the King " meant no less than 
 that your life, the lives of your family, and the 
 whole of the property of every kind that you 
 possessed, lay at the mercy of the King so-called, 
 but practically of that of the convicting Court. 
 Probably, unless extenuating circumstances could 
 be effectually urged, the sentence was carried out 
 to the full. But in any case the enormous fine 
 of 5000 at the money value of that day im- 
 
THE NEW FOREST DEER 79 
 
 posed on the unfortunate Walter was one that 
 no subject except one of the highest magnates of 
 the kingdom could be expected to raise. Cer- 
 tainly it was not then, or now, one that a salaried 
 Forest official was likely to be able to produce. 
 Therefore the very best prospect before poor 
 Walter de Kane* was that of rotting in a dungeon 
 for the rest of his life, and reflecting how meanly 
 all his Forest friends and associates had rounded 
 on him when the day of trouble came and they 
 began to tremble for their own skins. 
 
 But I quote these old records to show how 
 very high was the value and importance set on 
 the deer, and how it was still a matter of life or 
 death to take liberties with them. The fine im- 
 posed of 10 per head can only have been a 
 vindictive one. Even in those days, when venison 
 may have been of much greater value than it is 
 now (for most people despise it, if compared with 
 ordinary butcher's meat), no deer could possibly 
 have been worth a fifth part of the value put 
 upon it. It was the estimation in which the 
 " venison" of the Forest, comprising a good deal 
 more than mere deer's flesh, was held that caused 
 these tremendous penalties to be fixed. 
 
 I have not come across any particular records 
 about the deer in Tudor times. Doubtless there are 
 such records, interesting enough, but they require 
 
80 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 an immense amount of unearthing and the aid of 
 those who can readily translate the language of 
 Norman-French and dog-Latin combined, in which 
 they are written. I have never had leisure for 
 such researches in the course of my life. 
 
 The Stewart records that I have had access 
 to relate more to timber growing and building 
 than to the deer. In 1670, however, we have a 
 record of an order of Charles II for enclosing 
 with pales certain land adjoining New Park "for 
 the preservation of our red deer, newly come 
 out of France." Whether the stock had fallen 
 very low during the time of the Commonwealth 
 (as is very probable), or whether His Majesty 
 merely desired to introduce a cross of fresh blood, 
 we are not told. But in this same year 1670 
 there was drawn up a very interesting census 
 of the New Forest deer. Whether it had any- 
 thing to do with the importation of fresh red 
 deer from France at that particular date or not, 
 is not apparent. 
 
 This return was found at Bolton Hall, Wens- 
 leydale, by a member of the family in possession 
 there, who are the direct descendants of those 
 Dukes of Bolton who for over a hundred years exer- 
 cised so great an influence in New Forest, and 
 took their title from Bolton Castle in Wensley- 
 dale. This paper was found among ancient 
 
THE NEW FOREST DEER 
 
 81 
 
 documents connected with, probably, that last 
 of the Dukes, who bequeathed his North Country 
 properties to his daughter. She married Mr. 
 Orde a Yorkshire gentleman, who afterwards 
 assumed the name of Orde-Powlett. The term 
 "rascall" deer is quaint, but no doubt a common 
 one at that date. It seems to apply to all deer 
 not actually fit for venison and doe venison, 
 though a capital thing on the table, seems to 
 have been " nothing accounted of" in the days 
 of the Dukes of Bolton. The common expression 
 "rascal" applied to many a worthless fellow, no 
 doubt has its origin in the deer-park. 
 
 A Veiw of the Deere in the New fforest 
 
 IN THE COUNTY OF SOUTHTON TAKEN THE BEGINNING OP APRIL 1670. 
 
 
 Bed 
 Male. 
 
 Red 
 Rascall. 
 
 ffallow 
 Male. 
 
 ffallow 
 Rascall. 
 
 North Baylwicke 
 Godshill 
 Linwood 
 Burly 
 South 
 East 
 Batramsley 
 Inn 
 ffritham 
 
 Totall of each sort .... 
 
 2 
 23 
 19 
 14 
 6 
 15 
 
 24 
 103 
 
 10 
 50 
 34 
 15 
 37 
 42 
 2 
 64 
 
 157 
 45 
 
 232 
 
 189 
 149 
 69 
 230 
 81 
 257 
 
 1,409 
 
 675 
 183 
 470 
 1,292 
 759 
 633 
 721 
 124 
 1,327 
 
 6,184 
 
 254 
 
 Totall of y e Red Deere .... 
 Totall of y e ffallow Deere .... 
 
 Generall Totall 
 
 . 357 
 . 7,593 
 
 . 7,950 
 
 The last yeares veiw amounted to ... 7,273 
 So there is this yeare increased . . . 677 = 7,950 
 
 F 
 
82 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 The stock of deer kept through the eighteenth 
 century probably varied from 4000 to 8000 head. 
 No doubt, when it approached the latter figure 
 the ground became overstocked, and if bad weather 
 came there was heavy mortality. It is recorded 
 that, in 1787, 300 deer died in Boldrewood Walk 
 alone during the winter. 
 
 At the period of the Deer Removal Act, when 
 the deer became a burning question, it was stated 
 that the number had been cut down, from about 
 3000 to 4000 in recent years, to the number of 
 2000. Even then, as I have recounted above, 
 there was considerable anxiety in various quar- 
 ters to get rid of them and this was arranged to 
 be done. 
 
 According to the Act, the deer were to be 
 wholly removed from the Forest within two years. 
 No effort was spared to bring this about. At first 
 the great bulk of them were simply shot down. 
 But as they became scarcer and wilder, all sorts of 
 means had to be adopted. Nets were used, and the 
 deer were driven into them, set at the well-known 
 tracks and paths through the woods ; hounds 
 were freely employed to drive the deer into the 
 nets and up to guns posted in likely places. 
 Finally, hunting pure and simple had to be re- 
 sorted to, and a deer when found was run down 
 by the bloodhounds each keeper used to assist 
 
THE NEW FOREST DEER 83 
 
 him in his duties. At the end of the two years, 
 the Act had been carried out as far as was possible 
 in a wild densely wooded country like the New 
 Forest. 
 
 But it was impossible to carry out the provi- 
 sions of the Act down to the very last deer, or 
 to know for certain whether or no a few of the 
 fugitives were left in various parts of the thick 
 coverts up and down the Forest. Probably a 
 few did survive. But it was overlooked by those 
 who drafted the Act that in many parts of the 
 Forest it is bounded by thick woods, the property 
 of private landowners. The hotter the pursuit 
 in the Forest grew, the more the deer sought 
 refuge in these woods. In some they were 
 killed just as they were in the Forest. But in 
 others they met with more hospitable treatment, 
 and as the Deer Removal Act grew to be more 
 disliked, the deer that remained were viewed 
 with more kindly eyes. People forgot the 
 damage they had done, and thought with regret 
 of the palmy days of the Forest, with its herds 
 of deer constituting one of its most attractive 
 features. In these circumstances the remnant 
 of the herd found sanctuary outside the bounds 
 of the Forest, and so the ancient stock of wild 
 deer, dating back to the days of the Romans, 
 never became really extinct in the district. 
 
84 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 The two years in due course rolled by, and with 
 them came an end to the money allotted for the 
 work of destruction. The strangers who had 
 been employed to assist in taking the deer went 
 back to their own places. The staff of keepers 
 was considerably reduced, and the bloodhounds 
 they formerly kept to track or to recover a 
 wounded deer were got rid of. All that could 
 be reasonably expected to be done in order to 
 carry out the provisions of the Act had been 
 complied with, and the little remnant of deer were 
 left at rest. Gradually they crept back into the 
 Forest, but no one seemed to think there was 
 any obligation to continue year by year the de- 
 struction of the deer after the prescribed two 
 years had expired. A certain amount of hunt- 
 ing was permitted, which for a long time pre- 
 vented the deer from increasing too fast. 
 
 Such, then, was the condition of affairs when 
 I came to the Forest. There was a small stock 
 of deer scattered pretty well over the Forest 
 quite enough, and more than enough, to provide 
 sport for a pack of hounds. My predecessor had 
 already begun to kill down a few, and I soon 
 found that the deer had a tendency to increase 
 very rapidly, and that I must bestir myself if 
 they were to be kept from overwhelming me. 
 The first things I had to provide myself with 
 
THE NEW FOREST DEER 85 
 
 were some hounds. At first I got a draft or 
 two from the pack that hunted the deer. It 
 is difficult to improve on a well bred fox- 
 hound for any sort of work that a hound is 
 suited for, if once you train him to do what you 
 want. 
 
 Just at that time I heard that the old strain 
 of bloodhounds kept for centuries at Bagot Park 
 were about to be given up, and I put in a word 
 for some of them. Lord Bagot very kindly gave 
 me what were left, and from these I set to work 
 to breed. Gradually I got together enough 
 hounds of sorts, to enable me to provide one for 
 each head keeper, and to keep two or three 
 myself; for I found that the work of keeping 
 down the deer was going to become a good deal 
 more than I could do myself, and that the 
 keepers would have to keep <m at it whether I 
 could be there or not. But I made it an invari- 
 able rule that if ever a shot was fired at a deer, 
 a hound was to be laid on its line, and the deer 
 pursued until it was either recovered or seen to 
 be unwounded. 
 
 In thick woodlands like those of the New 
 Forest, and especially when the fern is high, 
 it is impossible for any man to be certain whether 
 he has struck a deer, which is often out of sight 
 in a single bound. Unless a certainty is made, 
 
86 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 by using a hound, there is always a risk of 
 leaving a wounded deer to suffer, or of losing one 
 that, shot perhaps through the heart, has run 
 a hundred yards in covert, and then fallen dead. 
 But if a hound is invariably made use of, such 
 things ought never to occur. 
 
 Our method was generally this. I would 
 meet the keepers of the particular district, each 
 with his hound, armed with smooth-bores, and 
 with specially and very carefully loaded buck- 
 shot cartridges. I myself would be mounted on 
 a pony with a weight such as falconers use, 
 carried in a socket on the saddle and attacked 
 to the bit. When dismounting for a shot, the 
 weight is pulled out of the socket, and the pony 
 can be instantly tethered. For a weapon I used 
 a " Paradox" gun. In one barrel I had a buck- 
 shot cartridge, and in the other a bullet. These 
 guns are as accurate as any rifle up to 150 yards, 
 and I was thus utrinque paratus. If the deer 
 crossed a ride within 30 yards, it was a fair 
 chance for the buckshot barrel whatever pace 
 it was going. But if it came and stood any- 
 where within 150 yards, the bullet in the left 
 barrel had its opportunity. 
 
 Sometimes we drove the covert with a wide 
 line of beaters far apart. When the deer were 
 very numerous and in herds, this was a good 
 
THE NEW FOREST DEER 87 
 
 plan, and often the guns posted ahead would get 
 a shot when the deer first moved. But the 
 prettiest and most scientific way of going to 
 work was to lay a good hound on the line of a 
 deer where it had been slotted, or seen, in the 
 early morning. Where the object was to get a 
 particular buck, this was also the best way. It 
 was pretty to see the old hound work out the 
 line slowly but surely, till he roused the deer we 
 wanted, and if none of the outlying guns got a 
 chance when he first started, the hound would 
 keep the deer going slowly, and generally in 
 circles, till some one got a chance either one of 
 the men on foot, placing himself in a likely 
 spot, or myself, scuttling on my pony at top 
 speed from place to place as the chase seemed 
 to incline, and jumping off in readiness, with 
 tethered pony at hand, and gun ready. By 
 whichever method we found our deer, it was 
 generally brought to book by the use of a hound 
 generally a couple or couple and a half running 
 together. In this way they did not press the 
 deer as a pack would, and cause them to make 
 a point, but generally managed to keep them 
 moving and dodging about in circles, until they 
 ran up against some one who was ready for 
 them. 
 
 In this manner I have spent many very amusing 
 
88 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 days the combination of hunting and shooting 
 was almost unique, and sometimes I saw very in- 
 teresting hound work, while the general surround- 
 ings and the study of wild life of all kinds were 
 most delightful. 
 
 I found my bloodhounds were too silent for 
 this work. Their note was deep and fine, but 
 only repeated at long intervals too long to enable 
 us to follow, at a distance, the direction of the 
 chase. I tried old-fashioned Southern hounds, and 
 had one or two very good ones, with as much 
 tongue as I could desire ; but they are soft, and 
 incorrigible in the vice of running heel. I have 
 actually seen them hunt a deer round to the gun, 
 and work up to where it was lying dead on the 
 ground, having been just shot, and, if they were 
 not quickly caught, turn round and run the old 
 line backward from the place they had just hunted 
 it up to, with their quarry lying dead before 
 them. 
 
 But at last I got the very hounds I wanted 
 in that ancient Irish breed called "Kerry beagles." 
 Black and tan, and about 22 to 24 inches high, 
 they were as unlike " beagles " as any dog that 
 I ever saw. But they were very keen and active, 
 rather too fast, but mad to get hold of a deer, 
 and with a tongue you could hear for miles. 
 A first cross with the foxhounds produced a 
 
THE NEW FOREST DEER 89 
 
 hardier, better constitutioned dog, and I left 
 some good ones behind me when I bade farewell 
 to the New Forest. 
 
 But besides this form of sport, I have spent 
 some most enjoyable evenings in summer, "creep- 
 ing " the woods for bucks with a rifle. It cannot 
 be called stalking, for there can be no " spying," 
 and without spying there cannot be stalking. 
 One can only walk very quietly in the woods, 
 towards dusk, in particular parts where certain 
 good bucks are known to lie. 
 
 In August and the earlier part of September, 
 especially before they have burnished, bucks do 
 not go very far afield, and from about fifty 
 minutes before dark they move out of the thickets 
 where they have lain all day, and begin to draw 
 to their feeding ground. Just for that space of 
 time a careful "creeper" may encounter one, and 
 get a shot. It is rather difficult, for a man must 
 have a very quick eye to " pick up " a deer, 
 standing generally in the shade of covert. More- 
 over, the shot must be taken at once as you 
 both stand and generally from the shoulder. It 
 is almost always the case that the buck has 
 "got" you just as soon as you "got" him, and, 
 though they generally stand for a minute to 
 stare and see what has alarmed them, it is but a 
 short minute, and he must be taken just as he 
 
90 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 stands, however awkwardly it may be, and with- 
 out a second's delay. 
 
 I have in my time killed a good many good 
 bucks by this method, and I must own that it is 
 a quiet form of sport that I have greatly enjoyed. 
 The charm of the surroundings is so great the 
 silence, the calm beauty of the summer evening, 
 with the brilliant but tempered rays of the 
 setting sun slanting down through the heavy 
 foliage, are so impressive, that, whether I met with 
 success or not, I could not but be happy ; while 
 not the worst part was the ride home in the cool 
 of the summer dusk, with the little fern owls 
 following me, and, as is their weird custom, settling 
 in the middle of the road every fifty yards in 
 front, and remaining there till my pony almost 
 trod on them, when they would noiselessly flit up, 
 only to go forward and repeat exactly the same 
 manoeuvre a little farther on. 
 
 Perhaps almost the best thing about sport of 
 most kinds is that it takes one into such beauti- 
 ful and interesting scenery and conditions. 
 
 The fallow deer on the New Forest often 
 run to very good dimensions, and certainly are 
 the best venison possible. I never partook of 
 a deer out of a park that seemed to me to be 
 anything approaching a good Forest buck in 
 excellence. 
 
THE NEW FOREST DEER 91 
 
 The following are the weights of a few good 
 deer taken from my game book. 
 
 st. Ib. 
 
 Aug. 20, 1893 Islands Thorns . . . 13 3 
 
 Aug. 20, 1901, Oakley . . . . 13 10 
 
 21, Ramnor . . . . 13 5 
 
 Sept. 7, 1906, Islands Thorns . . . 13 10 
 
 14, Wootton . . . . 14 6 
 
 Aug. 8, 1907, Park Ground . . . 14 7 
 
 1908, Denny . . . . 14 4 
 
 Aug. 15, Shave Green . . . 13 8 
 
 July 26, 1909, Denny . . . . 14 6 
 
 Aug. 5, 1910, Shave Green . . . 14 
 
 16, Parkhill . . . . 14 2 
 
 Aug. 3, 1912, Getthornes . . . . 14 9 
 
 17, 1914, Rakes Brakes . . . 13 10 
 
 All these deer were weighed as deer usually 
 are in a Scotch forest, as they come off the hill 
 on the pony viz. clean, i.e. gralloched, but with 
 heart and liver left in. Head, skin, and horns, of 
 course, on the beast. The retention of heart and 
 liver varies in places. It means 10 Ibs. of the 
 weight. During the last decade or so, the deer in 
 the New Forest country have begun to increase so 
 rapidly, that we have had to kill a large number 
 of them. The reason for this is that they are so 
 well preserved, and are become so numerous in all 
 the vast chain of woodlands on the north side of 
 the Forest, that there is now a large herd of 
 deer scattered among these woodlands, associ- 
 ating and no doubt interbreeding with the Forest 
 
92 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 deer, of which the Forest officials can keep no 
 count, and over which they have no control. 
 
 These deer are to be found outside the Forest 
 in considerable but unascertained numbers, in 
 woods running nearly to Salisbury. They are to 
 be found in the Norman Court Woods, adjoining 
 the old Forest of Clarendon. It would be no 
 great stretch if one were to say that the deer 
 of New Forest and Clarendon now intermixed, 
 and that is what we never hear of in the ancient 
 days, when Clarendon and New Forest were both 
 well stocked deer forests, under different control. 
 
 Inside the New Forest all we could do was 
 to peg away at all the deer we could find, and 
 kill as many as we could in the time that could 
 be spared for such work. But the stock was like 
 a widow's cruse, for often, when we thought the 
 herd frequenting a particular place had been 
 accounted for, a fresh lot would, as it were, drop 
 from the sky from one of these outlying places, 
 and place us just where we started from, as to 
 numbers, to be dealt with. 
 
 The contribution I got from the Office of 
 Woods towards this work consisted in the cost 
 of the cartridges used, and latterly the cost of 
 the licences taken by the keepers for the hounds 
 they used. Towards the cost of these hounds 
 (and it was often considerable), and towards their 
 
THE NEW FOREST DEER 98 
 
 keep, I never could extract a farthing. But this 
 incessant increase in the deer, with the attempt 
 to stem the flood, was a worrying thing and a 
 difficult one to control. I put my hand in my 
 pocket for the hounds we required, and the un- 
 fortunate keepers were mulcted in their pay for 
 the keep of the hounds, without which they could 
 not do their duty. But it was not generous treat- 
 ment. Altogether I got a great deal of sport out 
 of the deer in my own way, and the cry that 
 came to me from the masters of the buckhounds 
 and all interested in the hunting of the deer was 
 always to press me to keep on killing them down, 
 lest all their sport be swamped by the multiplica- 
 tion of their quarry. 
 
 Like other deer, the New Forest bucks fight 
 desperately in the rutting season not unfrequently 
 even to the death. A curious case occurred about 
 1905, when two bucks were found still warm, but 
 both dead, in the bottom of a drain, with their 
 horns so firmly locked together, that it was almost 
 impossible to disengage them. The heads of both 
 had to be cut off and removed together, before the 
 bodies could be got out of the drain. It would 
 appear as if one buck had turned to fly, and his 
 pursuer had locked the horns together by an attack 
 from behind, falling on to the defeated deer into 
 the drain, and turning right over, locked as he was 
 
94 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 by his horns, had broken his neck. His super- 
 incumbent weight probably suffocated the under- 
 most deer quickly. But had this not happened, 
 they must surely have perished miserably from 
 starvation. The heads, locked together as they 
 were found, now hang in the Verderers' Hall at 
 the King's House. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE KING'S HOUSE 
 
 IT would hardly be possible for me to set on 
 paper my reminiscences, and omit any mention 
 of the delightful, old, inconvenient, but well appre- 
 ciated residence in which it was my duty to live. 
 I conceived also that, as the residence of the re- 
 presentative of the Crown, it was intended to be 
 a centre of hospitality, and therefore, although no 
 " table money " was allowed to me, I thought it 
 right to make as welcome as I could, not merely 
 my official chiefs and those connected with the 
 Office of Woods, but also all the many professors of 
 Forestry or students of our English systems that 
 came to England or to Hampshire in the prosecu- 
 tion of their researches. This was not only a 
 great pleasure to my wife and myself, but it also 
 caused me to make friends of most of the distin- 
 guished lights of forestry and leaders of that branch 
 of science and its practice that have been living 
 in or visiting this country for the last thirty 
 years. Many interesting discussions took place at 
 my table, and I was able to learn and profit very 
 
96 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 much from what fell from these learned pundits, 
 and to get an education in forestry difficult to 
 arrive at otherwise. 
 
 And again, in what is locally called "the April 
 month," viz. from about 15th March to the end 
 of April, when hunting people from all parts of 
 England flocked to the New Forest to finish up in 
 that delightful climate and scenery the ordinary 
 hunting season, I found that quarters in the old 
 Royal hunting box that I occupied were keenly 
 in request, and my spare bedrooms were continu- 
 ously booked as one party succeeded another. 
 And more than that, the inns and lodgings of 
 the village were overflowing at that season, and 
 contained many a good sportsman who was paying 
 a brief visit to see the spring hunting. These, 
 of course, of either sex, had to be gathered in to 
 join our party, and I thiiak I have seen as many 
 cheery, informal dinner parties one after the other 
 during the April month, as the old house can 
 ever have sheltered in its earlier days, far back 
 as they go. 
 
 For this old " Queen's House," as it was when I 
 came to it, but " King's House," as it was before my 
 day, and again after 1901, has a long history, and 
 must have seen and heard a good deal within its 
 walls. 
 
 It was not ever, as many people suppose, a house 
 
THE KING'S HOUSE 97 
 
 connected, strictly speaking, with the Forest itself, 
 nor was it ever intended originally for the residence 
 of any official in charge of the New Forest. 
 
 It was the manor house of the ancient royal 
 manor of Lyndhurst, a manor dating back to Saxon 
 times, and on the site (a wonderfully well chosen 
 one) of the present King's House .there stood a 
 manor house of what sort I know not consider- 
 ably before the days of the Conquest and the affores- 
 tation of the New Forest. 
 
 The manor of Lyndhurst was, at the time of the 
 Conquest, in the hands and administration of the 
 Abbey of Amesbury, granted thereto, it is said, by 
 the Saxon Queen, Elfrida, the murderess of Corfe 
 Castle, probably about eighty years previously. 
 
 At what precise date the Conqueror resumed 
 possession of the manor is not clear, but it was 
 assessed in the " Great Survey" in 1086, and in 
 1165 we find a grant thereof to a subject. 
 
 Successive grants of the manor, all duly recorded, 
 follow one another from that early date till the last 
 grant in 1831 to George Harrison. 
 
 But the old manor house seems to have been 
 always retained for the use of the King himself, 
 and to have been maintained by the Crown and not 
 by the grantee of the manor. And its use was 
 generally given to the Lord Warden. 
 
 Edward I spent some time here, and many docu- 
 
 G 
 
98 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 ments of his reign are dated from Lyndhurst. But 
 his Queen, Eleanor of Castille, made Lyndhurst her 
 home during the absences of the King on his 
 wars against the Welsh. In this reign an order 
 was issued for " twenty oaks to make laths for the 
 use of the Queen's manor house at Lyndhurst " : this 
 rather points to repairs or construction on a con- 
 siderable scale. 
 
 In 1388 a hall was built within the lodge, and 
 this hall became called the Verderers' Hall, since 
 the Forest courts were held there. It existed un- 
 touched until 1851, when the house was badly 
 altered, and hi part it exists now. 
 
 The " old house " was repaired and enlarged by 
 Henry VIII, and probably the old porch leading 
 into the back-yard, once the main entrance to 
 the hall, dates from that reign. 1 
 
 In 1634 the King, Charles I, issued letters patent 
 to John Chamberlayne of Lyndhurst " for the new 
 building of divers lodginges for our use and service 
 adjoyning to the old house at Lyndhurst in the 
 Newe Forrest, as also, a Kitchyn, Pastrie, Larder 
 and other offices, and a stable to contain fortie 
 horse according to the plots and directions given 
 by the Surveyours of our Workes. 
 
 " The charges of the materialles and workmanship 
 whereof, according to the estimate thereof made, 
 
 1 See Victoria County History of Hants, vol. ii. 
 
THE KING'S HOUSE 99 
 
 will amount to the some of one thousand five hun- 
 dred three score and three poundes 12 shillinges 
 and six pence besides the timber for all the said 
 workes which is to be felled in the said Forrest and 
 brought to the said place at which by the estimate 
 will amount to two hundred and fifty loades for the 
 fellinge and carriage whereof speciall warrant and 
 directions shall be forthwith given." 
 
 Then follow all Mr. Chamberlayne's detailed 
 accounts and charges, only interesting for contrast- 
 ing the prices with those of the day. 
 
 For instance, two wheelbarrows cost 3d. and 4c?. 
 apiece. I have just paid 31s. 6d. for a new one in 
 1915. A pickaxe, however, cost I6d. Labourers 
 got from 6c. to 12cZ. per day. The latter, no doubt, 
 were skilled artisans. 
 
 The work, however, though authorised, and no 
 doubt in part carried out in the reign of Charles I, 
 was not completed until after the Commonwealth, 
 in his son's reign, for the final account of the sums 
 of money recently spent " in repairs to His Majesty's 
 house at Lyndhurst" 1057, 175. 9d. is settled by 
 Lord St. John in 1672. 
 
 Previously to that date Charles II had spent in 
 1669 a sum of 500. In the following year 1500 
 were raised by tops or lops, to be employed in 
 rebuilding the stables, and the total sum spent in 
 1671-72 came altogether to 1750. 
 
100 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 Altogether the estimate, as rendered in 1634, of 
 1500 proved, like many another such estimate, to 
 be a very misleading document. What was built 
 by Charles II was the main block of the building 
 lying to the westward of the Verderers' Hall, the 
 "Kitchyn pastree," &c. &c., and it constituted the 
 principal living accommodation of the house. An 
 inspection of the roof timbers and of the old beams 
 points clearly to the use of Forest timber, often 
 hardly worked at all, and that only with the axe. 
 The doors were clearly of Forest oak, made out of 
 plank with beautiful grain, but cut sadly too thin. 
 Alas ! when I went there every door was covered 
 with paint, but I could not resist paying out of my 
 own pocket the expense of burning and cleaning off 
 the paint and restoring the old doors of oak to their 
 original condition. 
 
 As to that seeming addition to the extreme 
 west end of the house, which bears upon the heads 
 of the lead stand pipes the crown and the letter 
 A.R. 1712, I am not quite certain whether this was 
 a mere repair or an addition carried out subse- 
 quently to the Charles II building or not, but I 
 think it must have been the latter. 
 
 It was apparently a tradition of these ancient 
 surveyors that any addition or considerable repair 
 to this old house should bear the initials of 
 the reigning monarch. Would that this had been 
 
THE KING'S HOUSE loi 
 
 the practice during the whole existence of this 
 ancient house, for then we might have had a record 
 surpassing in interest those found in most mediaeval 
 dwelling-houses. However, we have on this 
 western end, on the old leaden heads of the 
 stack pipes, the insignia fixing the date in the 
 reign of Queen Anne. It seems to be too short a 
 time since the house was rebuilt by Charles II for any 
 reconstructions of a sufficiently important character 
 to have taken place. And so, I think, it was the 
 mark of an additional extension to the house. 
 
 On the main portion of the house, various dates 
 appear on the heads of these stack pipes. George III 
 1748 is the principal one, and doubtless refers to 
 some important repairs carried out at that date 
 over 100 years since the most recent building had 
 been projected. 
 
 I was careful to follow this precedent, and when 
 the whole house had to be repaired in 1880, and 
 when again considerable restorations were made to 
 it in 1904, to which I shall refer subsequently, I 
 was careful to record the dates on the heads of the 
 new stack pipes entailed, not indeed in the beau- 
 tiful old lead work of earlier dates, but in the best 
 copies to be obtained in modern cast iron. 
 
 So I think the old house was carried on, as 
 a very charming old residence, always in the 
 occupation of the Lord Warden of the New 
 
102 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 Forest (very frequently a royal personage), who 
 was allowed 70 a year for the upkeep of the 
 house. It was usually occupied by his steward, 
 who was responsible for the Forest dues made 
 over to the Lord Warden, and for the con- 
 duct of the Forest generally. In connection 
 with these dues, I may point out why there are 
 in the New Forest no real " agisters," although 
 the servants of the verderers have usurped that 
 title, which is that of a special officer in a Royal 
 Forest. To this the servant of a subject can 
 have no claim. The matter is well and tersely 
 put in the Report of the Commissioner of 1789, 
 to which I have previously referred : 
 
 "There were formerly agisters of this Forest 
 whose duty was to receive the agistment or 
 profit arising from the herbage and pannage for 
 the King's use, but the herbage and pannage 
 being granted to the Lord Warden, those profits 
 are collected by the Lord Warden's steward, 
 and the appointment of agisters has been dis- 
 continued for near a century past." 
 
 Their appointment was never revived, for at 
 the termination of the appointment of the Lord 
 Warden's steward, the collection of the Forest 
 dues was continued, as before, by the Forest 
 keepers for the King's use, who accounted for 
 them to the Deputy Surveyor instead of to the 
 
THE KING'S HOUSE 103 
 
 Lord Warden's steward, and do so to this day. 
 They are the real agisters of the Forest, but 
 that office is merged in that of keeper or 
 forester, as it was always called formerly. 
 
 The so-called agisters at present in the Forest 
 merely collect by no means "for the King's 
 use" sundry levies which since 1877 the ver- 
 derers are empowered to make on the commoners 
 alone. They have no pretensions to be Forest 
 officers as defined since the days of the Assize 
 of Pickering, and the real office of the agister, per 
 se, is in abeyance, as it has been for 220 years. 
 
 This is somewhat of a digression from the 
 history of the old King's House to the duties 
 that were performed therein ; but as I am only 
 jotting down reminiscences and researches, and 
 not attempting to write history, I hope to be 
 pardoned if I deal with the various matters just 
 as they spring into my memory. 
 
 The next change I have to record was in 
 the period about 1850, when there arose such a 
 complete reformation and upheaval of the whole 
 New Forest and its system of government. 
 
 In the first place the last Lord Warden of 
 the Forest, H.RH. the Duke of Cambridge, 
 died in 1849, and, since no successor to him has 
 ever been appointed, the office is still in abeyance 
 but never abolished. With him went the office 
 
104 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 of Lord Warden's steward and the occupancy of 
 the King's House. The control of the keepers and 
 of their collection as agisters of the New Forest 
 dues lapsed to the Crown, and fell under the con- 
 trol of the Commissioners of Woods. The King's 
 House stood empty, and the Deer Removal Act, 
 with all its alteration of old customs, was close at 
 hand. 
 
 It was decided to remove the Deputy Surveyor 
 from New Park, the residence always occupied 
 by the Commissioners of Woods, who, apart from 
 the sporting interests, had sole control of the 
 Forests. New Park was then a comparatively 
 small house. It had close by convenient car- 
 penters' yards, a sawbench, and other essentials, 
 the lack of which I felt keenly all my days in 
 the Forest. 
 
 The King's House was large, rambling, ex- 
 pensive to live in, without any land to speak of 
 attached to it, so that no artisan estate work could 
 be done there, and was thus very unsuitable for 
 the residence of the Deputy Surveyor. 
 
 So accordingly they set to work in those 
 mid- Victorian times to wreck the old place as 
 far as they could. In order to reduce the house 
 to dimensions more in accordance with its future 
 use, some genius pulled down the beautiful old 
 Tudor rooms (no doubt the addition of Henry 
 
THE KING'S HOUSE 105 
 
 VIII) which were over the Verderers' Hall and 
 also the scullery and servants' offices adjoining 
 them on the side of the street. They threw this 
 latter accommodation into the hall, enlarging it 
 to a size which had never been required up to 
 that day, and never has been since, and placing 
 thereon a barn-like roof abutting on the old house 
 a destructive alteration as barbarous in character 
 as could be imagined. But they could not even 
 do this properly. The walls of the upper story, 
 which had to come down to enable the barn roof 
 to be completed, were good 16-inch brickwork, 
 and they were pulled down to some 8 feet from 
 the ground I cannot think why. But instead of 
 being built up from that level in the original 16- 
 inch work, a brickwork of only 11 inches was put 
 in, with lath and plaster on the interior, to make 
 up the appearance of the new work to the width of 
 the old walls they were superimposed upon. Still 
 worse, mullioned windows were put in to replace 
 the old ones destroyed doubtless originally built 
 with stone, but the present mullions are a des- 
 picable sham of brickwork covered with plaster. 
 
 Mercifully, sufficient of the beautiful oak 
 panelling which lined the upper rooms was pre- 
 served to form a dado round the newly constructed 
 " ancient Verderers' Hall." A more rank impos- 
 ture does not exist! save only for the ancient 
 
106 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 oak fittings and furniture which has never been 
 removed. There are two very ancient-^I think, 
 Tudor, but one may be Jacobean solid and 
 heavy oak tables. The dock in which the 
 prisoner stands is a most curious piece of oak 
 furniture solid and heavy as stone touched with 
 no tools but the axe and adze, and bearing the 
 marks of them to this day. I fancy this piece 
 of old oak is about the most ancient piece of 
 work on the premises; the solid oak "bar" or 
 barricade, between the court and body of the hall, 
 is also massive and ancient. Fortunately, too, 
 the ancient canvas with the Royal Arms on it 
 was also left. Though not beautiful, it is inter- 
 esting, as it records the holding of the last Great 
 Justice Seat in Eyre held for the Forests south 
 of Trent. " It bears date C. II. 16'9." The third 
 figure of the date is obliterated, but it is un- 
 doubtedly a 6, as the Justice Seat was held by 
 Vere, Earl of Oxford, in 1669-70. Worst of all, 
 it was quickly found out that the absorption of 
 the servants' offices as devised by the destroying 
 genius rendered the house uninhabitable. To 
 sacrifice the useless, cocktail brand-new hall, 
 which had absorbed and ruined the priceless (as 
 we should now think it) hall of 1388, was not to 
 be thought of. So a fresh device had to be re- 
 sorted to in order to provide absolutely necessary 
 
THE KING'S HOUSE 107 
 
 accommodation, and two hideous excrescences 
 were built out on to the fine old facade of the 
 house on the north side, with bow windows, copied 
 one would think from the Early Victorian villas 
 of Surbiton. That the extra space had been 
 made a necessity is true. It was provided up to 
 about the extent of accommodation found on a fair- 
 sized yacht, and no more ; but, irrespective of the 
 badness of the design, the perpetrator of the 
 outrage on the old building ought to have been 
 publicly gibbeted in front of it. The remainder 
 of the house was panelled, as to all the principal 
 living rooms, in the large-sized panels of deal 
 which came in about the later Stuart period. 
 Even here the despoilers of 1851 could not leave 
 well alone. They decided that panelling of any 
 kind was unsuited to a drawing or principal living 
 room. Therefore they covered over with rough 
 planking the walls of the drawing-room, but 
 luckily left the panelling behind it, not very 
 much injured. Over this planking was stretched 
 canvas, whereon was pasted a wall-paper of quite 
 remarkable hideousness. 
 
 A very handsome carved wooden mantelpiece, 
 typical of the date of the building had been in 
 this room. It was removed, and a plain white 
 marble slab, with two uprights, placed in its stead. 
 Luckily the canvas stretched over the walls was 
 
108 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 very rotten, and under my investigations it gave 
 way sufficiently to give an idea of what might 
 be underneath. I quickly examined into this, 
 and, to my joy, found the panelling intact. Better 
 still, I had recently discovered in a loft over a 
 stable, a carved mantelpiece for which I could not 
 account. On bringing this to light, the outline 
 on the paint of the panels showed that it was 
 the original mantelpiece that fitted into its old 
 place perfectly in the drawing-room of the house 
 as it formerly was. 
 
 I soon besought the Office of Woods to carry 
 out the restoration of this room to its original 
 form. What they would not do, I myself supple- 
 mented, and the result was a very pretty old 
 room exactly in keeping with the rest of the 
 house. 
 
 In the rebuilding in the days of Charles II, 
 the idea of an abode that should be of the nature 
 of " our lodgings in New Forest " was always 
 kept in sight, and the result was a house of 
 peculiar and by no means convenient planning. 
 
 On the first floor are all the principal rooms 
 of the house, and very good lofty rooms they 
 are, opening all one into the other, as was the 
 custom of that day, and occupying the whole of 
 the first floor on both sides of the house. These 
 were no doubt the apartments reserved, and built 
 
THE KING'S HOUSE 109 
 
 expressly for, the royal accommodation, whether 
 for the King himself on his occasional visits, or 
 for the Lord Warden, who, no doubt, was frequently 
 in residence. 
 
 On the ground floor was a suite of rooms, 
 similar in area to the royal apartments on the 
 upper floor, but five feet less in height, and alto- 
 gether inferior to the first floor and rooms. 
 
 Above the old Verderers' Hall was a set, pro- 
 bably of four, oak panelled bedrooms, not of very 
 large size, but comfortable, no doubt ; and in the 
 second floor is a perfect rabbit warren of attics, 
 reduced in number since the vandalisms of 1850, 
 which so altered the fabric of the house. 
 
 In 1880, and the years which followed it, I 
 was able to get a few sanitary improvements 
 carried out. We got the South Hants Company's 
 water laid on eventually, and were saved from 
 the perils of a very doubtful and precarious supply 
 pumped by hand! And in 1904 came the ever 
 so badly needed drainage scheme for Lyndhurst, 
 with which we were connected ; and, as a part 
 of the works carried out in consequence, we 
 attained at long last to the luxury of a bath- 
 room, which we had had to forego for twenty-four 
 years of residence in a Government house ! 
 
 But in 1904 there came to the old house a 
 restoration better than any it had experienced 
 
110 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 since Stuart days. At that date (1903) the accom- 
 modation for my office and for my staff had become 
 impossible. Two very small rooms on the ground 
 floor had to provide space for an enormous accu- 
 mulation of papers in daily use for reference ; for 
 my clerk and a boy and on frequent occasions 
 for my three assistants, and all the men they 
 were paying monthly wages to. The clerical work, 
 owing to that extraordinary passion of the Civil 
 Service for multiplying and multiplying, and 
 multiplying again all papers and returns, mostly 
 saying the same thing three times over, had in- 
 creased to such an extent that my clerk, with a 
 boy assistant, could not compete with it, nor could 
 I do my outdoor business and help him too. The 
 office accommodation was reduced to such a point 
 that any fresh papers that came in had to find 
 their resting-place on the floor. This, of course, 
 doubled the work, for it generally took more time 
 to hunt up off the floor the references required to 
 make a report that might be called for, than 
 to make the report itself when the materials 
 had been gleaned together. It was actually 
 maddening. 
 
 Finally, in the autumn of 1903, my health 
 gave way from worry. I was ordered by my 
 doctor to clear out of England, to do no work 
 of any kind whatever, or take any sort of exer- 
 
THE KING'S HOUSE 111 
 
 tion till further orders, and accordingly I went 
 off to Egypt for the winter. 
 
 Before I left, however, I pointed out that my 
 one clerk, with so little assistance, was much worse 
 off and more worn out than I was, and I received 
 the sop of a promise that all work should be re- 
 duced, and he should he as little pressed as possible 
 till I returned, and could reorganise matters. 
 
 But it was with no little shame and com- 
 punction that I received at Assuan on Christmas 
 Day the news of the death of my unfortunate 
 clerk worked to death in the service of his 
 country if ever a man was, but without com- 
 plaint from him and wholly without necessity 
 or excuse. Naturally, on my return, business 
 accounts and books were in a state of chaos. 
 However, I made it clear that as one man, and 
 very nearly another, had been killed by the 
 recent condition of affairs, I would not carry on 
 the office unless I was given at least one 
 additional clerk and provided with a new office 
 that would hold my papers and books of account, 
 and also provide room for correspondence. The 
 Treasury, something alarmed by the fact that 
 they had done a man to death by the conditions 
 of their service, were unusually malleable, and 
 authorised me to engage two clerks at once. 
 I was not long in doing this and first-rate men 
 
112 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 they turned out to be and in taking steps to 
 better the offices. 
 
 As to the provision of office accommodation, 
 that was a difficult problem which was long and 
 often discussed between Sir Stafford Howard and 
 myself. The Commissioners were quite willing to 
 buy, or build, a house for the purpose, though 
 that would have been very inconvenient to work. 
 But there was no suitable site, and the only 
 possible house was not available. 
 
 Suddenly the idea struck me of restoring the 
 old rooms over the Verderers' Hall easily 
 providing thereby the accommodation we wanted, 
 and at the same time restoring the old house 
 itself to its original proportions and appearance. 
 There had recently retired from the service of 
 the Office of Woods one who had been my first 
 assistant for many years. Mr Roberts, a qualified 
 and ingenious architect, particularly good, as I 
 often found, in adapting additions to old build- 
 ing. He threw himself into this work as a 
 labour of love, and succeeded admirably. 
 
 The difficulty was that the height of the 
 ceiling of the modern hall had been raised, so 
 that it was very difficult to adjust the new 
 rooms to the levels of the existing building. The 
 height of the building was limited by the height 
 of the house as it stood. However, these troubles 
 
THE KING'S HOUSE 113 
 
 were overcome. The height of the modern 
 Verderers' Hall was reduced by 2 feet 6 inches 
 without anyone ever noticing it. A well exe- 
 cuted copy of the fine old Jacobean staircase 
 in the house itself was placed at the northern 
 end, so as to give access to the new offices, and, 
 in fine, we contrived, out of what was previously 
 wasted space, a capital set of three rooms of 
 offices, with abundant presses for holding papers, 
 &c., drawing tables, and all the accessories of a 
 land agent's office. 
 
 The relief and assistance that was conferred 
 on my staff by this extra space was inconceiv- 
 able. Instead of spending hours in searching for 
 a paper, heaped with others in a slovenly mass 
 on the floor, every document was indexed and 
 in its place. The saving in labour, represented 
 by pounds shillings and pence, went a long way 
 towards paying interest on the outlay and the 
 additional salaries. 
 
 But besides this practical view,^there was the 
 immense improvement in the appearance of the 
 old house. 
 
 When first my proposals for an alteration of 
 any kind to that portion of it which was 
 erroneously conceived by the public to be a 
 genuine historical building were made, I was 
 
 warned and well realised that an agitation and 
 
 H 
 
114 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 an outcry was sure to be raised against any action 
 of this kind by the Office of Woods, who had 
 not at that time earned public approval and con- 
 fidence in such matters by their singularly able 
 preservation of Tintern Abbey. Accordingly, we 
 called in Sir Aston Webb, as the highest autho- 
 rity obtainable, to examine our plans and advise 
 generally. 
 
 He cordially approved of the scheme we had 
 propounded, only stipulating that everything should 
 be carried out not as in earlier days but with 
 the best material and in the best manner. He 
 suggested a valuable alteration or two, and thus, 
 armed with his report, we were quite prepared 
 for the inevitable question in the House of 
 Commons, asked by some member who knew 
 nothing about the matter, as to a proposed " de- 
 struction" of a historical building in the New 
 Forest. 
 
 One of the stipulations I made in the builder's 
 contract was, that no brick should be used in an 
 addition to the old building that was not certified 
 to be at least two hundred years old. When the 
 contractor ran out of what material he could pro- 
 vide from old cottages and the like, I provided 
 him with the remainder from the walls of the 
 old derelict garden at Boldrewood, abandoned for 
 many years, but of considerable age. In this 
 
THE KING'S HOUSE 115 
 
 way the ancient house had its restoration carried 
 out without a brick or a tile appreciably more 
 recent in date than the old fabric being used in 
 the reconstruction. 
 
 After the death of Frederick, Duke of York, 
 in 1827, the manor of Lyndhurst seems to have 
 been retained by the Crown, independently of 
 the Lord Wardenship. But the use of the King's 
 House was granted to the Lord Warden (with 
 the allowance of 70 for upkeep, previously men- 
 tioned). The use of the house was occasionally 
 demised by the Lord Warden to certain noble- 
 men, as, for instance, in the case connected with 
 hunting in New Forest, which I shall refer to 
 later, when H.R.H. the Duke of Gloucester gave 
 permission to the Duke of Richmond as " the 
 only person who had permission to use not only 
 the kennels and stables but the King's House 
 likewise, if his Grace should choose to come (to 
 hunt) which is very improbable." 
 
 Several other large houses existed in the New 
 Forest, which were occupied in most cases by the 
 master keeper of the walk in which it was situ- 
 ated, with the exception of New Park, a de- 
 lightful old house of Jacobean or very early 
 Georgian character, standing in a park, studded 
 with many fine old oaks, and surrounded by a 
 pretty good farm of some 150 acres. This resi- 
 
116 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 dence was at one time on lease to the Duke of 
 Bedford the Lord Warden of the day and his 
 heirs, but afterwards occupied by the officer in 
 charge of the Forest, now called the Deputy Sur- 
 veyor, as the representative in each forest of the 
 Surveyor-General, who was the ruler over all His 
 Majesty's woods, forests, and land revenues. 
 
 At New Park were the carpenters' and masons' 
 yards for carrying out the maintenance of lodges 
 and buildings all over the estate. In the Park 
 there were impounded all animals found tres- 
 passing in the Forest, while the farm was princi- 
 pally cultivated for the purpose of providing 
 fodder for the deer in winter time. 
 
 This provoked the great indignation of William 
 Cobbett, who visited the place on one of his 
 "rides" in 1826; he inveighs against finding at 
 New Park "a garden, a farmyard, a farm, and 
 a nursery. The place looks like a considerable 
 gentleman's seat. The house stands in a sort of 
 park and you can see that a great deal of ex- 
 pense has been incurred in levelling the ground 
 and making it pleasing to the eyes of ' my lords ' 
 the Commissioners" (who, of course, used New 
 Park as their headquarters when they visited 
 the Forest). A little later, on learning that the 
 farm provided fodder for the deer in winter time, 
 he says " What are these deer for ? Who are to 
 
THE KING'S HOUSE 117 
 
 eat them ? Are they for the Royal Family ? . . . 
 For what and for whom, then, are deer in the 
 New Forest, and why an expense of hay farm, 
 of sheds, of racks, of keepers, of lodges, and 
 other things attending the deer and the game ? " 
 Cobbett was, of course, incapable of taking any 
 but the most utilitarian view of any property, but 
 for all that his views, twenty-five years later, 
 found expression in the Deer Removal Act of 
 1851, which wiped out doubtless for sound 
 economical reasons one of our most beautiful 
 national possessions, as it stood in its beauty at 
 that time. Probably the best of the master 
 keepers' lodges was the one at Boldrewood, which 
 appears to have received more attention from its 
 occupiers than some of the others. 
 
 In the Commission report of 1789, an ap- 
 pendix contains " The answer of John Richard, 
 Earl de la Warr, Master Keeper of Bolderwood 
 and Eyeworth Walks, to the Precept of the 
 Commission of Land Revenue dated 1st day of 
 June 1787." 
 
 In it he states that he was appointed master 
 keeper (as. above) by the Lord Warden during 
 pleasure. He occupies Boldrewood Lodge, which 
 is in very good repair (no wonder, since the 
 Crown had just spent 712 upon it, in 1781) 
 and about 27 acres of meadow ground thereto 
 
118 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 adjoining. . . He receives 25 loads of fuel wood 
 for the consumption of Boldrewood Lodge. This 
 " John Richard," Lord de la Warr, was appa- 
 rently a grandson of the Lord de la Warr whose 
 letters appear in that delightful book by Lord 
 March, Records of the Old Charlton Hunt (to 
 which I am indebted for the following particu- 
 lars). They are from Lord de la Warr, who 
 was then master keeper of Boldrewood Walk, to 
 the Duke of Richmond, dated from Boldrewood 
 in 1732 to 1738. 
 
 In, August 1747 we find him writing to the 
 Duke who was at his house at Boldrewood en- 
 tertained by Lord de la Warr, his Grace 
 apparently not caring to avail himself of the 
 permission of the Lord Warden, previously re- 
 counted, " to occupy the King's House and stables 
 whenever he should choose to come." 
 
 He refers in some detail to the " new build- 
 ing," which he thinks will make " the whole very 
 convenient." 
 
 It appears to have comprised a new library, 
 " to be a family assembly room " and he describes 
 at some length his reasons (if indeed they needed 
 any apology) for putting " wainscot in the Stone 
 Parlour." For the reasons he gives, and for 
 others, it must have been a great improvement. 
 
 Alas ! all that is left of this magnificence is 
 
THE KING'S HOUSE 119 
 
 a handsome old lead pump, rather a curiosity, 
 with Lord de la Warr's initials and coronet 
 thereon, and the shell of the keeper's cottage 
 hard by is reputed to be the remains of the 
 old laundry attached to the mansion since 
 added to. 
 
 The last occupant of the house was Lady 
 Londonderry, who continued to reside there after 
 the death of her husband, the master keeper of 
 the walk, in 1821, until her own death in 1833. 
 The house was then pulled down, a great sale 
 of all the materials was held in 1833, and all 
 that remained was a keeper's cottage and the 
 pump! 
 
 A large master keeper's lodge stood in Rhine - 
 field Walk. In 1628 we find an authority from 
 the Earl of Holland to certain persons, and " to 
 Gabriell Lappe, gent, his Majes tie's Woodward 
 for County Southampton, for 30 to be raised, 
 in addition to 116 already expended in re- 
 pairing and building of the great lodge called 
 Rynefield, and the other outhouses thereto be- 
 longing, in the Baylwick of Batramsley within 
 the New Forest." 
 
 In 1789 this lodge was occupied by (Col.) 
 Nathaniel Heywood, master keeper of Rhine- 
 field and Wilverley Walks, and deputy to the 
 Lord Warden of New Forest. From his 
 
120 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 " Answer " to the Commissioners of that date, 
 I have formed the opinion that he had no very 
 good grasp of New Forest questions, or indeed 
 had concerned himself very much with them. 
 He states that he has no salary whatever as 
 master keeper or as deputy to the Lord 
 Warden, but as master keeper he occupies the 
 lodge at Rhinefield and a small enclosure 
 round it, of little value (this enclosure was one of 
 42 acres), and I observe that between 1771 and 
 1774 about 530 were spent on repairing and 
 improving the lodge. 
 
 I do not trace what happened to this lodge 
 after Colonel Hey wood's death, but for some 
 time before the date of the Deer Removal Act 
 (1851) it had become the residence of a groom- 
 keeper, and must have been much reduced 
 in size. 
 
 After 1851, when much planting was com- 
 menced, the lodge became the residence of the 
 head nurseryman in charge. " The small en- 
 closure of little value" became a large nursery 
 ground, in which some millions of ordinary forest 
 trees, such as oak, larch, and Scotch fir, were 
 reared and planted out, and besides these, many 
 thousands also of beautiful ornamental trees 
 were successfully grown. Many of these still 
 remain in situ, but the great pinetum at Boldre- 
 
THE KING'S HOUSE 121 
 
 wood the "Ornamental ride" in Pound Hill 
 enclosure, and the avenue of Douglas fir (so little 
 known and admired) in Oakley, with many 
 hundreds of other fine specimens, are witnesses 
 of much good and successful work in this nursery. 
 
 After the passing of the Act of 1877, all plant- 
 ing and nursery work became abandoned in the 
 New Forest, and Rhinefield Nursery was closed 
 down. The house fell into ruins, and eventually 
 the property a most lovely site for a house 
 was let to Lieutenant Monro Walker, who turned 
 the old nursery into pleasure grounds, and 
 built on the old site a large and very beauti- 
 fully designed mansion, with very well laid out 
 gardens. 
 
 The great house at Burley Lodge stood on a 
 different footing. It was occupied by the Dukes 
 of Bolton, who for nearly 130 years exercised a 
 sort of " imperium in imperio " in the Forest diffi- 
 cult to understand or explain. 
 
 For "near a century" before 1789 the Dukes 
 of Bolton held the keepership of the Bailiwick 
 of Burley (i.e. Burley and Holmsley Walks), with 
 the great lodge at Burley and the under keeper's 
 lodge at Holmsley. The last grant to the Dukes 
 of Bolton or Paulet family terminated in 1786. 
 But a further grant was made to the Earl of 
 Lonsdale (as family trustee) for an additional 
 
122 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 thirty years. Finally, the interest in the grant 
 was purchased from the trustees of the Duchess 
 of Bolton by the Crown in 1809, for a very con- 
 siderable sum of money. The rent paid by the 
 Dukes was only 9, 25. 6d. During all those 
 years the Dukes of Bolton controlled, as it were, 
 a forest of their own, within the limits of their 
 bailiwick. They seem to have exercised all forestal 
 rights. They appointed their groom - keepers, 
 with their residences the whole thing being 
 Crown property. They contracted under their 
 grant to maintain the lodges and all fences within 
 their bailiwick ; but they did not observe this 
 obligation, for in 1697 a sum of 106 was expended 
 on the lodge, as declared before the Right Hon. 
 Anthony Lord Ashley, Chancellor, and in 1768 
 we find that the Crown spent 1022 in the repairs 
 of Burley Lodge ! As to the Crown's forestal 
 rights, the Dukes seemed to have usurped them 
 for themselves, and to have issued warrants to 
 kill deer, cut wood, &c., exactly as if that part 
 of the Forest belonged to them. And in this 
 they were supported in 1757 when the Crown 
 keepers disputed the killing of a buck under 
 the warrant of the Duke of Bolton. In the 
 affray that ensued a keeper lost his life, and 
 the opposing side were put on trial for murder. 
 But since the judge declined to hear evidence 
 
THE KING'S HOUSE 123 
 
 upon the question of right, a verdict of man- 
 slaughter was recorded. From that day the 
 Dukes maintained their right to appoint under 
 keepers of the two walks, but those keepers 
 never attended the swainmote or attachment Forest 
 courts, and the bailiwick became practically out- 
 side the Forest law. And it is perhaps from 
 that cause that Burley, in its old form, before it 
 became a city of villas, was ever intolerant of 
 anything like Forest law and custom, and always 
 prone to contention. 
 
 The old Burley Great lodge was first after 
 1809 used, in a reduced form, for the residence 
 of the groom-keeper, eventually appointed assist- 
 ant to the Deputy Surveyor. Then the park 
 and open land around it was, in the utilitarian 
 days of 1851, ploughed, and an attempt was made 
 at high farming. A new residence was built, and 
 nothing remains of the old great lodge except 
 the front of an old coach-house, and an enormous 
 stone-lined well, which, however, is soon exhausted 
 by modern requirements. 
 
 But the remains some half dozen in number 
 of the " Twelve Apostles," the famous group of 
 old oaks, said to be noted in Domesday Book, 
 still ornament the otherwise uninteresting park, 
 and are worth a visit from any lover of ancient 
 trees. 
 
124 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 The other great lodge was in Ironshill Walk, 
 in the "Inn" Bailiwick. There is not much 
 interesting history about it among the records 
 that I have unearthed. It stood, like all these 
 lodges, upon a beautiful site, before all the ground 
 around was planted up, and the fine old silver 
 firs that were planted as ornamental trees in 
 the grounds of the old mansion stand up as a 
 landmark that may be seen for many miles from 
 the plateaus of the Forest to the west and 
 northward. 
 
 In 1787 the lodge was in the occupancy of 
 His Royal Highness Prince William Frederick, as 
 master keeper of the Inn Bailiwick. 
 
 Ironshill Lodge appears to have become some- 
 what noted in the matter of the heavy expendi- 
 ture incurred for repairs an expenditure which 
 the Commissioners, in their report of 1789, do 
 not hesitate to suggest was fostered by the 
 Deputy Surveyor, in accordance with a bad old 
 custom of those days, under which he received a 
 commission of five per cent, upon the outlay, 
 and, further, had the sole supervision of the 
 works. 
 
 The Commissioners had the case of Ironshill 
 Lodge before them, and found that an estimate 
 for repairs amounting to 931, 165. Od. had been 
 given in and approved by the Treasury. As they 
 
THE KING'S HOUSE 125 
 
 found that the sum 1788, 135. 3d. had been laid 
 out upon this lodge in 1769 and 1777, they 
 thought the sum excessive, and, " having the 
 buildings viewed by a competent and experienced 
 surveyor," found that the work might be done 
 for 390 less than the authorised estimate." 
 
 The question of the excessive expenditure on 
 the repairs of these lodges in the Forest had 
 been the subject of comment from various influ- 
 ential persons and memorialists for some sixty 
 years previously. In 1724 the verderers had 
 taken upon themselves to interfere in the matter, 
 which was one quite outside their jurisdiction, 
 and received a somewhat severe snub from the 
 Commissioners of the Treasury in reply. 
 
 But there was no doubt room for a good deal 
 of suspicion and comment about the large sums 
 which were spent on these lodges, and the possible 
 peculation connected with them. And since they 
 were only held as an emolument of a compli- 
 mentary and altogether sinecure office, public 
 indignation rose. The result was* the gradual 
 disappearance of all these charming old resi- 
 dences. It is a great pity that they were not 
 preserved and utilised on sounder conditions. 
 Ironshill Lodge must have been rather a fine 
 old house, from what we can read of it. Its 
 final office was to serve as an abode for French 
 
126 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 prisoners of war in the beginning of the last 
 century, after which it was pulled down, and 
 nothing remains of it now except what was once 
 its cloaca maxima, now used as a stronghold 
 both by foxes and by badgers. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 ROYAL VISITS 
 
 OF these the records I can discover are not half 
 so numerous as one would expect. Of course the 
 Norman kings did not bring the New Forest 
 under their forest laws for nothing. Moreover, as 
 regards their hunting, they had only followed in 
 the line of their predecessors. Canute, no doubt, 
 first used "Ytene," as was the ancient name of 
 the New Forest ; and indeed it is said to have 
 been at Southampton, when holding court there, 
 that he tried his little experiment of controlling 
 the tide. That William II died in the Forest 
 we all know, but there is not much record of 
 the visits of his immediate successors to the 
 newly made Forest. Henry III' seems to have 
 patronised the Forest of Clarendon chiefly, but 
 to have procured from the New Forest a great 
 number of oak shingles for the roofing of his 
 house there ; but his son Edward I spent much 
 time at Lyndhurst from 1278 to 1289. Many 
 documents of state are dated thence, and, as I 
 
 have before stated, his Queen, Eleanor, spent 
 
 127 
 
128 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 most of her time there during his absence on 
 his Welsh campaigns. Some of the papers re- 
 lating to her stay are of interest : " On Tuesday 
 the 13th November 1285, in oblation of the 
 King's daughters and others standing at Lynd- 
 hurst in the King's Chapel there, for the soul 
 of the Lord Philip King of France, deceased, 
 35. 4d." 
 
 This is also interesting because it points to 
 the origin of the handsome church at Lyndhurst 
 which replaced, some fifty years ago, the very 
 unpretentious building that did duty as the 
 parish church. Lyndhurst was always a chapelry 
 attached to the mother church of Minstead, and 
 is to this day served by the rector of Minstead 
 or a curate appointed by him. The origin, no 
 doubt, of a chapel being first established there 
 was that it might serve for the King and Queen, 
 and the large staff of followers and servants that 
 accompanied them, at irregular seasons. 
 
 Again, on the 4th November 1289: "To 
 Gundesalous Martini, sent by the Queen as far 
 Southampton and Portesmouth in a great ship 
 which came from Spain, to buy divers things for 
 the Queen's use by view of Henry de Monte 
 Pess who went with him to help him namely 
 oranges, raisins, pomegranates, dates, figs, olive 
 oil &c., &c. For baskets, cords, and carriage of 
 
THE KING'S HOUSE BEFORE RESTORATION. 
 
 THE KING'S HOUSE SOUTH SIDE AS RESTORED IN 1904. 
 
ROYAL VISITS 129 
 
 the same from Portesmouth to Lyndhurst together 
 with his expenses for his food for three days 
 when he was away from the Court purchasing 
 the said fruit, &c. 16|c?., besides his wages. 
 Total cost of the provisions 67s. OJdL" 
 
 And again a curious entry : " For the ex- 
 penses of Stephen de Fyta who came with the 
 King into England, in going from Lyndhurst to 
 Beaulieu, Southampton, and Winchester to see 
 and visit those places and be away from the 
 Court for 4 days, 1. 3s. 4d." Although many 
 sovereigns must have visited the Forest, yet I 
 have not found records of their personal pro- 
 ceedings there, the entries being all either of 
 Pleas of the Forest, heard in this or that court 
 of justice, or else records of expenditure on 
 houses or fences, or the like. 
 
 In 1637, not long after the order had been 
 given to rebuild the greater part of the King's 
 House, but apparently before it was carried out, 
 Mr. Secretary Coke, writing from Lyndhurst, 
 says : " This morning His Majesty and all that 
 hunted with him in the Forest were roundly 
 wet, and the weather has continued so extreme 
 that since his return to Lyndhurst scarce a 
 room in his house has held out the rain." l It is 
 probable that both Charles II and his brother 
 
 1 See Victoria County History, vol. ii., Hants. 
 
130 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 James visited Lyndhurst pretty frequently, and 
 most likely, after the building ordered to be done 
 was completed, they were more comfortably housed. 
 
 Her Majesty Queen Anne devoted her hunt- 
 ing days to the Forest of Windsor, where she 
 regularly followed the chase ; but I trace no 
 record of any visit to the New Forest, though 
 I have already recorded her inspection of the 
 herd of red deer at Woolmer. 
 
 Neither George I nor George II had inclina- 
 tions that led them to the Forest, but during 
 the reign of George III at least two visits 
 were paid notably in 1789, when he resided at 
 his own house, the old house at Lyndhurst. 
 
 An account of this visit is to be found in 
 the Diary and Letters of Madame DArUay, 
 June 25, 1789: "Arrived at Lyndhurst, we 
 drove to the Duke of Gloucester's" (i.e. the old 
 King's House, held by the Duke as Warden, in 
 which capacity he was acting as the host of the 
 King). 
 
 " The Royal Family were just before us, but 
 the two Colonels came and handed us through 
 the crowd. 
 
 " The house, intended for a mere hunting 
 seat, was built by Charles II, and seems quite 
 unimproved and unrepaired from the first founda- 
 tion. It is the King's, but lent to the Duke of 
 
ROYAL VISITS 131 
 
 Gloucester. It is a straggling, inconvenient, old 
 house, but delightfully situated, in a village 
 looking indeed at present like a populous town, 
 from the amazing concourse of people that have 
 crowded into it. 
 
 " The Bowmen and Archers and Buglehorns are 
 to attend the King while he stays here, and in 
 all his rides. 
 
 " The Duke of Gloucester was ready to re- 
 ceive the Royal Family, who are all in the 
 highest spirits and delight. 
 
 " I have a small old bed-chamber, but a 
 large and commodious, parlour in which the 
 gentlemen join Miss Planta and me to breakfast 
 and to drink tea. They dine at the royal table. 
 We are to remain here some days. 
 
 " During the King's dinner, which was in a 
 parlour looking into the garden, he permitted 
 the people to come to the window, and their 
 delight and rapture in seeing their monarch at 
 table, with the evident hungry feeling it occasioned, 
 made a contrast of admiration and deprivation, 
 truly comic. They crowded, however, so exces- 
 sively, that this can be permitted them no 
 more. They broke down all the paling, and much 
 of the hedges and some of the windows, and all 
 by eagerness and multitude, for they were perfectly 
 civil, and well-behaved." 
 
132 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 No doubt, from her description, Madame 
 D'Arblay and her companion occupied those old 
 rooms over the Verderers' Hall, separate from the 
 royal apartments, but as she says " commodious " 
 as to the principal apartment and lined through- 
 out with that fine old Elizabethan oak panelling 
 (for that portion of the house was by no means 
 " built by Charles II"), the remains of which 
 form the dado round the Verderers' Hall in its 
 modern condition. 
 
 King George III paid a second visit to the 
 New Forest, but was then the guest of Sir George 
 Rose, at Cuffnells. 
 
 Neither George IV nor William IV appears to 
 have visited the New Forest. Nor is there any 
 record of Queen Victoria having honoured the 
 district with her presence ; but about the year 
 1903, King Edward VII paid a flying visit to 
 New Forest, coming over from Cowes, where he 
 was residing on his yacht, and sailing up the 
 Beaulieu River, where he landed, and was met by 
 Lord Montagu, who took him for a long experi- 
 mental drive (it was in the early days of motor 
 cars) all through the Forest. He paused at the 
 King's House, just to see it, but did not enter it 
 or descend from his car, as time was pressing. 
 
 In August 1895, the Aldershot command of 
 troops visited the New Forest for military training, 
 
ROYAL VISITS 133 
 
 under the command of H.RH. the Duke of 
 Connaught. Four camps were pitched, and all 
 the northern and western parts of the Forest 
 were used for manoeuvres. About 13,000 men 
 first came into the Forest, but before the close of 
 the manoeuvres, about 20,000 were on the ground. 
 
 This was up to that time the largest body 
 of soldiers that had ever been assembled in the 
 New Forest. Nor was it exceeded till 1914, 
 when the Seventh Division of the Army, with 
 artillery and cavalry, was camped at Lyndhurst, 
 during August and September, before going to 
 the fighting line in France. This was the most 
 magnificent body of highly trained athletic men, 
 to the number of nearly 30,000, that could possibly 
 have been seen. They looked, indeed, able to go 
 anywhere and do anything. But those who will 
 read the history of the terrible war that is raging 
 will know but too well what were the difficulties 
 and disasters which confronted that magnificent 
 body of men, almost from their first landing 
 abroad, and what were the results. 
 
 But to go back to 1895 : the Duke of 
 Connaught visited the Queen's House (as then it 
 was) various times, and honoured me on some 
 occasions by having luncheon there. 
 
 During these manoeuvres, various members of 
 the Royal Family visited the Forest, and came 
 
134 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 to the Queen's House for this or that purpose, 
 among them the Duchess of Gonna ugh t and Prince 
 and Princess Henry of Battenberg, who visited 
 the church and surroundings of the house, and 
 remained to tea. 
 
 No more royalties visited us until 1902 or 
 thereabouts (I am not quite sure of the date), 
 when the present Crown Prince of Germany 
 then quite a young man came over to England 
 to pay a series of shooting and other visits, with 
 a sojourn in London, under the auspices of my 
 old friend Count Metternich, then German Am- 
 bassador, whom I had known for many years. 
 
 My first intimation of this, followed by an 
 explanation from Metternich, was a telegram from 
 Lord Lansdowne, which reached me when I was 
 grouse-shooting at Allenheads in Northumberland, 
 asking me to take charge of the Crown Prince 
 and show him the Forest, and to provide four 
 nice hacks to ride about upon, for the use of 
 himself and his staff! a pretty tall order for a 
 man to comply with in the month of August, 
 with the ground like iron, who at the best of 
 times was master of a very small stud. 
 
 However, I hurried home, and provided the 
 Crown Prince with a nice horse of my own, be- 
 cause, at that date, I thought it was important 
 that he should not break his neck. Things are 
 
ROYAL VISITS 135 
 
 altered now and our universal provider of horse- 
 flesh, Mr. Bradford, found me mounts the best 
 he could for the rest of the staff, with a gentle 
 beast for the ambassador. Well, we wandered 
 over the Forest for two whole days, and I wonder 
 who was the most bored person amongst us 
 probably Metternich. I who had been to German 
 forests, and knew something of their manage- 
 ment, was sorely put to it not to expose all 
 the difficulties and deficiencies lying in the path 
 of New Forest management in forestry matters. 
 However, we got through very pleasantly, with 
 a long interval for tea at the King's House, a 
 luncheon with Sir William Harcourt, and so forth. 
 Metternich had got the Crown Prince out of 
 London for two days, to his own great relief, 
 and the day after he left us he was off to 
 Scotland, and, as I think and believe, to merrier 
 surroundings. 
 
 There must be many a heart besides my own 
 thinking sadly of that visit of a cheery lad, and 
 of all that has taken place since. Although one 
 cannot forecast such things, there certainly fell, 
 by look or word, from any of his staff or himself, 
 nothing to cause a foreboding of the terrible 
 shadow that was to fall over us in a brief dozen 
 or so years. 
 
 And again, curiously enough, the next sovereign 
 
136 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 to visit the King's House was the Emperor, Kaiser 
 William II himself. 
 
 In 1907 he came to reside for a brief period 
 at Highcliffe, near Christchurch, and spent his 
 time in motoring all over the country. I knew 
 that he would be sure to want to see the King's 
 House, but at that time it was a house of 
 mourning, and a black shadow lay across it. 
 
 I took pains, however, to convey to the Kaiser, 
 through Metternich, my hope that he would give 
 me one week's grace before he came, after which 
 time I would be willing and anxious to show him 
 the house, and tell him all that was of interest 
 about it. 
 
 His Imperial Majesty, however, selected to 
 come at a time when I was perforce away. He 
 looked over the house, being shown, of course 
 nothing of interest, and, calling for a sheet of 
 letter paper, wrote for me, as a visiting-card, 
 a large "William I. R.," and a second sheet was 
 covered with the signatures of his distinguished 
 staff. 
 
 But I am bound to say that he afterwards 
 sent me a very kindly worded letter through 
 Count Metternich to the effect that, if he had 
 ascertained that we were away from home, he 
 would not, at such a time, have come to the 
 house at all, though he wished to visit it. It 
 
ROYAL VISITS 137 
 
 is now naturally with somewhat mixed feelings 
 that I regard these papers and these reminis- 
 cences, after all that has happened since. But 
 there they are, and they cannot but come into 
 my records, I have nothing more to say as to 
 royal personages visiting the old royal resid- 
 ence. But I could fill a big book with the 
 names of the distinguished, pleasant, celebrated 
 and humorous persons who came and helped to 
 make my life happy there. And the month of 
 April was always a crowded and delightful time. 
 The house was looked upon as a pleasant centre 
 to the New Forest, and most people visiting that 
 beautiful district would either come of them- 
 selves or would be brought by their local hosts 
 to visit and inspect the old house and the 
 adjoining church. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 FORESTRY 
 
 AT the risk of being tedious, it is necessary to go 
 rather fully into the history of the sylviculture 
 of the New Forest, for most people have the 
 vaguest ideas as to how the various woods, espe- 
 cially the older and most beautiful areas, origi- 
 nated, and under what difficulties the growth 
 of trees was, at all times, carried on in the New 
 Forest. Especially the notion was, up to a cer- 
 tain date, entertained that all the more ancient 
 woods were "primeval forest," spontaneously 
 grown without the assistance of man. 
 
 It is no wonder that such erroneous ideas 
 prevail when we find them endorsed and put 
 forward by such bodies as the Committee of 
 the House of Commons on the New Forest 
 question which sat in 1875. In more than one 
 report suggested for adoption it is roundly stated 
 that no cultivation of trees had ever existed in 
 the Forest prior to the Act of 1698, in William 
 Ill's time. The Committee seems to have ac- 
 cepted this view, in sheer ignorance of the 
 
 138 
 
FORESTRY 139 
 
 Forest's history, and it suited the book of those 
 who opposed the Crown, in all it ever had done 
 or proposed to do in the way of management, 
 to be able to argue that since fine woods had 
 grown in the past without any assistance at all, 
 the proper course to adopt was to put a stop to 
 all forestry or cultivation, and let the Forest 
 take care of itself. And the Act of 1877 was 
 intentionally framed on lines devised to fetter 
 and impede everything in the way of forestry 
 as much as possible indeed. Its principal pro- 
 moters openly admitted as much. 
 
 Leaving out the open heaths covered with 
 gorse, and groups of stunted trees of various 
 kinds, and, in places, with fine attempts at a 
 natural regeneration of Scotch fir, both valuable, 
 and interesting to watch, we have first of all 
 some 5300 acres of old woods, all planted before 
 the times of Charles I, and many of them going 
 back to much earlier days. Then there are 
 woods, mostly of pure oak, of dates varying 
 from two hundred to one hundred years old, 
 covering about 7000 acres, and a balance of 
 younger plantations from seventy to forty years 
 of age totalling about 10,000 acres roughly. 
 These between them make up all of the New 
 Forest that is devoted to the culture of trees. 
 As to the history of the woods in the last 
 
140 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 three categories, there is no doubt at all. The 
 Acts of Parliament under which they were made, 
 and the returns as to their formation and plant- 
 ing, are too recent and too easily inspected to 
 admit of any dispute in their case. It is in 
 connection with the "old woods," the great 
 beauty of the Forest, which the opponents of 
 forestry use to bolster up their case by arguing 
 that they are "primeval," and "natural," that we 
 have to look up ancient records long before the 
 year 1700 to show that all these woods were 
 just as much the result of the care of the Forest 
 officers of those days as is the youngest " Crown 
 enclosure " in the Forest. 
 
 It is not possible to trace to its commence- 
 ment the practice of enclosing land for natural 
 regeneration, and for reproduction of stool shoots 
 and seedlings ; but the wording of the first Act 
 I can find on the subject, that of Edward IV 
 in 1483, recites the practice as a common one, 
 "In forests and chases within his realm of 
 England, or purlieus of the same," and extends 
 the period during which the land might be en- 
 closed for that purpose from the existing limit 
 of three years to one of seven years. 
 
 To go to the New Forest particularly, we 
 find a return in the sixteenth year of Henry VI 
 by Henry Carter of Walhampton and Thomas 
 
FORESTRY 141 
 
 Coke of Menestede, who were appointed by letters 
 patent of the King to cut down and sell certain 
 underwoods specified as growing in certain places, 
 and to account for "money paid for enclosing 
 720 perches of wood and underwood at 4e#. the 
 perch, and in making three gates to the said 
 enclosure, with hinges, hooks, hasps, staples, locks 
 and keys, bought for the said gates." Further 
 accounts of the same date refer to sales of wood 
 and underwood sold within the bailiwick of East 
 Lynwode (i.e. Broomy Walk), and to the enclosing 
 of 785 perches by a hedge made around the 
 wood, with gates, hinges, hasps, &c. &c. 
 
 In the twenty -sixth year of Henry VIII there 
 is a note concerning Godshill Coppice (a planta- 
 tion of oak still existing, though its present timber 
 is only one hundred years old), and money was 
 paid to divers persons for the making of 10 fur- 
 longs 24 perches round the said coppice for the 
 safe keeping of the springs or stools thereof." 
 
 Similar records as to coppices in the New 
 Forest are very numerous, and prove that the 
 practice of enclosing woods and fostering the 
 growth of both timber and underwood was care- 
 fully attended to as was the system of forestry 
 of that date. 
 
 A further advance was made in the reign 
 of Henry VIII by the passing of the " Act for 
 
142 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 the Preservation of Woods" in 1543. The keynote 
 to the tenor of the whole Act, best known as the 
 "Statute of Woods," was struck in the pre- 
 amble : 
 
 " The King our Sovereign Lord perceiving and 
 right well knowing the great decay of timber 
 and woods universally within this his realm of 
 England to be such that unless speedy remedy 
 in that behalf be provided there is great and 
 manifest likelihood of scarcity and lack as well 
 of timber for making repairing and maintaining 
 of houses and ships and also for fewel and fire- 
 wood for the necessary relief of the whole com- 
 monalty of this his said realm." 
 
 And so the Act goes on to make provision that 
 no coppice woods should be cut until they arrived 
 at a certain maturity that when they were cut 
 a certain number of " storers or standils," to be 
 of oak wherever possible, should be left to each 
 acre that these standils should not be cut for 
 timber until they arrived at certain dimensions 
 and so forth, drawing up, indeed, a working plan 
 for every wood throughout the kingdom, to be 
 strictly followed on pain of a fine for every single 
 transgression, of no less then iiis. ivd. 
 
 It will be noticed that in all these ancient 
 records, woods are always referred to as " coppices" 
 or encoppicement. That was the universal system 
 
FORESTRY 143 
 
 of woodland management in those days. Plant- 
 ing four feet apart, with nurses, draining and 
 all the rest of it came in long afterwards. The 
 ancient practice was simply to exclude all harmful 
 animals from the woodland, to encourage all the 
 natural seedling growth, of the proper kinds that 
 would assuredly spring up, and to cultivate and 
 realise that self-sown produce in various ways, 
 into which I will go presently. 
 
 Every one of the beautiful old woods which 
 we admire so much as we ride through them in 
 summer, or revel in the cry of hounds that echoes 
 and resounds among the old timber in winter, is 
 the result of such a process of enclosing, encoppice- 
 ment, and cultivation as is prescribed in those 
 Acts of four hundred years ago that I have cited. 
 Whether it be Mark Ash, Bratley, or Eidley 
 Woods, Vereley or Hollands Wood, Matley or 
 Fair Crop or Bramshaw, it is all the same. With- 
 out the fostering fence and care, they never 
 could have come into existence, or survived the 
 ravages of the King's deer and commoners* cattle 
 and ponies. 
 
 There are plenty of New Forest records to 
 show this. In 1542 we find an Exchequer order 
 from Wm. Paulet, Lord St. John, the Surveyor- 
 General of all the Crown woods, giving instruc- 
 tions to Robert Dome, Deputy Surveyor of the 
 
144 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 King's woods in the county of Southampton!, to 
 the following eifect, that " these shall be on behalf 
 of our Sovereign Lord to authorise you and your 
 sufficient deputies by these presents not only to 
 survey the King's said woods both great and small 
 with their values and ages in every Lordship 
 and seignory within the said County, and the 
 wastes and sales made in them, but also to 
 make sale to the King's use, at the best price 
 you can before Easter next coming of as many 
 coppice woods as are of fourteen years' growth 
 and upwards." 
 
 In the reign of Elizabeth, in the year 1565, 
 Roger Taverner, the Queen's Surveyor, was ordered 
 to make a comprehensive survey of all the forests 
 south of Trent, and his complete return of the 
 New Forest and its woods is highly interesting 
 to those who know the country well. 
 
 Most of the lands capable of growing hard- 
 wood are included. Some can hardly be traced 
 under their old names. Others can be identified, 
 but are now absorbed in larger and more modern 
 plantations, though some of these woods are 200 
 years old to-day and more. But many a name 
 shows us the old open woods of to-day in their 
 condition of encoppicements in 1565. 
 
 Though various Acts were passed by James I 
 and by Charles I and Charles II dealing with 
 
FORESTRY 145 
 
 the better cultivation of New Forest timber, yet 
 I think I have quoted enough, and tried my 
 readers' patience enough, to prove my points : (1) 
 that the timber cultivation in New Forest was 
 of very ancient date provided for by legislation 
 at that date ; (2) that it was an erroneous assertion, 
 so freely made in 1875, that all Crown cultivation 
 of timber in New Forest started with a hard and 
 fast line with the Act of 1698. 
 
 What, then, follows from this? Why, that 
 the theory that the Forest, if left to itself, will 
 successfully and continuously produce and re- 
 produce fine timber, and maintain its present 
 stock thereof, is a hopeless fallacy. Our ancestors 
 knew this, and they energetically encoppiced 
 and protected their woods, as I have shown. 
 They have left to us such beautiful examples as 
 Ridley Wood, Mark Ash, and others now in 
 the last stages of old age. Those who are tree 
 lovers know it, as they wander through such 
 woods as Fair Crop, Bratley, and the like, and 
 look on a forest of rapidly decaying trees above 
 their heads, and at their feet a thicket of young 
 oaks and beeches-, gnawed to their death, at two 
 feet from the ground, by cattle and ponies, but 
 abundant enough between every group of ancient 
 trees now, alas, all too far apart to regenerate 
 the whole wood, if only the protection of a 
 
146 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 single rail, for twenty years to the detriment 
 of no one might be accorded to them. But 
 this is prohibited by an Act that honestly meant 
 well to the New Forest, but, as it came to be 
 drafted, struck it the severest blow it had 
 encountered since the last "well meant" Act 
 in 1851. Alas ! between two Acts of Parliament, 
 pulling in diametrically opposite directions, the 
 poor Forest came to sad grief. I am writing 
 now to those who love trees and understand 
 forestry not the economic forestry of the German 
 professor, though that is all very well in those 
 parts of this or any forest that are suitable 
 for it, but more that of the Estate Forestry 
 practised in these islands among parks, ancient 
 chases, forests, such as the New Forest where 
 the beauty of the surroundings is the first object, 
 and where the annual production of so many 
 cubic feet of marketable timber is not put in 
 front of all other considerations. Two things 
 will strike them, first, that these beautiful old 
 woods are mainly composed of beech timber, 
 and for that reason their life is likely to be all 
 the shorter, than if the oak predominated. 
 
 But they will have observed in those speci- 
 mens of modern encoppicements and natural 
 regeneration, of which, thank God, there are a 
 good many Denny enclosure is a fine example 
 
FORESTRY 147 
 
 that the woods do not spring up now as 
 beech woods, but of mixed oak and beech, where 
 the soil is suitable for hard woods, and of 
 Scotch fir where it is not. In fact, the oak 
 predominates therefore certainly the same thing 
 took place four hundred years ago, and the 
 question arises where are the oaks? 
 
 Where should those oaks have gone, but to 
 the Royal Dockyards to play their parts in the 
 sea fights of the nation and the protection of 
 the realm? For that purpose they were grown, 
 and for that they were properly used. 
 
 In all surveys and reports on the Forest, the 
 growth of timber especially for the use of the 
 navy was the first question considered, and that 
 encouragement to planting of oak was needed is 
 shown by the returns. 
 
 In that of 1608, there were shown as trees 
 fit for the use of the navy 123,922, but in 1783 
 there were shown only 32,611. 
 
 The planting authorised by the Act of 1698 
 was doing what it could to remedy this state 
 of things, but it could have produced no navy 
 timber as yet. The great sacrifice of timber, 
 shown by the drop from 123,927 trees to 32,611 
 came out of the old woods I am speaking of, 
 converting them from mixed plantations to 
 somewhat sparse beech woods. 
 
148 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 Much of this timber went where it ought to 
 go, viz. to the upkeep of the Royal Navy. 
 Thus, between the years 1761 and 1787 the 
 Forest yielded timber valued at 87,952, of 
 which 54,449 went to the Royal Dockyards; 
 while before that date, in 1707, a warrant was 
 issued for cutting, for the service of the Royal 
 Navy, 300 trees annually for forty years, and 
 further, for felling yearly such trees as should 
 be found most useful for the navy. And in 
 the years 1849 to 1852, when the utilitarian 
 spirit mostly prevailed in the Forest, when a 
 navy purveyor for some three years occupied 
 the Queen's House itself, when also the old 
 wooden walls of England were about to be 
 renewed for the last time, upwards of 150,000 
 of timber went to the dockyards rightly and 
 properly enough, if it was fit for ship-building. 
 For what is a Royal Forest meant, if it is not 
 to supply timber for national service, and if its 
 growth is not cared for and maintained so as to 
 keep up that supply? 
 
 And there was another constant drain on the 
 more valuable oaks in .the constant thieving that 
 went on all over the Forest, by the neglect of 
 the Forest officers to check the malpractices, 
 if, indeed, they did not participate in the 
 profits made, and increase them by the bad 
 
FORESTRY 149 
 
 system of perquisites which they were allowed 
 to take. 
 
 So bad had things become, that the Commis- 
 sioners of 1789 were induced to say that " the 
 neighbouring inhabitants have been naturally led 
 to partake in the spoil, and hardly to think it 
 a crime to take what no one seemed anxious to 
 protect." That this was no idle word is shown 
 by an item, in a return of certain receipts from 
 the Forest, which appears in the most matter of 
 course way, namely, " The like of casual oak trees 
 found by the surveyor cut down, and by him 
 seized and saved from being stolen Loads 869, 
 value 1526." 
 
 If filching of timber was regularly carried on, 
 as well as a supply kept up for the navy, it is 
 a matter for wonder that we should find any 
 oaks at all left in the woods existing at that 
 date. Possibly those we now see were not at 
 that date large enough for navy purposes, or 
 even to tempt the purloiner. Under certain cir- 
 cumstances the taking of even a single tree was 
 visited severely enough. At the Justice Seat 
 held in 1670 there comes a petitioner in the form 
 of Henry Browne of Brockenhurst, who had been 
 fined 10 for cutting down a tree to make a may- 
 pole, and the cart and horses carrying it forfeited, 
 "though they did not belong to the petitioner 
 
150 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 Browne, and the presentment was made absolutely 
 against the consent of the regarders and verderers," 
 being " solely fermented by Phanatics who have a 
 prejudice to all customes used tyme out of mynd." 
 Prays to have fine remitted. 
 
 I am afraid, though, that the punishment was 
 inflicted with but little thought for the preserva- 
 tion of the timber of the Forest, and a good deal 
 of that desire to put a stop to all ancient forms 
 of recreation which prevailed during the lugubrious 
 times of the Commonwealth, like to the famous 
 prohibition of the sport (?) of bear-baiting not 
 because it gave pain to the bear, but because it 
 gave pleasure to the people ! 
 
 There are, however, some cases where these old 
 woods consist wholly, or nearly so, of oaks alone. 
 There can be no doubt in these cases that the 
 woods were carefully cultivated with a view to the 
 purposes of the navy, to the exclusion of other 
 considerations, and that great pains must have 
 been taken to eradicate all the beech, under the 
 impression that the oak would thrive better with- 
 out it a view that is not endorsed by modern 
 foresters nor by the result before us. 
 
 A second point will strike any observer of 
 trees as he wanders through these ancient groves. 
 It is that almost every beech and some oaks 
 are pollarded. And it is perhaps to this treat- 
 
FORESTRY 151 
 
 merit that they owe their great size and their 
 age, exceeding the average life of the beech. But 
 why was this pollarding done? And under what 
 circumstances ? 
 
 The reason is to be found in the method of 
 cultivation practised in the early days of these 
 encoppicements, viz. to farm them out upon lease 
 to various tenants under very strict conditions. 
 The crop realised was mainly the underwood, 
 and used no doubt for fuel and charcoal. It was 
 not permitted to fell timber trees, nor to cut 
 down trees such as oak and beech which might 
 ultimately become timber. But a sort of cultiva- 
 tion by pollarding on underwood lines of young 
 trees seems to have been permitted. Only, the 
 tenants or farmers were well looked after, and 
 presentments against them in the Forest courts 
 are often recorded. 
 
 Thus, in 1571, we find a presentment of the 
 regarders of the Forest to the effect that "a 
 coppice called Ridley Coppice hath been spoiled 
 by cattle by one John Marlowe." And again, 
 there is an indictment "for felling five dotards 
 containing ten loads of timber, value 6s." And 
 again, for " shrouding 200 trees in the said coppice 
 and selling the same." Again, "for divers and 
 many young oaks felled for stakes for the hedge." 
 All these things appear to have been inconsistent 
 
152 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 with the rules laid down to regulate the method 
 of farming the coppice. 
 
 Ridley Wood, where these misdemeanours 
 occurred, is one of the most beautiful woods in 
 the whole Forest. It consists almost entirely of 
 pollarded beeches, with wide spreading heads of 
 numerous different stems, some of very large 
 dimensions, forming, both individually and as a 
 whole, woodland scenes of very great beauty. It 
 has amply repaid the care that was bestowed upon 
 it in its early days. 
 
 There were other forestal crimes committed 
 with regard to these ancient encoppicements. In 
 one case the " Regarders and Preservators of the 
 Bailiwick of Fritham make oath and say in 
 English words, that in the coppice called Hock- 
 nold (Ocknell Wood) there is felled by the ground 
 four oaks" i.e. the pollards might be re-pollarded, 
 but not felled. These records, trivial in them- 
 selves, when taken with the story that the old 
 woods tell for themselves, throw a flood of light 
 on the origin and history of the ancient wood- 
 lands which most profoundly interests the prac- 
 tised observer. That they were first enclosed is 
 certain by the records and by the heavy bills we 
 find being presented to the Exchequer of the 
 day for the charges of doing the work. That 
 they were farmed out, on peculiar terms, is shown 
 
FORESTRY 153 
 
 by the leases and grants to the various tenants; 
 how they were farmed, we have to glean from the 
 complaints as to breaches of the conditions of 
 the leases. That the underwood was regularly 
 cut either by the tenant or by the Crown, is 
 shown by the receipts for sales of this kind. All 
 actual timber seems to have been taken for the 
 Navy. 
 
 But the presentment as to the "shrouding," 
 of trees, and as to the cutting of "four oaks by 
 the ground" shows, if the woods themselves did 
 not tell the tale, that pollarding the trees was 
 the prescribed practice. 
 
 The effect, quite apart from scientific forestry, 
 is certainly most beautiful. The great spreading 
 trees, covering, no doubt, five times the space they 
 ought to occupy when the main consideration is 
 the number of cubic feet of timber to be produced 
 per acre, are therefore anathema to the forester, 
 who avers that he is nothing if he is not com- 
 mercial but to the ordinary lover of beautiful 
 forest scenery they are very dear. 
 
 I well recollect one of the most distinguished 
 scientific foresters of my time declaring to me 
 that he had never seen an English hedgerow tree 
 that was worth looking at as a tree. 
 
 I, with my mind full of hundreds of glorious 
 hedgerow ashes in the East Biding of Yorkshire 
 
154 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 of the magnificent oaks in the fields of Hereford- 
 shire, Staffordshire, and a dozen other counties 
 of the elms of Berkshire and Dorsetshire, stood 
 aghast at the saying, coming as it did from such 
 a distinguished authority. 
 
 But I took heart when he explained to me 
 that what he meant was that all these trees, 
 beautiful objects as they were to the sentimental 
 forester a being he described as altogether out- 
 side the pale and not worthy of consideration ! 
 were to his mind all of the wrong shape for the 
 production of timber. That they occupied five 
 times the space they ought to cover, if the grow- 
 ing of timber on proper lines was the object, and 
 further, that in any case they shaded and spoilt 
 a certain area over which the farmers crops ought 
 to be the sole consideration. And no account 
 need be taken of the beauty of the country or 
 of the estate of the landlord, who after, all, let it 
 to the farmer, or cultivated it himself, on terms 
 which had been previously considered with regard 
 to the existence of the trees. 
 
 Well, everything that my distinguished pundit 
 said was perfectly true, but for all that, and for 
 all his immensely superior science, gathered in 
 various parts of the Empire, I dared to disagree 
 with him, and was thankful to believe that even 
 yet there are thousands of English landowners 
 
FORESTRY 155 
 
 who will sacrifice a few rods here and there of 
 the economical value of their estates in order to 
 preserve their ancient beauty and their glorious 
 old timber. 
 
 This is rather a digression from New Forest 
 matters, but it serves as an illustration of the 
 different views that foresters equally in earnest 
 and equally capable may take of the proper 
 methods of dealing with sylviculture. And especi- 
 ally how difficult it is to adjudicate upon such 
 matters in the case of property of the peculiar 
 nature of the New Forest, where you have, on the 
 one hand, large areas of woods, ancient, beautiful, 
 greatly appreciated by the public, and wholly, as 
 I have tried to show, the outcome of the applica- 
 tion of certain regular principles of ^forestry, but 
 where also you have large areas of modern planta- 
 tions which should, without doubt, be treated on 
 economic lines, from a different point of view 
 altogether. 
 
 All this pollarding of trees was finally extin- 
 guished by the Act of William III, in 1698. 
 By that Act it was made a punishable offence for 
 any keeper to top or lop any timber tree for the 
 purpose of browsing the deer, and, as the custom 
 of farming out the coppices had fallen into disuse, 
 no one had any interest in thus dealing with the 
 timber. 
 
156 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 We can therefore safely assume that all the 
 old pollards forming the woods so greatly appreci- 
 ated by the public are not less than from 200 
 to 300 years old. Probably the latter date is 
 more nearly the correct one. 
 
 A lover of scenery connot fail to contrast 
 their picturesque forms with those of more 
 modern woods even those planted immediately 
 after the Act of 1698 and there is food for 
 reflection in the mind of the arboriculturist as 
 to the extra term of years and the beauty of 
 form that has been conferred on these trees 
 in consequence of their maltreatment in early 
 life. 
 
 The holly was always a principal feature in 
 the New Forest. It is in truth the weed of the 
 Forest, and a very beautiful weed too. The rich 
 glossy evergreen foliage which clusters around 
 the great stems of the beeches in winter and 
 I have never found anything that flourishes 
 under the immediate shadow of the beech as 
 the holly does in the New Forest is one of 
 the great features of forest scenery. It was 
 always deemed to be of importance whether for 
 covert for game or for browse for the deer seems 
 uncertain. 
 
 But in the report of J. Norden on the New 
 Forest and its coppices, made in 1609 to Sir 
 
FORESTRY 157 
 
 Julius Knight, Chancellor of His Majesty's 
 Exchequer, he relates that " Holmsley Coppice," 
 (which took its very name from its splendid 
 production of the tree whereof we are speaking) 
 "consisteth only of holly or holm, which are for 
 the most part very old, and by reason that the 
 country people have taken the bark of the most 
 of them to make bird lime, they are all decayed 
 and dead, and if they be not taken they will 
 utterly perish and the covert will be destroyed, 
 whereas the cutting in a seasonable time will 
 revive and continue the same." 
 
 This is an interesting record as to country 
 life and what was then called " birding," and 
 the means whereby it was carried out; but it 
 is also interesting as showing the ancient know- 
 ledge, now so often forgotten, of the proper way 
 to cultivate hollies and similar evergreens, viz. 
 to lop and pollard them as soon as ever they 
 show signs of decay. 
 
 By this means, and by this only, such shrubs 
 may be kept alive until they attain great age 
 and dimensions ; and it is to this method of 
 treatment, chiefly adopted for the purpose of 
 browsing of deer in winter, that the existence of 
 some of the almost patriarchal trees of the New 
 Forest is to be attributed. 
 
 Those who are familiar with the Forest will 
 
158 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 have noticed that most of these fine pollard trees 
 stand not far from the old keepers' lodges. It 
 was to browse their deer that they cut these 
 vigorous old stems, as often as they would 
 stand it, and for obvious reasons they selected 
 those nearest at hand and these gradually 
 multiplied : at such places will be found grand 
 old stems of 7 and 8 feet in girth, with fine 
 spreading heads, that show clearly on examina- 
 tion the marks where they have been pollarded 
 three and even four times probably at intervals 
 of thirty years or so, thus prolonging their 
 existence and that as noble forest trees to a 
 period enormously in excess of that of the 
 ordinary holly shrub as we know it in gardens 
 and pleasure grounds. 
 
 When the deer were removed, the reason for 
 pollarding and lopping of hollies went with 
 them. But luckily a new demand sprung up, 
 with the great increase of population, for holly, 
 and especially berried holly, at about Christmas 
 time. Fortunately for the hollies, and incidentally 
 for the Crown revenue also, this demand goes a 
 long way towards taking the place of the old 
 lopping for browsing purposes. If the demand 
 goes on, and the cutting is judiciously done, the 
 Forest may continue to hold its ancient holly 
 trees for centuries in the future as it has done 
 
FORESTRY 159 
 
 in the past, and to bring in a good revenue from 
 this sylvan by-product into the bargain. 
 
 There were other causes that depleted these 
 old encoppicements, and robbed the navy of the 
 benefit to be derived from them. I spoke before 
 of downright thieving and peculation, but some- 
 times the mischief arose in high places. For 
 instance, among the State (Domestic) papers of 
 1664 is one in which His Majesty Charles II is 
 "informed that two coppices one called King's 
 Copse, the other New Copse. . . . and that the 
 underwoods of the said copses are valued at 
 1292, besides the trees and saplings growing 
 thereon, to be preserved for our own use. We 
 are graciously pleased upon the humble petition 
 of Winifred Wells, one of the Maids of Honour 
 to our dearest consort and Queen, to give unto 
 her the benefit of the said underwoods. C. R." 
 
 The order speaks for itself, but it is quite 
 worth while for anybody who is interested in 
 old tales of courts to look up the plainly spoken 
 account of Miss Winifred Wells, and of her 
 remarkable misadventure at a court ball, in 
 Pepys' Diary, 1663-4. 
 
 It was hard enough for the woods to have 
 to meet charges such as these, but there was, 
 and is, another drain still more hurtful in 
 the form of the right of common of estovers. 
 
160 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 This is a right, attaching to certain defined houses 
 in and around the Forest, to have, free of any 
 payment, a certain number of loads of fuel wood 
 annually " from the open and unenclosed wastes 
 of the Forest" that is to say, from these very 
 encoppicements of mature age of which I have 
 been writing. 
 
 About 100 years ago these claims amounted to 
 over 840 loads annually, but at that date the 
 Crown set itself to reduce this impost on the 
 best part of the Forest in real earnest. 
 
 All allowances of fuel made to the lodges of 
 master keepers, groom-keepers, and all other 
 forest officers were commuted or extinguished as 
 the appointments fell in. All the rights attach- 
 ing to the then very numerous copyholds of 
 the Manor of Lyndhurst were also extinguished 
 as the lives fell in. And the Crown kept a 
 market open from that date until now to purchase 
 at full market value at any time all rights of this 
 nature that the owner would sell. In these ways 
 the number of the rights fell from 840 loads to 
 about 370 at the time when I came to the Forest, 
 and they have since been bought out whenever 
 opportunity arose ; they stand somewhere about 
 240 loads at the present day. It is very desirable 
 that they should be wholly wiped out. 
 
 From the earliest days the exercise of this 
 
FORESTRY 161 
 
 common right was deemed most hurtful. In the 
 twenty-sixth year of Elizabeth an Exchequer 
 order was issued, with the view of checking the 
 practice, that " no inhabiters of any house newly 
 builded since the beginning of the Queen's reign 
 shall be allowed any wood in the same Forest to 
 be burnt and expended therein." 
 
 The right is thus limited to houses that stood 
 when Queen Elizabeth came to the throne, in- 
 cluding such reconstructions and renewals as have 
 been rendered necessary during the lapse of years. 
 
 This right of common was formerly the subject 
 of great abuses. Whole trees of beech, or even 
 of oak, were assigned as representing so many 
 loads, and were quite unlawfully sold or made 
 use of for any purpose rather than that of the 
 necessary fuel of the house to which they were 
 assigned. In later years the fuel wood has 
 always been cut and stacked by the Crown, and 
 good timber is never included in the assignments, 
 so that it is at least fuel wood, and fuel wood only, 
 that is now carried off. 
 
 But the right is at the present date more 
 injurious than ever, although so much money has 
 been sunk in reducing the number of claims, 
 because the area of " open and unenclosed woods " 
 from whence the supply can be drawn is also 
 become so much reduced, that the tax falls far 
 
162 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 more heavily upon the area that is left. It is 
 the case that they are becoming so old and decayed 
 that the frequent windfalls go some way towards 
 satisfying the claims to fuel wood. But it 
 happens, often enough, that the sovereign's sign 1 
 manual authority has to be obtained for the 
 sacrifice of 100 or 200 of these old trees, and 
 the loss is too severe to be often repeated, when 
 the drain by windfalls is also considered. In 
 1883 Sir Henry Loch, then Commissioner of Woods, 
 introduced a bill into Parliament with the object 
 of obtaining powers to buy up, arbitrarily, all 
 these rights, for the purpose of protecting the 
 old woods. The price, whatever it might be, was to 
 be fixed by arbitration or, in the case of small 
 amounts, by the local magistrates in Petty Sessions. 
 But the commoners resented any interference 
 with their right, whether it was for the benefit 
 of the Forest or not, and, after the bill had passed 
 its second reading and committee stages, the 
 third reading was blocked, and, owing to press 
 of business we had to abandon it. Thus the 
 right still continues to be a perpetual drain on 
 the most precious part of the Forest, to the sad 
 detriment of the public property. The traveller 
 
 1 No tree of timber dimensions may be cut in the open parts 
 of New Forest without the authority of the Sign Manual of the 
 Sovereign. 
 
FORESTRY 163 
 
 through the New Forest may pass, after survey- 
 ing these old encoppicements with all their in- 
 teresting history, into one of the old oak woods 
 planted under the Act of 1698, in the years which 
 immediately followed the passing of that Act. 
 
 A more astonishing contrast in methods of 
 sylviculture can hardly be imagined. Here are 
 no, or very few, beeches. Here are no pollarded 
 trees. On the contrary, we see around us woods 
 wholly of oak, standing very close together even 
 now, after fifty years of constant thinnings, drawn 
 up, as such trees must necessarily be, to a con- 
 siderable height, and containing an average of say 
 100 cubic feet of timber, with no side branches 
 up to many feet in height. 
 
 These trees were are all sown, not planted. 
 The method of sowing is recorded. " Pits or beds 
 of three spits of ground each were dug, a yard 
 apart, and three acorns planted triangularly in 
 each bed. Half a bushel of acorns were allotted 
 for each person to plant in one day. Two re- 
 garders attended every day during the time of 
 planting, to see that it was properly done : and 
 after the ground was fully planted with acorns, 
 it was sown with hawes, holly berries, sloes, and 
 hazelnuts, and drains cut where necessary ; and 
 traps were set to catch mice ; and persons at- 
 tended daily to re- set the traps and keep off 
 
164 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 crows and other vermin/' See Report of Com- 
 missioners of 1789. 
 
 Apparently, the dense plantations thus formed 
 were never thinned, but grew up on the principle 
 of " the survival of the fittest." Whether these 
 are good principles or bad ones must be decided 
 by the pundits of the modern science of Forestry. 
 But the result was undeniable. When the French 
 professors of forestry from the school at Nancy, 
 headed by M. Boffre, the chief of that institution, 
 visited the forests and woodlands of England in 
 1885, they left it on record that nowhere in 
 Europe had they found pure oak woods with a 
 larger quantity of cubic feet to the acre than in 
 these old William III plantations in the New 
 Forest. 
 
 What is more, up to that date, when the 
 trees were well under two hundred years old, 
 the majority of them were sound timber, though 
 some were showing signs of old age an indica- 
 tion of the brief limit of life to be enjoyed by our 
 best timber trees, in the very moderate soil and 
 bad exposure of most of the New Forest woods. 
 
 And sure enough, in the thirty years during 
 which I have occasionally thinned those woods, 
 the quality of the timber has been steadily de- 
 teriorating until, in 1913, it was worth but little 
 more than half the price it fetched in 1883. 
 
FORESTRY 165 
 
 The portion of the old William III woods that 
 I had to deal with was not much more than a 
 remnant. The greater portion of them had been 
 felled soon -after the Act of 1851, partly to bring 
 in revenue and much needed timber for the dock- 
 yards, and partly to clear the better land, which 
 they occupied (our ancestors always chose good 
 land to plant, or else did not plant at all). 
 
 At the time of what I may call the " anti- 
 forestry" agitation in 1875, much blame was 
 sought to be cast on the Commissioners of Woods 
 for cutting these plantations, which undoubtedly 
 consisted of very fine old trees of peculiar char- 
 acter. But it is difficult to see what other course 
 they could pursue. The formation of these woods 
 had been originally authorised solely on the plea 
 that when mature they should supply the needs 
 of the navy. They had arrived at the mature 
 stage, and contained a large amount of valuable 
 timber of which the navy stood in need. It was 
 impossible to resist the claim of the dockyards, al- 
 though to grant it involved the sacrifice of many 
 acres of beautiful woods which were a source 
 of pleasure to the inhabitants of the locality. 
 They loudly protested against their removal, and 
 from the economical point of view, the action of 
 the Commissioners of the day is amply justified 
 by the decay and deterioration of the remaining 
 
166 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 woods of that age to which I have just referred. 
 They were cut only just in time. 
 
 However, to leave New Forest ancient history, 
 as far as we can in dealing with old woods, the 
 next series of plantations to come under observa- 
 tion are those of 1776 and thereabouts, such 
 as Furzy Lawn, Copse of Linwood, &c. And here 
 may be observed a new thing viz. the presence 
 of the Scotch fir, which has not been apparent in 
 any one of the old woods hitherto referred to. 
 
 In such plantations as I have named, it would 
 appear to have been planted for protection belts 
 on the outsides of the woods, and also in areas 
 often of some size where obviously the oak 
 had failed, where the soil had been too shallow 
 on the upper lands, and the exposure too severe 
 for it. And in various such places the Scotch fir 
 has grown to fine dimensions and produced good 
 timber. 
 
 It was about the year 1770 I am not sure 
 of the exact date that an Exchequer order was 
 issued for the making of experiments in order to 
 ascertain if the Scotch fir that exotic in the 
 Southern counties could be successfully cultivated, 
 "in order to provide top masts and bowsprits for 
 our ships of war." The first evidence of experi- 
 ment in the New Forest is that little enclosure, 
 with the traces of its original fence around it, 
 
FORESTRY 167 
 
 known as Ocknell Clump. Chosen, no doubt, as 
 an experimental situation, with the worst exposure 
 possible from all sides, and on the poorest heath 
 lands, it has answered the question whether the 
 New Forest was suited to the growth of Scotch 
 fir timber very decisively. In such a situation, 
 and on such a soil, no trees could possibly grow 
 to fine dimensions ; but they withstood all hard- 
 ships, and the answer to the experiment now is 
 a landmark conspicuous from all sides of the 
 north Forest one that has guided home safely 
 to the lower ground and to civilisation many a 
 wet, weary hunter or tourist, who has strayed 
 into the New Forest from some far country. 
 
 No doubt the conspicuous clumps of better fir 
 trees that stand at Boldrewood formed a part of 
 the same experiment, and so also in all proba- 
 bility was the splendid group at Hill Top within 
 the Beaulieu manor, locally known as "The Fir 
 Garden" a most conspicuous landmark for many 
 miles round, and even from the hills of the Isle 
 of Wight. Here the trees have grown to splendid 
 dimensions, and there can be no doubt as to the 
 success of the experiment in that case. Yet it is 
 on poor heath land. It is very remarkable to watch 
 the spread of the Scotch fir over all the south- 
 west of England, where it may almost be said to 
 be the dominant tree now, and to reflect that 
 
168 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 all this growth dates back to no longer than 150 
 years. 
 
 That it was indigenous to the South of Eng- 
 land in prehistoric times is proved by fossil re- 
 mains, but it would appear to have completely 
 died out for a period possibly of aeons and then 
 to have been reinstated not two centuries ago by 
 the hand of man. At any rate it thrives wonder- 
 fully in the thin poor soil of the New Forest, 
 on land which will grow nothing else, and seems 
 to have been specially designed by nature to 
 clothe these barren wastes. 
 
 Its propagation became more and more fre- 
 quent in New Forest as its value became ap- 
 parent, and, passing on to another series of 
 woods, viz. the oak plantations of 1805 to 1815, 
 we find a deep shelter belt of Scotch firs round 
 every plantation, and also shelter lines planted 
 here and there right across the wood, so as to 
 break the prevailing winds. 
 
 There is a pretty good area of woods of this 
 class roundly about 6000 acres and some of them 
 are fine timber, such, for instance, as Amberwood, 
 Ocknell, Hurst Hill, or Rhinefield Sandys, and 
 Aldridge Hill. 
 
 It is very interesting to trace the growth of 
 methods of forestry by examining this series of 
 woods. They appear to have certainly been 
 
FORESTRY 169 
 
 grown by planting, not by sowing of acorns. 
 The principle of using nurses of coniferous timber 
 to draw up and protect the delicate young oaks 
 is adopted by means of the Scotch fir protect- 
 ing belts. Occasionally we find larch in these 
 woods, but they are more in the form of groups 
 than in that of nurses regularly planted. 
 
 Thinning was the essence of the cultivation 
 of that era. From the first removals of any- 
 thing that might be called nurses, to the cutting 
 out of oak at the earliest age when it was in 
 any way marketable, every tree was cut that it 
 was thought could be " spared," in order to give 
 more room to its neighbour to spread and be- 
 come a fine tree, and incidentally to bring in 
 an annual income to the Crown. 
 
 In the New Forest I found a regular five 
 years' rotation, dating back some fifty years, 
 under which each section of oak wood that was 
 of marketable age, and would yield bark then 
 worth 4 to 5 a tonwas gone over as each 
 lustrum revolved. " Income " was the overrul- 
 ing cry from the Office of Woods and the Treasury, 
 and so the woods were scraped over for income 
 till they were thinned to death. 
 
 There is some common sense in this method. 
 It is quite reasonable to come to the conclusion 
 that you will eat your cake, and not have it to 
 
170 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 hoard. But it is not reasonable to hold up 
 English Forestry to contempt, as compared with 
 continental methods, when two entirely different 
 methods are being pursued. It may be that 
 the English method is the worse of the two, 
 but if the accounts of the two systems could 
 be compared, I am not sure which of them 
 would, on the whole, show the better balance. 
 
 There is no doubt that the revenue obtained 
 by thus heavily thinning these plantations of 
 a hundred years old was a very large one. The 
 difficulty was, how to deal with the standing 
 crop that remained when the last cutting that 
 could reasonably be called a "thinning" had 
 taken place. 
 
 Of course, a German forester would not hesi- 
 tate for a moment. He would simply and quite 
 rightly, in accordance with sound forestry clear 
 the whole standing crop and plant anew, or 
 he would endeavour to provide a young crop to 
 spring up to succeed the older generation that 
 he was realising for profit. 
 
 But in the New Forest we have no choice. 
 The Act of 1877, which laid down a system of 
 sentimental Forestry, provided that under no 
 circumstances was a single acre of plantation 
 to be " wholly levelled or cleared," so that, good 
 or bad, decadent or not, a " sufficient number " 
 
FORESTRY 17-1 
 
 of old trees had to be left on the ground. This 
 precluded us from clear cutting and planting, 
 however correct that method seemed to be. But 
 I, with others, observed and learnt, in Germany, 
 certain methods of cultivation of trees by natural 
 regeneration, and these methods seemed to suit 
 the dilemma of the New Forest very well. 
 
 In certain plantations, notably in Aldridge 
 Hill and Rhinefield Sandys, both woods of good 
 oaks, but already decimated, we again thinned 
 the standing crop very heavily, leaving only a 
 few trees per acre as parents, first, of course, re- 
 enclosing the ground against cattle. The result 
 of these thinnings, done by degrees, was to 
 bring in to the Exchequer a good many hundreds 
 of pounds. The ground between these trees was 
 cleared of undergrowth, the fern kept down, and 
 the soil partly broken. 
 
 The result, though gradual, has been very 
 encouraging. The ground is gradually becoming 
 covered with young plants and scions of the 
 best of the parent trees, and there seems every 
 reason to hope that the rising generation of 
 foresters will see an abundant crop of young 
 trees surrounding all the standards that are left, 
 so that it can use its discretion whether or not 
 it will turn into the round sum of money that 
 they represent these trees of 1815, secured by 
 
172 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 the fact that owing to the regeneration that has 
 taken place, the ground will not be " wholly 
 levelled or cleared," but that a " sufficient number 
 of the best trees" will be left on the land, so 
 that, in this case, sentiment and practical forestry 
 can for once walk hand in hand. 
 
 After the plantations of the date of round 
 about 1815, there was rather a lull in the 
 planting of the New Forest. A certain number 
 of plantations were formed in the period 1840- 
 1850, but they are not of very great importance. 
 In them is to be noticed the advance of the 
 Scotch fir, and its more frequent use as a nurse 
 and for a belt. Of these plantations are such as 
 King's Hat Foxhunting Enclosure (why so called 
 I never could divine) and Fletcher's Thorns. 
 
 But now we come to the period of the great 
 impetus in planting caused by the Deer Removal 
 Act of 1850, and this resulted, despite the check 
 so speedily placed upon its powers, in the enclos- 
 ing and planting of about 10,000 acres. The 
 first process was to complete the powers conferred 
 by the Act of William III in 1698, and to take 
 in the whole of the 12,000 acres authorised there- 
 by. Accordingly, such plantations as Oakley 
 and Islands Thorns were made great woodlands 
 now of some 600 or 700 acres each, and for the 
 most part very promising young woods. These 
 
FORESTRY 173 
 
 were planted more on the lines laid down by Mr. 
 Brown of Arniston, the right hand man of Mr. 
 Kennedy, Commissioner of Woods in the years 
 1849-51, and the cause of that great revolution 
 which nearly broke up the Office of Woods, by 
 uniting against it the whole force of the deputy 
 surveyors (then a numerous body) and all the 
 local officers in the service all over the country. 
 It ended in the removal of Mr. Kennedy from 
 his office, by Mr. Gladstone, then Chancellor of 
 the Exchequer. 
 
 However, the principles of Mr. Brown endured, 
 and the plantations of that date were planted 
 with oak where the soil was good enough, with 
 nurses in alternate rows up to four feet apart 
 all over, and, where the soil was hopelessly poor, 
 with Scotch fir only. Larch was largely used for 
 the nurses, and did very well up to a certain 
 age ; but after about fifty years of growth, it 
 begins to fail in the New Forest soil, and soon 
 deteriorates. On the whole, the scheme paid 
 well; the millions of larch and Scotch fir that 
 have been cut out of Islands Thorns and Oakley 
 plantations to name only two have brought in 
 money enough to repay the cost of the planting 
 several times over, or to produce enough cash to 
 yield a good interest on the capital expended, and 
 to leave a thriving crop of oak on the ground. 
 
174 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 These woods, with Parkhill, Pound Hill, and 
 other of that date, went far to exhaust the oak- 
 growing soil of the Forest, which, after all, is 
 but a small proportion thereof, and quickly they 
 came to the bad heath lands, which could only 
 carry Scotch fir, and that none too well. The 
 result necessarily was the formation of unattrac- 
 tive fir plantations, such as Slufter, Highland 
 Water, or Hawk Hill. Had the Deer Removal 
 Act been carried out to the full, the extent of 
 woodlands of this character would have been 
 increased five-fold. And this would, at the present 
 date, have seriously depreciated the attractions of 
 the Forest, though in future years a great area 
 of fine Scotch fir forest, well grown and well 
 thinned, might have greatly enhanced it. 
 
 Perhaps the last enclosure made that of 
 Denny was the best ; and I believe it was in- 
 tended to serve as an object lesson to the public. 
 For some years the accusation had been levelled 
 at the Office of Woods that they deliberately 
 included fine old woods within the limits of 
 their plantations, and then cleared the ancient 
 beeches, in order to replace them with rows of 
 Scotch fir. 
 
 That story was false ; the fine old woods now 
 standing in such comparatively old enclosures as 
 Oakley, Knightwood, and the Heronry in Vinney 
 
FORESTRY 175 
 
 Ridge, give the lie to any such tale; but in the 
 case of Denny the Commissioners went further, 
 and enclosed (but without taking out the decay- 
 ing trees, as should have been done) a much 
 larger area of old oak and beech woods. 
 
 The natural regeneration that has sprung up 
 around these old patriarchs, in every space open 
 enough to admit the sun and air, constitutes as 
 fine a specimen of the self-reproduction of a de- 
 caying old wood as could possibly be seen in- 
 complete, it is true, for lack of the removal here 
 and there of the most hopelessly decadent trees, 
 in order that the growth of the young scions 
 may replace them ; but still enough to show to 
 any observant members of the public how easy it 
 is to perpetuate those beautiful old open woods 
 which he sees hastening to decay before his very 
 eyes. 
 
 In making these plantations between 1850 
 and 1875, a fault was made which is very apparent 
 now. The object and reason, even at that later 
 date, for making them was, first, foremost, and 
 all the time, to produce oak timber. 
 
 But only a little soil, comparatively speaking, in 
 the New Forest will grow oak. The mistake was in 
 making large plantations. But the Act under 
 which they were made provided that they should 
 be of no less size than 300 acres, so that there 
 
176 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 should be no selecting of small areas of the best 
 soil only, to the detriment of the commoner. 
 
 Therefore in every plantation was a consider- 
 able area of inferior land some of it, especially 
 in the younger plantations, very bad. About 
 that there was no doubt ; Scotch fir was the only 
 possible crop. Some soil was quite good, and 
 here again oak was without hesitation selected as 
 the proper crop. 
 
 But between these two grades of soil was a 
 very large area which might or might not 
 grow oak to some dimensions at any rate. It 
 was no easy point to decide, and so I found 
 that my predecessors had given the benefit of 
 the doubt to a considerable area of moderate land, 
 and planted oak upon it. 
 
 It is for this reason that, now that the ex- 
 periment has been proved to be a failure, the 
 observer of woods finds so much stunted hope- 
 less oak of fifty years of age. 
 
 I think it was wise to give the oak a chance, 
 since the growth thereof was the primary object 
 in forming the plantation ; but the result is a 
 failure in many of these doubtful cases, and will 
 have to be corrected, some hardier crop, such as 
 Scotch fir, being reverted to. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 HUNTING 
 
 HUNTING has always been an integral part of 
 New Forest economy. For that purpose it was 
 first afforested, and without hunting it would not 
 have continued to exist during all these ages. 
 In its earlier centuries the deer was, of course, the 
 object of the chase, probably by hounds driving 
 the deer to men armed with bows and arrows. 
 They are apt to follow the same line year by 
 year, according to the conformation of the ground. 
 It is curious that the spot where Rufus was killed 
 is the very one in that part of the Forest where 
 any person desirous of viewing a hunted deer 
 would take his stand. The reason is that the 
 two ancient manors of Minstead and Canterton, 
 then as now enclosed, narrow the open Forest to 
 an isthmus between their respective fences. Then, 
 as now, the line which the deer were sure to take 
 ran past the spot where Rufus stood, and now, 
 as then, the follower of the chase who wants to 
 view the deer takes his stand just where the Red 
 King met his fate. 
 
 177 Ttr 
 
178 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 But from ancient books on hunting we know 
 that in the Middle Ages the practice of hunting 
 deer "at force" that is, with a swift pack of 
 hounds that can run him down had become 
 popular on the Continent ; but we have not precise 
 records of the date when the practice became 
 general in England, and in the Forest. Indeed 
 there is very little to be found about hunting in 
 the New Forest in those early times. We find 
 plenty to show how rigidly the deer were pro- 
 tected and preserved to the King's use. Neither 
 the Forest nor the deer were thus conserved except 
 for purposes of sport, and we may take it for 
 granted that plenty of royal hunting went on, 
 though I cannot quote chapter and verse for it, 
 without more research than I have given to this 
 matter. 
 
 We find in Stuart times more regular records. 
 In 1638 is a return of the sale of timber "em- 
 ployed for making of bridges and causeways to 
 secure His Majestie riding over the boggs and 
 moores there and not being otherwise used to 
 the said waste." For what can His Majesty 
 have used them save for the chase ? 
 
 How many of us have hastily galloped, per- 
 spiring in hot chase, across these most convenient 
 little passages and causeways without giving a 
 thought to the noble King who had them con- 
 
HUNTING 179 
 
 structed, and the subsequent unhappy episode in 
 Whitehall. One causeway, indeed, near Matley, 
 is known to all men as the "King's Passage," 
 but which King made it, and at what date, we 
 know not. Some of these " causeways" are very 
 old. Let those who now use it for hunting bow 
 the head and thank the monarch who ordered it 
 to be made, without forgetting those who have 
 maintained it in good order during all these 
 centuries. 
 
 In 1641 a warrant was issued by the Earl 
 of Holland to the officers and minister of the 
 said Forests (being this side Trent) to permit 
 " this noble French Lord the Baron of Vieville, 
 second son of the Marquis Vieville, to hunt, and 
 kill with his hounds or beagles, the game of hares 
 within the said Forests, Chaces, and Warrens, or 
 any of them, for his recreation, at reasonable times 
 arid in convenient places where herds of deer do 
 not life" (sic). 
 
 The order issued by Charles II for the addi- 
 tions and repairs to the King's House and for the 
 erection (see preceding pages) of a stable to 
 contain " fortie horse," seem to point to the main- 
 tenance of a pretty large hunting establishment. 
 And the casual reference, which I have quoted 
 on a preceding page, to the King and all his 
 attendants, in 1637, having gone out hunting and 
 
180 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 returned "roundly wet," all of them, shows 
 that they were keen on the sport. It comforts 
 me a little when I recall the many times that I 
 have returned from hunting " roundly wet," 
 starved and shivering, to find that these dis- 
 comforts were experienced two hundred and fifty 
 years ago by such exalted personages. 
 
 Although George III was a keen hunter, it 
 does not appear that he took the trouble to 
 bring his hounds from Windsor to the New 
 Forest to hunt deer. But in 1836 we find that 
 the Royal Buckhounds, with Charles Davis as 
 their huntsman, came down to hunt the red deer, 
 carrying such of them as they took, back to the 
 Swinley paddocks at Ascot. Lord Erroll was 
 then master. 
 
 It is recorded that two thousand people were 
 present at the meet at Lyndhurst. For several 
 years subsequently the Royal Pack, under suc- 
 cessive Masters of the Buckhounds, visited the 
 New Forest, and enormous crowds attended their 
 fixtures. Of course red deer only were hunted 
 by this pack, and the hunting was " at force " 
 that is to say, the hounds alone were relied 
 upon to run down and take their deer, by 
 unaided speed and endurance. The old French 
 custom of using " relais" of hounds had long 
 died out here. 
 
HUNTING 181 
 
 Harbouring was, of course, a necessity, and 
 this work was done then, as now, by the keepers 
 of the Forest. I found an entry in an old copy 
 of the Diary kept by the steward of the Lord 
 Warden, whose orders the keepers obeyed, to 
 this effect : "April 26, 1848 all the keepers must 
 attend to-morrow morning, Tuesday, April 27, at 
 Bolton's Bench, in their uniform, at 11 o'clock, to 
 attend Her Majesty's Hounds without fail. And 
 the keepers on the lower side must harbour 
 a stag." 
 
 Once again only did the Royal Pack come 
 in 1852 ; for the Deer Removal Act had been 
 passed, and, as far as was possible, the deer were 
 doomed. They hunted for some little time, and 
 took away what they wanted for the stock in 
 the Swinley paddocks. 
 
 After that time the deer, red and fallow, 
 warrantable or " rascall," as the Duke of Bolton 
 phrased it, were hunted, netted, shot, persecuted, 
 and destroyed for the two years during which 
 the official "jehad" lasted. But until this had 
 run its course, nothing in the way of sport 
 revived. 
 
 But as the deer became reduced to very 
 small numbers, the sport of hunting them became 
 apparent. And quite a competition sprung up 
 among the sporting squires of the neighbourhood 
 
182 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 to "assist the Crown" by "removing" deer with 
 the aid of various packs which they assembled 
 together. So great, indeed, was this competition, 
 and so manifold the disputing and quarrelling 
 among them about prior rights, that the Crown 
 had to take a firm stand, and eventually narrowed 
 permissions down to one pack only hunting in 
 the spring months, sometimes under the authority 
 of Mr. Morant, and sometimes of Mr. Lovell of 
 Hincheslea. 
 
 A pack of harriers, too, belonging to Colonel 
 Montressor visited the Forest for two or three 
 successive springs. And in one year Lord 
 Wolverton's famous pack of bloodhounds came 
 to try conclusions with the wild fallow deer, 
 with but moderate success. This visiting of the 
 Forest by strange packs, especially in the spring, 
 for hunting the quarry being, of course, the fox, 
 before that removal of the deer which made 
 hunting them possible seems to have been a 
 practice of long standing. The Records of the 
 Charlton Hunt, to which I have previously 
 referred in connection with Boldrewood Lodge, 
 shows how that establishment annually travelled 
 out of Sussex, and took up their quarters at 
 Boldrewood, the residence of Lord de la Warr 
 though this pack also made a practice of visiting 
 the Forest in autumn. 
 
HUNTING 183 
 
 About 1740 the Duke of Bolton had his pack 
 of hounds at his residence of Burley Lodge, and 
 correspondence passed between his Grace and 
 the Duke of Richmond, complaining that there 
 was not room for both packs. That was likely 
 enough, with the kennels barely two miles apart, 
 but there is nothing to indicate to us which 
 pack were deemed interlopers, and which ought 
 to give way. 
 
 A little later Lord Eglinton came to reside 
 at Somerley, and though that mansion was well 
 across the river Avon, yet he seems to have 
 pursued his sport in the New Forest, and again 
 provoked remonstrances, this time from the Duke 
 of Richmond, while foxes seem to have become 
 very scarce no wonder. In these circumstances 
 the hunting of the country must have become 
 chaotic, and it was high time that some one 
 should intervene for during all this time the 
 local pack of hounds, of which Mr. Gilbert was 
 master, was hunting over the whole Forest when- 
 ever he could squeeze in a day. 
 
 It was high time that the matter was taken 
 in hand authoritatively, and in 1784 we find 
 a manifesto issued by the proper authority 
 for controlling these matters viz. the Lord 
 Warden, who at that time was H.R.H. the 
 Duke of Gloucester. This edict throws light on 
 
184 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 one or two old-fashioned hunting practices. It 
 runs thus : 
 
 ADVERTISEMENT 
 
 No hounds are to be permitted to hunt 
 in the New Forest except the Lord Warden's, 
 and (if he should choose to come) the Duke 
 of Richmond's, but in the month of April 
 viz. from the 1st to the 30th, both days 
 inclusive. 
 
 That no pack be suffered to go out more 
 than three times in one week, and, to prevent 
 confusion, it is agreed that the Lord Warden's 
 are to hunt Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 
 Mr. Grove's to hunt Tuesday, Thursday, and 
 Saturday, and no more than two packs of 
 hounds to be in the Forest at the same 
 time. 
 
 [It is necessary to remark that the Duke 
 of Richmond had liberty from the preceding 
 Lord Warden to bring his hounds, which was 
 continued to him by the Duke of Gloucester, 
 and this was the only person who had per- 
 mission to use not only the kennels and 
 stables, but the King's House likewise, if his 
 Grace should choose to come, which is very 
 improbable.] 
 
 Then any strange pack must give way 
 
HUNTING 185 
 
 for the time, that there may be no more than 
 two packs at one time. 
 
 The Earths not to be stopt till half-past 
 four in the morning, and no hounds to be 
 thrown off before five. 
 
 The Earths during the month of April 
 not to be stopped, but by the keepers or their 
 servants. 
 
 The Keepers have orders not to suffer 
 any fires to be lighted on the earths, nor 
 any person to stand on the earth to keep 
 out the foxes ; no tarriers to be taken out, 
 or foxes dug in the month of April. 
 
 A. CUNNINGHAME, Printer, opposite the 
 Market House, Southampton. 
 
 We have here at last a much needed code of 
 regulations for hunting, which in the New Forest 
 had at that date become almost impracticable. 
 But there was a wise head of Government just 
 then, and the explanatory letter which was sent 
 with the above edict throws additional light on 
 the position. The letter is signed by Colonel 
 Heywood, Equerry to H.R.H. the Duke of Glouces- 
 ter, and is addressed to Mr. Grove. 
 
186 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 SOUTHAMPTON, January 27th, 1784. 
 
 SIR, The keepers and others in the New Forest 
 having represented to His Royal Highness the 
 Duke of Gloucester the great scarcity of foxes at 
 present in the country, he thinks proper to revise 
 some regulations that were agreed to with the 
 Duke of Richmond and Lord Eglinton when they 
 had liberty to bring their hounds in the Forest. 
 He wishes also to add a little to the regulations, 
 as the necessity appears greater at this time. 
 
 As your hounds have occasionally been in the 
 Forest, he commands me to send you a copy of 
 the regulations, and he hopes, as the Forest Hounds 
 will strictly adhere to them, there will be no 
 objection on your part. 
 
 The Lord Warden has given his name to Mr. 
 Gilbert's hounds, and for the future he will look 
 upon them as the established pack of the country, 
 but does not mean to prevent your hounds coming 
 out under the enclosed regulations. I have the 
 honour to be, etc., etc. 
 
 To ME. GROVE. 
 
 The letter is interesting, as it explains the 
 position which the Lord Warden felt himself com- 
 pelled to take up that of having a pack of his 
 
HUNTING 187 
 
 own, and putting all other packs, save only that 
 of the Duke of Richmond, which stood in an unique 
 position, into the category of "strange packs." 
 He had, however, as far as we know, no pack 
 of his own, and therefore by "giving his name" 
 to the existing local pack of Mr. Gilbert, he not 
 only constituted them the " pack of the county," 
 but entitled its followers to wear the royal button 
 of the Lord Warden of that date, with the " Crown 
 and the Stirrup" emblem of the New Forest en- 
 graved upon it. The button was identical with 
 that worn by the keepers and all other servants 
 of the Lord Warden. But when first I inquired 
 of my companions in the hunting field, how it 
 came about that they 'wore a royal button on 
 their hunting coats, I could not find any one 
 who could enlighten me, and even at the present 
 date there are plenty of people who suppose that 
 they wear a crown on their buttons in right of a 
 subscription to the New Forest Foxhounds, and 
 have never thought out the reason why this par- 
 ticular pack should be privileged to wear the 
 royal emblem. It is, of course, not really a 
 "hunt button" at all, and is shared with the 
 followers of the chase, by all the keepers, under 
 keepers, and other servants of the Crown who 
 wear a Crown livery. But it is an ancient his- 
 torical emblem, of which the wearers may be far 
 
188 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 more proud than those whose coats are decorated 
 by the initials or the twisted cypher of some 
 local pack, of a mere hundred of years' standing. 
 
 I note particularly these matters because, when 
 I came to the New Forest in 1880, I found my- 
 self confronted by a situation very like that which 
 had arisen in 1784. 
 
 As I have before observed, several gentlemen 
 laid claim to be granted permission to assist the 
 Crown in "removing the deer" by hunting them 
 with packs of their own, without any regard to 
 the sport or convenience of others who claimed 
 the like privilege. In fact, at one time there 
 were no less than four packs in the Forest, and 
 to reconcile any permissions to them with proper 
 regard to the pack of foxhounds the senior 
 pack, hunting three days a week needed no little 
 consideration, and perhaps a firmer hand than 
 Mr. James Kenneth Howard, then Commissioner 
 of Woods, the kindest and most genial of human 
 beings, cared to exercise. 
 
 He had therefore delegated his authority 
 to settle these vexed questions to the then 
 Master of the Foxhounds, Sir Eeginald Graham, 
 who again put the matter into the hands of the 
 New Forest Hunt Club, a body composed of the 
 subscribers to the New Forest Foxhounds, and of 
 them alone not the covert owners at all. 
 
HUNTING 189 
 
 The result might have been easily foretold. 
 The club exercised its delegated authority in 
 its own interests alone. It cut out, once and for 
 all, those rival packs of deerhounds that had 
 been squabbling and fighting among themselves, 
 and did so very rightly. It issued a permission 
 to be ratified, of course, by the Commissioner 
 of Woods to Mr. Lovell, the master of the 
 principal of these contesting packs, to hunt deer 
 for a very limited period in the spring, under the 
 most complicated restrictions, devised so as to 
 make it impossible for his hunting to be any- 
 thing but a temporary arrangement, with a 
 scratch pack; while for Mr. Mills, the master of 
 the only pack of harriers in the Forest, they 
 devised conditions and imaginary boundaries, by 
 lines drawn from this point to that on the map, 
 which were not to be crossed on this or the 
 other day of the week. 
 
 All these were puerilities. In the case of 
 Mr. Mills they worked well enough, for neither 
 he nor anyone else paid the slightest attention 
 to them! But in the case of the deerhounds it 
 was different. The feud had gone on for many 
 years; all the country had taken sides one way 
 or another. Many people had ceased to speak 
 to each other over this wrangle. The battles of 
 the Montagus and Capulets were nothing to it, 
 
190 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 and I, without the slightest knowledge of all 
 this turmoil and bad blood, was launched into 
 the thick of it in complete innocence of the 
 temperature of the hot water into which I was 
 officially desired to plunge. Very hot it was too ! 
 
 However, I got hints from reliable friends, 
 both inside of and far away from the Forest ; 
 and, while I realised that an unfair, and indeed 
 impossible situation, had been brought about, I 
 determined to let a couple of seasons go by while 
 I followed the sport of both packs, and could 
 judge of them for myself. What amazed me 
 was the intense bitterness of feeling which the 
 official managers of either pack displayed towards 
 the promoters of the other form of sport, while 
 all the while they each of them followed and 
 subscribed towards the maintenance of the pack 
 they said they were opposed to! In fact, each 
 faction cordially approved of the proceedings of 
 the other, provided only that they were allowed 
 to dictate them ! 
 
 After two years' watching of the working of 
 New Forest hunting, conducted in close friend- 
 ship with the masters of all three packs, and 
 having all their grievances poured into my ears, 
 I came to the conclusion first, that there was 
 abundance of room for all of them in the Forest, 
 and that under proper regulations (and here I 
 
HUNTING 191 
 
 had the invaluable rules of 1789 to guide me) 
 none of them need interfere with the sport of 
 the other, but that there must be a supreme 
 controlling power. 
 
 As to the Harriers, I troubled about them 
 not at all. The nominally oppressive rules which 
 the New Forest Hunt Club had imposed on 
 them affected them not, for they regarded them 
 in no sort of way. The fox-hunting community 
 knew better than to quarrel with Mr. John 
 Mills, a large covert owner outside the Forest, 
 whose support was valuable. No one ever tried 
 to enforce the somewhat ridiculous boundaries 
 which the New Forest Hunt Club had induced 
 the Commissioners of Woods to impose on this 
 harmless little pack. I assuredly did not ! 
 
 There remained the old and deep sore of the 
 quarrel between the master of the foxhounds 
 and any master of a deerhound pack. It ap- 
 peared to me from a couple of seasons' observa- 
 tions that the hunting of the wild deer an the 
 New Forest was one of the finest opportunities 
 for making a good pack of hounds and showing 
 first-class sport that could be hit upon by any 
 enthusiast. 
 
 I even went so far as to say, after a brief experi- 
 ence of this, to one of the older generation of 
 New Forest hunting men, who, I vainly supposed, 
 
192 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 had really studied sport, that it was pretty 
 clear that, given an equally good pack of hounds, 
 an equally good huntsmen, and a staff equally 
 well mounted, it would be far easier to show 
 good sport in hunting the deer than by hunt- 
 ing the fox over this same country. 
 
 My old friend was, I found, of the opposite 
 faction, and without consideration voted me a 
 heretic. But I have never swerved from the 
 opinion I then expressed, and am satisfied that, 
 provided the numbers of the deer are kept within 
 reasonable limits, the man who hunts them, if 
 only he has a good pack of hounds, has a better 
 opportunity to show sport than has the man who 
 hunts the fox. 
 
 But, after all, in either case the "good pack 
 of hounds " is the first and the last consideration. 
 
 Well, to go back to 18821 found that 
 there were two forms of hunting to be enjoyed 
 in New Forest. One, shared in common with 
 many other countries in England, the other with 
 one only that which dominates hunting down 
 in the West Country. 
 
 Both, under fair treatment, could show equally 
 good sport. Both had ardent supporters. One 
 was free, with a good establishment of hounds, 
 kennels, &c. ; the other was hampered and impo- 
 verished, with nothing but a scratch pack of hounds 
 
HUNTING 193 
 
 composed of all the rogues, drafted about February 
 from many high- class kennels in England. They 
 joined in the cry of Mr. Lo veil's pack (those that 
 were not drafted for muteness), enteDed and led 
 by the one or two couples he had that had hunted 
 deer the previous season. Most of them were 
 revelling on the scent of what they believed to 
 be riot, and there were always a few beautiful 
 old dogs finishing their last season who declined 
 to do this wrong (except when catching time 
 was close at hand), but lent all the time a stately 
 air to the proceedings. Some of these were high- 
 class stallion hounds, but they never did a 
 hand's turn of work at deer-hunting. All the 
 same, it was wonderful what good runs Mr. 
 Lovell got occasionally out of this scratch pack. 
 But it was quite clear to me, for I was no novice 
 as to fox-hunting, and had also seen a little of 
 the hunting of the wild red deer down West, 
 that the sport merited a better sort of establish- 
 ment than Mr. Lovell had been tied down to. 
 And mainly, too, because I had seen enough to 
 realise that, by the nature of the New Forest 
 country, it is impossible for one pack to interfere 
 with the sport of another. The covert is so 
 abundant, the habits of the various beasts of 
 the chase so different, that there could be no 
 
 doubt but that there is room for all, and to spare. 
 
 N 
 
194 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 And so, after having got all this into my head 
 by observation and practical experience, I laid 
 the case as it appeared to me before Sir Henry 
 Loch, then Commissioner of Woods, together 
 with the petition for hunting facilities which 
 was put forward by the committee a strong 
 one that was formed to promote deer- hunting 
 and to guarantee that it should be properly 
 carried on. Sir Henry was quite uninterested 
 in any of the hunting disputes and squabbles 
 of the New Forest, and he decided to put in 
 force the authority exercised in a somewhat 
 similar case by the Lord Warden in 1789, and 
 to lay down regulations for the carrying on 
 of all hunting in the New Forest first and 
 foremost having regard to the convenience and 
 necessities of the New Forest Foxhounds, the 
 successors of Mr. Gilbert's pack, to which the 
 Lord Warden "gave his name" in 1789. These 
 were therefore regarded as the senior pack, but 
 not permitted to exercise any authority over any 
 other pack to which the Commissioner, acting 
 as the successor to the Lord Warden, might 
 have extended his permission to hunt. 
 
 It was my unhappy duty to have to stand 
 up at a meeting of the New Forest Hunt Club, 
 and announce, with all the suavity I could com- 
 mand, that any authority hitherto exercised by 
 
HUNTING 195 
 
 that institution for regulating the proceedings of 
 any packs of hounds in the New Forest other 
 than that one which was under their own control 
 must now cease; that they, with other sporting 
 institutions, must understand that they all hunted 
 on the same conditions under the permission and 
 segis of the Crown ; and that, if any of them 
 found that they suffered any hardship, or that 
 their sport was interfered with by any other 
 pack, they must report it to the Commissioner, 
 who would act as arbiter in any disputes, with- 
 out delegating his authority to any one of the 
 interested parties. I shall never forget the 
 nervousness with which I rose to make this 
 announcement. I knew it would be a sad blow 
 to certain old foresters, who cared much more 
 for regulating hunting than partaking in the 
 sport. Indeed, in the field later in that day, 
 one dear old friend wept openly at the sorrow of 
 seeing what he called " the other lot getting their 
 own way." 
 
 But the thing had to be. The hunting quarrels 
 of the New Forest had gone on too long, and 
 about 1879 the country had got a bad name all 
 over the hunting world in respect of its squab- 
 blings. There was only one way out of it, viz. 
 that some overriding power of landowner and 
 covert owner, on whom the bulk of the sport, 
 
196 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 preservation of foxes, &c. } rested, should assert 
 itself, and settle disputes once for all. 
 
 This power had not happened in the Forest 
 since ninety years previously, but at that date 
 it brought peace, and so it did when it was again 
 invoked in 1883. 
 
 Accordingly, a conference was held, and the 
 master of the Foxhounds, as the senior pack, 
 hunting three days a week, was asked to name 
 the days for which he desired permission. He 
 chose without discussion to adhere to his exist- 
 ing days, viz. Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, 
 each with a particular section of the Forest at- 
 tached to it. The Buckhounds had Monday 
 and Friday allotted to them, each also with a 
 section of the country assigned to it, so planned 
 that there should be only a remote possibility 
 of their disturbing country to which the Fox- 
 hounds were coming the next day. So long as 
 these regulations were strictly observed, there 
 was, as in 1789, hardly a possibility of the sport 
 of either pack clashing with the other. 
 
 As a matter of fact, the scheme worked ad- 
 mirably. I doubt if there is a hunting man in 
 the Forest who could point to a day within his 
 memory when the sport of one pack interfered 
 with that of any other. 
 
 And, indeed, the oddest thing about the whole 
 
HUNTING 197 
 
 affair was this : from first to last, I never had 
 the assertion made to me that the hunting of 
 either pack ever had interfered with, or was ever 
 likely to injure, the sport of the other. The 
 whole contest seemed to be a struggle not for the 
 promotion of the sport of any pack but for the 
 right to override and suppress the operations of 
 some other body of sportsmen. Naturally I had 
 little sympathy with such motives as these, and, 
 though it cannot be gainsaid that old prejudices 
 died hard, and reared a head needing to be 
 cracked from time to time, yet I am glad to 
 say that, for some years before I left the Forest, 
 nothing but peace, goodwill, and mutual accommo- 
 dation reigned as regards both of the packs. 
 
 I am not a little proud of the splendid pre- 
 sent of silver plate that was given to me when 
 I retired from the office of Deputy Surveyor, by 
 the whole hunting community of the Forest, on 
 the initiation of the members of the Hunt Club, 
 the body with which 1 had been forced into 
 collision many years before ; and that they 
 were pleased to say that they tendered this 
 beautiful gift " in recognition of the efforts I had 
 made to promote the best interests of sport in 
 the New Forest." 
 
 Looking back thirty-five years, and review- 
 ing all the hostile interests and old-established 
 
198 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 bitterness that had to be reconciled, I remember 
 well how my heart misgave me when I dared 
 to forecast a period when peace and good sport, 
 backed up by all alike, might reign in what 
 truly ought to be a paradise for all hunters. It 
 took twenty years to bring it about, but it is 
 one of the comforts left to me in my old age to 
 reflect that the ancient wars and troubles have 
 died away, and that I left a thoroughly friendly, 
 united body of sportsmen where I had found a 
 very different state of feeling. 
 
 To go back to 1883. It was at once proposed 
 that an established pack of buckhounds should 
 be formed under the mastership of Mr. Lovell, 
 who made over to the managing committee all 
 the hounds he then had in kennel, and under- 
 took to continue the use of those kennels at 
 Hincheslea. 
 
 At first Mr. Lovell carried the horn himself, 
 as he had been wont to do, and, on his invi- 
 tation, I habitually rendered him all the assist- 
 ance in the field that I could. He had only one 
 whip, a groom of his own training, not brought 
 up to kennel work, and an extra hand in the 
 field, even an amateur, was very useful to him. 
 
 In the spring of 1885, owing to the sudden 
 death of Lady Rose Lovell, Mr. Lovell could not 
 hunt. He was, however, quite willing that the 
 
HUNTING 199 
 
 hounds should go out if the subscribers wished 
 it, and they could make any suitable arrange- 
 ments. I was asked to undertake to hunt the 
 hounds, and Lord Londesbrough promised to 
 supplement my small stud by lending me what 
 horses I wanted. On these terms I agreed to 
 try what I could do. I had the advantage of 
 knowing every hound in the pack, and what 
 his capabilities were, and, after a few days' horse 
 exercise with me, they became handy enough ; 
 but even so, it was no easy task to hunt another 
 man's pack, with servants not my own, but only 
 temporarily under my orders, and riding horses 
 lent by another person still ! However, we did 
 not have a very bad spring season's hunting. 
 Though I was not able to achieve a " record " 
 run, we had two or three very good days 
 notably on April 27, when hounds ran hard in 
 the morning for forty-five minutes and killed 
 an old buck, and in the afternoon ran a buck 
 from Ehinefield down into the Avon valley 
 beyond High Wood, and, turning back to the 
 Forest, bayed him at seven o'clock P.M., in the 
 stream by Burley Manor, after a long and varied 
 hunt over all sorts of country of some three hours 
 duration. As is so often the case, when it came 
 to cultivated land, hounds could only walk after 
 the wild deer ; he is much more difficult to hunt 
 
200 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 over ploughed land than is the fox. I remember, 
 too, at the finish of this hunt, poor Wanderer, 
 a useful dog, and the first to bay the buck, got 
 severely handled by him, being caught, when 
 swimming, against the high bank of the stream 
 and badly punished ; though he did not at the 
 time seem seriously hurt, and came home well 
 enough with the pack, he was afterwards very 
 ill, and seemed to have suffered from blood 
 poisoning from the hurt of the buck's horns at 
 any rate, it took him the whole summer to 
 recover, and he lost every hair he had on his 
 body before he recovered. 
 
 It made one think of Turberville's ancient 
 distich : 
 
 " If thou be hurt with home of Harte 't will bring thee to thy 
 
 bier, 
 
 But leeches' art can bore's hurt heal ; thereof thou needst not 
 fear." 
 
 We had other good days, but nothing of 
 great note. I had fourteen days' hunting, one 
 of which was practically blank, and killed eight 
 deer. I believe that the field were pretty well 
 satisfied, and I know I was glad to get so well 
 out of a very difficult job. 
 
 In 1886 Mr. Lovell was laid up by illness, 
 and it was arranged that the whipper-in, W. 
 Perkins, should hunt the hounds, and that I 
 
HUNTING 201 
 
 should act as Field Master, and take charge of 
 all arrangements. A whipper-in was provided to 
 help W. Perkins. 
 
 In many ways this was the best arrangement 
 to adopt. It was better that the man who 
 hunted the hounds and lived at the kennels 
 should handle them in the field and bring them 
 home. Fewer hounds were left out than was 
 the case with a divided mastership, and I 
 always found the whipper-in anxious and willing 
 to avail himself of any hints which my longer 
 experience in deer-hunting could proffer him 
 I had got to know the run of half the bucks 
 throughout the Forest ! 
 
 We were stopped by hard frost up to March 
 18th a notable thing in a mild southern county. 
 
 We managed to show a good deal of sport 
 by sticking hard to business. I note one day 
 April 12, 1886 when we found three stags in 
 Busketts Wood, and tufted them for three whole 
 hours before we got one separated and then it 
 was a light galloping deer not the big fellow 
 we wanted. We then ran him right across the 
 Forest to Linford a nine mile point, and he 
 was killed after a two hours' hunt. A fair day's 
 work for men and horses. 
 
 A week afterwards we had a good hunt with 
 one of the two stags left in Busketts. In this 
 
202 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 case I wasted less time, and laid on the pack 
 after an hour's tufting on to the two stags 
 rather a risk, but it came off. They ran together 
 right across the Forest to Roe Wood, about eight 
 miles away, and then divided. I watched them 
 separate. We had several checks, chiefly owing 
 to the way the field persistently galloped after 
 the deer and over the hounds, but, in spite of 
 these unnecessary difficulties, we brought our 
 stag right back across the Forest, and killed 
 him at Canterton. It was a three hours' hunt 
 not very slow, but frequently interrupted, and I 
 made it about seventeen miles on the map. 
 
 We killed eight deer this spring also, but I 
 think Will Perkins had rather better sport than 
 I had, taking the two spring seasons through. 
 After this season, Mr Lovell realised that the 
 strain of the long days of deer-hunting was 
 rather more than a man of his years could 
 comfortably sustain, and he thought it best to 
 engage a professional huntsman. Just at that 
 juncture, my old friend, Sir George Brooke, had 
 decided to reduce his pack of harriers in Co. 
 Dublin, and wrote to me to recommend his 
 huntsman, whom he described to me as being 
 " always keen, never cold, never hot, never tired, 
 never hungry, and never thirsty " ! 
 
 This was a good recommendation from an 
 
ROBERT ALLEN, HUNTSMAN TO THE BUCKHOUNDS, 1896. 
 
HUNTING 203 
 
 Irishman, and Mr. Lovell engaged him as his 
 huntsman. I am sure he never regretted it. 
 
 Allen was born and bred in Bramham Moor, 
 and started his hunting career as second horse- 
 man to old Charles Treadwell, to whom I have 
 already referred as the man who started me 
 on the way that I should go, in the direction 
 of hunting. He was in various services during 
 his career, and had perhaps no more important 
 place than the period he spent under Mr. Parry 
 as huntsman to the Puckeridge. 
 
 To us he came in later life, from Sir George 
 Brooke, whose beautiful pack of harriers he had 
 hunted in Co. Dublin and in Kildare. Nothing 
 was thought good enough to put forward by 
 Sir George but Belvoir and Brocklesby bred 
 hounds, and perhaps his standard of 21 inches 
 was a trifle elastic. But whenever the Ward 
 left out a stag on the Kildare side, and asked 
 Sir George to give a bye-day to recover him, that 
 stag quickly found that he had not changed his 
 situation for the better when these speedy bitches 
 were after him. He seldom kept dog-hounds. 
 
 Allen was a thorough hound-man. It did 
 not require much assistance from me to persuade 
 Mr. Lovell into our joint belief as to the excel- 
 lence of Bramham Moor blood. 
 
 The late Mr. George Lane Fox was a kind 
 
204 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 and sympathetic friend, and sent us year by 
 year a draft of dog-hounds, from which, if dis- 
 temper was not too hard on us, we could easily 
 select the small entry required to be put forward 
 for a two-days-a-week pack. 
 
 Lord Portman, too, was ever a generous friend 
 from first to last, and in most years sent us a 
 couple or two that were most serviceable. Some 
 of his hounds, I noticed, year by year, took more 
 than one season to enter and settle down, but 
 they were generally very stout hounds, and in 
 many cases lasted for a season or two longer 
 than the average. 
 
 From Brocklesby, too, where my old friend 
 Maunsel Richardson was at that time hunting 
 the dog pack, Lord Yarborough often sent us 
 a useful young hound, and everything that came 
 from Brocklesby always had plenty of tongue, 
 and used it in the right place. 
 
 Little dogs, those that in great kennels would 
 have to run with the bitches, if kept at all, were 
 what I used to beg from my kind friends, and 
 many a charming hound was sent us that was 
 deemed too good to draft at first, but was not 
 up to the standard of a really high -class dog 
 pack. But he generally grew enough to look 
 quite at home in the pack of 2 3 -inch dog-hounds 
 which was presently got together. 
 
HUNTING 205 
 
 Of course, from the day that the pack was 
 started on an established footing, nothing but 
 unentered hounds were taken into it. A hound 
 that had even hunted, still more had attended 
 the funeral of a single fox, was scrupulously 
 rejected. 
 
 In a very short time my anticipations as to 
 the sport of the New Forest were realised to 
 the full. In about two years a capital pack of 
 working hounds had been got together. Naturally, 
 being a pack of draft hounds, there were not a 
 great many of those beautiful creatures among 
 them that Mr. Lane Fox used to refer to as 
 " summer dogs," but they all of them helped to 
 catch deer, and a succession of excellent seasons 
 with capital sport followed on Allen's appoint- 
 ment as huntsman. 
 
 In 1893 Mr. Lovell, feeling the burden of 
 advancing years, retired from the mastership, and 
 was succeeded by Mr. Walker, an ex-master of 
 the Croome hounds. In 1894 Mr. Kelly, who 
 had lately purchased Northerwood, a fine place 
 near Lyndhurst, became joint master with him, 
 and in 1896 he took sole charge of the pack. Up 
 to this date Allen had continued to carry the 
 horn, but in 1897 his health finally gave way, 
 and he had to give up all idea of hunting. It 
 had been painful to him very often unendurably 
 
206 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 so sometimes and he did not very long survive 
 his retirement. 
 
 He was succeeded by Harry White, who came 
 to the New Forest from Mr. Charles Wright 
 when he was master of the Fitzwilliam Hounds, 
 but had previously hunted both the Vere and 
 Dumfriesshire packs. Though perhaps a little past 
 his quickest form in the field, he was the very 
 best kennel huntsman I have ever seen. Under 
 the greatest difficulties, at times, owing to 
 changes of kennels and the like, he never failed 
 to bring out his hounds in perfect condition, fit 
 to hunt all day and looking beautiful in their 
 coats. At one time, and that for a great part 
 of a season, he was actually reduced, for kennels, 
 to a range of pigsties, a small cowhouse, and 
 a loose -box ! More than one master of great 
 establishments has admired to see his hounds 
 come out day after day in the pink of condition 
 from such wretched accommodation. I think 
 Harry White's remedy for his miserable kennels 
 (N.. he had only dog-hounds in his charge, and 
 no bitches to seclude) was to keep his hounds 
 ever in the open air. His love for them was 
 very great, and their devotion to him was equal 
 to it. Neither of them desired anything better 
 than to stroll about together in the Forest, re- 
 gardless of weather, for most of the daylight 
 
HUNTING 207 
 
 hours, and in that fashion the poor housing at 
 home was forgotten. But happily this state of 
 things did not last long. 
 
 In 1902 Mr. O. T. Price took the hounds, 
 and soon afterwards became occupier of New 
 Park, where he erected temporary kennels of 
 somewhat better accommodation. Here, of course, 
 the servants, and probably the hounds, were more 
 comfortable. 
 
 But with the knowledge I have gained from 
 the many visits that I have paid at one time or 
 another to a number of the great kennels of 
 England, in almost every part of the country, 
 where I have seen every skill displayed and no 
 cost begrudged in the construction of what are 
 truly canine palaces, I have been amazed to see 
 how hounds of the same breed emanating indeed 
 very often from these same noble palaces can 
 be brought out fit, clean, and well from such 
 hovels as I have described above. Of course, I 
 do not advocate hounds, or any dogs, being kept 
 in such places. But I have learnt that if you 
 provide the best of food and that you can get, 
 however bad is your kennel but above all, if you 
 have the right man, who well understands the 
 management of his hounds, and, with his heart 
 really in his work, is willing to buckle to and 
 make the best of circumstances as they are, you 
 
208 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 will find that a small pack of hounds, say twenty- 
 eight couple, can be kept healthily and well in 
 kennels of surprisingly cheap construction. 
 
 No doubt everyone knows this, still there are 
 many people who think a "pack of hounds" 
 needs a great expenditure in order to house it. 
 To these I would merely recount what we found 
 could be done in the New Forest in a very humble 
 fashion. Certainly the kennels did not in any 
 way affect our good sport. But when we could 
 obtain better kennels we thankfully did so. Mr. 
 Price carried on the hounds until 1908, when he 
 suddenly threw them up at the beginning of the 
 season. Mr. George Thursby and Captain Timson 
 jointly took over the pack, and got the hounds 
 into working order by about Christmas time, Mr. 
 Thursby carrying the horn. Although they 
 laboured under these disadvantages, the joint 
 masters were not long in reviving the class of 
 sport which this pack had shown in former years, 
 and in a few months they improved upon it. 
 Before the spring hunting, which is always such 
 a feature of this sport, Mr. Thursby had an ex- 
 cellent if rather a short, pack of working hounds, 
 while Captain Timson supported him by taking 
 charge of the tufting, and turning the pack to 
 him when in chase. 
 
 In a couple of seasons more Mr. Thursby 
 
HUNTING 209 
 
 took sole charge of the pack, and by that time 
 a really first-class pack of hounds, judged by the 
 standard of work in the field, had been got to- 
 gether, and most excellent sport was being shown 
 day after day. Mr. Thursby found himself obliged 
 to follow rather different lines from those which 
 we had adopted, in getting his entries together. 
 The practice of selling drafts of young hounds by 
 auction at Rugby had come into fashion, and 
 this raised the price a good deal. In old days it 
 was possible to bespeak, year after year, the 
 whole draft from some kennel of note, where the 
 working capabilities of the hounds were unim- 
 peachable and the number of young hounds 
 annually bred was large. 
 
 In this way many provincial packs, built up 
 in successive years from hounds bred in particular 
 kennels, became not only very good packs of 
 hounds, but also packs with a distinct character 
 and points of excellence of their own, that cannot 
 so well be formed by bringing into kennel a 
 number of hounds of many different strains and 
 qualities, from diverse places. 
 
 However, matters have changed, and, since 
 the auction mart led to very high prices being 
 given for smart young hounds of average size, 
 Mr. Thursby thought it wise to raise his standard 
 
 above the usual size of a foxhound, and with a 
 
 
 
210 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 minimum height of 26 inches, to get hold of the 
 big hounds, that were out of place in foxhound 
 kennels, but were otherwise symmetrical. 
 
 By doing this he eliminated all competitors but 
 two, viz. the Devon and Somerset Staghounds, who 
 also have a big pack, as well as one of the usual 
 standard, and the occasional foreigner. When once 
 the West Country pack had made up its numbers, it 
 was not difficult to pick up what was wanted out 
 of the remainder of the big hounds in the market. 
 
 I was not altogether happy about this at first, 
 for I am not very fond of extra big hounds, and 
 feared an accession of lumbering great dogs. But 
 I was completely mistaken. No lumberers ap- 
 peared, and the pack was as smart and quick 
 as any little pack of bitches, under Mr. Thursby's 
 control. And I do not think there has ever been 
 a pack in the Forest that got over the ground 
 faster, and ran better together, than these big 
 dog-hounds, while the echo of their cry among 
 the old woods was magnificent. 
 
 Much of this was due to Mr. Thursby's ex- 
 ceptional qualities as a huntsman and a judge of 
 hounds, whether in kennel or in the field. I 
 certainly consider him the best and quickest 
 gentleman huntsman that I have ever seen or 
 heard of, except perhaps the late Sir Charles 
 Slingsby, who is to me but a recollection. 
 
HUNTING 211 
 
 It is very extraordinary to see the implicit 
 confidence and obedience which this pack of 
 great headstrong dog-hounds displays towards 
 Mr. Thursby. They know that he is ever among 
 them, watching every turn, and that they can 
 look to him to give them unfailing assistance 
 towards killing their deer, the object they both 
 have in view. 
 
 It is most interesting to watch the demeanour 
 of these hounds when, after running with a keen- 
 ness and dash that left nothing to be desired, 
 the line of the hunted deer suddenly brings them 
 into the scent of fresh deer which have moved 
 at the approach of the hunt, and have perhaps 
 been joined by the hunted quarry. 
 
 While the young hounds, ignorant and puzzled, 
 try to push on and chance recovering the true 
 line, it is quite touching to see the way that 
 the old hounds acknowledge the difficulty, and 
 even come back to their master as if to report 
 the trouble and ask for his aid. The whole 
 energy of the chase seems to be suspended, and 
 the hounds show it first. But directly when, 
 by a successful cast, the line of the hunted 
 buck is recovered, after he has left his freshly 
 roused mates for they never stay long together 
 the dash and drive with which the hounds, 
 especially the old ones, recognise the scent of 
 
212 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 their hunted deer and take it up again, is a 
 most interesting lesson on the intelligence and 
 sagacity of hounds. 
 
 Except when I actually hunted the hounds 
 myself, I did not keep a diary, and memory is 
 a treacherous guide to enable one to recall the 
 many first-class runs I have seen, or failed to 
 see in spite of my best endeavours. 
 
 I recollect one such hunt with young stag, 
 that I viewed away myself from the Franchise 
 Wood on the northern verge of the Forest, in 
 the county of Wilts. 
 
 The hounds ran hard, fast and straight across 
 the whole Forest, passed over its southern bound- 
 ary, and went on towards the shores of the 
 Solent his point no doubt but he was bayed 
 and killed near Milton, a mile short of the sea. 
 
 No one really saw all of this run, and no one 
 horse could have got through it, at the pace 
 hounds went, the point in a direct line being 
 fourteen miles and the time less than an hour 
 and a half. Mr. Thursby, Mr. Compton, and my- 
 self were well with them for the first seven miles, 
 but were all misled by a false holloa and got 
 behind hounds. Mr. Thursby, riding a racehorse, 
 made a lucky turn, and got up to them near 
 Brockenhurst, thus gaining much on us. He 
 followed his hounds right down to Milton, till 
 
HUNTING 213 
 
 his good horse was reduced to a walk. He put 
 him into the hotel stables at Milton, requisitioned 
 a fly horse, and on this unwilling steed got to 
 his hounds, where they had pulled down their 
 beaten stag in a ditch, not more than a mile 
 from salt water. As for me, I carried on with 
 tail hounds to the southern verge of the Forest, 
 about two miles from where they killed the deer ; 
 but when these hounds lost the line, I turned 
 my tired horse homewards, hoping that my second 
 horse might yet turn up to my assistance. And 
 so it did, to the great credit of my old groom, 
 but, alas, not till I had turned for home some 
 ten minutes, and so missed him. I was glad to 
 get my horse a very good animal safe home, 
 and it was a long time before Mr. Thursby's gallant 
 thoroughbred came out again. 
 
 In recent days I recall a fine run with a 
 fallow buck in April 1913. He was roused in 
 Loosehanger, outside the Forest on the north, but 
 quickly recrossed the Forest boundary, and the 
 pack were laid on. They ran fast and straight 
 over the Ashley hills, across by Broomy Lodge, 
 and on due south in a perfectly straight line. 
 In Roe Wood the hounds got among fresh deer, 
 but put themselves right all but two couple that 
 were beguiled by the hot new line. One check 
 ensued at Ridley Wood, where Mr. Thursby for 
 
214 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 the first time lent his hounds assistance, and the 
 pack swept on, bending a little westward, over 
 the open heaths that lie between Burley and the 
 Avon valley, and on, over the Forest boundary 
 to Mr. Mills' property at Bisterne, where they 
 killed him in the open about a mile from that 
 gentleman's house. The point was eleven miles, 
 probably about thirteen as hounds ran, and the 
 time an hour and a half. The run was nearly 
 all in the open, so that it was easy to ride, and a 
 large field, including Lord and Lady Leconfield, 
 and various other masters of hounds, saw this good 
 gallop. 
 
 In former years bucks used frequently to run 
 down to the river Avon, and, crossing it, even 
 when it was in flood, would take to the enclosed 
 land and heaths beyond, even near to the Dorset 
 boundary. I remember on one such occasion, late 
 in April (as illustrating the unusual dates at which 
 New Forest hunting is carried on), the field were 
 making for a gap that appeared to be the most 
 practicable exit from the land hounds were cross- 
 ing. The huntsman arrived first, and his warning 
 hand, signalling danger, sent the field scuttling 
 off to find a better place. When, however, I asked 
 Allen what was the matter for I saw no danger 
 he replied, " There's an 'ard turkey hen sitting 
 on her eggs i' that gap, and I didn't want them 
 
HUNTING 215 
 
 to disturb her, ye see." I never encountered an 
 obstacle like that on any other occasion, when 
 engaged in hunting. 
 
 Old Robert Allen was full of dry humour, but 
 always had the politeness of a courtier. There is 
 a tale about him true, for I heard it myself which 
 has found its way into more than one sporting 
 paper, generally incorrectly told. 
 
 We had met one day at a well-known spot 
 called Bushy Bratley, and deer had been harboured 
 some four or five miles away in Lord Normanton's 
 coverts, to the westward. We had a long trot, 
 then a tuft singled out a fine buck, and laid on 
 hounds. The deer had laid down within half a 
 mile in some thick furze, and the pack fresh found 
 him, and got away close on his back. They fairly 
 raced him for the four miles or so straight back 
 to the very place of meeting, where he ran right 
 into the arms of the late Colonel Martin Powell, 
 a very regular follower of deer-hunting, but one 
 who preferred to accommodate his hunting hours 
 to his own convenience. He had, in fact, arrived 
 at the fixture just at the moment when we got 
 back there in full cry, having trotted a long way 
 to find our deer, and, after that, run some twenty- 
 five minutes at best pace back again. 
 
 Off went the Colonel's hat exhibiting, like the 
 farmer in Whyte-Melville's delightful song, " a grin 
 
216 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 of delight and a jolly bald crown," but the hounds 
 turned short from him, and, running on for another 
 half-mile, ran into their buck fairly burst up " with 
 never a check from the find." A usual event. 
 
 When we gathered our forces together, and 
 moved off to look for another deer, the Colonel 
 rode up to Allen (I was riding on the other side 
 of him), and said, " Well, Allen, / killed that deer 
 for you." I saw the old huntsman look up as 
 this startling view of the case was presented to 
 him, but, too polished a courtier to contradict, 
 he said, "Thank you, Colonel, but" (with an 
 apologetic glance at the pack trotting around 
 him), " they'll never believe that ! " 
 
 When I arrived in New Forest, I found the 
 present Sir George Meyrick master of the fox- 
 hounds, and I joined as heartily in his sport as 
 time and the res angusta domi would permit. 
 
 I have gone into the earlier history of this 
 ancient pack in a former chapter, but I may say 
 that its existence can be traced back to quite 
 the earlier days of foxhunting in this country, for 
 we have the record of Mr. Vincent Gilbert of 
 Lamb's Corner owning a pack of foxhounds in 
 1781, and in 1784 this pack was, as I have previ- 
 ously related, formally recognised by the Lord 
 Warden, and given a locus standi in the Forest, 
 which has been maintained ever since. 
 
HUNTING 217 
 
 However, my personal recollections begin with 
 the mastership of Mr. Meyrick, which began in 
 1878. No expense was spared to organise a good 
 pack of hounds. A commencement was made by 
 the purchase of his bitch pack from Sir Keginald 
 Graham, the retiring master. Then other hounds 
 were lavishly procured, and large drafts, notably 
 from the Grafton, were obtained. 
 
 Mr. Meyrick had a very large pack in, and 
 passing through, his kennel, and when he resigned 
 he sent to Rugby a very fine pack of dog-hounds, 
 as well as a bitch pack, which by itself would 
 have gone far to satisfy the requirements of the 
 country. After his retirement considerable diffi- 
 culties arose, and finally it was decided to divide 
 the country into two sections. The western half 
 was taken over by Mr. John Mills, who sacrificed 
 his perfect little pack of harriers and got together 
 the best pack of foxhounds that he could, while 
 the eastern half was at first taken by a com- 
 mittee on which I had the honour to serve, and, 
 ere hunting began, Major Browne of Hall Court 
 came into the country with a small bitch pack 
 of his own, and relieved the committee of its 
 duties in the field. 
 
 Meanwhile, the committee in question, having 
 good kennels and stable accommodation, with some 
 money in the bank, decided that a pack of hounds 
 
218 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 in the kennels in question would place the country 
 in a better position to treat with a prospective 
 master, either at the present juncture or in 
 future. Accordingly, I was empowered to go to 
 the sales at Rugby, and lay out a certain sum, as 
 far as it would go, in procuring the nucleus 
 of a pack. I took with me as my counsellor 
 George Carter, from the Fitzwilliam pack, and 
 I felt sure of getting sound, if perhaps plain- 
 spoken, advice from that fine old huntsman. In 
 the upshot I bought (if I recollect aright) some- 
 where about twenty-five couples of bitches, half 
 from Mr. Meyrick's own pack and half from the 
 Burton, then in the market. I also bought (be- 
 cause they were a bargain) some three or four 
 couples of Mr. Mark Rolle's dog-hounds, and these 
 (as they were unsuitable for our purpose), I 
 traded away for hounds that would serve us 
 better, and that to some advantage. This little 
 venture, in which I am glad to have borne a part, 
 started the pack belonging to the country at 
 present in the New Forest kennels, and long may 
 it remain there. 
 
 Major Browne only remained in the Forest 
 for one season, and was succeeded by Mr. Brad- 
 burne of Lyburn, a local landowner, who engaged 
 John Dale as his huntsman. He again was 
 succeeded in 1889 by Mr. Stanley Pearce, as 
 
HUNTING 219 
 
 regards the eastern portion, and in the western 
 side Mr. Mills was replaced by Sir John Thursby, 
 whose son Mr. George Thursby was then hunting 
 his hounds for him, and laying the foundation of 
 that experience as a huntsman which is serving 
 him in such good stead now. 
 
 In 1895, under the mastership of Mr. Henry 
 Martin Powell, the two sections of the country 
 were again amalgamated, and he hunted the 
 whole country three days a week, as in days of 
 yore. It is not really a four days a week country, 
 though it will stand many bye-days. 
 
 During the nine seasons that the country was 
 hunted by two packs of foxhounds, I am proud 
 to record that the supply of wild foxes (and the 
 responsibility for that rested on my shoulders) 
 did not fail, though I must own that the country 
 was somewhat over-hunted, and I was obliged to 
 ask my good friends the M.F.H.'s to conform to 
 certain rules which I laid down, and they very 
 amiably did so. 
 
 My rules were as to digging, &c. After Feb- 
 ruary 1st, all main earths, which ought to have 
 been stopped all the season, to be opened out, 
 but all earths to be put -to on hunting mornings 
 very early. On March 1st, all stopping of earths 
 in any way to be abandoned. After April 1st, no 
 digging of foxes run to earth to be permitted. 
 
220 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 But up to 1895 there was no trouble about 
 finding foxes. In that year commenced that great 
 epidemic of mange which raged almost all over 
 England for three years. It gradually spread to 
 the New Forest, and not only were dead foxes, 
 horridly diseased, picked up all over the Forest, 
 but in some cases we found badgers woefully 
 afflicted, either dead or wandering about, blind 
 with disease and that by broad daylight or lying 
 dead. Most of the packs in England had, during 
 this epidemic, to curtail their days of hunting 
 and their season. But so abundant was our 
 stock of foxes in the New Forest, that, to my 
 surprise (knowing as I did the numbers that the 
 keepers picked up dead), our hunting held out 
 far longer than in most countries, though, of course, 
 hounds had to draw more country to find foxes. 
 
 But in time the stock began to fail, and there 
 seemed to be a fear that the "great scarcity of 
 foxes," which was reported to the Lord Warden 
 in 1789, was again upon us. 
 
 But by the time that Mr. Powell, after a 
 troublesome and anxious period of mastership, 
 had resigned the reins of power to Mr. Christopher 
 Heseltine of Walhampton, in 1899, there was 
 little fear in the minds of those responsible for 
 the welfare of New Forest sport but that the 
 stock of foxes would shortly be ample for the 
 
HUNTING 221 
 
 prosecution of the particular sport of foxhunting. 
 And the results of the next year or two justified 
 their prognostications. 
 
 Things went on all right after that, and we 
 had no more epidemics. I think that when I bid 
 farewell to the Forest in 1914, there was as fine 
 a show of foxes in it as the country has ever 
 produced. 
 
 Mr. Heseltine, whose hounds were hunted by 
 his brother Mr. Godfrey Heseltine, who has 
 since acquired fame as a huntsman in countries 
 abroad as well as at home, had not long been 
 master when the South African War broke out. 
 The Heseltine brothers were among the first to 
 volunteer, and, their services being accepted, the 
 Hunt was left perforce somewhat in the lurch. 
 However, Mr. Heseltine made all arrangements 
 for carrying on hunting until the end of the 
 season, when the country had to seek a new 
 master. A curious coincidence then occurred. 
 In the year 1800 the sudden death of Mr. Vincent 
 Hawkins Gilbert threw the hunting arrange- 
 ments of the country into considerable disorder ; 
 Mr. John Compton of Minstead Manor stepped 
 into the breach, and by taking over the master- 
 ship solved the immediate difficulty. 
 
 So, exactly one hundred years later, when by 
 the force of circumstances in 1900 the Hunt 
 
222 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 found itself in a similar predicament, Mr. Henry 
 Francis Compton, the descendant and successor in 
 title of the M.F.H. of 1800, came forward in 
 the same manner, and, being elected by acclama- 
 tion to the position of master, carried the New 
 Forest Hunt over its difficulties, and conducted 
 its operations with success equal to any of the 
 best of his predecessors. 
 
 It was a rather curious thing that in both 
 cases the head of the Compton family should come 
 forward to relieve the Hunt in its troubles, the 
 more so perhaps that during the hundred years' 
 interval between these two occasions, no other 
 lord of Minstead acted as M.F.H. 
 
 Mr. Compton continued as master until 1905, 
 when he was succeeded, for a second term, by Mr. 
 Henry Martin Powell. In 1907 Mr. Walter Gaze- 
 no ve brought his skill and experience to bear, 
 first, on breeding a high-class pack, and next in 
 showing good sport, in the most genial fashion. 
 
 When he retired, Mr. John Cooke Hurle, who 
 had previously hunted the Dartmoor country, 
 took the hounds jointly with his brother Major 
 Cooke Hurle, the latter of whom I left in posses- 
 sion when I bid the Forest and hunting a 
 sorrowful farewell in 1914, though at that junc- 
 ture Major Cooke Hurle was summoned to the 
 war with the Territorial Regiment he now com- 
 
HUNTING 223 
 
 mands, and the country had to make shift with 
 substitutes for the season 1914-15, as under similar 
 circumstances it has had to do before. 
 
 What may be in store for sport and for old 
 England, as the outcome of the terrible times 
 (1915) in which I write, is on the knees of the 
 gods. But of this I feel sure, that, as the earliest 
 recorded English hunting began in New Forest 
 nearly nine hundred years ago, and as the Forest 
 itself was formed and created in the first instance 
 solely for the sport itself, so it will be the last 
 of our English countries in which the sport of 
 hunting will come to that end which we all 
 trust is very far off. 
 
 Of harriers and hare hunting I spoke when 
 referring to Mr. Mills' pack, which he gave up 
 when he took over the western half of the 
 country for foxhunting purposes. 
 
 This was a very beautiful little pack of 
 hounds, about 19 inches high and very level, 
 with necks and shoulders like the highest class 
 of foxhounds. I was puzzled to know how Mr. 
 Mills maintained his high standard, for it was 
 only occasionally that he found a dog-hound 
 with sufficient quality to run with his smart little 
 bitches. Except the two or three couple of 
 dog-hounds that he might chance to find in his 
 own kennel, I cannot think where he found sires 
 
224 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 good enough to maintain the standard of his 
 pack. But he was determined to have nothing 
 but the best procurable, and I think he bought 
 more than he bred, when he could hear of them. 
 
 When he wanted to give them up and start 
 foxhounds, no buyer was in the market, and it 
 ended by this perfect little pack being sold for 
 a mere song. 
 
 Mr. Mills always delighted in "a good cry," 
 and he used to run twenty or twenty - five 
 couples of these little hounds, and truly the cry 
 was as melodious as it was abundant. It really 
 was a pack of " merry harriers." At the time 
 that Mr. Price was master of the Buckhounds, 
 he started a little pack of foot beagles, with 
 which he hunted hares round about Lyndhurst, 
 and this sport became very popular with the 
 tradesfolk and foot people of Lyndhurst. And 
 not unfrequently they hunted over enclosed lands 
 by invitation, and visited sundry farms in the 
 neighbourhood. After Mr. Price left New Park, 
 another similar pack of beagles was formed, and 
 subscribed to by the Lyndhurst residents. It still 
 shows sport in that locality under the master- 
 ship of Mr. Day. 
 
 With so much hunting going on, it was 
 not too easy to map out a country and for- 
 mulate a permission which should give these 
 
HUNTING 225 
 
 humbler sportsmen reasonable facilities and yet not 
 interfere with the arrangements of the senior packs. 
 But wherever we were met with a good will, dif- 
 ficulties soon melted, and the " merry beaglers " 
 have had as much hunting as they could possibly 
 require, on the terms laid down by the Crown. 
 
 Naturally, in a wild country like the Forest, 
 where all species of fauna are protected, such 
 animals as otters and badgers are common 
 enough, and, like the fox, hare and wild deer 
 are laid under contribution to provide each their 
 share of Forest sport. 
 
 The habits of the otters in that locality are 
 rather peculiar. The streams of the forest 
 proper are small in size, but in most cases run 
 down, without joining any larger river, to the 
 sea direct. Otters use these streams as main 
 roads, without (unless cubs are laid down) lying 
 for very long in any of them. They pass on 
 their incessant travels up one stream to its 
 source, then pass over the watershed to the 
 head waters of some other little river, revelling 
 among the frogs and slugs to be found in the 
 boggy parts of the New Forest, which they 
 traverse, and so pass gradually down the stream 
 they have arrived at, halting as they please by the 
 way, until tidal water is reached again, and, after 
 a sojourn on the shore, the pilgrimage starts again. 
 
226 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 In the case of old dog otters concerned with 
 their affairs of love and war (for they are perfect 
 fiends at fighting with one another), very long 
 distances are covered even in a single night ; 
 but the orthodox routes are travelled. 
 
 These habits of the otter lent themselves 
 pretty well to the hunting thereof. We used 
 to get very frequently most delightful trail 
 hunts, or " drags," where the hounds traced out 
 the wanderings of the otter through the night, 
 but sometimes the holt to which this trail led 
 lay where the steam was too small to afford a 
 good hunt or to give fair play to the otter. But 
 this did not very often happen, for the banks of 
 these same streams are lined with great forest 
 trees or ancient alders, which have positive 
 caverns of small size running under their roots 
 to a point far inland from the stream, all of 
 which communicate with each other, and afford 
 strong fortresses for the otter, even if there be a 
 depth of but a few feet of water outside their 
 portals. This, however, is quite enough to hide 
 him, if he thinks well to abandon one fortress to 
 take refuge in another. Altogether it is aston- 
 ishing to see how long a time it takes in these 
 woodland streams to bring to hand an old otter, 
 although the actual water of the river may not 
 be half a score yards in width. 
 
HUNTING 227 
 
 When first I came to the Forest, a local pack 
 of otter-hounds existed, and monopolised the 
 country. It was, however, conducted on peculiar 
 lines, for neither the master nor any of his staff 
 had a glimmering of knowledge as to how an otter 
 should be found or hunted. Moreover, the pack 
 only hunted in New Forest, and for a day or 
 two in Surrey, which was no sufficient country in 
 which to make and work a pack of otter-hounds. 
 Moreover, their custom was to hunt only in the 
 spring, and to abandon hunting just when the 
 other packs were getting into full swing. 
 
 Let it, however, be recorded that I did once 
 see one good day with them, though, as far as 
 I could make out, neither the master nor his 
 staff had any idea of how or why this success 
 fell to them, though it was my good fortune to 
 see and realise all that was going on. 
 
 Fortunately, in a couple of seasons this pack 
 was broken up, and the country became vacant, 
 so that I could at once set to work to organise 
 proper otter-hunting for the future. I first ap- 
 plied to that past master of otter-hunting and all 
 that concerned it, the late Major Geoffrey Hill, 
 the Gamaliel at whose feet I learnt whatever I 
 know of this rather abstruse craft. He was 
 willing enough to add a week's hunting to his 
 existing engagements, for he had just given up 
 
228 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 that delightful country abounding in huntable 
 streams, with otters on every reach of them, 
 where, in the pleasant South of Ireland, I had 
 my happiest and hardest experiences with him. 
 
 Major Hill came down, and inspected the New 
 Forest streams with me, 3,nd, with that abstruse 
 knowledge which enables the expert to state with 
 certainty how many otters there may be on a 
 river, and of what size, pronounced most favour- 
 ably on the prospects of sport on these practically 
 unexplored streams. 
 
 But alas, just then his kennel of the most 
 valuable otter - hounds perhaps that ever were 
 got together, was being decimated by rabies, and 
 he was hard put to it to keep a pack together to 
 hunt any country at all, still less to embark 
 upon a new one. 
 
 After a couple of seasons of uncertainty, Major 
 Hill finally resigned all claim to the New Forest 
 streams, and very few people know that, even for 
 this short period, the New Forest formed a portion 
 of the Hawkestone otter-hunting country. 
 
 Still for years I would wear no other than my 
 old H.O.H. uniform whenever I hunted in the 
 New Forest. 
 
 But we desired to get our otters hunted, and 
 hunted properly, and Major Hill's advice to me 
 was to try and induce Mr. William Collier, 
 
HUNTING 229 
 
 master for ever so many years of the Culmstock 
 Otter-hounds, in the county of Devon, to bring 
 his hounds and his men, and above all himself, to 
 hunt our country for the fortnight or so that it 
 can well provide sport annually. 
 
 Perhaps no better piece of advice was ever 
 given, and I was very pleased when I got into 
 communication with Mr. Collier, and found that 
 if the way was smoothed for him as to the con* 
 sent of riparian proprietors, accommodation, finance, 
 and the like, he would be very pleased to come. 
 
 These little matters I was in a good position 
 to arrange, and I took care that whatever troubles 
 arose, they should fall on to my shoulders and 
 not on those of Mr. Collier. 
 
 His first season with us was in 1884, and he 
 soon won all hearts by his kindly courteous 
 bearing, typical of the old West County yeoman 
 landowner, who had lived in his own house, 
 cultivated his own estate, hunted his own hounds 
 over his own lands and those of his neighbours, 
 and dating back at least three or four generations 
 of his forebears. Dear old William Collier might 
 well have stepped from a picture of two hundred 
 years ago, and, except in the Dales of Yorkshire 
 and in his own county, it would be very hard 
 to find a " marrow " to him in these days. He 
 was, moreover, the most accomplished artist on 
 
230 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 the straight hunting horn that ever I have 
 listened to. He was no mean musician, and, 
 I believe, played the violoncello well, and in 
 his earlier days was possessed of a beautiful 
 tenor voice. Even in his old age in the New 
 Forest days it was worth listening to in after- 
 dinner songs, often of the Dibdin type. But he, 
 unlike any else I have heard, put his musical 
 soul into the battered old straight horn that he 
 carried, and the melody that he contrived to 
 throw into the notes that he produced from that 
 " wonderful and ancient piece " (like Captain 
 Costigan's hairbrush) was a revelation to many 
 a man who was accustomed to hear an ordinary 
 huntsman blowing his hounds out of covert with 
 a similar instrument. It was in Mr, Collier's first 
 season with us that he had that extraordinary 
 drag hunt on the line of an otter that he has 
 described so well in his chapter of the Badminton 
 volume on Hunting. 
 
 Meeting at the kennels of the foxhounds near 
 Lyndhurst, with the view of hunting down the 
 small river that runs past them to the sea, he 
 struck the drag of an otter up the stream, and, 
 casting round the large mill-pond just above, hit 
 the line where a little runlet comes down from 
 the higher ground. Following this line, hounds 
 led us with a merry cry, away from all water 
 
HUNTING 231 
 
 and out into the Forest, over a hill which is, for 
 that country, a considerable watershed. Over 
 that again the line led us to the head waters a 
 mere brook of the Lymington River, and down it 
 we went with a cheery cry, but at no great pace 
 at this hour of the day, nearly to Brockenhurst ; 
 a little before that place, the line turned up the 
 minor tributary which runs through the Forest 
 to Burley. This was so surprising, that old hands 
 like myself could not believe the possibility of 
 such a line ; I even ventured to have a word with 
 Mr. Collier, who told me he could so rely on the 
 hounds that were doing the work, that even if 
 the otter had gone to the nether regions, that 
 was the way he had gone. 
 
 So indeed it was. We had a long tramp for 
 over five miles more to Burley, and I, for one, 
 supposed that we were bound for the river Avon, 
 three miles farther, the line getting fainter and 
 fainter as the sun rose higher and higher. And 
 oh ! what a cry of relief as my old groom and 
 second horseman following in a dog cart, by making 
 an enormous circuit and governed by his knowledge 
 of hunting, turned up most unexpectedly on a 
 track right across our path ! The contents of that 
 commissariat train were soon assimilated, and the 
 cider cup went down "like a band of music," as 
 the old Yorkshire keeper so graphically phrased it ! 
 
232 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 Well, we went on with a certain but failing 
 line for another mile till we came to a big holt, 
 a strong place, very near the head of the stream. 
 Some of us knew of this and it was the ace up 
 the sleeve of one or two weary souls and he 
 was not there ! No, he was not. Although some 
 of the younger hounds marked rather strongly, 
 yet it was only old stale, constant scent, and the 
 ancient wise-heads of the pack, after a first and a 
 second try, absolutely discarded it. Against that 
 solemn contemptuous verdict there is no appeal. 
 
 But the old huntsman I really think the least 
 tired of all of us held them forward, and in a 
 quarter of a mile, old " Harlequin " " set," and 
 chopped, in a hedgerow, the otter that had led 
 us this tremendous dance, before she ever was on 
 her feet before the hounds. 
 
 From point to point of this hunt (it was not a 
 "run" in any sense of the word) was eight miles, 
 but as the hounds ran it, it was about thirteen 
 miles. And this represents the night's workings and 
 travelling of a little bitch otter, no more than 14 Ib. 
 weight, that is stuffed in my hall to this day. 
 
 Truly the habits and vagaries of otters are 
 difficult to understand, and it is this very thing 
 that makes otter-hunting such a fascinating abs- 
 truse sport, so difficult from all other hunting, and 
 so interesting in its many details. 
 
HUNTING 233 
 
 To recount all the merry days and good 
 hunts that we had with Mr. Collier would fill a 
 book of itself, but there came a day when the 
 old man had to tell us that he was no longer 
 able to hunt his hounds, and his nephew, Mr. 
 Fred Collier, succeeded to the mastership of the 
 Culmstock Hounds. This was in 1890. 
 
 Fred Collier was a splendid specimen of an 
 athletic Englishman, and as an untiring walker 
 simply unrivalled. Of course he knew all about 
 otter-hunting, but he did not consider his field 
 enough, and was very apt to stride from end to 
 end of a good trail and then decide that his 
 otter was left between the two points, and back 
 he would stride to find him. Very often this 
 did not come off, for the day had grown older, 
 and the holt where the otter was laid up, which 
 the slower progress of "Uncle William" would 
 have located, was not so easily spotted on foiled 
 ground, three hours later. However, with this 
 little fault, born of lusty manhood, Fred Collier 
 showed us capital sport till 1899, when an accident 
 befell him, and he resigned the hounds. 
 
 Meanwhile a quasi-local pack had come into 
 existence under the experienced hands of Mr. 
 Courtenay Tracy, who established a country on 
 the rivers of Surrey, Hants, Wilts, and Dorset. 
 He very badly needed a wild sporting bit of 
 
234 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 country like the New Forest, and it seemed right 
 that this county pack should have the local 
 country. 
 
 This was soon arranged, and from that day 
 to this, the excellent pack kennelled at Wilton 
 has provided a capital fortnight's sport in the 
 New Forest streams. 
 
 Mr. Tracy had a large and excellent band of 
 followers, wearing the green coat and white 
 breeches of his hunt uniform, who lived near and 
 helped him on the widely scattered streams 
 which in three or four different counties consti- 
 tuted his " country." These brought great 
 assistance to the master when he visited the 
 New Forest, and imported no little conviviality 
 and good fellowship into our hunts. They are 
 in possession of the country now, and, though 
 the master himself has so far yielded to the 
 burden of years that he no longer carries the 
 horn himself, he has able substitutes, and the 
 sport goes as well as ever. Long may it 
 continue to flourish ! 
 
 Badgers are now very numerous in the New 
 Forest. When I first came, I found there were 
 a good many, and for thirty years I never 
 allowed them to be destroyed, deeming them, 
 generally speaking, harmless creatures, such as 
 ought to be protected in a State Forest amongst 
 
HUNTING 235 
 
 its other denizens. After that space of time, I 
 found that they had become so very numerous 
 that I took steps to diminish their numbers by 
 a little; and when badgers were dug for the 
 training of terriers by those who delight in that 
 most hard-working form of sport, I used to 
 order the old ones to be killed, especially the 
 old boars, who do most of the mischief that can 
 be laid at the door of the badger. 
 
 But when any badger-digging was going on, 
 I always stipulated that it should be super- 
 intended either by myself or by one of the head 
 keepers, who had my orders how to proceed. I 
 always instructed him to take the badger into 
 his own possession, unharmed (for you cannot 
 injure badgers by digging down to them with 
 the aid of little dogs their immensely tough 
 hides protect them far too well for that), and 
 as a rule he was ordered to turn him down 
 quietly in the evening or to bring him to me. 
 I suppose I must have turned out upwards of a 
 score of badgers in the little park in front of 
 the King's House, when it was dark enough for 
 them to get away in safety. They were very 
 soon back again in the earth they came from, 
 however far away it was. 
 
 Some of my friends take much delight in 
 breeding good little terriers suitable for this work, 
 
236 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 and in digging badgers on scientific principles, 
 and indeed it is not a sport in which a novice 
 can succeed, nor nearly as simple as it looks. 
 
 In the- Forest many of the earths are made 
 in a stratum of sandy soil, beneath which is clay 
 or boggy and wet grounds. So that the earths 
 do not run more than 8 or 9 feet deep, but 
 often spread over as much as three-quarters of 
 an acre, with innumerable entries, galleries, and 
 passages, all communicating with one another 
 over this extent of ground. 
 
 Often there are two stories of such galleries, 
 one running above the other, and the badger 
 moves from his ground -floor apartments to his 
 first floor as he thinks he can best baffle 
 the dog. 
 
 Now, in order to get hold of him, he must 
 be located, and driven in and around his earth 
 till he can be got into a corner by means of 
 digging cross trenches, so as to cut him off 
 here and there from parts of his stronghold. At 
 last the dog, if he be good enough, locates him 
 with certainty, and, lying not too near him, but 
 baying lustily, tells us where to dig down first 
 on to himself, and finally to the badger, which is 
 a little way in front of him, and can be secured 
 by opening out the earth till some one can 
 grasp his tail as he turns to dig onwards, and 
 
HUNTING 237 
 
 he is hauled out unhurt and popped into a 
 sack. Very often after the dog has found the 
 badger, and moved him about to various parts 
 of the earth, there is a long silence, and the 
 dog comes out completely baffled. What has 
 happened? Why, the badger, gaining an advan- 
 tage over the dog, has managed to "dig himself 
 in," viz. to open out some narrow passage in 
 his great castle and work along it, throwing up 
 loose sand in spadesful till he has blocked 
 completely the whole passage behind him, and 
 the place appears like a load of loose sand just 
 deposited. 
 
 This is a truly artful manoeuvre, and requires 
 a clever dog to circumvent it. Perhaps the dog 
 that has been working the badger is an old 
 hand, and is pretty well aware of what has 
 happened. He may go back down to the block, 
 and bay there not at the badger, which he 
 cannot see and can hardly smell, but in order 
 to mark his knowledge of the way he has gone. 
 In fact we can hear him digging away in order 
 to follow his enemy. 
 
 Now we quickly sink a shaft leading down 
 to where we can hear the dog working. And, 
 sure enough, we find him digging at a newly 
 blocked hole, and scratching out loose sand by 
 the spadeful. 
 
238 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 We help him with the spade, and get the 
 passage clear, and, putting a dog into it, presently 
 hear the angry bay which tells us that he is 
 face to face with the badger again. 
 
 Now, if we have been wise, and cut at the 
 first a cross trench confining friend Brock to that 
 corner of his castle to which he has retreated, it 
 will not be very hard to get him ere long. But 
 if he has all the great earth to retreat into un- 
 checked, a great deal of work may have to be 
 done over again, and some hours may be spent 
 over the job. This is what is meant by " scien- 
 tific " digging. But if we have dug scientifically, 
 we have got him into a corner where all the 
 puppies can see him and bay at him, and find 
 out what sort of a customer the "gentleman in 
 grey" is, and how near to him it is wise to go. 
 
 Many people suppose that badger-digging is 
 a brutal and bloody sport, where poor high- 
 couraged dogs are cut almost to pieces by their 
 formidable opponents, and poor Brock himself 
 barely escapes with his life. This at any rate is 
 a delusion, for, however often he may be shaken 
 up, he is far too well protected to suffer incon- 
 venience. 
 
 All depends on how the sport is conducted. 
 If after having got to the badger in some easy 
 place, by the aid of a really sporting little terrier, 
 
HUNTING 239 
 
 and you have got him practically exposed at the 
 brink of an earth you can then run at him hard 
 bitten dogs, bull terriers and the like, who go in 
 at him with unlimited courage and no difficulties 
 about searching for their foe in the dark, you 
 will get very bloody encounters. Your dogs will 
 be cut to pieces. The badger will have all the 
 best of it, but he will not have a good time, and 
 I cannot see where the sport comes in. That is 
 badger-baiting, not digging the wild animal from 
 his complicated fortifications, and I never would 
 sanction any such proceedings, nor allow a live 
 badger to be taken away from the Forest, to be 
 used for purposes of that nature. 
 
 It is a mistake ever to use very hard bitten 
 dogs for badger-digging. You do not want to bite 
 the badger, or to get your dog bitten ; you want 
 a dog that will first of all find the badger in 
 his complicated burrow, then to lay up near to 
 him, so as to prevent him digging himself in, 
 baying well all the time so as to guide the 
 hastening spades to the spot far underground. 
 Should the badger turn, and commence digging 
 onwards himself, a really perfect dog is on to him 
 at once, and, with tooth and redoubled bay, puts 
 a stop to all engineering proceedings. But the 
 moment the assaulted badger whips round -under 
 this attack and presents his "business" end, our 
 
240 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 clever little terrier retreats a yard or so, out of 
 danger, and does not risk even a nip, but never 
 leaves his foe, never lets him make good his 
 retreat, and never ceases his baying signal to 
 the reinforcements that he knows are hurrying 
 to his support. 
 
 Such a dog as this is a very highly trained 
 and valuable sporting dog of a particular variety. 
 He is full of courage, but also well supplied with 
 discretion. He knows that it is not his business 
 to get his jaw bitten off by a much more powerful 
 animal than himself, but that he is also a dis- 
 graced dog if he ever leaves his foe, even though 
 he is down in the dark bowels of the earth, with 
 eyes and mouth full of sand, until the welcome 
 daylight breaks in upon him and he hears his 
 master's voice. His job is done then. It has 
 probably taken him two hours. He has shown 
 them the badger. The young dogs who are 
 being educated at the quarry, the hard bitten 
 dogs that cannot get into the earths, may do 
 the rest for all he cares. 
 
 You may dig a dozen badgers to such a dog 
 as this, if you can get him, and it will be very 
 exceptional to find a single cut on him. But 
 you could not have done without him. 
 
 It is always best to use little short -legged 
 terriers, of a good hunting, but not a fighting 
 
HUNTING 241 
 
 strain. The smaller they are, the better. Firstly, 
 they can get into the earths, while the hard bitten 
 larger terrier, or the modern show fox-terrier, 
 who is often hard enough, when you bring him 
 within view of the badger cannot get about the 
 earths after him. When once Brock begins digging 
 himself in, in small pipes, you might as well have 
 a Newfoundland dog to help you as a big terrier. 
 
 Secondly, and most important, when in the 
 earth and confronting the badger at the moment 
 that he makes one of his sudden savage charges, 
 the little dog can hastily back out of danger 
 and escape, returning at once to his job, which 
 is that of annoying and holding up the foe, 
 when the violent attack ceases. But if this 
 chances with the bigger dogs, they cannot re- 
 treat because of their bulk. They have to stay, 
 and face the attack nothing loth, to do them 
 credit but they suffer considerably, and at that 
 sort of game they do not serve their master for 
 many years. 
 
 Two years or so ago we had got out seven 
 badgers, all full-grown, in a day, using almost 
 entirely the little short - legged, wire - haired 
 terriers that my friends used to breed. We had 
 employed good old dogs to find the badgers, and 
 young ones when things became easy ; but on 
 all the days about ten there was not to be 
 
 Q 
 
242 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 found a single cut that required the least atten- 
 tion. I do not mean to say that our dogs never 
 got hurt. Sometimes they got a few cuts under 
 particular circumstances ; but if properly managed 
 and understood, the extraction of the wild badger 
 from the most complicated earth may be very 
 hard work for the men, but ought not to be in 
 the least a cruel or brutal business for either 
 dogs or badger. 
 
 I do not think I ever saw a badger hurt by 
 the dogs, and I must have turned out, after they 
 had been dug out, many scores. We did not 
 always carry them back to Lyndhurst, and it has 
 often been a comical sight to see four or five 
 badgers clumsily rolling off down a ride together 
 in the broad daylight, greatly upset and per- 
 turbed at all the happenings to them, and much 
 perplexed as to how in the world they got to 
 where they were, at that time of day ! 
 
 There is an ancient sport, followed chiefly 
 about Christmas time, by the humble sports- 
 men of the district. It is the chase of the 
 squirrel among the trees. Some years ago they 
 were very abundant, until there came an epi- 
 demic which reduced them for a long time to 
 small numbers. 
 
 This is a very ancient form of chase, pursued 
 on quite primeval lines. The squirrel, when 
 
HUNTING 243 
 
 located among the trees which are his habitat, 
 is pursued by the party of "sportsmen," who 
 strive to bring him down by the use of their 
 primitive but skilfully handled weapons.' 
 
 These are of two descriptions, the "squail" 
 and the " snogg." The users of these forms of 
 minor artillery have their controversies over their 
 respective merits, just as shooting men will argue 
 over the respective virtues of the one-trigger gun 
 over the older form of fowling-piece. 
 
 The " squail" is the more artistic weapon, and 
 probably the more ancient. It is the product of 
 the man who lives and works wholly in the 
 woodlands. 
 
 It consists of a stick, about 15 inches long, 
 light, with just a trifle of play in it, to the end 
 of which is fixed a round or, better, a slightly 
 pear-shaped ball, about the size of a tennis ball, 
 turned out of some heavy hard-wood. The 
 " snogg " is a similar weapon, but made of a 
 rather stouter stick of similar length, around 
 the head of which is fixed a ferrule, or lump of 
 lead. It is claimed that this weapon is the 
 less likely to become lodged in the branches of 
 trees. 
 
 But whichever is used, the wielder of the 
 " snogg" or the " squail" can make surprisingly 
 good practice with it up to as much as fifty 
 
244 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 yards; while to see them fetch a squirrel out 
 of the tops of the highest of the forest beeches, 
 sometimes as he bounds from one branch to 
 another, or again as he flattens himself for con- 
 cealment against the trunk of the tree at ninety 
 feet up, is a perfect revelation. 
 
 In fact the "squail" is never out of the hand 
 (or the pocket) of that class of the New Forest 
 labouring population too numerous by far who 
 never can be induced to put in a week's consecu- 
 tive honest labour, and a good deal of " stuff" 
 other than squirrels fall to them by the skilful 
 use of this weapon as they spend their days 
 loafing about the forest. 
 
 Up till recent times the great congregations 
 of squirrel hunters about Christmas time all met 
 together in the evening, at one or other of the 
 local public-houses, and 'enjoyed great suppers of 
 " squirrel pie," the product of the day's amuse- 
 ment, but of late years squirrels have hardly 
 been abundant enough to furnish material for 
 these epicurean feasts. But I have been assured 
 that squirrel pie is "not half bad," and I know 
 that hedgehog, properly cooked in a paste of 
 clay according to the ancient custom, is most 
 succulent eating. 
 
 The squirrel hunting is probably a survival 
 of very ancient sports of the kind, and is a curious 
 
HUNTING 245 
 
 continuation of the use of the more primitive 
 weapons of the chase. In no other district of 
 England save the New Forest could it have sur- 
 vived and been successfully practised to the pre- 
 sent day. 
 
 But I think the New Forest management 
 has always been lenient in its control and friendly 
 to sports that did no real harm, and sportsmen 
 of all classes, from the highest to the lowest, have 
 ever found it to be a happy hunting ground. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 SHOOTING IN THE NEW FOREST 
 
 SINCE first the art of shooting game flying came 
 to be practised, the New Forest must needs have 
 been a tract of land where rough shooting such 
 as obtained then could be had in perfection. And 
 although the principal use made of the Forest, 
 from a sporting point of view, was to maintain 
 it as a great chase bountifully stocked with deer, 
 yet that very system necessitated the employ- 
 ment of a large staff of keepers, who guarded and 
 protected the ground very adequately, so that 
 all wild game of whatever kind was well preserved, 
 and throve accordingly. 
 
 Pheasants, no doubt, were not as common as 
 they are now, but there were numerous flocks of 
 black game, while much ground that is now 
 drained and planted was in earlier days the haunt 
 of snipe, and woodcocks were always plentiful 
 among the hollies. 
 
 The earliest records I have been able to obtain 
 come from the counterfoils of an old book of 
 tickets showing the heads of game sent week by 
 
SHOOTING IN NEW FOREST 247 
 
 week to the Lord Warden (then H.R.H. the 
 Duke of Cambridge). A regular system was in 
 force under which week by week two of the 
 keepers shot together in their respective and 
 adjoining walks, so that by degrees the whole 
 Forest was laid under contribution in rotation. I 
 have picked out some of the weeks which seem 
 noteworthy. 
 
 WEEK ENDING Oct. 30, 1846 
 
 Pheasants ...... 2 
 
 Partridges ...... 4 
 
 Snipe 44 
 
 Hare . 1 
 
 51 
 
 WEEK ENDING Sept. 4, 1847 
 
 Blackgame . . . . . .12 
 
 Landrail 1 
 
 13 
 
 WEEK ENDING Oct. 21, 1848 
 
 Pheasants ...... 3 
 
 Partridges ...... 7 
 
 Woodcock ...... 1 
 
 Snipe ....... 44 
 
 55 
 
248 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 The total of the game sent weekly in the 
 season 1845-46 amounts to 
 
 Snipe . 300 
 
 Blackgame 41 
 
 Pheasants 68 
 
 409 
 
 In 1848, there is a remarkable series of 
 weeks between December 31, 1848, to January 
 30, 1849, in which 284 head of game, mainly snipe 
 and woodcock, were sent to His Royal Highness' 
 larder. It must be remembered that these figures 
 represent only a small portion of the game killed 
 in New Forest. It was only that which was 
 killed by two keepers in a restricted area shooting 
 solely "for the pot." A much larger amount 
 must have been killed by the body of licencees 
 who had the privilege, as it then was, of shooting 
 in the Forest. 
 
 Doubtless these keepers were good shots, from 
 the practice they got; and they were quite 
 certain to provide themselves with good dogs, 
 which in the Forest is more than half the 
 battle. 
 
 Readers of Daniell's Rural Sports will doubt- 
 less be familiar with the account of the pig which 
 was trained to point game by Toomer, one of 
 the New Forest keepers, who lived at Wilverley 
 
SHOOTING IN NEW FOREST 249 
 
 Lodge, I believe. He must at least have been a 
 patient breaker, and those who know the New 
 Forest swine can quite believe in the ranging 
 and quartering of which the pig might be 
 capable. 
 
 There used in ancient days to be a very long 
 list of distinguished persons, to the number in all 
 of eighty, who received, as a compliment at the 
 hands of the Sovereign, the permission to sport 
 in New Forest. 
 
 In most cases it was a compliment only. 
 Sundry members of the Royal Family, who never 
 visited the Forest, the Lord Mayor of London, and 
 similar dignitaries, were never likely to trouble 
 the game much. In addition to these, however, 
 there were the verderers of the New Forest and 
 various of the landowners and residents therein, 
 to whom the Lord Warden was pleased to extend 
 the privilege. 
 
 The fee paid was small. One guinea a year, 
 and an entrance fee of 5 paid to the Charity 
 for the Widows of the New Forest Keepers a 
 fund which, from small beginnings, has developed 
 into a very prosperous charity, and is thriving 
 now. There were no rules laid down as there 
 are now, but there was an unwritten law which 
 it was expected should be very strictly observed. 
 It was summed up in the terms of the licence, 
 
250 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 which was "to be used for purposes of recrea- 
 tion only, and with that moderation which is 
 fitting." 
 
 Consequently the holders of the licence were 
 careful as to the spirit as well as the letter of 
 their actions. It was not thought right to shoot 
 oftener than two or three days a week. Rabbits 
 were deemed the perquisite of the keepers (a very 
 bad thing), and were severely let alone by the 
 licencees. 
 
 Anything savouring of poaching or unfair 
 practices led to the certain forfeiture of the 
 licence. And as a new licence was only granted 
 when a vacancy in the list occurred, and there 
 were always many applicants anxiously waiting 
 for that chance, there was a fairly good police 
 system in existence ; and anything savouring of 
 undesirable practices was sure to be reported ere 
 very long. It was a thoroughly sporting concession, 
 and was expected to be used in good sporting fashion. 
 
 In 1867 all this was altered. An arrange- 
 ment was come to by which the property of 
 Claremont, then part of the Crown property 
 surrendered by the Sovereign to the nation, in 
 return for the Civil List, was handed over by 
 the Office of Woods &c., to Her Majesty Queen 
 Victoria, in exchange for her surrender of the right 
 to issue licences to sport in the New Forest. 
 
SHOOTING IN NEW FOREST 251 
 
 Of course, when the matter came under the 
 control of a Public Department, it was placed on 
 a business-like not to say commercial footing. 
 
 A comprehensive code of rules was compiled, 
 in order to secure that the shooting should be 
 carried on somewhat on the lines which it was 
 formerly a point of honour to follow. 
 
 A fee of 20 was fixed as the consideration, 
 with a " double licence" at 30, which enables 
 the shooter to take with him a friend staying 
 in his house. This is the pleasantest feature of 
 the new arrangement, and much appreciated by 
 various men who reside in the Forest, or near 
 it, but have no shooting of their own. 
 
 This new arrangement brought in about 800 
 a year to the Treasury, and, I suppose, a change 
 of the kind had become inevitable. 
 
 Obviously one result was that the Forest 
 became far more heavily shot over. People who 
 had planked down 20 for their shooting privilege 
 which extended to over 50,000 acres of rough 
 shooting not a bad bargain, as the market for 
 shooting properties goes were not likely to 
 forego a single item of what they considered to 
 be their right. But the pressure on the stock 
 of game was great; when I came on the scene 
 in 1880, I found the Forest very bare indeed. 
 There had been a bad year for rabbits the 
 
252 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 previous season, and in the following March I 
 could not have been persuaded that in a couple 
 of years' time I should have been resorting to 
 all kinds of devices in order to keep down the 
 rabbits, which were amounting by then to a 
 positive danger to our plantations. 
 
 Certain new regulations which I made, and 
 have alluded to on a previous page, soon told a 
 tale, and I went at once to the Office of Woods 
 and told them that, if we were to pretend to 
 make a shooting revenue out of the Forest, we 
 must necessarily, as other people in the same 
 position have to do, rear some game to replenish 
 our stock. 
 
 The Forest is a fine country for wild pheasants 
 (allowing for foxes), and in a good year they 
 thrive wonderfully well. In a bad wet season, 
 they do no better than in other places; but, as 
 a rule, the district suits them very well. My 
 object, seeing what a drain there was upon the 
 game, since the ground was so hardly shot over, 
 was to produce each year such a number of young 
 hen pheasants, which under our rules were pro- 
 tected, that, if the following spring were a 
 favourable one, we should be secure of an ample 
 breeding stock and a good show of wild game. 
 
 On the whole, this has succeeded well enough. 
 In all years now, good or bad, there are ten 
 
SHOOTING IN NEW FOREST 253 
 
 times the number of pheasants that existed when 
 first I came to the Forest, and in favourable 
 years, I think the stock must be increased fifty 
 fold. 
 
 As to the cocks, young or old, whether hand 
 reared or wild bred, the licencees were heartily 
 welcome to kill all they could, as soon as they 
 were sufficiently mature to take care of them- 
 selves. And the more they killed, the better I was 
 pleased. But I never had any sympathy with 
 the shooter who in the early days of October 
 would prowl round my breeding fields in the 
 hope of getting some immature cock, scarce per- 
 haps distinguishable from a hen (and very often 
 the hen was not distinguished at all) just to fill 
 his bag. 
 
 To deal with such "sportsmen," I had the 
 ground around the breeding fields driven in, 
 more than once a day, so long as the birds were 
 too young to protect themselves. As soon as 
 November arrived, the cock pheasant could look 
 after himself, and he got no more protection 
 from me. This protection was made into a great 
 grievance by some. I used to rear these birds 
 generally about 800 in all in three or four 
 different places, which were from nine to five 
 miles distant from each other. Like all game 
 preservers, I picked up my eggs on my outside 
 
254 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 boundary, just as my neighbours did on their 
 side of the fence. But I always had one or two 
 small sets of pens with breeding birds shut in them 
 which gave me a good supply of eggs ; and when 
 it seemed advisable, I bought a hundred or two 
 of eggs to supplement home production. 
 
 These reared birds, after being fed, and kept 
 together with a barley stack or two until November, 
 were allowed to stray where they would. They 
 were never shot, in any systematic way, but 
 of course the licericees got plenty of the cocks. 
 That was what they were reared for. 
 
 I have known licencees, shooting singly, to 
 get their 140 or so of pheasants in a season, and 
 bags of from 80 to 100 were common enough. 
 
 Rabbits, however, as in most other places, 
 formed the weightiest part of the shooter's bag, 
 and afforded very excellent sport among the 
 furze brakes of the Forest. Good spaniels and 
 hardy ones were necessary for this work, as the 
 rabbits need a good deal of pressure to induce 
 them to leave such thick covert. In good 
 seasons 100 rabbits in a day to a couple of 
 shooters was no uncommon bag early in the 
 season, and from 500 to 700 rabbits in a season 
 have often been killed. 
 
 Black game, alas ! have very nearly died out in 
 the New Forest, where once they were so plentiful. 
 
 I 
 
SHOOTING IN NEW FOREST 255 
 
 When first I went there I realised, from what 
 I was able to learn, that their numbers were 
 diminishing rapidly. My first step was to put 
 a stop to shooting them altogether, for it was 
 perfectly certain that there were not sufficient 
 of either sex for that to go on any longer. 
 
 I also subsequently did all I could to intro- 
 duce fresh blood, in the hope of reviving the 
 stock. First of all, the Duke of Buccleuch sent 
 me from Dumfriesshire a supply of several brace 
 of live birds ingeniously caught by old Lindsay 
 the keeper at Sanquhar. These certainly seemed 
 at first to improve the stock ; we had more broods 
 of young birds than for some time past. But 
 after a year or two the improvement vanished. 
 
 A friend in Perthshire then sent me some 
 eggs from his estate there. They did not seem 
 to be a particularly hard bird to rear, but still 
 we had many losses, and, as the supply of eggs 
 was limited, the net result did not carry us far. 
 
 A few years later I got a larger supply, two 
 years running, from Bavaria, of fully grown birds 
 and here I would like to record that not only 
 the Commissioners of Woods, but also successive 
 Financial Secretaries to the Treasury, took much 
 interest in these experiments, and supported them 
 with all reasonable liberality. 
 
 But here again the good effect was only 
 
256 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 transitory. We had, as before, a few additional 
 broods, and then the decrease set in again ; and 
 now it has prevailed so far that, for the last few 
 years, the days when one encountered a blackcock 
 or greyhen were few, and to be marked with a 
 white stone. And I can recollect myself counting 
 23 blackcocks on a " curling ground " near Ridley 
 Wood. In those days one never rode about the 
 forest, especially on its northern side, without 
 encountering at least half a dozen black game. 
 
 The truth is that when a stock of game birds 
 gets down to a very low ebb, especially that of 
 a variety so easily destroyed in the early days 
 of its life as is the black grouse, it is almost im- 
 possible to revive it in a country where it is 
 customary for foxhounds to pursue their sport 
 for five and even six days a week without the fear 
 of running short of quarry. It is sad to have to 
 record it, but I found the two things incompatible. 
 
 As an illustration of what the New Forest 
 shooting is like, I am able to give an extract 
 from the carefully kept game-book of Messrs. H. 
 F. and F. C. Wingrove of Langley House, Totton. 
 These two brothers shot together systematically 
 for many years after 1886, and during the ten 
 preceding years Mr. H. F. Wingrove shot either 
 alone, or with a licence that enabled him to be 
 accompanied by a friend. 
 
SHOOTING IN NEW FOREST 257 
 
 This shows what could be accomplished by 
 two young men in the prime of life, excellent 
 walkers and good shots, provided also with dogs 
 particularly well suited for the work. They used 
 to shoot the Forest three days a week on a 
 regular system, and it is not everyone that would 
 care to lay himself out so entirely for the sport, 
 and work so hard at it. Messrs. Wingrove paid 
 attention mainly to rabbit shooting in the earlier 
 part of the season, and as the season progressed 
 went mainly after snipe. Pheasants they merely 
 took as chance provided, and many of the licencees 
 killed each year many more than they did. 
 
 The figures shown on the bottom lines of pages 
 258, 259, represent the sums of money they paid 
 between each year for their shooting. 
 
 Various other gentlemen have given me par- 
 ticulars of their bags in the Forest. In 1897 the 
 late Mr. Howard of Goldenhayes sent me his 
 totals for the year as follows : 
 
 Pheasants 91 
 
 Partridges ...... 2 
 
 Woodcock 56 
 
 Snipe .11 
 
 Duck 2 
 
 Hares . . . . . . .1 
 
 Rabbits 687 
 
 Various ...... 5 
 
 855 
 
256 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 transitory. We had, as before, a few additional 
 broods, and then the decrease set in again ; and 
 now it has prevailed so far that, for the last few 
 years, the days when one encountered a blackcock 
 or greyhen were few, and to be marked with a 
 white stone. And I can recollect myself counting 
 23 blackcocks on a " curling ground " near Ridley 
 Wood. In those days one never rode about the 
 forest, especially on its northern side, without 
 encountering at least half a dozen black game. 
 
 The truth is that when a stock of game birds 
 gets down to a very low ebb, especially that of 
 a variety so easily destroyed in the early days 
 of its life as is the black grouse, it is almost im- 
 possible to revive it in a country where it is 
 customary for foxhounds to pursue their sport 
 for five and even six days a week without the fear 
 of running short of quarry. It is sad to have to 
 record it, but I found the two things incompatible. 
 
 As an illustration of what the New Forest 
 shooting is like, I am able to give an extract 
 from the carefully kept game-book of Messrs. H. 
 F. and F. C. Wingrove of Langley House, Totton. 
 These two brothers shot together systematically 
 for many years after 1886, and during the ten 
 preceding years Mr. H. F. Wingrove shot either 
 alone, or with a licence that enabled him to be 
 accompanied by a friend. 
 
SHOOTING IN NEW FOREST 257 
 
 This shows what could be accomplished by 
 two young men in the prime of life, excellent 
 walkers and good shots, provided also with dogs 
 particularly well suited for the work. They used 
 to shoot the Forest three days a week on a 
 regular system, and it is not everyone that would 
 care to lay himself out so entirely for the sport, 
 and work so hard at it. Messrs. Wingrove paid 
 attention mainly to rabbit shooting in the earlier 
 part of the season, and as the season progressed 
 went mainly after snipe. Pheasants they merely 
 took as chance provided, and many of the licencees 
 killed each year many more than they did. 
 
 The figures shown on the bottom lines of pages 
 258, 259, represent the sums of money they paid 
 between each year for their shooting. 
 
 Various other gentlemen have given me par- 
 ticulars of their bags in the Forest. In 1897 the 
 late Mr. Howard of Goldenhayes sent me his 
 totals for the year as follows : 
 
 Pheasants 91 
 
 Partridges ...... 2 
 
 Woodcock 56 
 
 Snipe 11 
 
 Duck 2 
 
 Hares ....... 1 
 
 ftabbits 687 
 
 Various ...... 5 
 
 855 
 
260 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 Mr. Howard was always a single-handed shooter, 
 and did not work himself to death. But two 
 years later he writes me a comical letter of com- 
 plaint as to the woeful falling off in his sport, 
 his score having fallen to 557, with only 46 
 pheasants, against 91, and 441 rabbits as against 
 687. 
 
 But he confesses to have been exceedingly 
 slack both as to days and hours spent in pur- 
 suit of game, and also in particular having been 
 afflicted with a very inferior kennel of dogs, on 
 which so much depends. But, taking either year, 
 I don't think Mr. Howard had much to grumble 
 about as to the result of his expenditure of 20 ; 
 and he was a good average specimen of the suc- 
 cessful New Forest shooter. 
 
 Mr. C. C. Dallas, of Eastley Wootton, was 
 one of those sportsmen who keep a very accurate 
 game book ; and, while he generally took a grouse 
 moor in Scotland, he devoted himself in the 
 autumn to the New Forest and to the shooting 
 there, a form of sport that he greatly prized 
 generally, however, going abroad after Christmas. 
 
 The record he sends me in summary is that 
 he shot from 1886 to 1914 consecutively for the 
 whole or part of the season ; that he was out on 
 1144 days, and killed 8495 head not a great 
 average perhaps daily, but in the case of genuine 
 
SHOOTING IN NEW FOREST 261 
 
 rough shooting, in all weathers, when a few 
 blanks must be looked for, it is not a record to 
 be despised by the sportsman who is not solely 
 a shooter. Nor must I overlook the record of 
 my neighbour Colonel Austen, who, shooting always 
 alone, and rarely employing any conveyance, 
 averaged 138 snipe to his gun for ten consecutive 
 years this in addition to other game. As, for 
 instance, in one of the years I am referring 
 to his grand total was 472 head, of which snipe 
 accounted for 116 only. 
 
 The figures I have given were a fair criterion 
 of what was done in the way of shooting in the 
 Forest in my day by the fairly active division. 
 There were of course, as always, some sports- 
 men who, becoming advanced in years, could no 
 longer make the most of what is undoubtedly 
 rough shooting in every sense of the word, both 
 as to rough walking and long distances to travel. 
 But there are many who set great store upon 
 the healthy exercise they get combined with 
 amusement. But, taken all round, the New Forest 
 is the poor sportsman's paradise. He can for 
 the small sum of 20 get 50,000 and more acres 
 to shoot over, with the certainty that there is 
 something to shoot. He generally impresses his 
 gardener or his groom into the service as beater. 
 If he employs a man from outside, no remunera- 
 
260 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 Mr. Howard was always a single-handed shooter, 
 and did not work himself to death. But two 
 years later he writes me a comical letter of com- 
 plaint as to the woeful falling off in his sport, 
 his score having fallen to 557, with only 46 
 pheasants, against 91, and 441 rabbits as against 
 687. 
 
 But he confesses to have been exceedingly 
 slack both as to days and hours spent in pur- 
 suit of game, and also in particular having been 
 afflicted with a very inferior kennel of dogs, on 
 which so much depends. But, taking either year, 
 I don't think Mr. Howard had much to grumble 
 about as to the result of his expenditure of 20 ; 
 and he was a good average specimen of the suc- 
 cessful New Forest shooter. 
 
 Mr. C. C. Dallas, of Eastley Wootton, was 
 one of those sportsmen who keep a very accurate 
 game book ; and, while he generally took a grouse 
 moor in Scotland, he devoted himself in the 
 autumn to the New Forest and to the shooting 
 there, a form of sport that he greatly prized 
 generally, however, going abroad after Christmas. 
 
 The record he sends me in summary is that 
 he shot from 1886 to 1914 consecutively for the 
 whole or part of the season ; that he was out on 
 1144 days, and killed 8495 head not a great 
 average perhaps daily, but in the case of genuine 
 
SHOOTING IN NEW FOREST 261 
 
 rough shooting, in all weathers, when a few 
 blanks must be looked for, it is not a record to 
 be despised by the sportsman who is not solely 
 a shooter. Nor must I overlook the record of 
 my neighbour Colonel Austen, who, shooting always 
 alone, and rarely employing any conveyance, 
 averaged 138 snipe to his gun for ten consecutive 
 years this in addition to other game. As, for 
 instance, in one of the years I am referring 
 to his grand total was 472 head, of which snipe 
 accounted for 116 only. 
 
 The figures I have given were a fair criterion 
 of what was done in the way of shooting in the 
 Forest in my day by the fairly active division. 
 There were of course, as always, some sports- 
 men who, becoming advanced in years, could no 
 longer make the most of what is undoubtedly 
 rough shooting in every sense of the word, both 
 as to rough walking and long distances to travel. 
 But there are many who set great store upon 
 the healthy exercise they get combined with 
 amusement. But, taken all round, the New Forest 
 is the poor sportsman's paradise. He can for 
 the small sum of 20 get 50,000 and more acres 
 to shoot over, with the certainty that there is 
 something to shoot. He generally impresses his 
 gardener or his groom into the service as beater. 
 If he employs a man from outside, no remunera- 
 
264 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 Therefore he must stand, not attempting to draw, 
 on the instant he acknowledges the scent of a 
 snipe at from 80 to 100 yards. This wary quarry 
 will allow of no nearer approach by him. But if 
 he stands firm till his master joins him, the quiet 
 approach of the two should result in a shot. 
 
 There come a few days in most winters when 
 heavy rains or a sudden thaw swell the rivers 
 Test and Avon, to the width of their respective 
 valleys. Then everything, the snipe included, is 
 driven out of those extensive water meadows, and 
 the snipe flock up in great numbers to the wet 
 healthy uplands of the Forest. Then, for just a 
 few days, a shooter, with a careful setter such as 
 I have described, may do very well indeed. I 
 have often known ten couple to be killed by one 
 gun in the day, but that number is not very 
 often exceeded. 
 
 But whatever the weather, all depends on the 
 dog, and he must be selected for the particular 
 kind of game that is to be sought on any day. 
 
 A clever, well broken old retriever, that 
 really understands the management of sporting, 
 is a very valuable assistant. If he has become 
 steady and knowledgeable enough, he may be 
 used as a close -ranging spaniel, not tied to his 
 master's heels as in his earlier days, but allowed 
 liberty enough to use his nose. 
 
SHOOTING IN NEW FOREST 265 
 
 Such a dog will keep close enough to 
 interfere with neither setter nor spaniel* but he 
 will insure that his master does not pass any 
 game within reach of his nose that the setter, 
 ranging a little wide, or a flighty spaniel may 
 perhaps have missed. He is a most useful aid, 
 and, with his education and training, can be 
 relied upon to do nothing wrong. 
 
 As for my own Forest shooting, much as I 
 appreciated it and though I have taken part 
 in many and many a big day's shooting, yet I 
 never enjoyed anything much more than a good 
 day in the Forest with my dogs I can show 
 no such records as those of the keen sportsmen 
 I have just referred to. 
 
 My time was far too fully employed for me 
 to sacrifice it to the long hard day's work that 
 I have been describing. Moreover, such time as 
 I could spare from my office and from other 
 official duties, I preferred to devote to hunting, 
 when I could survey a good tract of the district 
 under my charge, and store up many a note 
 as to the condition of various matters as I 
 rode about the Forest. Further, there was the 
 question of keeping within bounds the wild deer 
 that ever and ever were encroaching in numbers, 
 and this alone occupied most of my bye-days 
 so that altogether, year by year, my book tells 
 
266 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 me that about fifteen to eighteen days' shootin g 
 was about my average number of excursions 
 with the fowling-piece. But it suited me very 
 well to use this privilege on the old lines, viz, 
 "with that moderation which is fitting." 
 
 It was a convenience to be able to put in a 
 couple of hours' work in the office, and then 
 be off to some district near at hand to do a 
 half day's shooting. Some of them were very 
 pleasant, but I rarely went very far from home. 
 I had the privilege of being able to enter the 
 enclosed and reserved plantations, and in that 
 way securing, however late I went out, the 
 chance of beating undisturbed ground. 
 
 Except for one or two points, this privilege 
 was not worth much. The game, as a rule, 
 chose for its haunts the open woods the older 
 oak plantations where the acorns were falling, 
 and the sunny parts of the Forest, rather than 
 the thick enclosures ; only in one or two cases 
 was this seclusion valuable, viz. where one of 
 the streams, open enough in places to attract 
 wild fowl, ran into and through one of these 
 plantations. 
 
 In cases such as this, it was an advantage 
 to start late, when the fowl, if there were many 
 about, had been disturbed and shot at at various 
 places, and had sought refuge in the secluded 
 
SHOOTING IN NEW FOREST 267 
 
 streams and pools in the wide coverts of New 
 Forest. These little collections of refugees would 
 afford me very excellent sport about mid-day, as 
 they rose in little bunches in the shelter of the 
 thick covert. 
 
 There were various ponds and pools in the 
 manors in and around the Forest where wild 
 fowl notably teal congr ^ated, and were pre- 
 served and fostered and fed till they became 
 quite at home. Then on certain days guns 
 would be assembled, and a heavy shoot would 
 take place. 
 
 My good neighbours would often notify me 
 of the day when they proposed to shoot their 
 ponds mainly, as I like to think, from good- 
 nature and kindly feeling towards myself, and 
 also because by my disturbance of the woody 
 refuges they were driven back again to their 
 old haunts, and the flock of wild fowl using the 
 ponds was kept together as to its remnants at 
 any rate. 
 
 There was no place where fowl, at one time 
 (for they are capricious in their haunts) con- 
 gregated more thickly than on the mill-pond at 
 Minstead Manor. I have been present when 
 one hundred fowl have been brought down in 
 about twenty -five minutes. It is a pretty shoot. 
 First, at the start, comes the great rise of 500 
 
268 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 fowl on the wing at once. After that, teal and 
 ducks are flighting round with the intention of 
 returning to their snug quarters, and presenting 
 rocketing shots at every height and every angle. 
 After half an hour or so, this flight ceases, and 
 the ducks sheer off to quieter quarters that they 
 know of. Some of these lay in the Forest 
 streams, and especially that stream which ran 
 from Minstead Manor through the thick enclosure 
 of Buskett's Lawn. Mr. Compton would often 
 notify me of his intention to shoot his pond, 
 and often also ask me to make one of the party. 
 I would then requisition from him one of his 
 guests, and, leaving him to shoot some of his 
 coverts until the afternoon, the pair of us would 
 proceed on a maraud down the stream, to get 
 what we could for ourselves, and to drive the 
 ducks back to the pond they came from, so that 
 the party might have a second turn at them. 
 Some of these walks were very pleasant ones. 
 I quote the result of two or three : 
 
 1894. Dec. 3. Alone. Pheasants, 3. Rabbits, 3. Wood- 
 
 cock, 1. Teal, 22 = 29. 
 
 1895. Dec. 18. Alone. Teal, 14. 
 
 1896. Dec. 11. 2 guns. Teal, 27. 
 
 1897. Dec. 24. Alone. Pheasant, 1. Hare, 1. Rabbits, 
 
 5. Woodcock, 1. Teal, 17 = 25. 
 
 1898. Nov. 22. Alone. Rabbit, 1. Teal, 29 = 30. 
 
 1899. Nov. 29. 2 guns. Rabbits, 2. Wild Fowl, 28 = 30. 
 
SHOOTING IN NEW FOREST 269 
 
 I don't remember any days of shooting that 
 I have enjoyed more than these quiet walks 
 after teal along the winding stream that ran 
 through the young woods, here widening into 
 pools, there giving a vista down a reach, but 
 always leading one to the unexpected. Then the 
 sudden flush of the teal, almost always through 
 thick covert, exactly like shooting woodcocks, was 
 most exciting. Immediately after a shot, one had 
 to stand to arms for five minutes, as it was im- 
 possible to know whether or no there was a 
 big flock of teal just a little farther on which 
 was flushed. Often enough there was, and they 
 would come swishing over, sometimes very high, 
 and again quite low, as they failed to realise the 
 danger. In either case they afforded the most 
 beautiful shots to anyone who was quick in the 
 use of his gun. Sometimes, after securing a right 
 and left at the rise of a couple of teal, one could 
 secure two or three more without moving from 
 the place as they came rocketing over from some 
 unsuspected hiding place. 
 
 Weather and water had to be carefully con- 
 sidered. A certain amount of wind was essen- 
 tial, or else the wary fowl would quickly detect 
 the approach of the shooter pushing his way 
 through the dense covert ; and the water had to 
 be watched with the keenness of a salmon-fisher. 
 
270 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 If it were too high, the ducks also sat too high, 
 and could detect the approach of their enemy 
 over the banks which should have concealed him. 
 If too low, it might not attract them sufficiently 
 to settle at all, and the whole stream would be 
 blank. It was, in all, a thoroughly sporting 
 piece of shooting, dependent upon all the chances 
 and risks and disappointments that go to make 
 up genuine sport. When these chances were 
 favourable, they yielded what I thought to be 
 a most delightful day. I know that twenty or 
 thirty head does not seem much to many a 
 shooter used to big bags of driven game. But in 
 the New Forest we were content with small 
 figures and rough shooting, gained by our own 
 personal exertions ; and, believe me, for I am very 
 familiar with both forms of shooting, there is 
 no less sport to be gained from one than there 
 is from the other, to anyone who is willing to 
 work for his pleasure, and obtain it by his own 
 exertions. 
 
 There were other days sometimes days of 
 very good sport that I was able to obtain in 
 connection with the keeping down of rabbits. 
 
 As I explained before, the old system, that 
 obtained before my day, of allowing the keepers 
 to regard the rabbits as their perquisite was a 
 thoroughly bad one. It led to the preservation 
 
SHOOTING IN NEW FOREST 271 
 
 of rabbits where they were not wanted, and to 
 a sort of claim to a vested interest in them that 
 was wholly undesirable. I deemed it a better 
 plan to take it into my own hands. Where I 
 perceived and I pervaded the Forest pretty regu- 
 larly that rabbits were getting ahead, I set the 
 keeper to work to ferret and to stink out the 
 earths thoroughly in a certain plantation by a 
 certain date. I then arranged to get together a 
 number of shooters, mainly from the ranks of 
 those who had taken licences to shoot in the 
 Forest. I provided a sufficient luncheon, and 
 selected as far as I could shooters of a friendly 
 disposition, for feuds always raged between the 
 various licencees in the Forest. So we had many 
 very pleasant days' shooting such as the fol- 
 lowing : 
 
 Jan. 10, 1895 (Rhinefield). 6 guns. 13 pheasants. 112 
 rabbits. 12 woodcocks 130 head. 
 
 Jan. 19, 1896 (Sloden). 6 guns. 2 pheasants. 204 rabbits. 
 2 woodcocks 208 head. 
 
 Dec. 10, 1897 (Sloden). 50 pheasants. 238 rabbits. 5 
 woodcocks 293 head. 
 
 The keeper who had charge of Sloden en- 
 closure, a sandy hillside where rabbits were wont 
 to multiply, was a man who knew his business 
 very well. He could "show" what rabbits there 
 were in the covert as well as any man, if he 
 
272 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 only had ten days' notice, and was, as on such 
 days as the one I am referring to, favoured by 
 weather, he had every rabbit above ground, and 
 they were well accounted for. 
 
 1897 was a very good year for pheasants, 
 both wild and hand-reared. One of the lodges 
 where I generally reared pheasants was only a 
 mile away from the scene of action, and we had 
 turned out some four hundred and fifty young 
 birds there to stay where they would. The 
 only toll taken of them on behalf of the Crown 
 that paid for them was on such of these birds 
 that came among our fifty pheasants on the 
 day in question. Of course we only shot cock 
 birds. 
 
 We had a good day in Sloden on December 10, 
 1896, when eight guns killed 17 pheasants, 
 284 rabbits, 7 woodcocks total, 308. 
 
 This is the only day I ever had in the Forest 
 where we attained to a total of over 300 head. 
 But I have seen better days' sport, and the one 
 I described on December 10, 1897, was a better 
 day, though the bag was not so good. 
 
 After that, the stock of rabbits in Sloden was 
 pretty well mastered ; a bad breeding year or 
 two supervened, the trees got larger and safer 
 from the attacks of the rodent, and the peril of 
 the rabbit passed away for the time. 
 
SHOOTING IN NEW FOREST 273 
 
 But earlier in my New Forest times, I had 
 far better days than these. They came just at 
 the time that I realised that if rabbits were to 
 be kept down I must see to it myself, or else 
 run the risk of seeing them allowed to multiply 
 so that the keepers should make a profit out 
 of their excessive numbers. But at that date 
 some of the young plantations were still of the 
 height and growth to hold woodcocks. 
 
 Sloden, above referred to, was one; King's 
 Garn was another not so much that it harboured 
 rabbits of itself, as that our good neighbour Sir 
 Henry Paulet, across a narrow strip of open 
 forest, chose to maintain a considerable head of 
 rabbits in his excellent coverts of Canterton 
 Manor. I found I had to take this in hand, 
 and in 1887 had the rabbits well ferreted and 
 attacked them in force. The keeper had told me 
 beforehand that a great number of woodcocks 
 were using the covert, but I did not think they 
 were in anything like the numbers that really 
 were there. As soon as I realised what was actu- 
 ally the state of affairs, I was rather in a dilemma. 
 Here was a great number of woodcocks, and a 
 chance of a record day. On the other hand, the 
 rabbits had all been got ready for the day, and 
 we were there to kill them down. So I stuck 
 
 to business, and we killed 126 rabbits all we 
 
 s 
 
274 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 could have done and 27 woodcocks. But two 
 days afterwards the keeper of the walk came 
 to tell me that not only was there still in the 
 covert all the woodcocks we had left, but also 
 that a fresh flight had come in. I hastily sum- 
 moned by telegraph a number of the best sports- 
 men that I thought could be got together, and 
 met those who responded on the following 
 morning. We found all the woodcocks we had 
 left on the previous occasion, and a few more. 
 I placed the guns on the rides and open spaces 
 solely for the woodcocks, just as I had placed 
 them on the previous day solely for the rabbits. 
 
 We got 41 woodcocks, and incidentally some 
 30 rabbits. I had previously arranged to shoot 
 the rabbits in Sloden early in the following week, 
 and it yielded, besides some 130 rabbits, 20 
 woodcocks more, making 88 woodcocks killed in 
 three days comprised within a single week. I do 
 not think this record has been often beaten in 
 England at any rate in the southern counties. 
 
 But, alas! we could not keep up this sort of 
 shooting. The coverts quickly grew up, and became 
 draughty under the trees on the ground ; our 
 good friend Sir Henry Paulet passed over to the 
 majority, and no longer supplied us with hordes of 
 his surplus rabbits to make us a day's shooting. 
 
 In 1888, I had a day in Sloden which pro- 
 
SHOOTING IN NEW FOREST 275 
 
 duced 32 woodcocks and some 120 rabbits, but 
 that was the last good day. The coverts of that 
 date were played out, and the sport to be had 
 out of them, as regards woodcock shooting, was 
 nearly over (and never had really been exploited) 
 when I went to the Forest. I had a flash in 
 the pan of a possible revival of this form of good 
 shooting when, on February 1st, 1905, I killed 
 with two companions 14 woodcocks in the young 
 plantations in Wilverley, which are as yet hardly 
 open enough to attract them, but I would not 
 wonder if one day someone were to have a very 
 good day in those young woods. 
 
 These pleasant wanderings, either alone with 
 the gun and good dogs, or again with cheery 
 companions and friends, are delightful reminiscences 
 of my Forest life. To ardent shooters our sport 
 may seem meagre. So perhaps it was, but it 
 was all obtained by our own woodcraft and hard 
 work. We were very tired at the close of the 
 day, but very happy if things had gone well. I 
 have enjoyed many such days much more than 
 when I have helped to kill, say, 1000 pheasants, 
 and been treated as a mere battery tethered to 
 one spot and wholly ignorant of the programme 
 of the day's sport further than to see that the 
 store of cartridges was ample, and the powder as 
 straight as one could make it. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 FALCONRY 
 
 ALTHOUGH the New Forest is a country so un- 
 suitable for hawking that, except on a very few 
 occasions I was unable to follow the sport there, 
 yet my life at the King's House, and in fact 
 wherever I have been, was so bound up with the 
 training of hawks and with falconry, that it 
 would be impossible to omit mention thereof in 
 any sketch of my pursuits during my New 
 Forest life. I do not know when I first took to 
 falconry. I cannot remember the time when I 
 was not devoted to that pursuit. Although quite 
 ignorant of its practice, I devoured all books I 
 could get upon the subject, and in my Eton days 
 endeavoured to put in force what I learned from 
 reading them upon any unhappy kestrel I could 
 get hold of. 
 
 But my feet were first set on the right path 
 by the kind teaching of that fine sportsman, the 
 late Sir Charles Slingsby of Scriven, who was as 
 good a falconer as he was a huntsman. 
 
 In my summer holidays I would toil over on 
 
 276 
 
FALCONRY 277 
 
 my pony as often as he could find leisure to be 
 bothered with me, the thirteen miles or so that 
 divided Hare wood from Scriven, and receive edu- 
 cation in the handling of hawks. 
 
 Sir Charles was a past master in managing 
 the sparrow-hawk perhaps the most difficult kind 
 of hawk to control and keep in health, and with 
 his friend Mr. Bower used to have capital sport 
 with blackbirds and thrushes in July and August. 
 In this sport I was a truly willing novice, and 
 was also allowed, under careful supervision, to do 
 a little " carrying " and training of the young 
 hawk which had been set aside for me to try 
 my hand with. 
 
 At last the day came when I was allowed to 
 take it home and do my best with it all alone ; 
 and I was a proud boy as I rode home across the 
 countryside with my hawk on hand for the first 
 time in my life. 
 
 Well, the history of all beginners' hawks is 
 much the same. I devoted myself to her. I got 
 more education for myself than ever the hawk 
 suspected. But I got her perfectly trained and 
 fit to go hawking with. And then I was wrecked 
 on the rock of " condition," so fatal to all of us, 
 old hands and beginners alike, and the delicate 
 little hawk got out of health and soon died. 
 But I had become fairly started as a falconer. 
 
278 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 I could feed and handle a hawk properly ; cut out 
 my own tackle, even imp a feather, and, except 
 for rare intervals, I have never been out of reach 
 of a hawk since. 
 
 Soon after this, in 1866, I was allowed to spend 
 part of my Easter vacation on Salisbury Plain, on 
 the invitation of Mr. Cecil Buncombe, who after- 
 wards became one of my best and dearest friends. 
 The hawks were those belonging to the small 
 club that afterwards developed into the Old 
 Hawking Club, and were managed by that famous 
 old sportsman Clough Newcome, formerly one of 
 the shining lights of the Loo Hawking Club in 
 the palmy days of heron hawking in Holland. 
 
 Robert Barr, a member of a famous family 
 of Scotch falconers, was the professional falconer 
 under Mr. Newcome 's superintendence, which was, 
 however, so minute and careful that it left his 
 subordinate very little to do. 
 
 Here at last, and for the first time, I saw real 
 hawking. I studied the use and training of the 
 noble peregrine passage falcon, so great and so 
 powerful compared with the hawks I had handled 
 up to the present. The quarry was the rook, and 
 the hawks of the highest class. And a second 
 visit stimulated my eagerness yet more fully. 
 
 The following year I went to Cambridge, and 
 as Feltwell, where Mr. Newcome lived and kept 
 
FALCONRY 279 
 
 the hawks, was within fairly easy reach of Cam- 
 bridge, I used often to go over there for a day 
 or two whenever there was any hawking to be 
 seen. 
 
 Meanwhile, when I was at home I kept my 
 hand in by training merlins, and I had a good 
 deal of fun with these most engaging of little 
 pets and miniature falcons. In 1870, when the 
 war between France and Germany had broken 
 out, the entire stud of hawks belonging to the 
 Champagne Hawking Club had been removed to 
 Elveden Hall, near Thetford, then the residence 
 of the Maharajah Dhuleep Singh, who kindly asked 
 me to stay with him and inspect the establishment. 
 Shortly before that time the Maharajah had sent 
 John Barr to Iceland in order to catch the Iceland 
 variety of the gerfalcon. He brought back some 
 thirty of these magnificent falcons. He told me 
 that they were so plentiful that he had little 
 trouble in catching them when once he became 
 familiar with their favourite haunts, but then he 
 was a past master in the art of catching hawks. 
 His trouble was in feeding them on the home- 
 ward voyage, and for this purpose he purchased 
 some half a dozen of Icelandic ponies, which he 
 slaughtered as became necessary during the 
 passage. 
 
 The Champagne Club had an establishment 
 
280 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 of some twenty or more hawks, mostly peregrines, 
 and two or three goshawks. The Maharajah had 
 a very good saker, and there were one or two 
 hawks of the rarer and most valuable kinds such 
 as our falconer of later years, John Frost, always 
 described as "menagerie hawks." 
 
 But altogether this great joint establishment 
 of hawks, so numerous, containing so many of 
 the noblest possible specimens of the Falconidse, 
 was certainly the most magnificent hawking 
 establishment that I, or possibly any other living 
 person, ever saw. 
 
 As to sport. Many of the French hawks 
 were very good ones, but were chiefly game 
 hawks, that had been flying very well in Scotland 
 at grouse the previous autumn. They had one 
 or two good heron hawks too. 
 
 The gerfalcons were all flying to the lure in 
 the most magnificent form conceivable. Two or 
 three had been entered to hares, and I saw a 
 few flights at that quarry, but was not very 
 greatly impressed by it as a form of sport suit- 
 able for the swift-flying long- winged falcons. 
 
 After seeing so much of these splendid hawks, 
 I could not be happy without a hawk about me 
 of my own. I should think I was the only 
 undergraduate of the nineteenth century who 
 regularly kept a trained hawk in his rooms in 
 
FALCONRY 281 
 
 College. Moreover, I had a dog also ! but the 
 Magdalene dons were kindly folk, and looked the 
 other way when my dog was in the court. As 
 to hawks, there was no law against them, and I 
 had a perch, with the necessary flooring, put 
 across the corner of my rooms, where my 
 hawk could sit very comfortably. But I always 
 blamed the loss of a beautiful little passage 
 tiercel, that Mr. Newcome gave me, to the old 
 cat of a bedmaker, who, no doubt, thought 
 hawks "nasty messy things," and I have good 
 reason to suspect that she untied the leash and 
 left the window open. Professor Alfred Newton, 
 whose rooms were in the same court as mine, 
 saw him in the distance as he took flight, but 
 I never heard of him again. In 1869 Mr. New- 
 come died, and the Hawking Club was broken 
 up, and the hawks divided amongst the members. 
 Cecil Duncombe gave me the falcon that fell to 
 his share, and Robert Barr took service with the 
 Marquis of Bute. 
 
 In the following spring he went with what 
 hawks he had to enter and fly them at rooks 
 on the Wiltshire Downs. I took the falcon I 
 had had given to me, and another one of my 
 own, and went down to join him at Market 
 Lavington. On my way thither I stayed a day 
 in London, and at Tattersalls speculated in a 
 
282 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 pony, for at least one horseman is essential for 
 rook hawking, and very well did that pony turn 
 out. 
 
 With this modest equipment, of two falcons 
 and a pony, I spent the Easter vacation of 1870 
 assisting Robert Barr. We had a certain amount 
 of sport, and I learnt a great deal about the 
 management of hawks. The pony was a capital 
 hack, and carried a hawk well. 
 
 Except for what I did with some merlins of 
 my own, and subsequently with a young goshawk, 
 at rabbits, I saw little hawking for a year or so ; 
 but in the autumn of 1871 it befell that Cecil 
 Duncombe, Mr. A. E. Knox, a member of the 
 former Hawking Club, and myself forgathered 
 at Gordon Castle as the guests of the Duke of 
 Richmond. The question of reviving the club 
 was mooted, and then and there letters were 
 written off to Lord Lilford, Captain Brooksbank, 
 also original members, and to one or two others, 
 proposing to them to start the club again. I 
 myself wrote off to John Barr (his brother Robert, 
 our old falconer, was dead), to propose to him 
 that he should become our professional falconer, 
 and soon made terms with him. All the old 
 members gave us support, especially Lord Lil- 
 ford, whose generosity smoothed all difficulties. 
 Francis Newcome came in place of his father, 
 
FALCONRY 283 
 
 and I was requisitioned to act as Manager and 
 Hon. Secretary, a position I have held ever since. 
 It now covers forty-four years. 
 
 We began well in 1872, with a remarkably 
 good lot of hawks, such a lot as the Dutchmen, 
 who catch them on their " passage " or migration, 
 do not get hold of every year. With these I 
 was able to show very good sport in the spring, 
 partly at Ashdown, on the Berks Downs (Lord 
 Craven was a supporter of the club), and partly 
 in Wilts. When, a few years after, I took up 
 my appointment in the New Forest, I moved the 
 hawks to the south with me. 
 
 It was a position much more handy for the 
 spring hawking on the Downs than my Yorkshire 
 abode. In these days of motor cars it is easy 
 to make a long day of it, and to go for the 
 day's sport from Lyndhurst. At any rate it 
 was certain that the hawks must be wherever 
 L dwelt, or else I could not supervise all the 
 management and training of them which was so 
 essential if the establishment was ever to play 
 a good part in the field. 
 
 Accordingly, the headquarters of the Old 
 Hawking Club were transferred to Lyndhurst, 
 and, though the hawks were not flown there, 
 the mews where they dwelt was an object of 
 interest to a great many of my neighbours, and 
 
284 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 other travellers, from Mr. Gladstone to Kaiser 
 Wilhelm, both of whom paid visits thereto, as 
 did many another distinguished personage. 
 
 But the most attractive sight afforded by 
 the hawks to the people of Lyndhurst came 
 during July and August, when the young 
 peregrines, to the number of eight or nine, were 
 flying "at hack," that is to say, in perfect 
 freedom, all round the village, using, as a rule, 
 the pinnacles and tower of the church as their 
 chief resting place. As they began to get 
 stronger on the wing, their evolutions, as they 
 chased one another around the spire and all 
 over the village, were very beautiful to watch. 
 I have seen six or seven chevying one another 
 all over the village, and perhaps half a hundred 
 visitors and inhabitants standing in the street 
 watching the aerial show. So long as these 
 young hawks come regularly to their food, morn- 
 ing and evening, they are just as secure as fowls 
 let out to feed. But ere long symptoms are 
 shown that they have, one at a time, learned 
 to procure food for themselves. Steps are then 
 at once taken to secure them, and the happy 
 period of liberty, which rarely extends to more 
 than three weeks, is at an end. The hood and 
 the jesses control the holiday maker, but it is 
 only a very short time that elapses before he 
 
FALCONRY 285 
 
 is on the wing again, trained and under control, 
 and shortly to be allowed to kill his first grouse 
 five hundred miles from where he learned the 
 use of his wings, " flying at hack" and roosting 
 on Lyndhurst spire. 
 
 During my life at Lyndhurst, a great many 
 first-class hawks hawks such as perhaps have 
 had no superiors passed through the mews at 
 the King's House. Of the young hawks that 
 used the spire so persistently in their youth 
 were many very superior game hawks, coming 
 most of them year by year from certain eyries 
 in the precipitous cliffs of north-west Donegal. 
 Whether it was the intensely wild and stormy 
 surroundings of their birthplace, or whether it 
 was a peculiar strain of dark-coloured peregrines 
 that haunted those precipitous cliffs, I cannot 
 tell ; but year by year hawks of the highest 
 class were sent us from those eyries to mature 
 round Lyndhurst spire. Perhaps one of the best 
 was that famous tiercel Persimmon, who came to 
 us in 1897, and lasted till 1900, killing, year 
 after year, old cock grouse up to the end of the 
 season a thing that not one tiercel in ten is 
 able to do. In one year he killed seventy head 
 of game. But again, from the Culvercliff in the 
 Isle of Wight an ancient eyrie in which hawks 
 have bred for centuries one that was specially 
 
286 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 reserved for Queen Elizabeth for her own personal 
 use we got one year a very good game falcon 
 called Vesta. She served us for nine seasons, 
 during the short period for which grouse-hawking, 
 by far the finest form of game hawking that 
 exists, can be carried on. During that time her 
 score was : 
 
 Grouse 297 
 
 Other game .... 41 
 
 338 
 
 or 37 head every season that she flew, but in 
 her later days she was rather self-willed, and her 
 scores suffered proportionately. In her earlier days 
 they were much higher. 
 
 The object of the Old Hawking Club, revived 
 in 1872, was to maintain a first-class establishment 
 of working hawks, for all purposes, for the use 
 of its members, where they wished. Every year 
 it obtained from the Dutchmen at Valkenswaard 
 a number of freshly caught passage falcons, and 
 by that means kept an ancient but declining in- 
 dustry on its legs. These were always at first 
 trained to rooks, and used during the annual 
 visit of the club in March and April to Salis- 
 bury Plain. Here we all forgathered, though our 
 quarters shifted from time to time as certain com- 
 
FALCONRY 287 
 
 for table old inns changed hands. Finally, they 
 were settled at a small cottage at Shrewton, 
 which I bought and made comfortable, and, with 
 rooms at various houses in the village to supple- 
 ment its accommodation, many very enjoyable 
 gatherings have been held within its walls, by 
 the club and its many visitors. But in former 
 days we were sufficiently comfortably housed, and 
 our sport was very good. The Downs then had 
 not been bought by the War Department 
 for military training, nor laid down to grass 
 and covered with enormous camps as they are 
 now. 
 
 There was plenty of arable land to attract 
 rooks, and we could get all the flights we wanted. 
 Most of our members and their friends came 
 down for long or short periods. Our accommo- 
 dation was always strained, our joviality never 
 failed, whatever might be the weather or 
 the sport. Year by year the members of the 
 French Hawking Club would pay us a visit^ 
 when the babel of tongues and the elaborate 
 courtesies exchanged were diverting beyond all 
 expression. 
 
 Some members, again, did not patronise the 
 rook hawking, but relied upon the club and its 
 hawks to provide sport on their moors or manors 
 in the game season. Thus the Duke of Portland 
 
288 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 would year by year have the hawks at Langwell, 
 to help to entertain some of his guests, at that 
 lovely place, prolific of all sport. Mr. St. Quintin 
 and Colonel Brooksbank would take a moor and 
 have the hawks for a month or so. Once, I 
 remember, in that space of time they killed 100 
 brace of grouse with them, and then the hawks 
 went on to Langwell and killed a number more. 
 Later still that season they killed 105 partridges 
 and made up a total for the game season of 353 
 head. Lord Lilford, though the country around 
 his home was not suitable for hawking, was un- 
 happily too great a cripple to be able to join us 
 in our sport farther afield, but he always liked 
 to have the hawks with him for a short time, and 
 a good hawk in full practice could show him 
 many successful flights at partridges, even in a 
 cramped country. 
 
 The Duke of St. Albans did not come out 
 hawking or care for the sport. But he considered 
 that his position of Hereditary Grand Falconer of 
 England (with an income of 1200 a year) put 
 him under an obligation to do something for the 
 sport of falconry. He therefore joined our club, 
 and gave us a handsome subscription on the 
 understanding that if ever he were called upon 
 by the King to produce hawks and show a day's 
 sport, he should have the use of the club estab- 
 
FALCONRY 289 
 
 lishment. When some years afterwards his Grace 
 commuted the pension he enjoyed in right of his 
 position as Grand Falconer, he withdrew from the 
 club. 
 
 I think the club was strongest and showed 
 its best sport about the period 1886-96. The 
 members in 1886 were: 
 
 Lord Lilford. 
 
 F. Newcome. 
 
 W. H. St. Quintin. 
 
 Lord Londesborough. 
 
 B. H. Jones. 
 
 Duke of St. Albans. 
 
 Duke of Portland. 
 
 Hon. E. W. B. Portman. 
 
 Hon. G. Lascelles Manager. 
 
 HONORARY MEMBERS 
 
 Hon. Cecil Duncombe. 
 Hon. G. R. 0. Hill. 
 Colonel Brooksbank. 
 F. Salvin, Esq. 
 
 In the previous spring season the hawks killed on 
 the Downs no less than 243 head of rooks, crows, 
 and magpies. 
 
 The total head of game killed during the 
 season was 515, including 77 rabbits taken with 
 a goshawk. 
 
290 THE NEW FORES? 
 
 In 1890 we had an extraordinarily good lot 
 of hawks, and they killed in March and April no 
 less than 257 head of rooks, &c., out of 293 
 flights. Among these hawks was a rare old 
 falcon called Elsa, flying at rooks then for the 
 fifth season in succession, and killing them as 
 well as ever. But she had also spent the four 
 previous autumns in Scotland, flying at grouse 
 and killing them in the grandest style in fact, 
 in two of her four seasons, she made the highest 
 score of all the team. Yet after each spring she 
 would, having well moulted, come out again in 
 August, as a rook hawk, and make year after 
 year either the best, or nearly the best, score of 
 all the lot. It is very unusual to get a hawk 
 that will thus excel in two entirely different forms 
 of sport year after year, and for so many seasons, 
 and when such a jewel is discovered there is no 
 end to the amount of sport that can be got out 
 of her. Elsa went on flying grouse into her 
 sixth season, and then was lost at Langwell, the 
 scene of many of her triumphs. It is to be 
 hoped that she got clear away, and next spring 
 found herself a mate and bred young eyases of 
 her own quality. 
 
 Her mantle to some extent fell upon Ursula, 
 a falcon caught in Elsa's last year with us, and 
 she was just as good as her predecessor, though 
 
FALCONRY 291 
 
 she did not last so long. In 1891 she killed 50 
 rooks on the Downs in spring, and in the same 
 autumn 50 grouse in Scotland, coming again to 
 her work at rooks as well as ever the following 
 March. 
 
 In 1893 we had an extraordinary rook hawk 
 sent from Holland, which we called Danceaway. 
 She was always kept as a rook hawk, and lasted 
 for seven seasons, invariably flying in splendid form, 
 and never doing anything wrong. A child could 
 have handled and managed her, and she was a 
 delightful pet. Moreover, she always showed us 
 the best of sport, for her style of flying was a 
 treat to behold. She killed for us altogether 
 288 rooks. In 1902 we trained a remarkable 
 hawk at Lyndhurst, a haggard which was named 
 Shelagh. Now, for the benefit of those readers 
 who are not falconers, I must explain that a 
 haggard is a folly matured hawk possibly an 
 old one that has reared young, for it is not easy, 
 after the first moult into the blue or breeding 
 plumage, to say how old she may be. Possibly 
 she has migrated more than once, and travelled 
 over half of the globe, returning with her kind 
 to Northern Europe at her appointed season. 
 Obviously such hawks as these, with a wild 
 nature inbred in them, and influencing them for 
 
 years, are five times as hard to train as a hawk 
 
 T 2 
 
292 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 taken from the nest, which is almost afraid to 
 lose sight of the man who has always brought 
 food to it. It is further twice as hard to tame 
 as even an ordinary wild caught hawk of the 
 first year, which is not yet a twelvemonth old, 
 and is more easily reclaimed. 
 
 Many a haggard is not really worth the 
 trouble it takes to reclaim and train. Moreover, 
 if you lose her, and leave her out for but twenty- 
 four hours, the old "call of the wild" comes 
 to her, and you have a wild hawk to catch 
 again, instead of merely a lost friend to find and 
 recover. 
 
 But if you once get your haggard trained, you 
 have a hawk indeed. For you have got no 
 amateur that needs entering and training to 
 teach her to fly, but a genuine professional one 
 that has at the least maintained itself for two 
 or three years, killing some wild sea bird, or 
 rock pigeon on most days, and harrying the 
 wild fowl on their migrations, and possibly has 
 also brought up a family needing far harder 
 work from her, and plenty more killing in order to 
 supply the larder for the whole brood. 
 
 Such a hawk as this can fly like a swift, and 
 catch prey wherever she is well placed to do so. 
 She has for her lifetime exercised " dominion over 
 the fowls of the air " at her sweet will and plea- 
 
FALCONRY 293 
 
 sure ; and if you can get her to exercise those 
 powers for your behoof whenever you please, 
 you have got a hawk worth any amount of 
 trouble. It is all a question of temper. If you 
 light on a really sweet-tempered haggard, and 
 have the patience and experience to handle her, 
 you may get a hawk worth many ordinary 
 ones. 
 
 Such a hawk was Shelagh. She became as 
 sweet-tempered and gentle as a bird could be, and 
 we all loved her. As to performances : in her first 
 year she killed fifty-four rooks ; in her second, 
 sixty-two. She came out in her third year as 
 good as ever, and was beginning to run up a score 
 again, when she was lost, owing to a clumsy 
 blunder with rotten tackle. It is, alas ! so 
 easy to lose a good hawk ; and the better she 
 is the harder it is to recover her, for a good 
 hawk is never hungry. We have had other 
 good haggards, some that were for long so 
 handy as to be useful as game hawks, but 
 Shelagh was the nearest approach to a perfectly 
 tractable wild falcon that I remember having 
 handled. 
 
 We have had many a notable hawk such 
 as Josephine, who killed 185 rooks in three and 
 and a half seasons ; Aim well, who killed 72 rooks 
 her first season ; but it would be tedious to recount 
 
294 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 the doings of these various favourites, interesting 
 as they may be to those who witnessed them. 
 There has never been a year up to the present 
 time that has not produced one or two very good 
 hawks ; but, of course, some of them stand out 
 as exceptionally good ones, and are remembered 
 accordingly. 
 
 All of these hawks that I have named were 
 trained at Lyndhurst, with many others, year by 
 year. The mews was always open to visitors 
 who took an interest in the sport, and the early 
 lessons on training were all given on the Lynd- 
 hurst racecourse, where some scores of good hawks 
 first learned to use their powers of flight under 
 the control of man* 
 
 But I regret to say that, although the exist- 
 ence of a pretty large stud of trained hawks 
 excited some little interest in the neighbourhood, 
 the ancient sport of falconry has lost its hold over 
 any but a small band of enthusiasts. The amount of 
 patience and time necessary to success in a very 
 difficult sport does not appeal to the modern 
 sportsman, who lives at a faster rate and requires 
 a larger return of quarry brought to bag to repay 
 him for his time and trouble than he can get 
 out of a trained falcon. 
 
 Those who are once bitten with the desire to 
 follow this beautiful old sport seldom recover, 
 
FALCONRY 295 
 
 and generally become real enthusiasts, up to 
 the end of their days ; but it is idle to dream 
 of a " revival of falconry " such as should 
 restore this pastime to its ancient position 
 of the premier sport enjoyed by the leaders of 
 Europe. 
 
 The general practice of shooting and the 
 improvement in fowling-pieces was the first blow 
 to the more precarious method of providing game 
 for household consumption by the means of 
 trained hawks. Then the enclosure of most of 
 the cultivated lands of England so reduced the 
 area of open land available for hawking, that it 
 became practically banished to the Downs, where 
 the country is on the chalk formation. In other 
 districts the sport died out perforce. 
 
 The best Downs remaining for the purpose of 
 the sport are those Wiltshire Downs ranging 
 from Lavington to Salisbury, and from Marl- 
 borough to the valley of the Wylye. 
 
 But these, alas ! have been ruined for sport 
 or beauty by the necessities of the military 
 authorities, when seeking for fresh training 
 grounds for troops, to which all else had to give 
 way. When first an immense slice of Salisbury 
 Plain was purchased, a large standing camp was 
 established at Bulford, near Amesbury. This 
 camp has grown and grown until, on what was 
 
296 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 once the wildest and most attractive part of our 
 country where the hobby and even the raven 
 built there is a vast city of tin houses. 
 
 The camps to the south side of the Avon 
 Larkhill and others were soon afterwards estab- 
 lished, and then commenced the artillery practice 
 over all the wide Downs almost from Stonehenge 
 to Lavington. 
 
 We withdrew to the remotest corners of the 
 Downs on the western side, but our range is 
 very limited, and our sport on its last legs in 
 that district. 
 
 However, I do not doubt that many another 
 keen falconer of earlier generations has died in 
 the firm conviction that the sport he loved was 
 dying with him ; so I hope that as to my certain 
 knowledge those veterans were in errror, and 
 that it has fallen to my lot to maintain this 
 time-honoured sport for a span of nigh upon 
 fifty years after they had passed away, so may 
 I also be mistaken in my gloomy prognostica- 
 tions, and better and younger men will carry 
 on what has been well described as "the noblest 
 sport in which man has ever indulged," for the 
 benefit of many future generations after I have 
 ceased to take a part in it. 
 
 With this somewhat digressive chapter, I 
 bring to a close my history of my New Forest 
 
FALCONRY 297 
 
 life. As I have explained above, although 
 hawking had not much vogue in the Forest, yet 
 it has always been identified with my pursuits, 
 and in my old age and retirement I am thankful 
 that the tinkle of a falcon's bell is generally to 
 be heard in my garden. 
 
INDEX 
 
 ACT of 1543, 142 
 
 1698, 138 
 
 1877, 20, 146 
 
 1879, 23 
 Agisters, 102 
 Agitations of 1870, 19 
 Aimwell, a famous rook hawk, 293 
 Alice Holt Forest, 66 
 
 Allen, Robert, 202 
 
 Ancient encoppicements, 140, 143 
 
 April, month, 96 
 
 Ashley, Hon. E., 40 
 
 Austen, Col., snipe killed, 261 
 
 Autumn Manoeuvres, 133 
 
 BADGER digging, 235 
 
 science of, 238 
 
 Bags, killed in enclosures, 271 
 
 Bark, price of, 169 
 
 Barr, Robert, falconer, 278 
 
 John, falconer, 29 
 Basing, Lord, 38 
 Black Act, 66 
 Black game, 246, 255 
 Bloodhounds, 85, 88, 182 
 Boldrewood Lodge, 117 
 Bolton, Duke of, 82, 121, 183 
 Bradburne, Mr., M.F.H., 218 
 Bridges for hunting, 178 
 Brooke, Sir G., 202 
 Browne, Major, 217 
 Browsing of deer, 63 
 Bumstead, G., 60 
 Burley Lodge, 12 
 
 CANUTE, 64 
 
 Cazenove, Mr., M.F.H., 222 
 Census of deer, 1670, 80 
 Champagne Hawking Club, 279 
 Chapel at King's House, 128 
 Charles II, visit in 1637, 129 
 Cobbett, William, 116 
 Coles, James, 61 
 Collier, Mr. Fred., 233 
 
 Collier, Mr. William, 229 
 Commoners, 9 
 Committee of 1868, 16 
 
 1875, 20 
 
 1889, 50 
 
 Compton, Mr. H. F., M.F.H., 222 
 
 Cooke Hurle, Major, M.F.H., 222 
 
 Cooper, Harry, 27 
 
 Cottage building, 46 
 
 Crown Prince of Germany, 135 
 
 Culley, Mr. G., 49 
 
 DALLAS, Mr., shooting return, 260 
 Danceaway, famous rook hawk, 291 
 D'Arblay, Madame, Memoirs, 130 
 Davis, Charles, 180 
 DelaWarr, Lord, 117 
 Deer Removal Act, 1 1, 82 
 Deer, peculiarities of, 68 
 
 weights of, 91 
 
 stalking, 90 
 
 fighting bucks, 93 
 
 Deer hunting, early days, 193 
 with new pack, 198 
 
 when hunting the pack 
 
 myself, 199 
 
 good runs, 199, 201, 212, 
 
 213, 215 
 
 Denny Enclosure, 175 
 Deterioration of timber, 164 
 Disafforestation, 19 
 Duke of Connaught, 133 
 Duncombe, Hon. Cecil, 278 
 
 EARLY education, 1 
 
 Earth stopping regulations, 219 
 
 Edward I, 127 
 
 Edward VII, visit 1903, 132 
 
 Eleanor, Queen, 128 
 
 Elfrida, Queen, 97 
 
 Elsa, a wonderful falcon, 290 
 
 Enroll, Lord, 180 
 
 Estimates, annual, 45 
 
 Expeditation of dogs, 71 
 
INDEX 
 
 299 
 
 FALCONRY cannot be revived. 295 
 
 Fitzwilliam, Sir C., 1 
 
 Forests, Crown, 2 
 
 Frost, John, falconer, 280 
 
 Fuel rights, 160, 162 
 
 GEORGE III, visit in 1789, 130 
 Gilbert, Mr., M.F.H., 183 
 Goshawk, 289 
 Graham, Sir R., 188 
 Grey, Sir E., 50 
 Grouse hawking, 288 
 
 HACKING hawks at Lyndhurst, 
 
 284 
 
 Harcourt, Sir W., 135 
 Hare hunting, 223, 224 
 Heseltine, Mr., M.F.H., 221 
 Highways Act, 1883, 31 
 Hill, Hon. G. R. C., 228 
 Hollo way, John, 27 
 Hollies, treatment of, 156, 158 
 Horseback to see Forest, 7 
 Howard, Hon. James, 28 
 
 Mr., shooting return, 257 
 
 Sir Stafford, 53 
 Hulse, Sir G., 34 
 
 Hunting disputes, 182, 189, 191-2 
 Hunting, old records of, 177 
 
 ICELAND falcons, 279 
 Ironshill Lodge, 126 
 
 JONES, Mr. B. H., 289 
 
 Josephine, a notable rook hawk, 293 
 
 Justice seat in 1669, 106 
 
 KAISER, the visit of, 136 
 Keepers, 56 
 
 shooting returns, 247 
 
 Widows' Fund, 249 
 Kelly, Mr., 205 
 Kennels, improvised, 207 
 Kerry Beagles, 88 
 Kesteven, Lord, 2 
 
 King's House, additions to, 98 
 
 disfigurement, 1851, 104 
 
 initials on stack pipes, 100 
 
 repairs in 1880, 107 
 
 restoration in 1904, 112 
 
 royal expenses, 128 
 
 stables, building of, 99 
 
 Knox, Mr. A. E., 282 
 
 LANE Fox, Mr., 203, 205 
 Langwell, sport at, 288, 290 
 Lilford, Lord, 58, 282 
 Loch, Sir H., 28 
 Lodges, 55 
 Lovell, Mr., 182, 195 
 
 MAHARAJAH Dhuleep Singh, 279 
 Mange among foxes, 220 
 Manor of Lyndhurst, 97 
 Metternich, Count, 134, 136 
 Meyrick, Sir G., M.F.H., 217 
 Mills, Mr., 189,217 
 Montagu, Lord, 38 
 Moorsom, C., 2 
 
 NATURAL regeneration, 146, 171, 
 
 174 
 
 Newcome, Mr. Clough, 278 
 New Forest Hunt Club, 188 
 New Forest, particulars of, 8 
 New Park, 80, 104 
 
 OAK, rotation of, 169 
 Oath of verderers, 23 
 Office accommodation, 113 
 Official Verderer, 24 
 Old Hawking Club, 278, 281, 282, 
 283, 286 
 
 list of members, 289 
 
 Ornamental ride, 121 
 Otter, great run with, 230 
 Otter hunting, 225 
 Otters, habits of, 225 
 
 PARADOX gun, 86 
 
 Pasturage, 15 
 
 Paulet, Sir H., 34 
 
 Penalties for deer stealing, 75 
 
 Persimmon, famous tiercel, 285 
 
 Pheasant rearing, 254 
 
 Planting under Deer Removal Act, 
 
 172 
 
 Politics, 4 
 
 Pollarding timber, 150, 153, 155 
 Powell, Col., 215 
 Powell, H. M., M.F.H., 219 
 Price, Mr., 207 
 Purchase of New Forest foxhound 
 
 pack, 218 
 
 QUEEN'S House, 96 
 
 RABBITS, 61, 254, 271-2, 274 
 Red deer, 65 
 
300 
 
 THE NEW FOREST 
 
 Reed, W., 27 
 
 Register of commoners, 12 
 Regular run of deer, 177 
 Regulations for hunting, 184, 194 
 Report of 1789, 26 
 Returns of timber, 1608, &c., 147 
 Rhinefield Lodge, 119 
 Richardson, J. M., 1, 204 
 Richmond, Duke of, 175, 183 
 Ridley Wood, 152 
 Roads in Forest, 29 
 Roberts, Mr., 112 
 Roe deer, 70 
 Rook hawking, 278, 281 
 Royal Hunt button, 187 
 Royal warrant for hare hunting, 
 179 
 
 SAWING engines, litigation, 42 
 Scotch fir, introduction of, 166, 167 
 
 spread of, 168 
 
 Sentimental forestry, 170 
 
 Setters, 263 
 
 Shelagh, a wonderful haggard, 291 
 
 Shooting licence, 249, 251, 261 
 
 Slingsby, Sir Charles, 276 
 
 Snipe shooting, 261, 264 
 
 Snogg v. Squail, 243 
 
 Southern Hounds, 88 
 
 Spaniels, 262 
 
 Sparrow hawks, 277 
 
 Squirrel hunting, 242 
 
 Squirrel pie, 245 
 
 Staff, 44 
 
 Stealing of timber, 149, 151, 152 
 
 St. Albans, Duke of, 288 
 St. Quintin, Mr., 288 
 Stirrup, used as dog test, 73 
 Survey of Elizabeth, 144 
 Sylviculture of 1700. 163 
 
 TEAL shooting, 267, 268-9 
 Terriers, best breeds of, 236-240 
 
 good work of, 231, 240-1 
 Testimonial of plate, 197 
 Thursby, Sir J., M.F.H., 219 
 Thursby, Mr. G., 208, 209, 211 
 Timber, grants of, 159 
 Timson, Captain, 208 
 Tracy, Mr. Courtenay, 233 
 Treadwell, C., 1, 203 
 Twelve Apostles, 123 
 
 VERDERERS, 21 
 Verderers' Hall, 105, 113 
 Vesta, famous grouse hawk, 286 
 Victoria County History, 5 
 Visits of Royal Buckhounds, 180 
 
 WALKER, Mr., 205 
 
 Waltham Blacks, 66 
 
 Warden, the Lord, 59, 183, 247 
 
 White, Harry, 206 
 
 Wild fowl, 268 
 
 Wingrove's, Messrs., game book, 
 
 258 
 Woodcock shooting, 263, 273 
 
 good bags of, 274-5 
 Woolmer Forest, 65 
 
 THE END 
 
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