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
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