278 REMINISCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN. 



A man might just as well put a milkmaid in his stable 

 in charge of his stud of hunters, as the men I have 

 heard named in the forest as " master-keepers." It 

 is this neglect, and such neglects as these, that have 

 produced the roguery that I fear has disforested the 

 forest. Poor"Itene!" one of the ancient names of 

 the New Forest, on whose beautifully wild undu- 

 lations of heather Queen Elizabeth, in a journey to 

 Southampton, once "to her Majesty's great delight 

 beheld a thousand head of red deer" brought within 

 view by the keepers, its woods and heaths might have 

 afforded every kind of sport and every head of game 

 to the Royal hounds and gun, not only without detri- 

 ment to others, but with infinite good to all, if it had 

 been properly and fairly attended to : instead of 

 whicli it fell into the hands of neglect and knavery, 

 and hence its ruin. Lord Duncan knows, and so do I, 

 where all the best venison went to; but I do not 

 know, and I don't know whether he knows, who gave 

 the order for it to go there, or whether it found its 

 way there, as I suspect, without any other order 

 than that of an inferior clerk. Sure am I that on 

 every walk there were bucks every season to be 

 killed whose condition might vie with that of park 

 deer, and yet no one in the vicinity of the forest 

 entitled to one ever had a haunch fit to be eaten as 

 the venison described in each warrant, from "a fat 

 buck." I speak of fourteen years' experience, and 

 during that time the deer were robbed of every blade 

 of hay supposed to be grown on the lands at New 

 Park, specially enclosed and set apart for their use. I 

 used in my rides to amuse myself with a look at what 

 was thrown down to the deer. The only hay I ever 

 saw given to them was stuff in its stalks resembling 



