NEGLECT OF THE NEW FOREST 227 



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 en- 

 closed 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 re- 

 sembling walking-sticks, and smelling very much like manure 

 from a farmyard, of as much use to the deer as casting before 

 them a heap of stones. The best of the hay was used one way 

 or other at New Park, and the deer were wronged and starved. 

 If the hay that I saw came from New Park, it was the topping 

 up or the bottom rubbish of stacks, the useful part of which had 

 all been sold or applied elsewhere, and in consequence of this, 

 the keepers, to maintain a few bucks at hand, were obliged to 

 browse them by- lopping the trees all winter and summer a 

 thing which never should have been needed nor permitted under 

 proper care of the pasturage. If any old bucks were left, from 

 being thus cheated of their hay, and the winter was hard, cold 

 and wet, they died; and, besides this, not a doe was killed for 

 winter venison. The consequence of this neglect and mis- 

 management was, that the forest became full of old, worn-out 

 does and young female stock, and the valuable portion of the 

 deer, from whom a revenue might have been raised, were wasted, 

 and what with theft, mal-appropriation, and neglect, the sale of 

 venison contributed not a sixpence to the ways and means. Men, 

 having no property nearer than London, and of course no claim to 

 the rights of common, possessed brood mares in the forest. Half 

 the saddlers' shops in London and elsewhere were, and are now, 

 supplied with hollysticks for whips by people who have no busi- 

 ness to cut a twig ; and whenever a man living in the purlieus 

 wanted a gate-post or rail, he entered the forest and took it. 



