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 



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