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 



