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. 



