THE KING'S HOUSE 97 



connected, strictly speaking, with the Forest itself, 

 nor was it ever intended originally for the residence 

 of any official in charge of the New Forest. 



It was the manor house of the ancient royal 

 manor of Lyndhurst, a manor dating back to Saxon 

 times, and on the site (a wonderfully well chosen 

 one) of the present King's House .there stood a 

 manor house of what sort I know not consider- 

 ably before the days of the Conquest and the affores- 

 tation of the New Forest. 



The manor of Lyndhurst was, at the time of the 

 Conquest, in the hands and administration of the 

 Abbey of Amesbury, granted thereto, it is said, by 

 the Saxon Queen, Elfrida, the murderess of Corfe 

 Castle, probably about eighty years previously. 



At what precise date the Conqueror resumed 

 possession of the manor is not clear, but it was 

 assessed in the " Great Survey" in 1086, and in 

 1165 we find a grant thereof to a subject. 



Successive grants of the manor, all duly recorded, 

 follow one another from that early date till the last 

 grant in 1831 to George Harrison. 



But the old manor house seems to have been 

 always retained for the use of the King himself, 

 and to have been maintained by the Crown and not 

 by the grantee of the manor. And its use was 

 generally given to the Lord Warden. 



Edward I spent some time here, and many docu- 



G 



