100 THE NEW FOREST 



Altogether the estimate, as rendered in 1634, of 

 1500 proved, like many another such estimate, to 

 be a very misleading document. What was built 

 by Charles II was the main block of the building 

 lying to the westward of the Verderers' Hall, the 

 "Kitchyn pastree," &c. &c., and it constituted the 

 principal living accommodation of the house. An 

 inspection of the roof timbers and of the old beams 

 points clearly to the use of Forest timber, often 

 hardly worked at all, and that only with the axe. 

 The doors were clearly of Forest oak, made out of 

 plank with beautiful grain, but cut sadly too thin. 

 Alas ! when I went there every door was covered 

 with paint, but I could not resist paying out of my 

 own pocket the expense of burning and cleaning off 

 the paint and restoring the old doors of oak to their 

 original condition. 



As to that seeming addition to the extreme 

 west end of the house, which bears upon the heads 

 of the lead stand pipes the crown and the letter 

 A.R. 1712, I am not quite certain whether this was 

 a mere repair or an addition carried out subse- 

 quently to the Charles II building or not, but I 

 think it must have been the latter. 



It was apparently a tradition of these ancient 

 surveyors that any addition or considerable repair 

 to this old house should bear the initials of 

 the reigning monarch. Would that this had been 



