104 THE NEW FOREST 



of Lord Warden's steward and the occupancy of 

 the King's House. The control of the keepers and 

 of their collection as agisters of the New Forest 

 dues lapsed to the Crown, and fell under the con- 

 trol of the Commissioners of Woods. The King's 

 House stood empty, and the Deer Removal Act, 

 with all its alteration of old customs, was close at 

 hand. 



It was decided to remove the Deputy Surveyor 

 from New Park, the residence always occupied 

 by the Commissioners of Woods, who, apart from 

 the sporting interests, had sole control of the 

 Forests. New Park was then a comparatively 

 small house. It had close by convenient car- 

 penters' yards, a sawbench, and other essentials, 

 the lack of which I felt keenly all my days in 

 the Forest. 



The King's House was large, rambling, ex- 

 pensive to live in, without any land to speak of 

 attached to it, so that no artisan estate work could 

 be done there, and was thus very unsuitable for 

 the residence of the Deputy Surveyor. 



So accordingly they set to work in those 

 mid- Victorian times to wreck the old place as 

 far as they could. In order to reduce the house 

 to dimensions more in accordance with its future 

 use, some genius pulled down the beautiful old 

 Tudor rooms (no doubt the addition of Henry 



