THE KING'S HOUSE 109 



expressly for, the royal accommodation, whether 

 for the King himself on his occasional visits, or 

 for the Lord Warden, who, no doubt, was frequently 

 in residence. 



On the ground floor was a suite of rooms, 

 similar in area to the royal apartments on the 

 upper floor, but five feet less in height, and alto- 

 gether inferior to the first floor and rooms. 



Above the old Verderers' Hall was a set, pro- 

 bably of four, oak panelled bedrooms, not of very 

 large size, but comfortable, no doubt ; and in the 

 second floor is a perfect rabbit warren of attics, 

 reduced in number since the vandalisms of 1850, 

 which so altered the fabric of the house. 



In 1880, and the years which followed it, I 

 was able to get a few sanitary improvements 

 carried out. We got the South Hants Company's 

 water laid on eventually, and were saved from 

 the perils of a very doubtful and precarious supply 

 pumped by hand! And in 1904 came the ever 

 so badly needed drainage scheme for Lyndhurst, 

 with which we were connected ; and, as a part 

 of the works carried out in consequence, we 

 attained at long last to the luxury of a bath- 

 room, which we had had to forego for twenty-four 

 years of residence in a Government house ! 



But in 1904 there came to the old house a 

 restoration better than any it had experienced 



