THE KING'S HOUSE 117 



eat them ? Are they for the Royal Family ? . . . 

 For what and for whom, then, are deer in the 

 New Forest, and why an expense of hay farm, 

 of sheds, of racks, of keepers, of lodges, and 

 other things attending the deer and the game ? " 

 Cobbett was, of course, incapable of taking any 

 but the most utilitarian view of any property, but 

 for all that his views, twenty-five years later, 

 found expression in the Deer Removal Act of 

 1851, which wiped out doubtless for sound 

 economical reasons one of our most beautiful 

 national possessions, as it stood in its beauty at 

 that time. Probably the best of the master 

 keepers' lodges was the one at Boldrewood, which 

 appears to have received more attention from its 

 occupiers than some of the others. 



In the Commission report of 1789, an ap- 

 pendix contains " The answer of John Richard, 

 Earl de la Warr, Master Keeper of Bolderwood 

 and Eyeworth Walks, to the Precept of the 

 Commission of Land Revenue dated 1st day of 

 June 1787." 



In it he states that he was appointed master 

 keeper (as. above) by the Lord Warden during 

 pleasure. He occupies Boldrewood Lodge, which 

 is in very good repair (no wonder, since the 

 Crown had just spent 712 upon it, in 1781) 

 and about 27 acres of meadow ground thereto 



