180 THE NEW FOREST 



returned "roundly wet," all of them, shows 

 that they were keen on the sport. It comforts 

 me a little when I recall the many times that I 

 have returned from hunting " roundly wet," 

 starved and shivering, to find that these dis- 

 comforts were experienced two hundred and fifty 

 years ago by such exalted personages. 



Although George III was a keen hunter, it 

 does not appear that he took the trouble to 

 bring his hounds from Windsor to the New 

 Forest to hunt deer. But in 1836 we find that 

 the Royal Buckhounds, with Charles Davis as 

 their huntsman, came down to hunt the red deer, 

 carrying such of them as they took, back to the 

 Swinley paddocks at Ascot. Lord Erroll was 

 then master. 



It is recorded that two thousand people were 

 present at the meet at Lyndhurst. For several 

 years subsequently the Royal Pack, under suc- 

 cessive Masters of the Buckhounds, visited the 

 New Forest, and enormous crowds attended their 

 fixtures. Of course red deer only were hunted 

 by this pack, and the hunting was " at force " 

 that is to say, the hounds alone were relied 

 upon to run down and take their deer, by 

 unaided speed and endurance. The old French 

 custom of using " relais" of hounds had long 

 died out here. 



