182 THE NEW FOREST 



to "assist the Crown" by "removing" deer with 

 the aid of various packs which they assembled 

 together. So great, indeed, was this competition, 

 and so manifold the disputing and quarrelling 

 among them about prior rights, that the Crown 

 had to take a firm stand, and eventually narrowed 

 permissions down to one pack only hunting in 

 the spring months, sometimes under the authority 

 of Mr. Morant, and sometimes of Mr. Lovell of 

 Hincheslea. 



A pack of harriers, too, belonging to Colonel 

 Montressor visited the Forest for two or three 

 successive springs. And in one year Lord 

 Wolverton's famous pack of bloodhounds came 

 to try conclusions with the wild fallow deer, 

 with but moderate success. This visiting of the 

 Forest by strange packs, especially in the spring, 

 for hunting the quarry being, of course, the fox, 

 before that removal of the deer which made 

 hunting them possible seems to have been a 

 practice of long standing. The Records of the 

 Charlton Hunt, to which I have previously 

 referred in connection with Boldrewood Lodge, 

 shows how that establishment annually travelled 

 out of Sussex, and took up their quarters at 

 Boldrewood, the residence of Lord de la Warr 

 though this pack also made a practice of visiting 

 the Forest in autumn. 



