188 THE NEW FOREST 



more proud than those whose coats are decorated 

 by the initials or the twisted cypher of some 

 local pack, of a mere hundred of years' standing. 



I note particularly these matters because, when 

 I came to the New Forest in 1880, I found my- 

 self confronted by a situation very like that which 

 had arisen in 1784. 



As I have before observed, several gentlemen 

 laid claim to be granted permission to assist the 

 Crown in "removing the deer" by hunting them 

 with packs of their own, without any regard to 

 the sport or convenience of others who claimed 

 the like privilege. In fact, at one time there 

 were no less than four packs in the Forest, and 

 to reconcile any permissions to them with proper 

 regard to the pack of foxhounds the senior 

 pack, hunting three days a week needed no little 

 consideration, and perhaps a firmer hand than 

 Mr. James Kenneth Howard, then Commissioner 

 of Woods, the kindest and most genial of human 

 beings, cared to exercise. 



He had therefore delegated his authority 

 to settle these vexed questions to the then 

 Master of the Foxhounds, Sir Eeginald Graham, 

 who again put the matter into the hands of the 

 New Forest Hunt Club, a body composed of the 

 subscribers to the New Forest Foxhounds, and of 

 them alone not the covert owners at all. 



