194 THE NEW FOREST 



And so, after having got all this into my head 

 by observation and practical experience, I laid 

 the case as it appeared to me before Sir Henry 

 Loch, then Commissioner of Woods, together 

 with the petition for hunting facilities which 

 was put forward by the committee a strong 

 one that was formed to promote deer- hunting 

 and to guarantee that it should be properly 

 carried on. Sir Henry was quite uninterested 

 in any of the hunting disputes and squabbles 

 of the New Forest, and he decided to put in 

 force the authority exercised in a somewhat 

 similar case by the Lord Warden in 1789, and 

 to lay down regulations for the carrying on 

 of all hunting in the New Forest first and 

 foremost having regard to the convenience and 

 necessities of the New Forest Foxhounds, the 

 successors of Mr. Gilbert's pack, to which the 

 Lord Warden "gave his name" in 1789. These 

 were therefore regarded as the senior pack, but 

 not permitted to exercise any authority over any 

 other pack to which the Commissioner, acting 

 as the successor to the Lord Warden, might 

 have extended his permission to hunt. 



It was my unhappy duty to have to stand 

 up at a meeting of the New Forest Hunt Club, 

 and announce, with all the suavity I could com- 

 mand, that any authority hitherto exercised by 



