HUNTING 197 



affair was this : from first to last, I never had 

 the assertion made to me that the hunting of 

 either pack ever had interfered with, or was ever 

 likely to injure, the sport of the other. The 

 whole contest seemed to be a struggle not for the 

 promotion of the sport of any pack but for the 

 right to override and suppress the operations of 

 some other body of sportsmen. Naturally I had 

 little sympathy with such motives as these, and, 

 though it cannot be gainsaid that old prejudices 

 died hard, and reared a head needing to be 

 cracked from time to time, yet I am glad to 

 say that, for some years before I left the Forest, 

 nothing but peace, goodwill, and mutual accommo- 

 dation reigned as regards both of the packs. 



I am not a little proud of the splendid pre- 

 sent of silver plate that was given to me when 

 I retired from the office of Deputy Surveyor, by 

 the whole hunting community of the Forest, on 

 the initiation of the members of the Hunt Club, 

 the body with which 1 had been forced into 

 collision many years before ; and that they 

 were pleased to say that they tendered this 

 beautiful gift " in recognition of the efforts I had 

 made to promote the best interests of sport in 

 the New Forest." 



Looking back thirty-five years, and review- 

 ing all the hostile interests and old-established 



