220 THE NEW FOREST 



But up to 1895 there was no trouble about 

 finding foxes. In that year commenced that great 

 epidemic of mange which raged almost all over 

 England for three years. It gradually spread to 

 the New Forest, and not only were dead foxes, 

 horridly diseased, picked up all over the Forest, 

 but in some cases we found badgers woefully 

 afflicted, either dead or wandering about, blind 

 with disease and that by broad daylight or lying 

 dead. Most of the packs in England had, during 

 this epidemic, to curtail their days of hunting 

 and their season. But so abundant was our 

 stock of foxes in the New Forest, that, to my 

 surprise (knowing as I did the numbers that the 

 keepers picked up dead), our hunting held out 

 far longer than in most countries, though, of course, 

 hounds had to draw more country to find foxes. 



But in time the stock began to fail, and there 

 seemed to be a fear that the "great scarcity of 

 foxes," which was reported to the Lord Warden 

 in 1789, was again upon us. 



But by the time that Mr. Powell, after a 

 troublesome and anxious period of mastership, 

 had resigned the reins of power to Mr. Christopher 

 Heseltine of Walhampton, in 1899, there was 

 little fear in the minds of those responsible for 

 the welfare of New Forest sport but that the 

 stock of foxes would shortly be ample for the 



