In Domesday Book we read:
"The King himself holds Lyndhurst, which appertained to Amesbury,
which is of the King's farm."
The King granted a small part, namely, one virgate to "Herbert the
Forester," before 1086, and this Herbert is generally supposed to have
been the ancestor of those Lyndhursts who for so long held the
wardenship of the Forest. The King's house, a fine building of Queen
Anne's time, is the successor of the old royal lodge at least as old as
the fourteenth century, and is now occupied by the Deputy Surveyor of
the Forest. In the Verderers' Hall close by, the forest courts of the
verderers are still held. There, too, may be seen the old dock, certain
trophies of the chase and "the stirrup-iron of William Rufus," really
the seventeenth century gauge "for the dogs allowed to be kept in the
forest without expeditation, the 'lawing' being carried out on all
'great dogs' that could not pass through the stirrup."
Lyndhurst itself, as we see it to-day, is devoid of interest; even the
church dates but from 1863, and its greatest treasure is the wall-
painting by Lord Leighton of the Wise and Foolish Virgins in the
chancel.
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