ANOMALIES OF FENCE LAW. 23 



lauds and escaped therefrom in consequence of the neglect of the 

 person suffering' the damag'e to build a fence, the owner of the 

 beasts shall not be liable." Gehazi begging gold, begs the 

 leprosy. One begging for fenceless roads, begs for lawful en- 

 croachments. This is one of the " beatitudes " of our fence law. 

 Say you, "that beasts at large, without a keeper in the high- 

 ways, may be impounded ?" Say I, that one's cattle upon his 

 own land, be that land without or within the limits of a highway, 

 are not at large, and being lawfully there, need no keeper and 

 cannot be lawfully impounded. There may be redress in an action 

 of trespass, but he who appeals to it will be quite as likely to 

 find some things in its delays which are not of regular orthodox 

 standing. 



But suppose stray cattle, unlawfully in a public way, pass 

 therefrom into your* garden or corn-field — what protection is by 

 law afforded ? Why, as a law-abiding citizen, you must house, 

 water, feed, and otherwise care for the comfort of such invading 

 beasts for the space of ten days, waiting for an owner to "turn 

 up ;" nor during those days of probation can you lawfully adver- 

 tise. Let the owner find his stray cattle as best he can, the law's 

 conimand to you is to keep " mum." If no owner calls before or 

 at the expiration of the martyrdom-days, the beasts must be com- 

 mitted to pound, or you forfeit one per cent, on their value for 

 each week. Joy go with him who attempts to impound an estray, 

 for with such an attempt comes a swarm of vexations, petty yet 

 powerful as the wasps and hornets of Canaan. Ilere an inspection 

 of the accompanying diagram is invited. 



By the diagram is represented a field of A's, 130 rods square, 

 his pasture on the south, 70 rods, a strip of common between the 

 pasture and village lot ; B's pasture on the east, C's on the north, 

 D's common on the west, and a road 183 rods crossing the field 

 diagonally. For the security of the field, with a law without 

 defects, A need build but 130 rods of fence, (the division line 

 between field and pasture,) while to protect his field, as required 

 by the defects of law, he must build the 130 rods between his 

 field and pasture, 65 rods of B's pasture fence, 65 rods of C's, 

 130 rods of D's, and 366 rods of highway fence. For A to keep 

 his cattle out of his field require.'^ 130 rods of fence, while prac- 

 tical law requires him to build 026 rods, for no other earthly rea- 

 son than to keep out the cattle of B, C and D. At common law, 

 as per diagram, A must build 390 rods to fence in his cattle, but 



