Class I. DEER. 4^ 



new foreft in Hampjhire is too trite an indance to 

 be dwelt on : fanguinary laws were enadled to pre- 

 ferve the game ; and in the reigns oi William Ruftis^ 

 and Henry the lirft, it was lefs criminal to deftroy 

 one of the human ipecies than a bead of chafe*. 

 Thus it continued while the Norman line filled 

 the throne ; but when the Saxon line was reftored 

 under Henry the fecond, the rigor of the foreft laws 

 was immediately foftened. 



When our barons began to form a power, they 

 clamed a vaft, but more limited tra6t for a diver- 

 fion that the Englijh were always fend of. They 

 were very jealous of any encroachments on their 

 refpedlive bounds, which were often the caufe of 

 deadly feuds : fuch a one gave caufe to the fatal 

 day of Chevy-chace^ a fadb, which though record- 

 ed only in a ballad, may, from what we know of 

 the manners of the times, be founded on truths 

 not that it was attended with all the circumftances 

 the author of that natural, but heroic compofition 

 hath given it, for on that day neither a Percy 

 nor a Douglas fell : here the poet feems to have 

 clamed his privilege, and mixed with this fray 

 fome of the events of the battle oi Otterhotirne. 



When property became happily more divided by 

 the relaxation of the feodal tenures, thefe extenfive 



* An antient hiltorian fpeaks thus of the penalties incur 

 red ; Si cerium ant aprum oculos eis e--vclkbai', amanjit enim feras 

 taniuam erat pater earum. M. Paris, ii. 



bunting 



