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the amusement and diversion af- 

 forded by the chase. The learned 

 Serjeant observed, that the object 

 professed by the defendant in his 

 plea, was perfectly ridiculous and 

 absurd ; he would have it supposed, 

 that himself and the gentlemen 

 composing the Berkeley hunt, had 

 associated themselves, not for their 

 amusement or diversion, but for 

 the pure patriotic desire of destroy- 

 ing these noxious animals ; the de- 

 fendantwouldhave the jury believe, 

 that clergymen were descending 

 from their pulpits, bankers neglect- 

 ing their counting-houses, brewers 

 running away from breweries, and 

 all flocking from London, for no 

 other purpose than to confer the 

 obligation on the people of Herts 

 of freeing the country from noxious 

 vermin. So far from it being their 

 object to destroy foxes, he rather 

 thought if they were to start a fox, 

 and some man happening to have a 

 gun in his hand was to fall in with 

 their patriotic motive, and was to 

 shoot the fox, he would meet with 

 but lenten entertainment. In fact, 

 every one knew that their object 

 was the diversion of the chase, and 

 that ihey did not care threefarthings 

 whetlier the fox was killed or not, 

 except for the triunph of his brush. 

 The object of rooting them out of 

 the countr)' was absurd, for every 

 one knew they wished to increase 

 tJiem, in order to have the pleasure 

 of running them to death ; but to 

 ))ut it beyond all doubt in this case, 

 1)6 bhould prove that lord Essex, 

 as one of the proprietors of land, 

 had employed a man to take the 

 most efl'ectual mode of killing foxes, 

 which was by catching them in a 

 trap, or shooting them with a gun ; 

 these two modes Mr. C'apel did not 

 ixkc, and he spoke to the man upon 



the subject, but the man was steady, 

 and he v/cnt on sliooting wherever 

 his bullets would reach, and catch- 

 ing wherever his traps would take. 

 Mr. Capel then said, " 1 do not ask 

 you not to destroy the foxes, but I 

 will tell you what, I will send you 

 a barrel of ale to drink success to 

 the Berkeley hunt." Now, when a 

 man said to another, «' I do not ask 

 you to do a particular thing," it was 

 generally the most expressive way of 

 indicating a wish to have it done. It 

 put him in mind of a story of a qua- 

 ker, who being on board of a ship 

 • — a merchant ship ; the master ob- 

 served to him, that there was a 

 French row-boat coming towards 

 them, no doubt with a design to 

 board them; but, added the mas- 

 ter, with an appropriate oath or 

 two, " I'll run the fellows down" — 

 the quakersaid, " Oh! surely, you 

 won't do such a wicked thing as to 

 destroy so many poor people's lives" 

 — " Yes, but I will," exclaimed the 

 master — "I would not," replied the 

 quaker, " for the world ; but I will 

 tell thee what friend, if I was in- 

 clined to do such a thing, I would 

 starboard mi/ helm" — the master 

 did starboard the helm, and the 

 boat was run down. The learned 

 Serjeant repeated, that the object 

 of the defendant and the Berkeley 

 club, was to preserve foxes in or- 

 der to hunt them. Very like rais- 

 ing the devil for the purpose of lay- 

 ing him. After some other general 

 observations, he concluded by ex- 

 ])rcssinghisperfectconfidence, that 

 tiie verdict of the jury would pre- 

 vent a repetition of the injury. 



Two witnesses, one of the name 

 of Richard Pugh, his lordship's bai- 

 liff, and John Hollinshead, his lord- 

 ship's gamekeeper, clearly proved 

 the facts of the case, and the last 



witness 



