APPENDIX TO CHRONICLE. 



303 



through several families down to 

 the family of Lord Rivers. They 

 produced also several very an- 

 cient proceedings in the reigns of 

 our earliest kings, in which agree- 

 ments were made between the 

 proprietors of the Cluise and vari- 

 ous persons, granting them pri- 

 vileges in Wiltshire and in Dor- 

 set, within the Chase. — In the 

 Sth Edward 1st, 1280, a writ of 

 quo warranto had issued into Dor- 

 setshire, respecting the Chase, 

 against Gilbert de Clare, Earl of 

 Gloucester, in which it was alleg- 

 ed by the King's Attorney-Gene- 

 ral, that, by a perambidation 

 made while King John was Earl 

 of Gloucester, the Chase had been 

 marked out by certain known 

 bounds, (viz. the bounds this 

 day claimed), and those bounds 

 were then adjudged to Gilbert de 

 Clare. In the 15th James 1st, a 

 decree of the King's Com't of Ex- 

 chequer assigned to the Earl of 

 Salisbury the bounds now con- 

 tended for in Dorsetshire, Wilt- 

 shire, and Hampshire. In the 

 Sth Charles 1st, a similar decree 

 passed in the Exchequer. The 

 rolls of the Chase Court were 

 produced, by which persons were 

 fined for offences in Wiltshire ; 

 the accounts of the stewards of 

 the Chase proved that such fines 

 were paid, and that chiminagehad 

 anciently been levied. It was 

 proved that these courts were held 

 at Cranboine and at Wimborne 

 i St. Giles, in Dorsetshire, far 

 i without the narrower limits of 

 the Chase, and at Rushmore, in 

 ' Wiltsliire ; and that recoveries of 

 , the Chase had at various times 

 ' been suffered in Hampshire and 

 in Wiltshire. 



Oo the following morning Mr. 



Sergeant Best entered upon the 

 defendant's case. He desired the 

 jury to consider what it was for 

 which the plaintiff contended, — 

 namely, a right to feed his beasts 

 of the chase over .500,000 acres 

 of land in three counties, which 

 included an extent of country 

 more than 100 miles in circumfe- 

 rence. He claimed that in that 

 wide range no man should plough 

 the land to the detriment of the 

 deer ; and no man should raise 

 a fence to the exclusion of the 

 deer ; that the growth of wood 

 should be protected only for the 

 benefit of the deer ; that if any 

 man turned his sheep into his 

 own woods, they should be im- 

 pounded by the owner of the 

 deer ; that the growth of timber 

 should for ever be prevented by 

 the browsing of the deer ; that 

 the rights of the chase should in 

 all things be preferred to the in- 

 terests of man ; that all cultiva- 

 tion should be subservient to 

 those rights, and that the benefit 

 of the deer of Lord Rivers should 

 be paramount to aU the rights of 

 property, and make the industry 

 of the husbandman of no avail. 

 He contended, that this claim was 

 in its nature so oppressive, tliat 

 it could hardly be consistent with 

 any law : that the King of Eng- 

 land, putting all his forests to- 

 gether, could not exercise such 

 privileges over an extent of soil 

 nearly so great, that it was six 

 times as large as the New Forest ; 

 that it was not credible, nay, he 

 contended that it was not pos- 

 sible, that such a right could ever 

 have been given by the worst of 

 our kings to any subject whatso- 

 ever, and that, if given, it was 

 contrary to the great Charter of 



the 



