Game Laws 



made its fair mark on English verse from the 

 early date of Chevy Chase, when, 



To chase the deer with hawk and hound 

 Earl Percy took his way, 



down to this present year of grace, when Conan 

 Doyle's archer sings : 



So we'll drink all together 

 To the grey goose feather, 

 And the land where the grey goose flew. 



The pomp and dignity of the chase, its pur- 

 suit by the highest clergy and the sad result of 

 want of skill by an archbishop are quaintly dis- 

 closed in the trial of the Archbishop of Canter- 

 bury for accidentally killing a game-keeper 

 instead of a deer in the forest of Bramshill in 

 the year 1621, as reported at length in Vol. II. 

 of Cobbett's State Trials. 



The right in the crown to all wild game, 

 thus claimed and established in England, be- 

 came part of the common law, and was in- 

 herited by the American colonies ; and thus 

 wild game in our Republic became the prop- 

 erty of the people, and the duty of its care 

 and protection fell upon the different States 

 of the Republic, and in the territories upon 

 Congress. 



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