120 ARGUMENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 



from their natural and wild state, or tamed or kept confined or inclosed; 

 fourthly, payment of £85 into court in respect of the excepted bucks, 

 stags, does, and fawns. 



The plaintiffs joined issue on the first three pleas and took the £85 

 out of court in satisfaction pro tanto. 



The cause was tried before Coltman, J. and a special jury at the sit- 

 tings at Westminster, after Hilary term, 1847. 



The action was 1 nought to recover the value of the deer which were 

 in the park appertaining to Eridge Castle, in the County of Sussex, 

 the principal country residence of the Earls of Abergavenny, at the 

 time of the decease of John, the late earl, on the 12th of April, 1815. 



The plaintiffs were Eichard Morgan and Azaiiah Ellwood, the exec- 

 utors of the late earl, the defendant was his brother, who, the late earl 

 having died a bachelor, succeeded to the title and to the family en- 

 tailed estates. 



At the time of the late earl's death, the deer in Eridge Park con- 

 sisted ot live hundred and forty head of fallow deer, and one hundred 

 head of red deer in what was called the Deer Park, twelve bucks in a 

 place culled the New Park, and six stags and two bucks which were 

 stalled for fatting. 



Eridge Park was an ancient park, forming part of the ancient manor 

 of Potlierlield — called in Domesday Book Keredfelle — which, it seems, 

 was royal demesne of the fee of Odo, Bishop of Baieux, brother of 

 William the Conqueror, and therefore held by the Saxon Earl Godwin. 

 In Domesday Book it is thus described: 



"The land consists of twenty-six carucates in demesne, four caru- 

 catesand fourteen villeins with six bordarers, having fourteen ploughs. 

 There are fourservi and wood sufficient to feed four score hogs. There 

 is a, park. In the time of King Edward the Confessor, it was worth 

 £10; and afterwards £11; now £12; and, nevertheless, renders £30." 



The substance of the evidence given on the part of the plaintiffs was 

 as follows: 



In modern times, Eridge Old Park has consisted of about 000 acres, 

 a great portion of which is of a rough, wild description, containing a 

 considerable quantity of fern, brake, and gorse. The new park adjoin- 

 ing consists of about 200 acres. Some additions were about forty years 

 ago made to the Old Park by the removal of portions of the ancient 

 fences, and electing paling round the land so added. The deer usually 

 had the range of the Old Park, where they were attended by keepers 

 and fed in the winter with hay, beans, and other food. The does were 

 watched in the falling season, and the fawns marked as they were 

 dropped, in order to ascertain their age and to preserve the stock. At 

 times, certain of the deer were selected from the herd and caught, with 

 the assistance of lurches muzzled, or with their teeth drawn, and turned 

 into an inclosure in the new park, or into pens or stalls for the purpose 

 of fattening them for consumption, or for sale to venison dealers. The 

 ordinary mode of* killing them was by shooting. There was a slaughter- 

 house in the park for preparing and dressing the carcasses. Some years 

 since a great number of deer were brought to Eridge from Penshurst 

 and other places. Deer sometimes, though rarely, escaped from the 

 park by leaping over the fence. Some of them were described as being 

 very tame, coming close to the keepers when called at feeding times. 

 Witnesses were also called to prove that of late years deer have been 

 commonly bought and sold for profit like sheep or other animals kept 

 for the food of man. * * * 



On the part of the defendant the conversion was admitted; but it 



