"TRESPASSERS" 109 



others of his rhymes on the sign-posts about Arley, 

 and it is always a pleasure to come upon them in my 

 rambles ; but I fear that this cheerful wit, who knew 

 how to temper prohibition with poesy, will have 

 faded from the memory of man long ere his prosier 

 brother has ceased to predict that " Trespassers will 

 be prosecuted." 



This question of trespass is an ancient one. The 

 first recorded case would appear to be that of the 

 Serpent at Eden, and he was forthwith mulcted in 

 heavy damages not yet paid into court. Adam 

 and Eve being quite without ancestry, could scarcely 

 claim patrician extraction like, say, the heir to a 

 Victorian peerage ; they were simple care-takers, and 

 the Serpent had therefore to settle accounts directly 

 with the Lord of the Manor, then an extensive one. 

 This last title, being very ancient, has never been 

 contested at law. This is important, because, whilst 

 the landed class of no country appears to base its 

 title to territorial distinction upon its descent from 

 our first parents, a few hardy monarchs of our own 

 time still claim possession by divine right ; and, 

 indeed, unless this be granted, there would seem to 

 be no logical basis at all for a law of trespass. For, 

 unless it be conceded that William of Normandy 

 to use a modern instance really came in the name 

 of the Lord by which he swore so valiantly, Dooms- 

 day-book itself might be impugned. Some rulers, 

 however, with more wit than their lords-in-waiting, 

 refuse unduly to press their claim to right divine, 

 with the result that to some extent the earth is still 

 the Lord's and the fulness thereof, and trespassers 

 upon the land of, say, a political baronet, for ever * w ill 



