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If he be hunted by the king, and efcape; 

 or have his life given him for the fport he 

 has afforded, he becomes from thence forward 



a hart-royal. If he be hunted out of 



the foreft, and there efcape ; the king hath 

 fometimes honoured him with a royal pro- 

 clamation; the purport of which is, to for- 

 bid any one to moleft him, that he may 

 have free liberty of returning to his foreft. 

 From that time he becomes a hart-royal pro- 

 claimed. Manwood mentions a fa6l of this 



kind, which he found on record, in the caflle 

 of Nottingham. It is dated in the time of 

 Richard the firft, who having roufed a hart 

 in Sherwood-foreft, purfued him as far as 

 Barnfdale in Yorkfhire ; where the hart foiled, 

 and efcaped his hounds. The king in grati- 

 tude for the diverfion he had received, or- 

 dered him immediately to be proclaimed at 

 Tickill, and at all the neighbouring towns. 



An affair of this kind, it is not unlikely, was 

 the original of white-hart-Jiher, as it is called, 

 in the foreft of Blackmore in Dorfetfhire. 

 Some gentlemen, in the time of Henry III., 

 having deftroyed a white hart, which had 

 given the king much diverfion (and which, 

 it is probable, had been proclaimed) the king 



T 2 laid 



