Later Agrarian Legislation. 469 



The destruction of beasts of prey being regarded as a public 

 benefit bestowed a special freedom on the foxhunter. On the 

 plea that riding after hounds was the only means of killing 

 this vermin, the law of trespass was waived by the courts, 

 though huntsmen were not permitted to unearth the chase 

 when run to ground on another's land.^ 



The seignorial monopoly of all sporting rights seems to have 

 been jealously guarded. A qualification by estate for killing 

 game was 40s. a year in the reign of Richard II. ; then as the 

 value of money gradually decreased, £10 in that of James I. ; 

 later on £40, and finally £100. There was, however, a certain 

 ambiguity in the wording of the Acts which occasionally got 

 worthy people into trouble ; for the judges from time to time 

 upheld the landlords' rights of sporting by some exceedingly 

 one-sided rulings. This monopoly was limited to " sons and 

 heirs-apparent of esquires or other persons of higher degree." 

 The first time, however, that a person of " higher degree " 

 attempted to exercise these rights, he was made to under- 

 stand that his heir-apparent and not himself was the privi- 

 leged party alluded to in the statute.^ Then a Scotch doctor 

 of physic, who claimed social precedence over esquires, sent 

 his son forth in pursuit of game, and was promptly fined 

 for his presumption.^ The next person to suffer was the 

 son of a volunteer captain, who on his father's assumption 

 of the appendix " esquire " to his name, presumed to go a 

 sporting, and had to pay heavily for the day's enjoyment.* 



The laws were altered in 1734, 1756, 1766 and 1828, but the 

 Game Act of 1831, which repealed a large number of earlier 

 statutes on this subject, caused a thorough break up of the 

 seignorial monopoly ; and though even up to the present date 

 the pleasures of sport can only be fully enjoyed (as Mr. Shaw 

 Lefevre points out) "where properties are of such an extent as 



fallen game on his neighbour's ground, he may not. follow up lud .shoot 

 such as has fled or flown there. 



' Treatise on the Game Laics, p. 114 Christian. 



2 K. V. Utley, 1 T. R., 413. 



' Jones V. Smart, 1 T. E., 44 



* Talbot V. Eagle, C. P., 1 Taunt. .510. 



