THE RED DEER. 



But as the pretence of hunting was frequently 

 adopted in order to collect vassals for rebellious 

 purposes, an act of the legislature was at length 

 passed, which prohibited any assemblies whatever 

 of this nature. 



In the early reigns, when the king had lost a 

 Stag, public proclamation was made in all towns 

 and villages near the place where the Deer was 

 supposed to be concealed, that no person should 

 kill, hunt, or chase him; in order that he might 

 return in safety to the forest. And the foresters 

 were directed to harbour the said Stag, and by 

 degrees to bring him back to the forest Such 

 recovered Deer was always afterwards called a 

 Hart royal proclaimed. In the year 1194, king 

 Richard the First chased a Stag from Sherwood 

 forest to Barnsdale in Yorkshire, and there lost 

 him. He made proclamation at Tunhill in York- 

 shire, and divers other places in the neighbour- 

 hood of Barnsdale, that no person should chase, 

 kill, or hunt the said Deer, in order that he might 

 return to his lair in the forest of Sherwood*. 



When property became, happily, more divided 

 by the relaxation of the feudal tenures, the hunting 

 grounds also became more limited; and as tillage 

 and husbandry increased, beasts of chase were 



Daniel's Rural Sports, vol. i. 



obliged 



