140 



GARDENS OLD AND 



CN THE STA'RWAY. 



curried s:ive by licence, and there might be no dogs except 

 mastiffs, these being " la\ved " by the expeditaton of claws. 

 Jealous, indeed, was the watch of verderers, regarders, and 

 other fcrest officers deputed to keep the forest possessions. 

 There were taxes also for the pannage of swine and the agist- 

 ment of cattle, and there was a " cliiminngium," or tax upon 

 carts used for fuel, charcoal, or bark. In short, the code of 

 forest laws and regulations was regarded by the hn-lishman 

 as a grievous hardship, and it is not difficult to realise the 

 resentment which they raised. Poaching and outrage 

 inevitably resulted, the forests becoming a byword of 

 rpnroach, and some of the conditions which ensued in 



later times are very curiously 

 illustrated in the history of 

 Cranborne Chase, while many 

 an offender was hauled up for 

 ready justice h the hall of 

 Cranborne Manor. 



William Chafin, clerk-, 

 who wrote " Anecdotes of 

 Cranborne Chase" in 1818, 

 and who had known the region 

 for upwards of seventy yea s, 

 has many curious things to 

 record concerning the lawless- 

 ness that prevailed, and the 

 pages of Hutchins's "Dorset" 

 tell the same story. Even 

 the men of position in the 

 neighbourhood pursued the 

 evil work of netting game. 

 " From four to twenty would 

 assemble in the evening, 

 dressed in cap and jack, and 

 quarter-staff, with dogs and 

 nets. Having set the watch- 

 word for the night, and agreed 

 whether they should stand or 

 run if they should meet the 

 keepers, they proceeded to the 

 chase, set their nets, let slip 



their dogs to drive the deer into the nets, a man standing 

 at each end to strangle the deer as soon as they were 

 entangled. Frequent bloody battles took place, and the 

 keepers and sometimes the huntsmen were killed." Chafin says 

 that he believes a very sanguinaiy engagement in the parish of 

 Tarrant Gunville was the earliest of the kind in Cranborne 

 Chase. In his day the scene of the affray was called 

 " Bloody Shard," and the wood within " Bloodway Coppice." 

 Another desperate fight took place on Chettle Common on the 

 night of December ijth. 1780, and even ten ye.irs later the 

 chase was infested with a " villainous set of deer slayers." 

 These were events which still dwell in the memories of 



THE NORTH-CAST TERRACE. 



