206 THE FORESTS OF ENGLAND. 



Action, informs us " that William the Conqueror destroyed 

 sixty parishes, and drove out their inhabitants, in order 

 that he might turn their lands into a forest, to be used 

 as a hunting-ground for himself and his posterity; and 

 he punished with death the killing of a deer, wild-boar, 

 or even a hare." 



The theoretical ground upon which the royal right to 

 constitute a forest, was that the monarch needs recreation 

 from the severe and harassing cares of state, But I 

 know of nothing to be said in justification of such laws, 

 nor can I find appropriate language expressive of my 

 feelings of utter condemnation of them, but I think it 

 proper to bring under notice the circumstance that they 

 were in keeping with like laws issued in other lands. 



According to Bonneme're, a bold writer in regard to 

 much which occurred in mediaeval times, these barbarous 

 acts were simply a transfer of the customs of the French 

 kings, of their vassals, and even of inferior gentlemen, to 

 conquered England, and according to him, in his Histoire 

 des Paysans, a work of great value, from the fearlessness 

 with which he states truths which others have glossed or 

 suppressed. The death of a hare was a hanging matter ; 

 the murder of a plover a capital crime. Death was in- 

 flicted on those who spread nets for pigeons ; wretches who 

 had drawn a bow upon a stag, were to be tied to the animal 

 alive ; and among the seigneurs it was a standing excuse 

 for having killed game on forbidden ground, that they 

 aimed at a serf. 



Such were the game laws, of which the game laws of 

 the present are the modern continuation. 



